It was a usually raucous Saturday night in Aberdeen’s saloons and dance halls, patrons huddled inside escaping the cold-damp of the Harbor. At the Northern Hotel — or Hotel Northern, either is acceptable — on East Wishkah Street, two men exchanged words and both parties walked away — but one of the men held a grudge and on the quiet Sunday he turned to a revolver to exact revenge. The lobby of Northern Hotel was the venue and the Aberdeen Herald was on the scene on the afternoon of January 17, 1909.

SHOCKING SUNDAY TRAGEDY — As a result of a shooting affair shortly after five o’clock last evening at the Northern Hotel, 416 East Wishkah Street, John Morey lies in the Randolph morgue, and James Ballentine and William Rosio are in the Aberdeen General Hospital with serious gunshot wounds.

Morey and Ballentine had some words at the hotel, on Saturday night, which were the cause of the tragedy. Rosio, who is a teamster, was shot while trying to stop the shooting. According to the statement of those present on Saturday evening and yesterday, Ballentine had been drinking Saturday evening, and in a discussion had called Morey a “damned liar.” Morey, who was a very quiet man, passed the matter off and it apparently ended.

Yesterday afternoon Morey entered the lobby of the hotel and remarked to Ballentine that he now was sober, and inquired if he meant what he had said the evening before. Ballentine replied that he did, and struck Morey, and was about to repeat the blow when Morey pulled a .38-calibre revolver and shot the former, the bullet striking him in the groin. Rosio — who had had no trouble with either of the men — jumped from his chair and grabbed Morey by the pistol arm. In the scuffle that ensued, the weapon was discharged, the bullet striking Rosio in the left breast, was deflected by an account book in his vest pocket, which probably saved his life. Morey immediately turned the pistol on himself, shooting himself in the head, inflicting a wound that proved fatal a few hours later.

The three pistol shots in the quiet of a Sunday evening, quickly drew a large crowd, and physicians were summoned and the wounded men taken to the hospital, where Morey died at 9:40 p.m., and his body was taken to the morgue. Ballentine and Rosio will recover unless complications set in. Under the circumstances, Coroner Smith did not deem an inquest necessary.

Nothing is known here of Morey, who was about 35 years of age. He registered at the Northern Hotel on December 14, but gave no address. He was quiet and rather reserved, making few if any acquaintances other than the guests at the hotel, where he was regarded as a very peaceable man. It is now evident that while he permitted Ballentine to give him the lie when the latter was intoxicated, that the epithet was not unnoticed, and that he intended to make him apologize when sober, and that receiving a blow instead of an apology was more than he could bear. The shooting of Rosio is regarded by all the witnesses as purely the accidental result of his attempt to stop Morey from putting the second shot into Ballentine. Upon seeing that he had shot two men, Morey concluded to end his own life rather than face the consequences.

A search of the effects of the dead man by the police failed to reveal anything of his past life or relatives or where he was from. There was $90 in money on his person, but no writing that afforded any more information than his name. In the course of general conversations at the hotel. It was seen that he was a man who had traveled considerably through his familiarity with places in various parts of the country that would be mentioned. He had done no work since coming here, nor said anything of his occupation, but is thought to have followed mining and to have been in Alaska.

Ballentine is a carpenter and has been stopping at the Northern for some time, and was not at all regarded as quarrelsome. Rosio is a teamster employed in hauling gravel on the streets, and was not mixed in any trouble whatever, his wounds coming from his attempt to prevent Morey from shooting Ballentine the second time. — Aberdeen Herald, January 18, 1909

A week later the Herald ran a follow-up story on the mysterious Mr. Morey:

WAS UNDER AN ALIAS — John Moriarty, not John Morey, is the name of the man who last Sunday committed suicide after he had shot and wounded James D. Ballentine and William Rosio. Evidence to this effect was unearthed today by the finding of a book containing the constitution and bylaws of the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific under the carpet in the room Moriarty, or Morey, occupied in the Northern Hotel. The testimony furnished by two letters found in the book — one written by E. Ellison, secretary of the Sailors’ union at San Francisco, and the other written under a Portland date, but by whom is not known the name being torn off – shows Moriarty had been accused of violating rules of the union and had probably suffered expulsion.

The letter signed by Ellison formally prefers charges against Moriarty for alleged betrayal of the union to the “I. L. M. & T. A.” which is the International Longshoremen, Marine & Transport Workers Association of America, and which is not now affiliated with the Sailors’ union. Relations between the two organizations were severed several years ago and all members of the Sailors’ union were ordered then to resign their membership in the Longshoremen’s organization. The letter charges that “Comrade” Moriarty did not obey the order but that he continued to work with the Longshoremen and that he caused the arrest of the Portland agent of the Sailors’ union during the recent labor difficulty in that city. For that reason his expulsion is demanded. This letter is dated in San Francisco July 22, 1908.

All of this would seem to account for Moriarty’s reticence while a resident of this city and his refusal to refer to himself of his past life. Inquiries will be made by the authorities to Portland and San Francisco in an effort to learn something of the man and his family. — Aberdeen Herald, January 25, 1909

Roy Vataja is the son of Finnish immigrants and loves spreading the word about Aberdeen’s phenomenal history. The lives and deaths of the people, and the history of the buildings, weave a rich tale indeed.