A Revolver in the Baker Hotel Lobby
Bert Taylor shoots at the man he calls his sister’s betrayer in a crowded Bellingham hotel; a jury convicts him of simple assault, not attempted murder.
Bellingham—Bert Taylor, who last November emptied his revolver at W. F. Wible, alleged betrayer of Taylor’s sister, in the crowded lobby of the Baker Hotel here, has been found guilty of simple assault by the jury empaneled in his case, instead of guilty as charged of assault with intent to commit homicide. The jury was out for 23 hours.
“Bert Taylor... emptied his revolver at W. F. Wible, alleged betrayer of Taylor’s sister, in the crowded lobby of the Baker Hotel here.”
A shooting in a crowded hotel lobby over a family’s wounded honor reads like a melodrama, but the jury’s compromise verdict—simple assault rather than attempted murder—shows how courts then, as now, wrestled with motive and intent. The case shows how private scandal could spill into public violence, and how a jury could split the difference between honor and attempted murder.
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