The Alaska Daily Empire

REPUTED "KING" OF RUM RUNNERS IS NEAR DEATH
Crowded Front Street Cafe Is Scene of Shooting Wednesday Evening.

William (Billy) Prentice, 36 years of age, widely reported as the "king of rumrunners" in Alaska, was shot and probably fatally wounded last night between 11 and 11:30 p. m. in a Front Street restaurant by William Lott, a local Negro barber.

Lott was taken into custody a few minutes after the shooting by Night Patrolman V. L. Tibbitts and is now confined in the local Federal jail charged with shooting with intent to kill.

Prentice is at St. Ann Hospital where he was rushed last night. His condition was reported to be very grave late this afternoon with little hope entertained for his recovery.

If death results from the wounds, it was stated by U. S. Attorney A. G. Shoup that the charge against Lott would be changed to murder. Lott had not been arraigned today.

Dr. W. A. Borland, in attendance on Prentice today, said one of the bullets entered the chest penetrating a lung; two entered the abdomen and a fourth entered the back. There is very little chance for Prentice, he said.

In Crowded Cafe.

The shooting took place in Harry's Grill which was crowded with patrons when the shots were fired. Lott, using a .38 caliber, double action Smith & Wesson revolver, fired five shots, four of which lodged in Prentice's body, the fifth apparently missing and going into the counter.

Eye-witnesses to the affair told a representative of The Empire today that there was no warning quarrel preceding the shooting which took place with such suddenness that it was impossible to prevent or stop it after the first shot was fired.

The shooting was caused by reports of certain remarks Lott was said to have made about Prentice to Winnie Swanberg, the woman whom Prentice refers to as his wife in a statement to the U. S. Attorney after he was taken to the hospital last night. The statements made by both Lott and his victim agree on that point, although there is a difference in their accounts of the events immediately preceding the shooting.

Says No Warning.

Prentice made a formal statement accusing Lott of shooting him without provocation. He said he had heard Lott was talking about him and called him in the cafe and asked him about it and that the negro fired on him without warning or quarrel.

Lott's statement, according to the officers questioning him, was to the effect that after Prentice had questioned him, he had cursed him and hit him (Lott) in the face, and thinking that Prentice was going to beat him up he shot. U. S. Attorney Shoup said that Lott's face showed no mark or sign of a blow when he was questioned.

Lott also said he had been warned that Prentice was going to beat him up when he saw him. He denied, however, that when he heard of this threat, he had put the revolver in his pocket and asserted he was only told of the threat during the afternoon and had carried the gun in his pocket all day. He denied he was accustomed to carry a gun, saying it was the first time he had done so, according to officials.

He is said to have offered no satisfactory explanation of why he was packing the weapon.

Witnesses Tell Story.

Roy Noland, Superintendent of the Juneau & Douglas Telephone Company, gave a comprehensive story of the shooting to The Empire. He said: "I had stepped into the Grill for a light lunch about 11 p. m. There were several people at the counter and in the booths. Among the former were Prentice, Winnie Swanberg, a woman formerly residing at Douglas whom I knew then as Diva Dale. Prentice was talking
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REPUTED "KING" OF RUM RUNNERS

IS NEAR DEATH

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to me when Lott showed up in front of the restaurant. Prentice left me and called Lott into the place and went back toward the rear end of the counter where the Dale woman was seated, saying to Lott: 'Here is someone you know.' I noticed that Lott was smiling and that he spoke to the Dale woman. The next I heard was Prentice saying: 'You're a lying son of a b---' and before I could turn to face them two shots were fired.

Fired from Pocket.

"When I faced about smoke was curling from the pocket of Lott's coat on the lower left front side. The two men were standing face to face, their bodies touching. Prentice slumped forward with his right arm across Lott's left shoulder. As the weight of his body pressed down on Lott, the latter stepped backward toward the partition between the lunch room and the kitchen, Prentice still leaning on his shoulder. As they neared the partition, I saw the revolver in Lott's right hand. He shot twice and stepped out from beneath Prentice's arm and, as the latter's body crumpled on the floor, fired the fifth shot into it. All of the shots I saw were fired at point-blank range.

When Prentice fell, I rushed to his side and bent over him to see where he was wounded. When I arose, Lott had disappeared. Earl Manley, who also saw the shooting, told me Lott had run outside, and Manley left to follow him."

Mr. Noland in answer to a question said he heard no quarrel other than the phrase used and saw no blow struck. Lott's eyes, he declared, had an almost insanely vicious glitter in them. His face was calm and almost expressionless. "I'll never forget his eyes," he declared.

Strong Agrees with Noland.

William Strong, Taku River trader and trapper, who was seated at the counter within a few feet of the shooting, also gave The Empire an account of the affair which virtually agrees with that given by Mr. Noland. He saw Lott come into the restaurant with Prentice and enter into conversation with the Dale woman, who is also known as Mrs. Edward Uhl. He said he paid no further attention and heard nothing until he heard two reports come in rapid succession which he took to be explosions from torpedo canes. Cries from the woman made him turn and he saw Lott backing toward the kitchen partition with Prentice's arm across his shoulder. The revolver, he said, was in Lott's right hand. Before he could move the negro fired three more shots.

"Until Billy crumpled on the floor I thought it was all a joke and that Lott was firing blanks," declared Strong. "It was all over so quickly no one had a chance to interfere," he added. Strong said he knew of no business reason for the shooting or for a difference between the two men and attributed it to gossip.

Woman Knows Nothing

The Dale, or Uhl, woman, according to officers who questioned her last night, remembers nothing preceding the shooting. If Prentice was questioning Lott she said she had forgotten what about, that the shooting had so frightened her she didn't know what was taking place.

Among the list of those said by officers eye-witnesses to the shooting were: Roy Noland, William Strong, Walter Bindsall, Earl Manley, Winnie Swanberg, Mrs. A. Wilson, a waitress at the restaurant, H. M. Moffat, night cook, Ethel Ebbetts, wife of the proprietor, Mrs. T. J. Ambler, the Dale or Uhl woman, a woman known as Ether and several others whose names had not been learned today.