Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1897-09-29
IOWA FARMER
Slaughters His Wife and Six
Children in Cold Blood.
After the Fiendish Act, Husband and
Father Puts a Bullet iIf His Brain.
No Motive for the Terrible Tragedy Known
All But Two Children Were Killed In
stantly-Ali Except the Son Henry
Were Arrayed In Night Robes.

CARROLL, Ia, Sept. 2s.-Thc slaugh-
ter of mother and her six children
occurred at the home of John Boecker,
farmer living eight miles northwest
of here, Sunday night. Afterward
the ticndsh or demented husband and
father at whose hands they died COM
pletcd his bloody work by sending a
bullet into his own head, inilicting
| fatal wound. The family were pros
porous Germans. and as far as is known
lived happily. No motive for the trag-
edy has been disclosed. Bocckers vic
tins arc his wife and these children:
Caroline, aged IA; Christine, aged .;
Henry, aged 8; Lizzie, aged G; John,
aged 3, and an infant. All arc dead but
Henry, and the latter cannot recover
from his wourds.
! Boeckcr had an engagement to help
neighbor thresh Monday morning,
and on his not putting in an appear
ance his brother Henry, who lives
about 20 rods away, went about 0
o'clocl, to see why he did not come. The
doors of the Boecller house were locked
and there were no signs of life about.
Henry tried to get in the house, but
met no response, and finally he kicked
in the door and came upon horrible
scene. Boeclxer. with his wife and baby,
slept in back room, and the three
corpses lay on one 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 revolver. The man,
still breathing, had bullet hole
high upon the forehead, and
by his side was Smith & Wesson
six-shooter with two chambers empty
The Boecker home is a story-and-a-half
frame house, and upstairs Henry and
Lizzie lay on the bed with bullet holes
in the forehead, the latter dead, the
boy still breathing. In the opposite
corner of the same room Caroline,
Christine and John were dead, each
with bullet hole in the forehead,
though Caroline had two.
1t is undoubtedly a case of murder
and suicide. The indications are that
Boecker first dispatched his wife with
the shotgun, shooting her in the neck,
then used the revolver on the baby,
first shooting it and then knocking out
its brains with the butt. BoeclSer then
went upstairs where the five children
were sleeping and killed them. lie prob
ably used light, for his aim was good,
zach 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 re-
posed 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 evi
IDENTIFY sent the second bullet into the
oldest girls brain just before leaving
the room. Going down stair:
he stretched himself beside
the corpse of his wife and
shot himself. His right hand wa:
burnt by the powder, showing the
rapid use of the revolver. The weapon
he had borrowed from his brother
Henry last Thursday, remarking thai
he wanted it to kill rats in the cellar
1t is now recalled that Boecler had since
then practiced target shooting with it
Boecker was "a years old, and for over
90 years lived in the same neighbor
hood, in fact, on the same farm.