A Millionaire's Son Declares War on Vice — and Kills a Gambler
Wallace Bussell, 23, walked into Seattle's Monte Carlo saloon on a one-man crusade against sin and shot its manager dead. A patrolman's bullet stopped him before he could finish the job.
SEATTLE — In a fanatical single-handed crusade against vice, Wallace A. Bussell, the 23-year-old son of C. B. Bussell, a millionaire landowner of this city, shot and killed Joseph Bonner, manager of the Monte Carlo saloon and gambling-house, and was himself wounded by Patrolman Volk, who was attracted to the scene by the shots.
“In a fanatical single-handed crusade against vice, Wallace A. Bussell... shot and killed Joseph Bonner, manager of the Monte Carlo saloon and gambling-house.”
A wealthy young man decided the city's gambling dens were a moral plague and appointed himself the cure — with a revolver. Seattle's vice wars of 1910 were fought in saloons and pulpits; today's arguments over gambling, addiction and who gets to police morality still split the same city, though the weapons have changed.
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