Salt Lake Tribune | 1912-12-05 | Page 1 | Realty Dealer Shot; Actress under Arrest

REALTY DEALER SHOT; ACTRESS UNDER ARREST i Leading Land Merchant of Los Angeles May Die From - Wound Mysteriously Inflicted. DENVER POLITICIAN'S EX-WIFE ACCUSED Surgeon Insists She Confessed to Shooting and Said Victim Vic-tim Called Her by Name of His Spouse. SAN-I-TiANCISCO. Dcc. i. Robert J. '. Widney. a Los Angeles real estate es-tate dealer, is in a hospital suffering suf-fering from a bullet wound that may prove fatal, and Mrs. Frances V. Lyons is a prisoner in the city Jail as the result of a shooting that took place late today in the couple's apartment in a downtown hotel. There .were no witnesses, wit-nesses, but both principals say that the shooting was accidental. Their accounts, however, difTcr widely. v Mrs. .Lyons was divorced two months ago in Denver, about a year after her marriage in Oakland to William C. Lyons, a Denver politician. At the time "of the divorce Uldncy was named as co-respond cnl! and It was alleged thai he and Mrs. Lyons wore Jiving together In Los Angeles. Mrs. Lyons said that today's shooting was eaused by Widney dropping a revolver re-volver ho had taken from her shopping bag. She declared a similar accident had occurred six weeks ago in Los Angeles. Dr. O. C. Josslyn, however. In a statement state-ment made to detectives, declared that Mrs. Lyons exclaimed to him: "Yes, I shot him and I'd shoot him again. He called mo T3ess--that's why." JBess is said to be the name of "idney's wife ...... A ccTnTmg-" to' the detectives; "Widney told persons in the hotel that Mrs. Lyons shot him. LOS ANGELI5S, Cal..' Dcc. 4. That Mrs. Vivian Lyons, as she was known here, had threatened on several occasions occa-sions to kill Robert J. P. Widney, was asserted tonight by Mrs. Widney, wife of the wounded jnan. Mrs. Widney discussed dis-cussed freely the relations between her husband and Mrs. Lyons, declaring Mrs. Lyons had made the threats in order to compel Widney to continue them. Mrs. Widney has been in bed with an attack of rheumatism for several weeks, but when apprised tonight of the shooting- of her husband she arose and prepared pre-pared to leave on a late train for San Francisco, accompanied by WIdney's aged mother, Mrs. It. M. Widney. Widney 1ms been one of tho leading real estate operators in Los Angeles for some years. Tie went to San Francisco yesterday, ostensibly on legal business. DlDNVJSrt, Colo.. Dec. -l.WIMlnni C. Lyons, former husband of Mrs. Frances V. Lyons, is a traveling salesman and local Dcmocratio politician. His marriage to Mrs. Lyons was unknown to his friends here until the news of Hie shoot-in shoot-in of Jlobeil .1. Widney reached here tonight. iyons said he married her secretly and obtained a divorce two months afterward. after-ward. He' said he never lived with Mrs. Lyons because sho was not the woman he thought she was when he married her. He understood that Mrs. Lyons wa.s a moving-picture actress In the east before she came hero shortly before thoy were man-led.