River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1890-01-09
A TRIPLE TRAGEDY.

A Resident of williamsburg, n. ", Kills
las Wife ard Child and Himself He
p ,lsons and shoots His Wife and StrsL-
giles he Little One, and After Living Ia
the House with Their Remains for Two
Days, Commits Suicide.
New YORK. Jan. 6.-In Brooklyn
Saturday the discovery was made that
Louis M. Franken, an Anarchist, had
choled his child to death. poisoned and
then shot his wife, and, when discovery
made the laws retribution certain, sent
44-caliber bullet through his heart.
Death followed instantly. For two
days and nights he had eaten and slept
alongside the decomposing bodies Of his
wife and child
1t was shortly after o'clock in the
morning that Edward Katsenstein re-
ported to the police that there was
something wrong in the little shanty at
the rear of $50 Maujer street Officers
went to the spot and raped at
the door OF the shanty, but re-
ceived no response. An officer
raised the front window and climbed
in. As he did so a maniac with matted
hair and beard and wild, rolling eyes
bounded from the rear room. In his
hand was huge revolver. II was lev
eled at the officers head Get out of
same time swapping the trigger.
The officer retreated, but pistol
shot was heard within the shanty,
and he returned. A terrible discovery
was made. In the rear room-there are
but two-lay the bodies of the suicides
wife and child. One-the wife-had
been killed by him at her own request.
The child he had strangled to death
with rope, never once needing its pit
eous cries.
The shanty in which the family lived
gave evidence that Mrs. Franken was
neat, thrifty housekeeper. She
sympathized with her husband and
when he said the entire family would be
better of dead than alive she
agreed with him, but she wanted
TO die easily. She suggested
that he poison her. With this end in
view he purchased paris green. He tells
this in one of the letters he left. Ia IL
he also says his wife died at precisely 4
o'clock Tuesday afternoon. In another
letter he says that he is insane, driven
SO by poverty and the prospect OF
never being able to better
his condition. Franken and his
wife discussed this matter calmly, and
finally agreed to 60 out of the world
together. The child, pretty blue
eyed thing, not quite years old, they
decided to take with them. The
husband and father became the
executioner Tuesday the wife lay
down upon the bed in the rear room.
She had previously cleaned up the
rooms. Her husband brought her dose
OF paris green in water. She drank it,
When she began to suffer, rolling on
the bed in intense agony, she begged
piteously for relief. Franken hurriedly
loaded his revolver and placed the muz-
zle against her right temple. Another
cry of agony from the woman and the
report of the pistol rang out simultane-
ously. Relief had come. The child
was next called into the room. 1t
had been frightened by the noise
and was crying. The father cut a
piece of clothes-line. Holding the child
in his left arm he grasped both ent.s of
the rope in his right hand. He sat on
the edge of The bed. Placing the rope
around the child's neck he drew 1t taut
Instinctively the little ones chubby
hands raised in defense of its life. But
the murderer's work went on. Tighter
and tighter the rope became. twisted by
the muscular hand of the father. The
child gasped and struggled feebly. 1t
was going fast. Tighter and tighter
was the cruel rope drawn, until 1t cut
into the yielding flesh. Tying the rope
thus, the father laid the now dead baby
beside It's mother. Here the coward
in Franken manifested itself. He
failed to carry out the contract, for he
did not kill himself. Since Tuesday
night he had remained in the rooms
with his murdered wife and child. The
last time he was seen by any OF his
neighbors was Tuesday. He cooked
his own meals and lived alone with
DEATH