The Bank Clerk's 'Accident' Settled
A shooting at the Washington National Bank, previously rumored to involve a mysterious woman, is dismissed as a careless accident by the victim himself.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The shooting of Mr. Lanehart, a clerk in the Washington National Bank at the corner of Cherry and Second streets, at 3 o'clock Wednesday morning, has been satisfactorily explained to the bank officials and the affair is no longer a mystery. It has been shown conclusively that there was not a 'woman in the case,' and that no woman was in the bank building. The wounded young man and his friend, Thomas J. Beals, who figured in the affair, again enjoy the confidence of their employers. Since the fever has lessened and Lanehart has become more rational, he tells a different story of how he happened to shoot himself. He says that when he returned from luncheon he decided to answer a letter which he had received from home. His thoughts drifted back to incidents of his New York home, and he absently picked up the revolver and toyed with it. Suddenly there was an explosion, and the pain in his breast told him he was shot. Lanehart was not of a despondent turn of mind, and Mr. Backus gives this last story more credence than he does the theory of suicide heretofore advanced.
“He absently picked up the revolver and toyed with it. Suddenly there was an explosion.”
Bankers and clerks carrying sidearms into the office at 3:00 AM reflects the volatile, high-stakes nature of 1890s boom-era finance in Seattle. This incident captures the era's tendency to graft a scandalous 'mystery' narrative onto what was likely just a dangerous, mundane workspace culture.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.