Homicide and Attempted Suicide

The Weiser Semi-Weekly, Weiser, Washington County, Idaho, Saturday, December 15, 1906

Homicide and Attempted Suicide--Al Wenrich Shot Dead by Nellie Lamont, Who Then Shoots Herself.

Between four and five o'clock Thursday morning our city was startled by the report that a probable murder and attempt to commit suicide had taken place in the red light district of Weiser. The red light district is situated on the street fronting on the Pacific and Idaho Northern railway, and between the Kelly Lumber Co.'s plant and the storage warehouse. The facts, as near as can be ascertained at this time, are Wenrich and Nellie Lamont had been down town until late and had been drinking quite freely, returning to the house occupied by and known as Clara Devine's place in a quarrelsome mood. All the other inmates of the house were asleep at the time the tragedy occurred and were aroused by hearing four revolver shots fired in quick succession, they rushed into the room where the dead and wounded lay weltering in a pool of blood. They immediately notified Marshal Brizendine, who with Officer Nevings were soon on the spot. Officer Brizendine informed our reporter that when he arrived he found Wenrich lying upon the floor dead, with a bullet hole in the left side of his head and Nellie Lamont lying across him with a bullet hole in her throat. Dr. Numbers was at once summoned and it was found that the woman was in a precarious condition. The bullet had passed upward through the throat and lodged somewhere near the base of the brain. It is understood that the woman came here from Pendleton and was of a fiery disposition. The friends of Wenrich claim that he was of a sunny and jovial disposition and not at all quarrelsome. It is claimed that Wenrich came here several years ago from Sumpter where he was once chief of police.

Wenrich was interested in the Copper King saloon. The Lamont woman admitted to officer Brizendine that Wenrich and her were quarreling when they returned to the house and that Wenrich drew a revolver and that she shot him and then turned the revolver upon herself with the effect as above stated. The officers found two revolvers lying upon a dresser in the room, one a 38 calibre Colt and the other a 32 Iver Johnson which had two empty chambers, the mute evidence of the means by which the double tragedy was enacted.

A coroner's jury consisting of C. K. Mills, T.J. Bean, H. A. Wells, P. H. B. Moulton, Wm. Whalen, A. J. Ritzginer were empaneled at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and an inquest held before Justice Coakley, Deputy County Attorney Evert P. Rhea conducting the examination, the evidence being taken down by Court Reported Gilbert Shelby. Before taking evidence the jury viewed the body of Wenrich at the undertaking parlors of Wm. McBratney and then proceeded to the room in the house of Clara Devine, where the terrible tragedy took place and, after inspecting the room and the position in which the bodies were found lying, the jury proceeded to the Vendone hotel and heard the evidence of the inmates of the house. Clara Devine, Edith Ensley, Ray Smith, and Violet Morton, also the evidence of Marshal Brizendine and Undertaker McBratney, but no facts were brought out other than that Wenrich and the Lamont woman had been quite intimate for some time and upon the fatal evening, after drinking heavily, went down town about two o'clock in the morning returning to the Clara Devine place about four o'clock after all the other inmates were asleep, and who were awakened about four o'clock by hearing four shots fired in reasonably rapid succession. The revolver with which the shooting is supposed to have been done was identified as belonging to Mellie Lamont. The home of the Lamont woman is supposed to be in Seattle, but she came here from Pendleton last June. The Lamont woman is about 24 years of age and now lies at the Josephine hospital and is in a very precarious conditioin but may recover, but should she recover she will have to face a charge of murder.

The jury, after hearing the evidence, signed the following verdict:

State of Idaho, County of Washington

In the matter of the inquisition upon the body of Al Wenrich before J.B. Coakley, acting coroner and justice of the peace.

We the undersigned jurors, summoned to appear before J.B. Coakley, the acting coroner of the County of Washington, State of Idaho, at the City of Weiser, on the 13th day of Dec., 1906, to inquire into the cause of the death of Al Wenrich, found lying dead in the house of Clara Devine, having been duly sworn according to law, and having made such inquisition, after inspecting the body and having the testimony adduced, upon oath each and all do say: That we find the deceased was named Al Wenrich, was a native of the United States of America, aged . . . his death on the 13th day of Dec., 1906, in this county, by a gun in the hand of one Nellie Lamont, with the intent to commit murder.

All of which we duly certify by this inquisition in writing as signed this 13th day of Dec. 1906

Signed P.H.B. Moulton, H.M. Welch, WM Whalen, A.J. Ritzginer. T.J. Bean CK Mills

The funeral of Wenrich will take place Saturday afternoon and will be under the auspices of the Order of Eagles, of which he was a member.