The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1882-01-26
MASSACRED.

An Insane Farmer Murders His Mother,
Wife, aud Two Daughters, and Then
Commits suicide.
From Lancaster, Gerard County, Kentucky,
comes the news of perhaps one Of the most
horrible tragedies ever enacted in the State.
Jas. r. Wilmot, well-to-do farmer, laboring
under the hallucination that himself and fam
ly were verging upon starvation, with an Ak
murdered his mother, aged eighty-nine years,
his two daughters aged nineteen and fifteen
years, and his wife, after which he went to an
adjoining out building and hanged himself with
leather line. The details cleaned at the
Coroners inquest are, in substance, as follows:
Miss Alice Calvin, who has been in the employ
Of the family, testified that the night before the
tragedy the family retired at the usual hour,
Wilmot, his wife, and little boy about
eight years of age occupying one bed
In the family room, and his two dangh-
ters another in the same room. In the ad-
joining room slept the mans aged mother, and
In one room upstairs son, Jas. J. Wilmot,
and in the other the witness. About five
O'Clock In the morning she was awakened by
some noise below, and going down met Wilmot
coming out of the room where his mother
slept. 1t was too dark for her to see any of
the objects distinctly, but she noticed some
thing in his hand, and supposed it to be an
Ak. She asked Wilmot what he was doing.
He replied that he had killed the whole family,
and was going to kill himself. Horror
stricken, the young girl rushed through the
other room, and meeting the young boy, caught
him and took him out of the house with
her, and went to house near by. Just as she
was leaving the family room, the older son, Jas.
J., who is about twenty years old, attracted by
the noise below, came down stairs in his night
clothes.
He testified that as he reached the foot of
the stairs, he came in contact with his
father, who had . gun in his hand. He
asked him what he WAS doing, and his father
replied that he was going to kill himself, and
would kill him too. Instantly his father grap-
pied with him and threw him down, but was
unable to hold him. The old man rose, grabbed
the gun, aimed to shoot, but his son knocked
1t up and the ball went into the ceiling. The
young man then broke loose and ran for his life,
the old man following him to the steps over
the yard fence, then turned toward the barn.
The boy continued running until he had
aroused some of the nearest neighbors, who
hastily repaired to the scene. None were bold
enough to enter the house until daylight re-
vealed the dead body dressed only in shirt and
drawers OF James R. Wilmot swinging under the
shed OF the barn. He had taken a plow line,
fastened it around his neck, climbed up the side
OF the crib, fastened the other end to beam,
or joist, under the shed and then jumped or
The hanging was carefully done, and showed q
determination to avoid failure. few days
prior to the tragedy Wllmot talked rather
strangely to his family, saying the stock was
| all going to die, and himself and family, also,
OF starvation. Two or three times he ex-
pressed fear Of death from starvation, and
acting under this hallucination it is believed
that he rose from his bed, took the AZ, and
with q single stroke to each of his daughters.
struck them dead in their beds, they never
knowing from whence the blows came.
The dead bodies Of the girls were lying upon
the bed, each with horrible deep cash in the
breast made with q single blow Of the ak. His
wife, no doubt, was awakened, and, getting
put OF bed, attempted to restrain him, but was
Knocked down and terribly mutilated. He
then went into the adjoining room, and there
raising the bloody AZ sunk 1t deep into the breast
hat had nurtured him in infancy, taking
AWAY from her that she had given him-life
Wilcot owned q farm OF about $50 acres, on
which he lived. He was in good circumstances,
being worth 5000 or S10, 600, and it seems
strange that he should have been 80 worried
,ver q small debt of $400. He had been kind
tnd ahectionate to his family, and to his old
mother he was the most devoted Of sons.