Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1897-10-01
F|EAO Or MADMAN I?
An Iowa Farmers Deed Leave.
The Question In Doubt.
KILLED HIS WIFE AND
CHILDREN.

/ CQlLDhEN.
After Completing His Horrible
Work he Took Els Own Life.
| The slaughter Of a mothel
and her six children occurred a
the home of John Boecker,
farmer living eight miles north
west of Carroll. Iowa, Sunday
night. Afterward the hendisi
or demented husband and fatker
at whose hands they died, COM
pleted his bloody work by send
ing bullet into his own head
inficting a fatal wound. The
family were prosperous Ger
| mans and as far as Is known
lived happily. No motive fol-
the tragedy has been disclosed
Boecker's victims are his wife
and these children Caroline
aged ID S.; Christine, aged 9 Hen
ry, aged 8 Lizzie, aged s; John.
aged ) an infant.
Boecker had an engagement to
help a neighbor thresh. and on
his not putting in an appear>
ance, his brother Henry, who
Lives about 20 rods away, went
about J o'clock to see why he
did not come. The doors of the
Boecker house were locked and
there we're no signs Of life about.
Henry tried to get in the house,
put met no response, and finally
he kicked open the door and
came upon a horrible scene.
Boecker, with his wife and baby,
slept in a back room, and the
three corpses lay On a bed. The
wife had been shot In the neck
with a shot gun, which stood in
the corner the baby had been
shot and its head crushed with
the butt of a revolver. The
man, still breathing, a bullet
hole high up on the forehead
land by bis side was a Smith &
kWesson six shooter, with two
|chamb bers empty. The Boecke1
home is a story and halt frame
lhouse and up stairs Henry ane
Lizzie lay on bed with bulle'
holes in the forehead. the latte,
dead. the boy still breathing
In the opposite corner of th'
same room Caroline, Christine
and John were dead, each with
a bullet hole in the forehead
though Caroline had two,
The indications are tina
Boecker first dispatched his wife
with a shot gun then used The
baby, first shooting it and ther
knocking its brains out with til.
butt. Boecker then went VI
lstairs where the five ,childrer
were sleeping and killed them
He must have used a light, fo:
his aim was effective, each vic
ltim being shot in the forehead
lAll but two children met will
instant death. for the blood clot
lwere under their heads, and twt
of them lay as calmly ,eposed a
Eif in sleep. Boecker had re
tloadcd the weapon while VI
stairs, and evidently sent th'
Isecond bullet into the eldes
Igirl's brain just before leaving
the room. Going down stair
The stretched himself beside th'
lcorpse of his wife and shot him
self. Hisright hand was burne'
|by the powder, showing th
rapid use of the revolver. Th
weapon he had borrowed from
This brother Henry. remarkin,
ltbat he wanted it to kill rats il
1.-THE cellar. He afterwards prac
lticed at target shooting with il
IBoecker was thirty-four year
Told, and for over twenty year
lived in the same neighborhoot
lin fact, on the same farm.t II
Twas married eleven years agt
land after living a year with hi
lparents. moved to the scene {
tthe tragedy, which is almo:
Iwithin hailing distance of hi
[old home. He has been re
lgarded as a prosperous farme
and had only recently bought
2oo acre farm a few miles fro,
Ibis old homestead. The famil
fwere visited on the fatal ever
ling by a neighbor, who sa,
Ithey seemed to be happy. Men
lbers Of his fathers family sa
lhe had no family troubles, b
financial affairs were in goo
Eshape, and they can assign i
!motive for the terrible crime.