Despite the weak water supply, the hose burst and firemen could do little else but watch the old Sunnyside Inn be consumed by flames. The initial small blaze had started in the kitchen of the establishment and the owner, Jacob Kulz, thought he could subdue it with his garden hose. Before long, the ten guests staying there had run out into the street for their own safety. Completely destroyed that day of Sept. 5, 1928, a loss valued at $50,000, the Sunnyside Inn turned its secrets into smoke.

The hotel, located on Old Killingly Road in Johnston, was opened in 1901 by Rufus Joseph Fellows, a 41-year-old from Mass. who had been in the hotel business most of his adult life. Prior to that venture, he had run the Greek Tavern on Hartford Avenue, where he was licensed to sell “pure, spirituous, intoxicating and malt liquors.”

Rufus and his wife, Mary Jane (Morrison), resided at Sunnyside with their boarders and a host of maids, servants and a Portuguese cook. By 1918, however, the 49-year-old Mary Jane had grown tired of what she called “slaving” at the inn and considered her life nothing but a long stretch of drudgery. She asked Rufus for a divorce, freeing her from her 28-year marital obligations, and he obliged.

The couple remained on friendly terms and even continued to go away on vacations together. Mary Jane took a room at the inn and still assisted with some of the work there. In Jan. of 1921, she and her ex-husband took a trip to New York, returning to the inn at about 7:00 on the evening of Jan. 7. Around midnight, she retired to her room. A few minutes later, Rufus joined her and they talked for a little while before he departed for his own room, directly across the hall.

Before going to bed, Rufus flipped the switch that extinguished all the lights in the inn, veiling the establishment in darkness. Mary Jane reached up and pulled the pins from her hair. She later testified that, as she laid them upon the bedside table, her fingers touched something. Rufus had left his revolver on the table. He kept it with him at all times owing to the fact that he carried unusually large amounts of money with him. According to Mary Jane, she knew he would want it beside him, so she picked up the gun and started toward his room.

She would later tell the court that, in the darkness, she groped her way across the hall with her arms outstretched, feeling for obstructions. Allegedly, she stumbled against the small table beside his open door and then saw a flash and heard a bang. She screamed just before hearing Rufus cry out, “I’ve been shot.”

Mary Jane went to the telephone and contacted police, telling them to come quickly and to send a doctor. Several officers responded to the scene, arriving about an hour after the incident. Mary Jane refused to answer questions, stating, “I shot him. I will explain in court.”

When the officers learned that the firearm had been in her hands when it went off, they arrested her and transported her to the police station. On a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to kill, she was held for trial. Refusing to pay the $5,000 bail, she explained she would rather go to jail.

Rufus told police that his ex-wife had come into his room and deliberately fired a single shot at him after he refused to admit to her that he’d previously had another woman in his bedroom. He stated that he had been asleep for about two hours when she entered. The police arrived at the home at 2:30, one hour after the shooting and Rufus did not go into his own room until after midnight so, in reality, he could not have been asleep for more than an hour or so. He said that the gun had been left in the hallway closet.

Rufus was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital where doctors were uncertain about his odds of recovering. He immediately contacted his attorney and had his will rewritten that morning. Mary Jane had been the beneficiary of nearly everything he owned and he wanted to make sure she received none of it. Under the new will, all of his real estate and personal property, valued at $40,000 would go to his nephew and two sisters. On the evening of Jan. 14, Rufus died at the hospital from a blood infection set off by the gunshot wound in his mouth. The charge against Mary Jane was changed to that of murder.

The trial began at 11:00 on May 18. The police chief testified that, after he arrived at the scene, he heard Rufus accuse Mary Jane of shooting him due to jealousy, and that Mary Jane had replied, “How are you going to prove it? My word is as good as yours."

The prosecution also called the inn’s manager and future owner, Jacob Kulz, to address the jealousy theory. Jacob testified that he had heard conversations between the couple which indicated that Rufus wanted to be free of Mary Jane so that he could marry another woman. He stated that he also heard Mary Jane tell Rufus that unless he honored his agreement to remarry her, she would no longer perform any more work at the inn. Jacob said that Rufus had previously told him that he intended to remarry his ex-wife.

When Rufus’s 13-year-old nephew, George Morrison, entered the courtroom, Mary Jane called him over to the table where she sat and asked him what he was doing there. He explained to her that he had been called as a witness. “It’s too bad to get a little boy like you into court,” she replied.

George had been at the inn with his mother on the night of the shooting. He testified that Rufus had shown him the injury to his mouth that evening and said to him, “See what your aunt has done?”

The prosecution produced the gun. Demonstrating how a considerable amount of pulling was necessary in order to throw the firing pin against the cartridges, making the easy export of a bullet unbelievable, the prosecuting attorney asked the jury, “See how hard it is to pull that trigger?”

Mary Jane’s attorney maintained that the shooting was an accident. He explained that the couple was on friendly terms, had plans to travel to Cuba together in Feb., and intended to remarry. He told the jury that Mary Jane had no knowledge of any other women being in Rufus’s life. On May 19 at 3:00, the jury returned with their verdict after having been out for only an hour and four minutes. They found Mary Jane not guilty and she was set free.

Kelly Sullivan is a Rhode Island columnist, lecturer and author.