Two Shots, a Cold River, and a Flask of Rat Poison
Frederick Angle fired twice at his wife, jumped in the river, and then drank Rough on Rats with a friend who did not survive it. The stomach pump arrived, in the paper's words, 'unfortunately' too soon.
Ed Hoff died last week at Northport as a result of taking Rough on Rats with suicidal intent, and his friend Frederick Angle at Marcus is recovering from the effects of the same poison, which he took after attempting to shoot his wife.
Angle had lived at Marcus several years, but a few months ago obtained work in a smelter at Northport. His wife became ill and went back to her mother at Marcus a month ago. Saturday Angle went to Marcus and with a double-barreled shotgun called at the home of his mother-in-law and opened fire on his wife. After shooting at her twice with bad aim he ran to the river and jumped in. The water was apparently too cold or too shallow for a comfortable death, so emerging he drank the contents of a whisky flask filled with the rodent beverage, before his pursuers were able to seize him.
Dr. Sprout was unfortunately called too soon, and with a stomach pump brought Angle out of danger. He is now held at Marcus until able to appear before Justice Kirk. Prosecuting Attorney Rochford and Sheriff Graham will go to Marcus next week to attend the hearing, when Angle will undoubtedly be bound over to appear before the superior court.
At Northport, Angle and Hoff had been warm friends, and together purchased the poison in a compact to commit suicide. They had been on a protracted drunk, and general despondency is the presumable cause of the action taken by both. — Colville Examiner.
“Dr. Sprout was unfortunately called too soon, and with a stomach pump brought Angle out of danger.”
A hundred and twenty years on, Eastern Washington still reads stories of men with guns and estranged wives, and the coverage has changed more than the violence has. What reads here as grim frontier comedy — a physician cursed for saving a life — is the sound of a small-town press with no vocabulary yet for domestic violence.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.