The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1897-09-28
WHOLE FAMILY SLAM
The Awful Crime Of a Prosperous
Iowa Farmer.
SHOT SEVEN AND THEN HIMSELF.

Only One of His Victims, an Blight
Year old Boy, Escaped Instant Death
and He Cannot Survive His wounds.
A FrightfuI Butchery.
Carroll, Ia, Sept. 2s.-Jobn Boecker
a farmer living eight miles from this
place, Sunday night murdered his wife
and five children and fatally wounded
his S-year-old son, Henry. Afterward
the hendish or demented man sent a
bullet into his own head, innicting 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. Boeck-
ers victims are his wife and these chill
dren: Caroline, aged IA; Christine, aged
8; Henry, aged s; Lizzie, aged G; John
aged 3, and an infant. Henry cannot
recover from his wounds.
Blocker had an engagement to help
a neighbor thresh yesterday morning,
and on his not putting in an appear
ance his brother Henry went about 8
o'clock to see why he did not come The
doors of the Boecker house We're locked
and there were no signs of life about
Henry tried to get into the house, but
met no resistance, and finally he kicked
in the door and came upon the hor-
rible 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 revolver. The man.
still breathing, had a bullet hole in the
forehead and by his side was a six
shooter with two chambers empty. The
Becker home is a story and a half
frame house, and upstairs Henry and
Lizzie lay on a bed with bullet holes in
their foreheads the latter dead, and
the boy still breathing, In the opposite
corner of the same room Caroline,
Christine and John lay dead, each shot
in the forehead
The indications are that Boecker first
dispatched his wife with the shotgun
and then used the revolver on the
baby, first shooting It and then knock
ing out its brains with the butt end.
Apparently 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 bein 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 as
If in sleep. All except Henry, who is
not yet dead, were attired in night
robes. BoeclSer had reloaded the wea-
pom while upstairs, 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
then shot himself, His right hand was
burnt by the powder, showing the rapid
use of the revolver. The weapon he
had borrowed from his brother Henry
last Thursday, remarking that he want
ed to kill rats in the cellar, 1t is now
recalled that Boecker had since then
practiced target shooting with It,
Boecl1er was "a years old and for
over 20 years lived in the neighborhood,
He has been regarded as a prosperous
farmer and only recently bought a
200 acre farm a few miles from the old
homestead. On Sunday 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 SEEM
lngly happy family. Members of his
fathers family say he had no family
troubles, his financial affairs were in
good shape, and they can assign no
motive Cor the terrible crime,