SIX HOURS AFTER MARRIAGE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 156, 30 December 1911, Page 10 (Supplement)

SIX HOURS AFTER MARRIAGE

TRAGEDY OF A YOUNG OFFICER'S INFATUATION.

Only six hours after his marriage Lieutenant John R. Lynch, of the Third Cavalry, shot himself dead in the officers' quarters at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. This painful tragedy was the fruit of a mad infatuation on the part of Lynch, a young officer who had risen from the rinks. He had frequently taken his comrades into his confidence regarding' the 'beauty and charm of his fiancee, a Los Angeles girl, hut a few days previous to tho tragedy he admitted his infatuation for Gladys Carruthers, a girl of 17, living at San Antonio. According to that girl's mother, a wealthy widow, Lieutenant Lynch and her daughter came to her rooms late one evening and informed her that they had tried to dope, but had failed, as the county clerk refused to issue a marriage license. They begged her to sanction the union, and she gave them her written consent. Armed with this document the couple motored to the county clerk's offices and obtained ;i license. They then proceeded' to awaken the army chaplain, and after much expostulation he performed the marriage ceremony at one o'clock in the morning. The bridegroom went buck to his quarters, and at seven o'clock in the morning the officers heard two shots in Lieut. Lynclvs room. They broke open the door and found him lying dead with one bullet in th'a brain ani another In the heart.