July 26, 1894: Pregnant woman shoots, kills Nevada state senator

A version of this article originally appeared in the Reno Gazette Journal on April 1, 1990.

Born in England in 1864, Alice Marion Hartley was the central figure in one of Reno's most sensational scandals in the summer of 1894. She also was among the first women to be incarcerated in the Nevada State Prison and one of the few to be imprisoned with an infant child.

Coming from England to Utah in 1884, she lived in San Francisco for two years and arrived, alone, in Cisco, California on May 4, 1886. A painter of some ability and a competent violinist, she was an impressive young lady, "not beautiful, but quite pleasant in appearance," a newsman would later write of her, an entertaining conversationalist and decidedly English in manner.

Within a few months, she met Henry H. Hartley, a 53-year-old mine operator from nearby Meadow Lake. They were married in Sierraville a few months later, and she moved to his rough cabin high in the Sierra.

Hartley prospered, but the marriage failed and he sent her off to Europe in 1891 to study art in Italy and try to negotiate the sale of a mine to an English syndicate.

She was in Rome when she got word that he had died on Oct. 22, 1892 of suspected murder. She tried to have his body disinterred to check for poisoning, but the district attorney refused her request.

Hartley alleges assault by Foley

The $1,500 in cash she realized from her husband's estate barely took care of her personal debts, but she still had a few of the mining claims. On Oct. 1, 1893, she arrived in Reno, rented a studio in the new Bank of Nevada building and began to support herself by offering art lessons and doing portraiture. Murray D. Foley, a state senator and president of the bank, soon took an interest in the welfare of the young widow. If we are to believe her later testimony, Foley came to her studio on the evening of Jan. 30, 1894, on the pretext of discussing her properties in the Meadow Lake District.

Plying her with brandy laced with a sedative drug, he had his way with her that evening. She claimed to have changed the lock on her door thereafter, but was again assaulted by the banker on Feb. 26.

Within three weeks, she discovered that she was pregnant. Foley forced her to visit a San Francisco abortion provider, but the physician advised against the procedure for health reasons.

In May, she consulted an attorney, E.R. Dodge, asking him for a form letter acknowledging paternity and establishing financial responsibility. Foley, married with children, agreed to sign such a letter, but never did.

On July 26, he visited her in her studio. An argument ensued; according to her later account, he grabbed a chair and swung it aloft just as she seized a .38-caliber revolver. Firing twice, she hit him in the abdomen. He lurched into the hallway, made his way down the third-floor stairwell and staggered into the office of Dr. P.T. Phillips, where he collapsed in the examining room. Phillips called in another physician, but they were unable to save Foley and he died a half-hour later.

Alice, meanwhile, had turned herself in to Sheriff William H. Caughlin.

'I have shot Senator Foley and hope he will die'

Shortly after the shooting, Hartley gave a brief interview with a reporter for the Reno Evening Gazette. From the July 27, 1894 edition:

The Gazette man asked Mrs. Hartley if she desired to talk with a reporter, or if she desired to wait until after she had overcome some of her excitement. Mrs. Hartley replied:

"Oh, I am not excited. I have thought over this too much to get excited now. I have shot Senator Foley and hope he will die. He has ruined my life, and I am willing to stand the consequences. I only regret not having done it publicly."

The reporter then asked her where the shooting took place and what she shot him with.

"The shooting occurred in this room, and the Sheriff has the pistol," she replied.

Sheriff Coughlin took from his pocket the pistol, which was a 38-caliber Colt with two empty chambers. Mrs. Hartley cautioned him to handle it carefully as it contained three cartridges.

"How may times did you shoot, Mrs. Hartley?" inquired the reporter.

"Twice," she replied.

"Did both shots take effect?" was then asked.

"I don't know. I hope so," was the reply.

Prison sentence for Hartley, and a pardon

Rumors were in circulation about Foley, some of his acquaintances describing him as "a professional libertine." Others wondered how he had avoided vengeful husbands and fathers over the years since he was much given to boasting of his conquests.

Although the people of Reno rallied around Alice, believing her to be a wronged woman, District Attorney Benjamin F. Curler Jr. portrayed her as a dangerous and intriguing woman who willingly engaged in an affair with Foley and then killed him when he refused to give in to blackmail.

On Sept. 16, she was found guilty of murder in the second degree. In spite of the jury's adding a strong recommendation for mercy, she was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Jan. 12, 1895, two months after the birth of Foley's child.

The conviction was appealed, but to no avail, and she and her infant son, Vernon Harrison Hartley, entered the prison on June 17. Lodged in a room in the guards' quarters outside the prison walls, they remained incarcerated until she was pardoned on Jan. 12, 1897.

Post-prison life

After returning to Reno, she filed suit against the Foley estate on behalf of her son. The boy died of scarlet fever in Reno just a month later, however, and she got nothing from the legal action.

Thereafter, she moved to San Francisco. From time to time in later years, word of her adventures filtered back. In San Francisco, she disrupted church services on one occasion, seizing the podium to tell of the Foley murder and of her repentance for the deed.

In December 1907, she fell ill while visiting friends in Denver and died on Dec. 28. Relatives, who had come from England to be with her on her deathbed, tried to get their hands on the assets, mostly property in California, she had left.

Alice Hartley had largely been forgotten in Reno and neither of the major newspapers reported her death or the sordid affair.

Phillip I. Earl was curator of the Nevada Historical Society.

This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: July 26, 1894: Pregnant woman shoots, kills Nevada state senator