Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1888 — CHICAGO SENSATION. [ARTICLE]

CHICAGO SENSATION.

Mrs. Meckie L. Rawson Friday morning marked another bloody period in the celebrated divorce proceedings, by making a deliberate and savage attempt to kill Colonel H. W. Whitney, one of her husband’s oounsel, as he was attending to a branch of the case in Judge Jameson’s court room at Chicago. While the court and attorneys at 10:Iff were waiting for tho appearance of Mrs. Rawson, who was tardy, the lady stepped hastily into the room, and, drawing a revolver, leveled it at the head of Mr. Whitney, who was reading a paper, and fired, the bullet entering his groin and inflicting what may prove a fatal wound. Judge Jameson, Clerk Reych, and others in the court room Bprang up in alarm and, as the infuriated woman proceeded to fire again, they sought places of safety under desks and in remote corners of the room.

Mr. Whitney ran to gain the shelter of the clerk’s desks, and had nearly reached it when Mrs. Rawson ran forward and fired four times more, one qf these shots hitting the lawyer and the others crashing into the desks and wood work. Bailiff Sunderland, an old man, started for the murderous woman, and had a fearful struggle with her. He seized her around the waist from behind arid at last succeeded in wrenching the revolver from her hand, and she was forced into a seat. Airs. Rawson was arrested and jailed. The lawyer is dangerously hurt. . The occurrence recalls the sensational shooting that occurred last winter, when Ralph Lee, a son of Mrs. Rawson, shot five bullets into Banker Rawson as he was leaving the Third Presbyterian Church after Sunday morning services. Rawson still has the five bullets in his body, escaping death by almost a miracle. Lee is now serving a brief jail sentence for the crime.