Fight Over Lingerie May End in Death

A battle over a pair of silk bloomers and the mistaking of a uniformed bus driver for a police officer may cost the life of Harriet Wallace, 24, a saleswoman, living at 605 Van Buren St.

The woman leaped from the third floor of apartment 25, 229 Van Buren St., Wednesday, 3:30 a. m., landing on a picket fence 30 feet below. Physicians in Emergency hospital stated she had suffered a fractured leg, a broken nose, numerous contusions and abrasions and possible internal injuries and pronounced her condition grave at noon Wednesday.

A report at police headquarters tells the following story:

Miss Wallace, together with Ethel La Mont, 26, occupant of the apartment; John Rings, 39, Chicago salesman, and F. P. Schultz, 55, who gives his address as the Atlas hotel, were participating in a party which, according to Rings, had started Sunday. Six empty quart bottles which had contained supposedly bonded whisky were found in the place when the police arrived.

Rings displayed some lingerie which, he stated, he had bought for a girl in Chicago, and both Miss Wallace and Miss La Mont attempted to gain possession of it. Rings objected, and in the ensuing scuffle was pushed out of the apartment into the hall.

The rumpus had aroused W. R. Johnson, a bus driver for the Wisconsin Motor Bus lines, who lives in Apt. 44. Johnson, who is a special deputy sheriff, came to the scene to Investigate and found Rings In the hall.

Thought It Was Raid.

According to Johnson, Rings demanded that his belongings be returned to him and when Johnson
rapped on the door he was permitted to enter. He wore his uniform cap and leather puttees and the Wallace woman, seeing him, is thought to have mistaken him for an officers and jumped at the conclusion that the place was being raided.

She ran to a window, raised the sash and leaped before she could be restrained.

Another tenant of the building telephoned the police that an automobile accident had occurred at the corner and the ambulance crew found the injured woman lying behind a fence on a concrete areaway.

The La Mont woman, Rings, Schultz and Johnson were all taken to police headquarters, where Johnson was later released and the remaining trio held.

After being thoroughly questioned by the district attorney late Wednesday, the La Mont woman was charged with being the keeper of a disorderly house and Rings and Schultz were both charged with being inmates. They will be held on this charge pending the outcome of the Wallace woman’s injuries, the district attorney announced.

The Milwaukee Leader, Milwaukee, WI, December 18, 1924

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