On the evening of September 21, 1894, a horrific scene unfolded on Adams Street and Second in Phoenix. Thomas Secrest, 45, fatally shot his wife of 20 years, Anna Secrest, 38, before turning the gun on himself. The tragedy occurred shortly before 6:30 p.m., as Anna stood near the gate of the cottage. He shot her twice. After shooting her, Thomas crossed the street and shot himself in the temple.
A crowd quickly gathered as the wounded couple was brought
into the house and tended to by physicians Purman, Helm, and Martin. Despite
their efforts, it was clear there was nothing more to be done. Within the hour,
both husband and wife were dead. Their son, Barry, was at his mother’s side
when she passed.
The Secrest family’s history added a somber complexity to
the event. Thomas Secrest had moved to Phoenix 14 months earlier from Aspen,
Colorado, to work as a mining engineer for the Mammoth Mine. Prior to Aspen,
the family had resided together in La Grande, Oregon. The couple had three
children: a son, Barry, 13, a married daughter, Mrs. Madaline Guardinier, 18,
and another son, Wanda, 20.
Nine months before the murder-suicide, Anna and her two sons
had joined Thomas in Goldfield Mining Camp from La Grande. However, Anna disliked life in
the mining camp and left for Denver in June, though her reasons and whom she
visited remain a mystery. Her older son, Wanda, returned to Oregon and lived
with his sister Madaline, while Barry stayed with his father at Goldfield. A
month before the tragic night, Anna returned to Phoenix, staying briefly at the
Gregory House before renting a cottage from J.L.B. Alexander, the place of the fateful event. Barry moved in
with her, and during this time, Thomas visited her, marking their final
interactions before the fatal evening.
While the exact motive behind the shooting is unknown, there
were troubling signs of discord. Barry, their son, described his father as
increasingly unstable, saying Thomas had experienced “absence of memory” and
had grown jealous. Anna’s last words suggested that Thomas shot her because she
refused to return to the mining camp. A letter Thomas had sent two days prior
hinted at reconciliation if Anna returned, but ominously warned of darker
consequences if she did not. Rumors circulated about Anna taking late-night
carriage rides and an unnamed man visiting her at the house, adding fuel to
Thomas’s jealousy.
The weapon used was a .38 caliber revolver of the American Bulldog pattern. Newspaper reporters stated that such a revolver was commonly used for suicides and murders.
In the aftermath, the bodies of Thomas and Anna were removed
together and placed side by side at the morgue, a chilling reminder of the
tragic event that left the community shocked and devastated.
-Val-Shadow Archives (Resource, Arizona Republic, September 21, 1894)
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