The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1882-01-26
MAssACRED.

An Insane Farmer Murders His Mother,
Wife, and 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, a well-to-do farmer, laboring
under the hallucination that himself and fam
ily were verging upon starvation, with an Ak
murdered his mother, aged eighty-nine years,
bis 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
Coroner's inquest are, in substance, as follows:
Miss Alice Calvin, who has been in the employ
of the family, testified that the night beforethe
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
ha in anr1fan or vvif1 Nc
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 ovei
the yard fence, then turned toward the barn
The boy continued running until he hai
aroused some Of the nearest neighbors, who
hastily repaired to the scene. None we're bold
| enough to enter the house until daylight re
vealed the dead body dressed only in shirt ant
drawers Of James R. Wilmot swinging under tht
shed Of the barn. He had taken plow line
fastened it around his neck, climbed up the sidi
of the crib, fastened the other end to beam
or joist, under the shed and then jumped OF
| The hanging was carefully done, and showed
determination to avoid failure. A few day
prior to the tragedy Wllmot talked rathe
strangely to his family, saying the stock wa
all going to die, and himself and family, also
of starvation. Two or three times he ex
pressed fear of death from starvation, ant
setting under this hallucination it is believe,
that he rose from his bed, took the ak, an,
with a single stroke to each of his daughters
struck them dead in their beds, they neve
knowing from whence the blows came
The dead bodies of the girls were lying upol
the bed, each with q horrible deep cash in tn
breast made with q single blow Of the az Hi
wife, no doubt, was awakened, and, gettin
out Of bed, attempted to restrain him, but wa
knocked down and terribly mutilated. 81
then went into the adjoining room, and ther,
raising the bloody Ak, sunk it deep into the breas
hat had nurtured him in infancy, takinl
Lway from her that she had given him-life
Wilcot owned farm of about $50 acres, OF
which he lived. He was in good circumstances
being worth 90, 900 or $4,000, and it seem
strange that he should have been SO worries
over a small debt of $400. He had been kim
md affectionate to his family, and to his ol,
mother he was the most devoted of SONS.