Tried To Shoot His Wife

New York, 1895

Bowman's Pistol Would not go Off — Screams Scared Him Away.

Mrs. William Bowman of Flushing is alive because a pistol in the hand of her worthless husband failed to act when he pulled the trigger in an attempt to murder her on Main street Sunday night. About a year ago William Bowman of Maspeth, and Miss Tillie June of Flushing were married and went to Maspeth to live. Mrs. Bowman found married life a sort of precarious existence. Her husband was not particularly fond of work, and what little he did earn oftener went for whiskey than for food.

Finally, when the place she called home was taken from her because of nonpayment of rent, she determined to leave her husband. She did so, and on Thursday came home to her mother. Late Sunday night she and her mother and Mrs. Annie Mackinroe were returning from a call, when they met Bowman on Main street. He had been drinking heavily.

He stepped up to them and said: "Tillie, I want you to go with me." His wife refused to go with him and he yelled, "Then I'll shoot you." Suiting the deed to the word, he drew a revolver, and, thrusting it into his wife's face, pulled the trigger. Fortunately the weapon did not discharge, and the screams of the woman alarmed Bowman, who turned and ran.

The police finally located him as he was about to board a late train for New York and placed him under arrest. Next morning Judge Smith placed him under bonds to keep the peace, the charge of assault with intent to kill not being pressed.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 22, 1895, p. 12.