attempted suicide of bessie mullen in the west end yesterday

at miss pearl raymond’s

a spat with a soldier lover—retired to her room and aimed at her heart—condition serious last night

Bessie Mullen, an inmate of the Pearl Raymond dive on West Eighteenth, attempted suicide at noon yesterday. She aimed at her heart, but the bullet passed clear through the chest at one side. A bulldog revolver of 38 caliber was used and at first it seemed that the purpose of the woman had been accomplished. The bullet missed the lung and the more important machinery of the breathing department. A general alarm for surgical aide was sent out and the rigs of Drs. Grimes and Wyman were soon tied in front of the Raymond castle.

At first it was thought that Bessie wanted to die because she couldn’t go to the circus. There is likely something in this, but the girl denies it.

Miss Mullen has been drunk the last few days. Her lover, a private of the Seventeenth called “Bob” was compelled to return to the post yesterday morning. Immediately on his departure Bessie began to talk suicide. They must have had a spat. Maybe she was trying to warm a spot in her heart for “Bob.” When the doctors came Bessie told them to go away. She wanted “Bob,” she shrieked and she kept calling for the truant lover.

The girl was alone in her room when she shot herself. She did not lock the door.

Bessie came here from Nebraska three years ago. Before that she lived in Pueblo and attended school. At first here she was employed at the Occidental hotel. She was for a time a good girl, but somehow fell, and entering upon a career of dissipation descended until she became a boarder at the most disreputable joint in Chicago.

If there is a dive in the west end that should be closed it is this Pearl Raymond’s. It is a filthy hole, and several of the women were drunk there yesterday, giving attention to callers of their own moral stamp rather than to their suffering sister.

LATER.—At 12:30 last night, Dr. Wyman was sent a rush summons to the bedside of the girl. Lung fever had set in. She vomited blood, so the injury was more serious than at first supposed. When the physician left the house, Bessie was resting easily and there seemed no immediate danger.

The Cheyenne Weekly Sun (Cheyenne, WY) Thursday, July 2nd, 1891