The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-28
A FATHERS FIENDISH CRIME.
HE BATTLES IN THE BLOOD OF HIS
INNOCENT FAMILY.

Actuated by No Apparent Motive an
Iowa Farmer Kills His Wife, Six
Children and Then, Lying on His
BlOOdstained Bed Puts "A Bullet
Through His Own Brnin-The Deed
Evidently Long in Contemplation.
The Man Was Well to Do and Had
No Troubles.
Carroll, Ia, Sept 27.-The slaughter of
mother and her six children occurred
at the home of John Blocker, a farmer
living eight miles northwest of here, last
night.
Afterward, the fiendsh or demented
husband and father, at whose hands they
died, completed his bloody work by send
bullet into his own head. inlicting a
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 children: Caroline,
aged a. Christine, aged 8; Henry, aged s.;
Lizzie. aged 6; John, aged 8, and an in
FAINT
NNtaNA
recover from his wounds.
Blocker had an engagement to help a
neighbor thre,h this morning, and on his
not putting in an appearance, his brother
Henry. who lives about twenty rods away,
went about O'Clock to see why he did not
come The doors of the Boecker house
were locked and there were no signs of life
In,
but met no response, and finally he kicked
in 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 shotgun, which stood in the
corner, the baby had been shot and it's
head crushed with the butt OF a revolver
The man, still breathing, had a bullet hole
high up on the forehead, and by his side
was a Smith & Wesson slx-shooter, with
two chambers empty.
The Boecker home is a story and a half
frame house and up stairs, Henry and
Lizzie lay on a bed with bullet holes in
their forehead, the latter dead, the boy
still breathing. In the opposite corner of
John were dead, each with a bullet hole in
the forehead, though Caroline had two.
Late this afternoon the bodies were still
untouched, the sheriff and coroner being
occupied in arranging for the inquest and
other preiminaries. The inquiry will be
| pushed tomorrow by the coroners jury.
1t is undoubtedly a case of murder and
suicide. The indications are that Boecker
first dispatched his wife with the shot
gun, 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. He must have
used a 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 two 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
upstairs and evidently sent the second
bullet into the oldest girls brain, just
before leaving the room. Going down
stairs he stretched himself 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.
since then practiced target shooting with
it. Boecker was "a years old and for over
twenty years lived in the same neighbor-
hood in fact, on the same farm. He was
married eleven years ago, and after living
a year with his parents, moved to the scene
of last nights tragedy, which Is almost
within hailing distance of the cd home.
He had been regarded as a prosperous
farmer and only recently bought a 200
acre farm a few miles from the old home
stead.
Yesterday he attended Catholic services
at Breda with his wife and some Of the
children. Later in the day he was visited
by a neighbor who says that when he
left the. Boecker home in the evening
they were seemingly a happy family. and
not q premontion of the awful tragedy
enacted few hours later was given by
Boecker or any one of the household
Members 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 were Germans and highly
racpaafe1 atffzone