West Seattle Man Kills Fleeing Wife And Shoots Himself

Another Man Flees Home

—by Bob Browning, Sunday 9 February 1947

While a score of horror-stricken Saturday strollers looked on helplessly, a maddened West Seattle man fatally wounded his wife yesterday afternoon as she crouched on her knees beside a neighbor’s home and pleaded for her life.

The killer, Irving Hambert, 40, then walked back into his home at 3135 Lanham Way, scribbled a suicide note, put on another coat and trotted five blocks to Forest Lawn Cemetery, where he fired a bullet into his own head.

Sought by police for questioning in the shooting is a young man who, witnesses said, fled from the Hambert home with Mrs. Hambert seconds before the death shots were fired.

HUSBAND’S STATE CRITICAL

His wife, Elsie, 28, died in King County Hospital at 5:05 p. m. from two .32 caliber bullets lodged in her brain.

Hambert, who shot himself through the left temple, was taken to the same hospital. Attendants said he is in “very, very critical” condition.

The couple’s sons, Garry, 12, and Frankie, 8, were not home when the tragedy took place and the authorities were seeking last night to determine their whereabouts.

First reports were that the children had gone to a movie theater, but neighbors told investigators later they understood Frankie was in Montana, presumably with relatives, and Garry had been taken out of Seattle by a friend at Hambert’s request.

Passersby who saw the entire drama unfold said the unidentified man ran east on Lanham Way, while Mrs. Hambert ran across the street to seek refuge from her husband, following close behind with an automatic pistol in his hand.

THREAT OF DIVORCE

Acting Detective Capt. I. A. O’Mora and Detectives Sam Stearns and Leo Hemler, who questioned neighbors of the couple, said the shooting may have been motivated by Mrs. Hambert’s alleged threat to seek a divorce.

Henry O. Christiansen, 6215 32d Ave. S. W., a Seattle fireman, who saw the entire affair, told police:

”When Mrs. Hambert ran out of the house screaming, she dashed across the street where a man with an armload of groceries was passing. She grabbed his arm, crying for help. As he stood there dumbfounded, she looked back and saw her husband coming toward her.

”She then ran down a flight of concrete steps leading to the home of Roy Chesterfield, 3124 Lanham Way, where she fell to her knees and threw up her hands, screaming, ‘Don’t, please don’t,’ as Hambert approached.

”Hambert walked up to her, sighted along the barrel of his pistol and fired two shots into her head. As she sank forward, Hambert walked slowly back to his house and closed the door.

”As I tried to help Mrs. Hambert, the husband came out the front door of their home a few minutes later and dog-trotted toward the cemetery. I noticed he had put on another coat while he was in the house.”

Two maintenance men working at Forest Lawn Cemetery, where the man sought refuge, heard the single shot fired by Hambert. They discovered him lying on the concrete floor of the cemetery garage with an empty pistol at his feet.

NO CLUE IN NOTE

The suicide note written by Hambert, apparently after shooting his wife, was addressed to his sister, Mrs. George Weber, 1011 E. 71st St. Although the note gave no reason for Hambert’s desperate acts, it said, in part:

”I leave my eyes to anyone who can use them; my body, to any medical institution. I have an income tax refund coming which should go to my sister. Everything else goes to my beloved son, Garry.”

Mrs. Weber, shocked deeply by her brother’s acts, said last night that the Hamberts had been quarreling seriously for several weeks. She added that Hambert, a North Coast Transportation Company bus driver, had been drinking heavily for some time.

The boy, Garry, is Hambert’s son by a previous marriage, Mrs. Weber said, while Frankie is Mrs. Hambert’s son by another marriage.