ROMANTIC SHOOTING AFFAIR

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2412, 24 December 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

ROMANTIC SHOOTING AFFAIR

A Pretty Woman’s Love and Her Treacherous VengeanceThe most remarkable and sensational crime is (says the New York Herald) reported from the little town of Cambridge. tho county seat of Guernesy county, in Ohio. It is the probable fatal shooting of John Harris, the son of a wealthy farmer residing near Caldwell, by Miss Lon Morrison, a beautiful brunette, of Gilmer county,, West Virginia. Harris received two bullets in the forehead between and above the eyes, and, strange to say ,still lives. The circumstances attending the crime, which reads more like fiction than truth, as obtained from Harris, arc about as follows:—Some fifteen months ago, while travelling in West Virginia ,he met Miss Morrison, who is the daughter of a lumber merchant. He says she became infatuated with him, although he declined to encourage her Harris insists that there was nothing improper in their relations. About three months ago he again visited Gilmer county and saw Mias Morrison. When he left she followed him. He tried to elude Iter, but she confronted him at the hotels and on tho street. She seemed to he assisted by a man whom Harris frequently saw watching him, and finally ho decided to go to Mexico, hoping to thus escape his tormentor, hut in vain. She followed him through Mexico and all through the Southern States until Harris gave up in disgust. Ho tried every way possible to throw her off his track, and failed in every instance. On Friday Harris was in Cambridge, and put up at tho Berwick hotel. Upon returning to the hotel later in the evening ha was informed that a j'onng woman was waiting for him in the parlour. It was Miss Morrison. He asked her what she wanted and what he could do for her. She replied that IE he would give her a photograph sho would leave. Harris went to his room for that purpose, accompanied by Miss Morrison. He secured tho photograph, and was just rising from his valise, when sho drew a revolver and fired two shots atliim, placing the weapon almost against his forehead. Harris felt to tho floor, and has a faint recollection of tho woman kissing him several times. Ho then became unconscious. About 12 o’clock she loft the hotel, the shots not having been heard hy any of the occupants, and boarded the Baltimore and Ohio train going East. About eight o’clock fho followingmorning Harris recovered con sciousness. He gave no alarm whatever, but, concealing the fact, washed hi.s head, and pulling hishatdown over the wounds, left for Caldwell. Upon reaching Caldwell ho was very weak and was driven to tho hotel in a hack, when he began growing worse and asked fora physician, who examined the wounds, and stated that Harris had been saved from instant death by the bullets entering the thick portion of the skull between the eyes. Ho said they were very had wounds, and might yet prove fatal. Harris was able to talk, hut at times his mind wandered, and, strange to say, ho seemed perfectly cognisant of the fact. At first Harris declined to give the name of hi.s would-be murderer, but finally consented. Tho part of this story concerning his relations with Miss Morrison, who is supposed to he playing tho part of an avenger, are discredited. Harris is twenty-five years of age, and is engaged to be married to Miss Nellie Geiger,, of Newark, Ohio, daughter of Colonel Fred Geiger, prominently connected with the Adams Express Company. The proprietors of the hotel in Cambridge think that Harris shot himself.