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| Murray D. Foley |
In late July 1894, Reno citizens were shocked when the local newspapers reported that a married Nevada State Senator and prominent banker, Murray D. Foley, had been shot to death by a woman who was not his wife, in her studio apartment.
Beneath an understated headline that simply said, “An Awful Tragedy,” the July 27, 1894 edition of the Reno Evening Gazette wrote, “Shortly after the Gazette’s press hour last evening the town was startled by a report that State Senator MD Foley had been shot and mortally wounded, and was in the Drs. Phillips’ office, on the second floor of the Bank of Nevada building, in a dying condition.”
The story noted that a Gazette reporter had learned of the shooting and gone to the scene of the crime only to find a big crowd standing in front of the bank building and little information. However, after hearing someone in the crowd say that a “Mrs. Hartley” had shot the Senator, he went to her third-floor apartment in the building, where she was standing with Sheriff William H. Caughlin.
“The Gazette man asked Mrs. Hartley if she desired to talk with the reporter, or if she desired to wait until after she had overcome some of her excitement,” the paper said. “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.’”
She added that the shooting had occurred in that room and that the sheriff now had the murder weapon. At that point, Sheriff Caughlin took the 38-caliber pistol from his pocket and showed the reporter that two shots had been fired.
So, who were Senator MD Foley and Mrs. Alice Hartley? According to records, Foley was born in 1849 in New Brunswick, Canada. At the age of 19, he traveled to the mining camp of Hamilton, Nevada, to seek his fortune. There, he prospected and worked for a stage company.
A year later, he relocated to Eureka, where he embarked on a successful career in real estate while continuing to be involved in mining. By the mid-1880s, he was a partner in thriving hardware stores in Eureka and Salt Lake City and then, in 1885, began investing in a Eureka bank. Within two years, he became president of the bank.
In 1887, he helped establish the Bank of Nevada in Reno, and starting in 1882, was elected to several terms as a state senator from Eureka. In 1890, he relocated to Reno to serve as the Bank of Nevada’s president and was elected a Washoe County state senator.
In 1883, he had married Minnie Griffen, a member of a pioneer Nevada family.
As for Hartley, she was born in England in 1864 and apparently studied art. She traveled to Northern California sometime in the mid-1880s, where she met and married a prospector named Henry Hartley.
The marriage was short-lived, with Alice Hartley separating from her husband in about 1890 (he returned to his mining in Meadow Lake and she relocated to Virginia City to paint portraits for money).
Henry Hartley, who was considerably older than his wife, died unexpectedly in November 1891. Upon his death, Alice Hartley discovered that, contrary to what she believed, he had few assets and was virtually penniless.
In September 1893, Alice Hartley had rented a studio in the Bank of Nevada’s new building in Reno and began offering art lessons and painting portraits. Shortly after, she was introduced to Senator Foley, who was immediately taken with her.
According to Lake Tahoe historian Mark McLaughlin, Foley offered to help Hartley dispose of her late husband’s mining claims. On January 13, 1894, Foley showed up at her studio unannounced and insisted she join him for a late dinner.
Hartley said she refused but agreed to share a drink with him. She claimed the Senator drugged her and she woke up the next day in bed with him.
From that point, Hartley said she refused to see Foley again and even changed her locks. However, on February 26, she came home and found him inside her studio. She said he forced himself on her before leaving.
At that point, she purchased a pistol and told the Senator she would shoot him if he ever came near her again.
In late March, Hartley discovered she was pregnant and informed Foley. He demanded she get an abortion but Hartley wanted to have the child and move to Utah. She hired an attorney to draw up legal papers establishing Foley’s financial responsibility, which he said he would sign.
On the evening of July 27, Foley admitted to Hartley that the legal papers had never been filed and the two began to argue. According to McLaughlin, Foley then picked up a heavy chair and swung it at Hartley, who grabbed her pistol and fired two shots at him, killing him.
Services for Foley were held at Reno’s Trinity Episcopal Church and attracted a large crowd that included Governor R.K. Colcord and a host of other state and local officials. His casket was escorted to its final resting place by a full military escort.
The trial lasted a few days and in spite of newspaper reports about Foley’s womanizing behavior, Hartley was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 11 years in the Nevada State Prison. She gave birth to a son two months later (in prison) and, after serving only 18 months of her sentence, the Nevada Supreme Court granted her request for a pardon.
Sadly, seven weeks later her son, named Vernon Harrison Hartley, died in Reno of scarlet fever. She had earlier sought money from Foley’s estate to support the child, but, following his death, she lost her claim.
Records indicate that after that, the distraught Hartley moved to San Francisco and, in 1899, remarried. She later appeared to suffer a nervous breakdown and died in Denver in 1908.
It was a quiet and sad end to a tumultuous life.
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