Harmon’s Histories: Love triangle ends in Plains murder, national uproar

By Jim Harmon

The headline read, “Wild infatuation revealed by Plains tragedy.” The story was as old as the ages - a love triangle, but with a twist - in the small northwest Montana town, back in 1925.

Normally, it’s the man dallying about with two women, with neither woman knowing of the other.

In this case, the reverse was true: “Both women (one married, one divorced) were apparently infatuated with the same (younger) man,” according to reports in the Daily Missoulian - and they knew each other.

Mrs. Clyde Long, age 36, had been a Plains resident for about a decade. News reports indicated she’d operated the Windsor hotel for a time, and lived down by the river.

She had known the younger man, 22-year-old George Gunther, for a number of years, when he had roomed at the Windsor hotel.

Gunther left Plains for a short time, moving to St. Maries, Idaho, where he became acquainted with a young divorcée, of his own age, Mrs. Ora Pierce.

Of course, men being men, the young fellow involved in this love triangle displayed no qualms with multiple suitors tripping over themselves for his affection.

When Gunther returned to Plains, he again roomed at the Windsor hotel. Mrs. Long decided to snoop about his room one day, and discovered letters written to him by Mrs. Ora Pierce. Obviously, she was anything but pleased at the discovery but decided to act nicely.

She invited the younger woman “to come to Plains for a visit.” Mrs. Pierce accepted the invitation, arriving about February 5, 1925.

A week later, Gunther invited the two women to dinner at a Plains restaurant, following which he dropped the pair at Mrs. Long’s home. What happened the next morning made it clear Mrs. Long had had enough of this “triangle.”

Press accounts summed this way: “About 9 o’clock it is said, she arose, went to a drawer and secured her revolver. She then crept into the room where her guest was asleep. Holding the muzzle of the weapon close to the back of her friend’s head, she pulled the trigger.” Mrs. Pierce was killed instantly.

(Note: My nationwide search for any press photo of Ora Pierce was unsuccessful)

What happened next? Did she call a neighbor? Did she summon police? Well...no.

It seems the night before, Mrs. Long had asked her young lover to visit her home the next morning. While she awaited his arrival, “She went to the kitchen and prepared breakfast for herself and her little adopted daughter.”

Then she penned “a note to the young man involved and, as he approached the house, she turned the gun on herself.”

The bullet from a “32-caliber revolver entered her body below the heart and it is believed to have punctured her lung.”

She was rushed “to the home of Dr. D. H. Billmeyer, who “pronounced her wound dangerous,” and made arrangements for her transfer to Thornton hospital in Missoula.

Mr. Clyde Long, her husband, was notified of the shooting and rushed back from Dixon, where he was a cook at a logging camp.

But Mrs. Long surprised everyone, making a miraculous and rapid recovery. Concerned she might make another attempt at suicide, guards were posted at the hospital.

Then the story took another strange turn. She declared from her hospital bed that she had shot “in self defense,” alleging she was just trying to protect the life of the baby.

“Half sitting and half reclining in her hospital bed,” she told a Missoulian reporter, “I shot her (Mrs. Ora Pierce) in self defense. She tried to kill me first.” A coroner’s jury disagreed, charging Mrs. Long with first-degree murder.

The news reports of the shooting generated headlines from Rapid City, South Dakota to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and from Biloxi, Mississippi to Los Angeles.

Stay tuned for the conclusion of our story next week!