Murder victim. Marybelle Wallace of Hollywood was employed as a Senate journal clerk when she was shot and killed within the California State Capitol in Sacramento. Her murderer, Reginald H. J. "Harry" Hill, a Los Angeles politician and lobbyist, then shot himself in the head and died later at the age of 51. Miss Wallace, although at first friends with Hill, became frightened of him after she repeatedly refused his offer of marriage. Over time, he had become intensely jealous and threatened her life several times, pinching and cursing her earlier that morning. She had been planning to leave Sacramento for home that day in order to escape Hill, but in the late afternoon, Hill confronted her on the fourth floor of the Capitol, outside of the enrolling and engrossing office. Witnesses heard her cry "Don't shoot, Harry!" which was followed by three quick shots, a pause, and then a fourth, muffled, shot. She was survived by her parents, five sisters, and three brothers.
(Sources -- including census records, newspaper accounts of her murder, the California Death Index, her 1924 passport application, and her headstone -- disagree as to her birth year, giving it as anywhere from 1890 to 1903.)
(Sources -- including census records, newspaper accounts of her murder, the California Death Index, her 1924 passport application, and her headstone -- disagree as to her birth year, giving it as anywhere from 1890 to 1903.)
Murder victim. Marybelle Wallace of Hollywood was employed as a Senate journal clerk when she was shot and killed within the California State Capitol in Sacramento. Her murderer, Reginald H. J. "Harry" Hill, a Los Angeles politician and lobbyist, then shot himself in the head and died later at the age of 51. Miss Wallace, although at first friends with Hill, became frightened of him after she repeatedly refused his offer of marriage. Over time, he had become intensely jealous and threatened her life several times, pinching and cursing her earlier that morning. She had been planning to leave Sacramento for home that day in order to escape Hill, but in the late afternoon, Hill confronted her on the fourth floor of the Capitol, outside of the enrolling and engrossing office. Witnesses heard her cry "Don't shoot, Harry!" which was followed by three quick shots, a pause, and then a fourth, muffled, shot. She was survived by her parents, five sisters, and three brothers.
(Sources -- including census records, newspaper accounts of her murder, the California Death Index, her 1924 passport application, and her headstone -- disagree as to her birth year, giving it as anywhere from 1890 to 1903.)
(Sources -- including census records, newspaper accounts of her murder, the California Death Index, her 1924 passport application, and her headstone -- disagree as to her birth year, giving it as anywhere from 1890 to 1903.)
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