Finally, late that night, Wayne came home. As he walked through the door of his house, Baur (shown above) drew a pistol and fired at him. She missed, but with better aim or a drink or two less in her, she could have executed the Duke at the prime of his career. There's something perversely poetic about her attack following the wrap of "Angel and the Badman," a film about a gunslinger who changes his ways for the love of a peaceful Quaker girl (per IMDb).
It must have been rather a shock to Wayne, but not terribly surprising. According to Classic Country Music, Wayne described his marriage to Baur as being "like shaking two volatile chemicals in a jar." Nor was Baur's jealousy particularly unfounded. Whatever his relationship with Russell — and it may have been purely professional and chaste — Wayne had a wandering eye. He may have met Baur in 1945 while still married to his first wife, Josephine Saenz (the sources disagree). He married Baur in January of 1946, according to The New York Times. That's an infidelity, a divorce, a marriage, an alleged infidelity, and a murder attempt in under two years.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunCEmHJpbmpfn7ypuoywmLKmlWLEor%2BMqKWcnV2Wua670q1kpq2imbKzscNmmbJlmJ7AbsPIn5xo