Clark County NV Archives Obituaries.....McCURRAN, Walter April 11 1923
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Gerry Perry missgerry@cox.net January 21, 2005, 9:46 pm

Las Vegas Age - 4/14/1923


MYSTERY OF KILLING HARD TO PENETRATE



WALTER MC CURRAN SHOT IN ROOM WITH WIFE - CIRCUMSTANCES POINT TO MURDER



    Shortly before five o'clock on the afternoon of Thursday, April 11, 

Walter McCURRAN was shot and almost instantly killed while lying on the bed 

in the room at the California hotel occupied by himself and his wife.  No 

persons other than the wife was present at the time the fatal shot was 

fired.

    Mrs. CLARK, a neighbor was the first to enter the room, followed within 

a few minutes by Dr. F. E. MILDREN, Mrs. MORRISON and Mrs. MADISON. 

McCURRAN lay dying on the bed, his brains scattered over the room.  On the 

floor near the bed was a .45 calibre revolver.

    Mrs. McCURRAN was perfectly calm and unconcerned it is said, showing no 

sign of emotion.  She stated that she had been standing before the mirror 

preparing to dress.  That she heard the shot and turned about and saw her 

husband was wounded and the revolver on the floor.  She said that the 

revolver was kept under the mattress and she had no knowledge as to how the 

shooting occurred, the intimation being that it was either suicide or that 

the gun was accidentally discharged.

    The silent witnesses to the killing give it a peculiar and mysterious 

aspect.  The shot struck McCURRAN above the left eye tearing away a portion 

of the skull and scattering the brains, but the bullet remained in the skull 

cavity.  There were no power marks on his face, but through the edge of the 

sheet and the edge of the mattress there was a hole with black power marks. 

The gun is large and by no possibility could it discharge while it was lying 

under the mattress, have injured a person lying on the bed, more especially 

in the manner in which McCURRAN was shot, had the gun worked its way from 

under the mattress, dropped to the floor and discharged the shot might have 

taken effect as it did, but this appears extremely unlikely.

    The most logical explanation of the circumstances as pointed out by 

these silent witnesses is that some one approached the bed with the gun and 

that McCURRAN seized the edge of the mattress and pulled it up before his 

face to shield himself as the shot was fired.

    Did some silent foe enter the door, sieze the gun, kill McCURRAN and 

escape without being seen by the wife who was in the same room but a few 

feet away?

    Dr. MILDREN on his arrival at the scene of the shooting about five 

minutes after it occurred, had McCURRAN taken to the Las Vegas hospital, the 

wounded man dying as he arrived there without regaining consciousness.  Mrs. 

McCURRAN sat quietly in the reception room at the hospital when told of her 

husband's death, unconcernedly reading her Christian Science book.  Upon 

being taken to the jail she requested that a Science practitioner be 

permitted to remain with her that night and Mrs. Gertrude WOODARD 

volunteered to do so.

    Mrs. McCURRAN refused to discuss the tragedy and at once retained Chas. 

Lee HORSEY and A. S. HENDERSON as her attorneys.

    The inquest will be held before Judge LILLIS this afternoon at two 

o'clock.  The preliminary hearing on a charge of murder against Mrs. 

McCURRAN will be held next Tuesday or Wednesday.

    F. LITZENBERG, step-father of Mrs. McCURRAN and Mrs. LITZENBERG, her 

mother arrived on No. 20 at 3:25 this morning from Glendale, Cal., and at 

once conferred with Mrs. McCURRAN and her attorneys, in the county jail.

    Walter McCURRAN was a member in good standing of Kingman Lodge No. 468, 

B.P.O.E.  He was a pipe fitter by trade and at one time lived in Needles, 

Cal. where he was head of the Pipe Fitters Union.  He worked as a pipe 

fitter in the railroad shops here, his hours being from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 

a.m.  Mr. and Mrs. McCURRAN have lived here but a few weeks.

    Mr. McCURRAN was 32 years of age and Mrs. McCURRAN about 20.  They had 

been married only eight months.







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