Doing some "googling", I found an article entitled,
The Shootings of Billy Jurges and Eddie Waitkus.
Approximately 17 years before Waitkus was shot, another major league
player Billy Jurges was shot by a 21-year-old Violet Popovich Valli, a
“cabaret girl” in Chicago.
According to the Chicago Daily Tribune, Billy Jurges had been “playing
brilliantly” for the Cubs prior to July 6, 1932, the day that 21-year-old Violet
Popovich Valli, a “cabaret girl,” put his career on hold for a while. They had
been seeing each other for about a year, and Valli said that Jurges was “one
in a hundred thousand. I met him at a party, and I fell hard.”
Apparently Jurges (age 24) did not share the same feelings. After he broke
off the relationship, she confronted him at his room in Chicago’s Hotel Carlos,
where several other Cubs players lived. (The hotel, just a couple of blocks
from Wrigley Field, is now called the Sheffield House, though the old name
can still be seen above the door.) The New York Times related that
Valli “made one final plea for his love” and pulled a .25 caliber pistol from her
purse. As Jurges made “a wild lunge” for it, the gun went off. One
bullet “struck him in the right side, ricocheted off a rib and came out the
right shoulder. The second ripped the flesh about the little finger of his left
hand.” The third bullet hit Valli, striking her in the left hand and traveling “up
the arm six inches.”
According to the article:
This photo appeared in newspapers on July 16, 1932. From left to right:
Herbert G. Immenhausen, defense attorney; Violet Valli; James M. Burke,
another of Valli’s attorneys; and Billy Jurges (with handkerchief to his face).
Although Jurges refused to sign a complaint, Valli signed a contract to sing in
local nightclubs, billing herself as “Violet ‘What I Did for Love’ Valli.”
From the article:
This photograph appeared in newspapers around the country on June 21,
1949. The caption in one paper reads: “Ruth Steinhagen (right) tries her
hand at first base, Eddie Waitkus’ position, in practice baseball session among
inmates at the jail. Mrs. Ann Markov, chief matron, takes the ump’s role.”
Other posed (and rather strange) photos show Steinhagen in jail admiring
photos of Waitkus.
As for the Waitkus photo, according to the article,
"With a nurse behind him, Eddie Waitkus sits in his wheelchair in a crowded
Chicago courtroom as State’s Attorney John S. Boyle (far right) gestures to
Ruth Steinhagen (far left). Standing next to Steinhagen is Deputy Bailiff
Jennie Du Bray. Behind Du Bray is Steinhagen’s attorney, Walter Steinbieber
(wearing bow tie)."
Here's the URL for the entire article:
http://jackbales.com/the-shootings-o...eddie-waitkus/