First of all, I’d like to mention for the record that, although Scott agrees with me that Sam’s second wife Sadie Wilson, and gun-slinging prostitute Kate “Kitty” Blonger, are likely the same person, he cautions, correctly, that this is not the only possible conclusion. But at present it remains the most obvious one.
Which brings us to Deputy US Marshal Edwin H. Davis. You may recall that we finally connected Kate and Sadie on the following basis: 1) after divorcing Sam in 1893, Sadie quickly married barkeep Henry J. Domedion; and 2) while transporting a prisoner from Denver to New York that same year, Marshal Davis was reportedly accompanied by a woman known in Denver as both as Kate Blonger AND Mrs. Hank Domedion.
Our knowledge of either woman is scant. We have some colorful details about Kitty’s murder trial in 1882, but not much else of a personal nature. We know even less about Sadie, except that she divorced Sam after just four years, having suffered months of physical abuse at his hands. And, of course, her later liaison with Marshal Davis.
WIFE FEARS THAT FORMER MARSHAL WILL MURDER HER
Fast-forward to 1907. Sadie has been married to Marshal Davis for about a year, after “a courtship extending over nine years” (and making her, at the very least, Mrs. Sadie/Kate/Kitty “maiden name” “Blonger” Wilson Blonger Domedion Davis). She is noted as the “proprietress of the Claire hotel, 1641 Arapahoe street.” The context suggests she is still in the brothel business.
Davis, it seems, had returned from a trip and confronted his wife at the Claire, threatening to kill her and all her “friends.” What’s more, he “applied opprobrious epithets to her.” Now Sadie wants a divorce and a restraining order.
All told, it sounds like it sucked to be her. Taking a few liberties, I would describe it thus: Kitty was a prostitute under Sam and Lou’s protection in 1882, and perhaps prior. Maybe after, as well.
In 1888, while working at Somerset’s in Peach Springs, Arizona, Kitty shot Charles Hill when he busted in on her with another client. She was tried, and acquited.
Then, in 1889, Sam divorced his first wife and immediately took Kitty as his bride. By that time she was referred to as Mrs. Sadie Wilson.
In May of 1893, Sadie divorced Sam after a series of brutal beatings, claiming a longstanding pattern of abuse. In October of the same year, she was seen traveling with Marshal Davis. At this time she was already being referred to as Mrs. Hank Domedion, and noted as running a “rooming house.”
By 1906 they were calling it a “hotel.” That year, after a “nine year” courtship, she married Davis. And within a year, Davis was ready to commit mass murder.