On Wednesday evening, October 2, 1901, in southeast Saline County (MO), William Thomas shot his sweetheart, Minnie Mayse, gravely wounding her, and then stuck the gun in his mouth and killed himself.
The incident occurred at the home of Charles Aldridge, about a half-mile north of Antioch Church. Arthur Cox, a young man who was working for Aldridge at the time, provided reporters with an account of the affair.
He said Minnie had been visiting her sister, Mrs. Aldridge, for about three weeks and that he (Cox) took Minnie to a singing at the church on the fateful evening. Thomas entered the church a short time after Cox and Minnie did, and after the singing was over, he approached the pair and asked to speak to Minnie alone.
Cox agreed, but Minnie refused to go with Thomas. So, Cox took the young woman back to the Aldridge residence. However, Thomas followed in his own buggy and after Cox stopped his buggy in the Aldridge yard and helped Minnie out, Thomas jumped out of his rig and yelled for Minnie to come over to him, threatening to kill her and Cox both if she didn't.
Cox told Minnie to go ahead and go with him, and she started with Thomas toward the Aldridge house. The two were reportedly laughing and talking, giving no signs of further argument. However, Cox started away in his buggy and had gone but a short distance when he heard three gun shots. He hurried back to the house and saw Minnie lying on the ground near the front entrance, and Thomas was running toward the road. When he got to the road, another shot rang out.
Cox helped Mr. and Mrs. Aldridge carry Minnie into the house and then hurried back out to the road. Thomas lay in road with blood pouring from his mouth and was beyond help. He died about two hours later.
Medical help was summoned, and it was found that Minnie had been shot three times, once in the left wrist, once on the side of her neck, and a third time in the back. The third slug lodged to the left of the spine between the 6th and 7th dorsal vertebrae. The doctors probed for the bullet but were unable to locate it.
Mrs. Aldridge said her sister had been engaged to Thomas for about a year. Two letters were found in Thomas's trunk at his home, one addressed to his mother and one addressed to Minnie's mother in which he threatened to kill the young woman and himself. They were dated July 1901, two months before the fatal shooting.
A coroner's jury met the next day and found that Thomas had come to his death by voluntarily shooting himself in the mouth with a .38 caliber revolver.
At first Minnie was not expected to live, but she did, although she was paralyzed in her lower limbs and was not expected ever to be able to walk again.
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