A Wife Followed Her Husband to Tacoma. Then She Swallowed Laudanum.
William Woodard's wife tracked him from Portland to the Auburn House, where she found him living with Mollie Agnew. A suicide attempt, an adultery charge and a stack of newspaper clippings followed.
Dolly Agnew and Woodard, who were arrested in this city Tuesday morning by Detective Sam on the charge of stealing clothes from Kiny Thompson at Wilkeson, were taken back to Tacoma last evening by Constable Cromwell. It appears that the two prisoners were arrested at Tacoma some time ago on a warrant sworn out by Woodard's real wife, who charged them with adultery. Mrs. Woodard followed them from Portland and when she found out the real state of affairs she made an unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide. The Tacoma papers were full of the story for several days and among the effects of the Agnew woman when she was arrested were a lot of clippings telling all about the case.
One of them said that Mrs. William Woodard, almost penniless and, as was claimed, deserted by her husband, tried to hasten death by swallowing the contents of a two-ounce vial of laudanum. The attempt was made in the Auburn House at South Seventeenth Street, Tacoma, and when the woman was found she asked for her husband, who could not be found. Dr. Shug and County Physician Shafer worked several hours before they removed the effects of the drug. After her recovery she said that she had followed her husband from Portland and found him living with Mollie Agnew. He took her (his wife) to the Auburn House and after getting almost all the money she had, under pretext of getting a revolver out of pawn, left her. A few days later Woodard and the Agnew woman were arrested on the charge of adultery. The case was continued and no data are at hand from which to tell what was the outcome of it.
“Almost penniless and, as was claimed, deserted by her husband, she tried to hasten death by swallowing the contents of a two-ounce vial of laudanum.”
The Woodard-Agnew affair had everything the 1890s tabloid press wanted: a wronged wife, a straying husband, a suicide attempt and a rival woman's scrapbook of clippings. It also shows how private pain became public property—long before court TV or social media. The wife's desperation is the human cost behind the lurid headlines.
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