A sideline from history

From the Pittsburgh Press for July 29, 1921.

When the Pittsburgh Press for July 29, 1921, carried this brief news story from Chicago they missed a trick. Lemuel Hackley (sic), the attorney who was murdered in court was a native son of Allegheny. Born Lemuel Mahlon Ackley, he was actually the younger brother of Maria (Ackley) Russell, CTR’s wife.

When Maria left CTR she first went to Chicago to stay with Lemuel. He had lived in Allegheny until adulthood, working first as a reporter, before studying law and moving to Chicago in the 1880s.

He apparently did well in the law apart from getting himself murdered in court. The disgruntled police sergeant who fired the fatal shots failed to kill himself at the time, but later committed suicide by cyanide poisoning while in jail awaiting trial.

(This will probably not make it into Bruce and Rachael’s books, but I found it an interesting sideline to history).

(adapted from a brief article on blog 2)