100 years ago in Wallace: Former mayor lashes out at wife’s lover

From our archives, 100 years ago

Herman J. Rossi, the former mayor of Wallace, spent years trying to cure his young wife, Mabel, of alcoholism, according to his defense attorney at his murder trial. Rossi took her to various spas to “have her treated and have the liquor boiled out.” He even hired a nurse to stay with her at all times.

It was the nurse who informed him, when he came home from a business trip, that Mrs. Rossi had been on a several-days bender and that Clarence Dahlquist had been in bed with her.

Rossi went upstairs and found her in a negligee, either drunk or hung over. He also found that she had been “bitten on the head, neck and body.” He threatened to toss her out on the street, but the nurse intervened and locked him out of the room.

Instead, he went into a “daze.” When he snapped out of it it, he went in search of Dahlquist. He found him in a Wallace hotel and confronted him. A female acquaintance in the lobby implored, “Please don’t shoot, Mr. Rossi, or do something you will be sorry for.” He failed to heed this advice.

Rossi’s attorney was attempting to establish an insanity defense. He said Rossi loved Mabel deeply and had spent 10 years desperately trying to reclaim her from her “slavery to strong drink.” The attorney concluded by saying that “under these conditions a man has no control of his will and was not responsible for what he did.”

The state was expected to call a large number of witnesses in rebuttal.