Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1897-10-02
AN AWFUL TRAGEDY.
A Happy Home Transformed Into
a Slaughter Pen.
A Family OF Eight Persons Killed, Seven OF
Them at the Hands OF Demented IIus-
band and Father, Who Then Delib-
erately Takes His Own Life.

NAhhobi' iu., AoSPp. 90. Hc SiduBu-
ter of mother and her six children
occurred ut the home Of John Boecker,
a farmer, living eight miles northwest
of here Sunday night. Afterward the
fiendish, or demented husband and
father, at whose hands they died. COM
pleted his bloody work by sending a
bullet into his own head, intlicting
fatal wound. The family were pros
porous Germans, and as far as is known !
lived happily. No motive for the
tragedy has been disclosed Boecker's
victims are his wife and these chill
dren: Caroline, aged IA; Christine,
aged o.; Henry, aged s; Lizzie, aged s;
John, aged 3, and an infant. All are
dead but Henry, anu the latter cannot
recover from his wounds.
Boecker had an engagement to help
neighbor thresh yesterday morning,
and on his not putting in an appear
ance, his brother Henry, who lives
about 20 rods away, went about nine
O'Clock to sec why he did not come.
| The doors of the Boecker house were
locked and there were no signs of life
about. Henry tried to get in the
| house, but met NO response,
and finally kicking in the door
came upon horrible scene. Boecker
with his wife and baby, slept in back
room, and the three bodies lay on one
bed. The wife had been shot in the
neck with shotgun, which stood in
the corner; the baby had been shot
and its head crushed with the butt of
revolver. The man, Still breathing,
had a bullet hole high up on the fore
head and by his side was II six-shoot-
er with two chambers empty.
The Boeclier home is a story and-a-
half frame house, and upstairs Henry
and Lizzie lay on a bed with bullet
holes III their toreheads, the latter
dead, the boy still breathing. In the
opposite corner of the same room Caro-
line, Christine and John were dead,
each with Il bullet hole in the fore
head, though Caroline had two.
| Late yesterday afternoon the bodies
were still untouched, the sheriff and
coroner being occupied in arranging
for theinquest and other preliminaries.
The inquiry will be pushed to-day by
the coroner's jury.
1t is undoubtedly case of murder
and suicide. The indications are that
Boecker first dispatched his wife with
the shot gun, shooting her in the neck,
then used the revolver on the baby,
first shooting it and then knocking out
its brains with the butt. Boecker then
went upstairs where the five children
were sleeping and killed them. lie
must have used ii light, for his aim was
effective, each victim being shot in the
forehead. All but two children met
with instant death, for the blood clots
were under their heads, and they lay
as calmly reposed as if in sleep. All
except Henry, who is not yet dead,
were attired in night robes. Boecker
had reloaded the weapon while up
stairs and evidently sent the second
bullet into the oldest girls brain just
before leaving the room.
Going downstairs, he stretched him
self beside the corpse Of his wife and
shot himself. His right hand was
burned by the powder, showing the
rapid use of the revolver. The weapon
he had borrowed from his brother
Henry last Thursday, remarking that
he wanted it to kill rats in the cellar.
1t is now recalled that Boeclier had
since then practiced target shooting
with it.
Boecser was oI years old, and for
over % years lived in the same neigh
borhood-in fact, on the same farm.
He has been regarded as a pros
porous farmer, and only recently
bought II 2)J-acre farm few miles
from the old homestead. On Sun
day he attended Catholic services at
Breda with his wife and some of the
children. Later in the day he was
visited by neighbor who says that
when he left the Boecker home in the
evening they were seemingly happy
| IulHiiy anu Ho1 pIchohioioh VI Vhc
awful tragedy to be enacted few
hours later was given by Boeckcr or
anyone of the household. The mem
bers of his fathers family say he had
no family troubles, his financial af-
fairs were in good shape and they can
assign no motive for the terrible crime.
On the other hand it is said that
John had disagreed with the old folks
and Henry over the occupancy of the
farm on which John lived, and this is
assigned by some as the cause OF the
trouble which eliminated in murder
and suicide. The family arc Germans
and hiohlv respected citlZeus,