Last week’s homicide was terrible but it not the first time a domestic dispute in the Superior area ended in a shooting and a sad Christmas season for those involved.
The Superior Express reported on Dec. 21, 1933 that Mrs. T. B. Smith was hospitalized in a critical state as a result of gun shot wounds. She told authorities that her husband shot her while her adopted son, John, held her. At that time both Mr. Smith and John were being held in the county jail at Nelson.
Mrs. Smith had three bullet wounds in an arm and another in her chest, that bullet entering her right lung.
The shooting took place at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 20, 1933 at the Smith farm near Superior. When Dr. J. A. Trowbridge was called, he immediately took Mrs. Smith to the hospital. The Express stories do not give the location of the shooting but later stories identify the Smith place and being near the east river bridge.
When the sheriff and county attorney arrived from Nelson, they found Mr. Smith and John were already on their way to Nelson to give themselves up. Mr. Smith admitted to County Attorney Brubaker that he fired a .22 caliber pistol at his wife, but claimed he acted in self defense.
The charge filed against T. B. Smith was shooting with intent to kill. John was charged with being an accessory.
A divorce suit filed by Mrs. Smith against her husband had been pending in district court for about two months.
The story continued to unfold in the following weeks.
A preliminary hearing was held in county court on Friday, Dec. 22, and the accused were bound over to district court for trial.
Bond for T.B. Smith was set at $15,000 on the charge of shooting with intent to kill. Bond for John was set at $10,000 on the charge of being an accessory in the shooting.
The preliminary hearing began Friday morning and continued through most of the afternoon. Drs. Trowbridge and G. F. Piercy along with Emerson Fike, Larkin Packwood and Mary Smith were called as witnesses by the prosecution. A blood stained coat said to have been worn by Mrs. T. B. Smith was displayed.
Mary Smith testified that on the afternoon of Dec. 20, she followed her mother to a shed on the farm and arrived in time to see John scuffling with Mrs. Smith. Then, according to the testimony, T. B .Smith fired the shots which critically injured his wife
Fike, a neighbor, testified he was at the farm the afternoon of the shooting and heard shots fired, but saw nothing of what took place.
The defense called no witnesses but introduced as evidence a coat of T. B. Smith’s purported to contain holes made by bullets from a gun fired by Mrs. Smith at her husband and a folded newspaper dated the day of the shooting. It purportedly had a bullet hole.
J. W. Boyd, a Superior attorney, was retained as attorney for Mr. Smith and John.
The March first edition of The Express reported the T. B. Smith case was being heard in district court at Nelson. A trial for John Smith was expected to be held later.
A daughter, Mary Smith, testified she had left the house to bring in the cows as was the custom but upon meeting her father and brother she returned to the house without the cows. Later Mrs. Smith went to the barn to put hay down for the cows and was said to have been seized by her son, John, who had a pistol in his hand and threatened her life. While attempting to free herself, her husband, T.B. Smith, came in and commenced shooting.
The defense told a different story. The defense contended T. B. Smith was looking for a hammer when Mrs. Smith started to shoot at him and he retreated to the garage where he and John had been staying after relations with Mrs. Smith became strained.
Mrs. Smith followed him to the garage and he reached for a stick of wood but instead pulled a gun from the pillow on John’s bed and fired the shots at his wife in self defense.
The two sides did not agree on where Mrs. Smith was shot. Mrs. Smith contended she was shot while in the barn and had run to the house.
The March 8, 1934, Express reported the jury acquitted T. B. Smith after deliberating about 16 hours.
Smith did not deny the shooting but evidently convinced the jury the shooting was in self defense.
Throughout the testimony, both the principals in the case and others made reference to statements in which both Smith and his wife at different times threatened each other and told about the disagreements the couple had after the farm was no longer producing the money Mrs. Smith expected.
On Nov. 22, 1934. The Express reported the case against John Smith had been dismissed.
The Express reported on Jan. 18, 1934, that Mrs. Smith had been discharged from Brodstone Hospital and returned home, her condition being much improved.
The March 28, 1935, issue reported the Blosser Motor Company had purchased Mrs. Smith’s livestock, machinery and household goods and would hold an auction at the T. B. Smith farm.
A 1927 edition reported the T.B. Smiths were improving their place by building a new cattle barn, hen house and large workshop.
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