DID ROSE PETERSON
WRITE THIS LETTER?
ACCUSED OF IT BY DEAD HUS-
BAND'S RELATIVES.
Prosecution Will Try to Show That
Woman Had Written Threatening
Letter to Husband Short Time
Before She Shot Him.
At the trial of Rose Peterson, the following letter purporting to be written by Mrs. Peterson to her husband will be introduced:
"It's a good thing you ran today or I would have got you. I would have got you anyway if so many people had not been around. Don't go any place where I may see you! I'll get you if I ever see you, no mater if it's ten years from now. If you ever try to get it I'll follow you, no matter where you go."
This letter was received by Fred Peterson two weeks ago. It was unsigned, but, it was alleged, was in Rose Peterson's handwriting and he showed it to his brother, Frank, saying that his wife had written it. Then Fred told how that very morning as he was passing Eighth and Cherry streets, Rose met him and pointed a revolver at him, but he dodged behind a corner so quickly that she had no opportunity to fire.
MRS. PETERSON WILL NOT TALK.
Mrs. Peterson was seen at the county jail last night and the letter alleged to have been written by her to Fred Peterson was red. "Did you write that letter?" she was asked.
"I don't know" she answered. "I don't remember whether I did or not."
"Did you and your husband ever have a quarrel about dry goods and did he accuse you with having unlawfully obtained them? Was that your first misunderstanding?"
"I don't know that, either," she said.
"Did you ever point a revolver at your husband on the street; in other words, did you ever attempt to shoot him?"
"You ain't talking to me, I guess."
"How did you happen to have a revolver on the night he was shot on the street? Was it your habit to carry a revolver when attending dances?"
"I won't talk to you. See my lawyer. He will tell you all I've got to say."
The Petersons were married three years ago, when he was 19 years old and she was 16. He was a plumber and earned $13 a week. They lived at the house of Peterson's mother and were apparently very happy until they had a dispute about some dry good that the wife had brought into the house and which the husband insisted that she ought to return. After being married nine months they separated and Peterson moved to California, where he remained until last September. Then he became sick and his mother hastened to his side and brought him back to this city. He got a job here and lived at the home of his mother.
DIVORCE PROCEEDINGS BROUGHT.
Several months ago Rose Peterson came to the house and asked for her husband. They talked, and several times afterward they were seen in each other's company. Divorce proceedings were instituted by the woman, but after they had reached a certain stage she ceased to pay her lawyer his fees and Peterson, who was also anxious to get the divorce, paid the lawyer $15. At this time, says Frank Peterson, Rose had changed her mind and did not want to get the divorce. She begged her husband to contest the suit, and finally threatened to do him harm, the brother says. He knew that she carried a revolver. His brother said to him once:
"If Rose pulls that gun on you I want you to strike her." Fred replied: "No, I won't do that. I'm going to run."
He did run when she pointed the revolver at him at Eighth and Cherry streets, and after that he avoided her. On the night on which he was shot he had planned to do some Christmas shopping with his mother, but she was taken ill and he was forced to go alone. He was never seen alive again by any friends or family. Mrs. Peterson claims that on that night she went to a dance with her husband, and that he accompanied her home. She asserts that they quarreled on a street car. They left the car at Eighteenth and Askew and the quarrel was resumed on the street. The woman says the man slapped her; that then she drew a revolver and fired five shots, each of the five bullets lodging in his body and killing him instantly.
