River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1883-02-08
A MODERN ABRAHAM.
The Sacrifcial Murder OF Caiifor
MIA Boy by His Father.

The sacrificial Murder OF a Caiifor
MIA Boy by His Father.
From the Los Angeles Herald.
Mrs John Smith, the wife of the in
human fend who butchered his thirteen
year-old son near Westminster on the
4th of this month, was brought to this
city on Wednesday last and placed in
Jail to await her trial as accomplice to
the murder OF her eldest child. The
woman in personal appearance isnot un-
prepossessing, and there is nothing in
her face to denote absence of the moth
erly instincts of which she has shown
herself to be utterly devoid. As she en-
tered the room bearing in her arms a
pale, and siellly looking infant, the re-
porter saw before him woman small in
statute, with round face She was
scantily clad in an old dress, which
seemed but the mockery of an attempt
to keep off the cold gusts which now and
then came sweeping through the Jail
yard. 4 scrap of a shawl, gathered close
" around her frail form and that Of her
crying babe, added meagerly to her ply
steal comfort and formed but another
line in picture which, had 1t not been
for her Surroundings would have been an
pressively sad one.
During the interview, which is in sub
stance reproduced below, she would
from time to time, look up into the re-
porters face with the flash of desperation
in her eyes, and at other times the tears
would well up from long-unused springs
and food the face and choke the sound
of her voice. Her whole story seemed
TO be sincere; there was no effort at dis
stimulation or assembling.
Mrs Smith, you are here to answer
the charge of assisting in the murder of
your own son. Have you any objections
to stating to me what impelled you to
this act?"
II had nothing to do with it, sir. If l
could have prevented it | would. My
husband told me about an hour before
he did it that the Lord demanded q
sacrifice of us and that our boy had to
die ] begged him to spare my boy.
cried and begged him to consider what
lie was about to, but all the answer he
made me was that Jesus Christ had died
for US, and the Lord had told him that
our son had to die for his sake. He
called my boy out of the house and told
him that he had to die for our Saviour.
handed him to starve and Josiah told
him eyes" Then the little fellow knelt
down and ! knelt down by his side and
his father stood up. He raised the
knife, looked hard into the bows face
and then drove the knife into his breast.
On, it was awful, once it was doneW
"What do you mean? DO you mean
t0 say that the shaving of one of your
children did not seem awful to your"
mo; / felt bad little, but when ne
told me that he was going to do it did
not seem TO me so terrible. 1t was only
when / saw the hoy fall over and great
stream of blood squirting from his body
that | felt how terrible it all was"
Had your husband ever been a relig-
i5us man? Had he ever shown any symp-
toms of religious Insanity
No, sir. lie was not religious man.
lie believed in God, but did not follow
lny religion lie took to reading the
Bible a great deal a few, weeks before
all this happened and used often to read
me all that they say in the Bible about
the sacrifice to the Lord. | begged him
not to read them so much, but they
seemed to have a terrible fascination for
him, he weuld read over and over again
about the Lord commanding Abraham
10 sacrifice his son Isaac and how He
sent a ram to be the victim. He got to
talking to his old father, who is now
seventy eight years old, and he said to
him: II am tie Lord" His old father
argued with him when he saw the way
lie was going. but it was of no use; and
my husband would go OH saying 10 him
hat he had God in him"
"How long have you been married TO
this man? las lac been good husband
to your
This coming December win be six
teen years. | have no com plant to make
against him, for he has been as good a
husband to me as woman could want.
He was always kind to al of US, and
did all that he could to feep us from
want. But Just before he did it he said
that we must all fast and that he would
not let us eat anything. The boy asked
hun frequently if God had ordered us
all 10 starve and he always said He had
II it had not been that my head was
sort Of dazed ard if the boy had not
given in at once, | might have prevent
ed the killing though he was mighty
bent on it."
Glow did your husbands talk on this
subject of sacrifice affect your"
"Well, | used to ieel that if the Lord
commanded me to starye or kill people,
| would not do it. But, when he would
talk TO me and persuade me that good
WIFE should think as her husband did, /
got so as TO think that what he did must
be right"
"Do You ever think of your murdered
child?"
ooh, yes, sir; often DO. am always
thinking of him, and | can hear him at
all times asking so to be brought in and
laid on his bed, and begging for little
water before he died. / have his face
before me all the time, and hear his
voice in my ears day and night"
The woman continued with heart
rending details of the boys conversations
With his father and his numerous at
tempts to make his father go back to fish
ing after he had given it up. She pic
tured in her graphic but ilIiterate way
the sickening details other child's death.
During the course of her narrative deep
sobs would interrupt her story, bnt they
seemed to be more the results of emo
tional excitement than any natural grief
Of bereaved mother.