Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1882-09-28
AN ERA OF PARRICIDEs.
The FsFmIdabIs List Already Heportea
In 1852.

The cosyiction of boy twelve years
old OF numbering his father in Missouri
recalls rather formidable list of par.
rioides this year, and it further raises
the question OF the propriety of hang.
irg a child. Pomeroy, the youthful
Boston fend, escaped the gAllows mar
rowly on account Of his years, but as
there was little doubt in his case that
he was brute in human form, freak
Of nature that could hardly be called
human without straining language, it
isn't clear that there was any reason for
e1empting him. II he were really more
animal than human, ss those who
pleaded for his life claimed, the fact
was rather for treating him like 4 mad
dog than for extending unusual elem
ency to him. The Missouri parricide is
also represented 10 be so peculiarly
bad that he ought not to be hanged;
but il he is so much more diabolical
than other very bad boys, ii is evident
that he is not the sort Of youth TO raise.
Conviction in this case has fol.
lowed quickly on the crime.
On the 9th of July Guy
Smith, boy OF twelve years Of age, OF
Kirkwood, No., having been punished
by his father for fighting with his
brother, got revolver and shot his
tsther, Milton Smith. Hc has been
tried and convicted Of murder. There
have been severai cases of the most de.
libcrAte and cold-blooded parricjdes, in
some OF which cases the criminals were
OF tender years, though in most they
bad reached semi-malurity at least. In
January last a protracted quarrel be-
tween a man named Smith, in Richmond,
Ind, and bis wife and two sons culmi-
mated in his being shot by his son Dan,
/ aged nineteen, after which Dan and an
older brother threw the body into the
we'll. The wife and mother was a party
TO the affair and locked up the smaller
children, 30 that they would be out OF
The way when the cnme was committed.
The son who did the shooting got life
sentence in the penitentiary. All the
criminals were very hardened, and con.
iessions we're readily extracted from
them. In February Solomon Richards,
OF Charlton, Mass, was shot and killed
by his son, young married
man. The murderer claimed
that his father had abused
his mother. There was some evidence
that he shot bis father 70 get possession
Of the farm. On the 18th OF the month
James q. Allison vas hanged at Indiana,
Penn, for the deliberate murder of his
father two years before. The father and
mother were on bad terms, and the son
sided with bis mother. and had long
entertained q bitter hatred against his
father on his own account. He was
/ thirty when executed. Later in The
month Charles b. Gillem, aged seven.
/ teen, shot his invalid mother in her bed.
Having had dispute with her, he went
into another room, got a pistol and
killed her, and when arrested manifested
/ no remorse. This occurred in Macomb
county, Ohio. In the same month
February was productive OF pArricides-
John LAnaha, who lived twenty miles
from Rock Rapids, Iowa, was shot by
his daughter. aged twenty. The girls
lover, 10 whom the father objected, fur
nished her with the pistol, and her
mother and younger sister were in the
plot. They had been intending
10 kill John since last November,
hut neither the wife nor the younger
daughter could muster up courage to
do IT, 30 they sent for the older girl,
who was away, 20 come home and do
the bloody work. The family com.
planned that John LAnaha was cross and
did not provide we'll for his family. A
somewhat similar crime occurred in
May in the same State, near Muscatine.
In this case . man named McMenomon
was shot by his young son, his two
daughters. both young, being parties
to the crime. They said they wanted
To have things their own way at home
and they couldn't so long a. the father
lived. They planned that the young
est sister should confess that she killed
her father, their idea being that her
sex and age would shield her from
severe punishment, and 30 all would
escape. But the plot fell through. On
the 4th of July Frank DAgon, of Har.
winton, Conn, pushed his father back
yard, breaking his neck, because he
was not allowed 10 take the horse and
20 10 ride. II Is worth noticing that
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