Harrison and Sylvia Tuttle. Image via Newspapers.com- Chicago Tribune, Dec. 21, 1931.

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Cop Shoots and Kills Wife Before Turning Himself and Her Lover into Jail

Andrew Martin
3 min read3 days ago

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Failed romantic relationships are frequently instigated by a failure of trust. Whether or not that loss of faith in the other is warranted, it can create a horrible divide and lead to breakups and much worse. In 1931, a small-town deputy sheriff shot and killed his wife while trying to murder her alleged lover. He then promptly went and turned himself and the other man into jail.

In 1931, deputy sheriff Harrison Tuttle (who also operated a filling station) of Kankakee, Illinois, was a paranoid and troubled man. He believed his wife of 25 years, Sylvia, was stepping out on him behind his back. Following his suspicions, he linked her to a 50-year-old married man from Gary, Indiana named William Giroux, who had been their neighbor years before. Finally, he claimed that he intercepted a message about a secret meeting and found the pair sitting together in the back seat of an automobile along the side of an infrequently traveled road.

Tuttle later told authorities that in a fit he pulled out his pistol and fired two shots, intending to kill his rival, Giroux. However, either his aim or his words were untrue, and he…

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Andrew Martin
Andrew Martin

Written by Andrew Martin

Dabbler in soccer, history, investing & writing. Master’s degree in baseball history. Passionate about history, diversity, culture, sports, film and investing .

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