Content warning: spousal abuse, gun violence, suicide
Grace Burnell was a native of Garfield, WA, where she worked in the Sunday School of her family’s Baptist Church. It is unclear how she met William Inthout, a telegraph operator working in the railroad industry. William was from Kentucky but came to the Northwest to work for the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company in Tekoa, WA.
Grace’s parents did not regard William as a suitable match for their 22-year-old daughter. Despite their opposition, or maybe because of it, Grace and William married in a rush on Tuesday, August 20, 1912. The couple arrived at the courthouse, obtained their marriage certificate, and said their vows in front of Justice Fred H. Witt.
The wedding took all of six minutes, and was unusual enough to earn a mention in the Spokane
Chronicle. The couple hurriedly boarded a train due to leave nine minutes after the wedding.
Th e newlyweds’ first stop was Fernie, BC, where William worked briefly for the Great Northern Railroad before being let go for irregularities and inattentiveness. He was paid out his wages and the couple took a room at the Canadian Temperance Hotel for the nights of September 18 and 19. On the second evening, William set out by himself, and upon his return, the two checked out of the hotel. When the maid entered the room the following morning, she discovered two abandoned suitcases.
Grace and William were seen arguing in the street at their departure from the hotel. The heated exchange ended when William struck Grace across the face. William began running, but after a short distance, returned to his wife. It was noted that William was short-tempered and abusive to Grace one minute, and very affectionate and attentive the next.
On the evening of September 19, after purchasing train tickets, the clerk who managed their transaction noticed William’s agitation. According to the clerk, the Inthouts intended to purchase tickets back to Spokane, but William changed their destination to Calgary.
Apparently, William had called a friend who led him to believe he could find work in the Yukon. Upon arriving in Calgary on September 20, 1912, the couple took a room at the Queen’s Hotel, located where City Hall stands today. William followed up on his work leads, but was told no vacancies were available. He then returned to the hotel and Grace.
Later that evening, the Inthouts ordered several drinks to their room. After they were delivered, three gunshots rang out. When police entered the room, they found William with two gunshots
to the heart, and Grace, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gun injury. The Calgary Police’s investigation resulted in more questions than answers.
Correspondence in the room seemed to indicate that William was really Robert Columbus of Paintsville, Kentucky, who was wanted for inappropriate relationships with young women. A letter written by Grace to her mother also confessed that William had murdered a man named Dutro, the proprietor of a moving picture theatre company in Garfield. In the letter, Grace refers to her husband as Billy, seemingly unaware of his real identity.
Grace’s father travelled to Calgary to handle shipping the remains of his daughter and son-in-law to the U.S. for burial. He provided some clarity on the whereabouts of Dutro. The apparently murdered gentleman had previously lodged with them - the Burnell family- but his death was not confirmed.
While he was in Calgary, Grace’s father revealed more of the details Grace had shared with him about the abuse she endured in her brief marriage to William. On one boating trip during their
stay in Fernie, a drenched Grace had evidence of being struck across the face by an oar. Grace lived in terror of her husband, and her father strongly believed that Grace would not have been the one to fire the weapon on the evening of her death.
Grace’s father requested that she and William be buried in Calgary until other arrangements could be made. He left clear instructions that they were not to be buried together. William’s family claimed his body and had him sent home six days after his death.
Grace was buried in Union Cemetery on September 25, 1912, in an unmarked grave next to
a small grove of trees (image featured in this blog post). Her father’s intention to transport her remains to the U.S. never transpired. Perhaps the Baptist Church of Garfield, WA refused to have an alleged murderess and suicide victim buried in their graveyard. We will probably never know.
