By the Associated Press
Raleigh, Dec. 29—Lawrence Gatling, son of former Postmaster Bart M. Gatling, of Raleigh, early tonight shot and killed Owen Stevens, a chauffeur, whom he was said to have found with Mrs. Gatlin in a bedroom of a house where she was staying, and then pursued his wife, who ran out of the house and across the street, and shot her to death, firing a volley of bullets into her after she was felled by the first, according to the police version of the affair.
Gatling, who has been evading Raleigh police on account of a charge held against him since November 25, escaped in an automobile immediately after the shooting. Police who arrived on the scene about five minutes afterwards started a pursuit. Stevens and Gatling, the police declared, for a long time were partners and carried on together a large traffic in illicit whiskey. It was reported that they had a disagreement and that Stevens remarked several days ago that Gatling had threatened to cut his throat.
Entering the house were Mrs. gatling was staying with a sister, Miss Janie Griffin, it is thought that the husband became enraged on finding Stevens with his wife. He shot his former partner without delay, it was reported. Death was almost instant. Police found Stevens’ body crumpled up at the foot of a bed. Blood was all over the room. He had on an overcoat and a cap lay at his side. Three bullet holes were found in the walls of the room and five lead pellets were gathered up by police form the floor.
Mrs. Gatling’s body was left in the street by her husband. She lay on her back, er body riddled and torn about the breast.
From the front page of the Durham Morning Herald, Sunday, Dec. 30, 1923
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