The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-09-03
RESPONDENT FATHER
COMMITS AWFUL CRIME
Austin Van Guilder Shoots Two Children and Blows
Out His Brains.
One Child Will Probably Recover-Believed That Van
Guilder Was Temporarily Insane

Never in its history has Salt Lake
experienced more shocking tragedy
than one enacted in a little cottage in
Windsor avenue between II and ]
o'clock yesterday afternoon Despon-
dency and delirium drove Austin Van
Guilder, a carpenter, to murder anc
suicide. His 6-year-old daughter is
dead at his hands and his little son
lies prone ON a cot at the Holy Cross
hospital with bullet hole through the
crown of his head. The fathers cold
body is recumbent alongside that of his
innocent victim at the morgue, and a
mothers heart is torn and bleeding
Van Guilder was in bed with typhoid
fever when at noon he sent his wife
to Buffers butcher shop for some beef
to make him beef tea. Hardly had she
gone than he arose and lowered all the
blinds and locked the doors. He called
his two children. Lola and Ralph, aged
and z, to his side and gave them each
four morphine granules. containing one
quarter grain of the drug. Then he
wrote of his deed, addressing to the
police an unfinished and incoherent
note purporting to give reason for
his act When he had penned it, he
waited for the drug to take effect.
Decided to Shoot Them.
II did not act at once and he scrawled
upor the note his intention to hasten
the end. Then, taking a revolver from
bureau drawer he called his children
to the bed and bade them go to Sleep
Little Lola laid down, Ralph standing
by the bed, and the father aimed the
pistol at Ralph's head and fired. The
boy fell, but was quickly on his feet
and as he staggered into the kitchen
~1,< 60
striking the boys hand. Before his
eyes could rest on the terrible sight
the father turned the pistol on Lola
shot her through the temple, then
pressed the muzzle to his own fore
head and finished his fiendish work.
A CHASTITY Spectacle.
Neighbors heard the shots and ran
to the door, which the plucky wounded
boy unbolted for them. It was a
CHASTITY spectacle they saw. The father
law across the foot of the bed, his
hands crossed on his breast, with the
right firmly clutching the handle OF
the pistol. He was breathing heavily
ana his eyes We're half closed. His
brains We're oozing out and the cover
let was despatched with blood.
Lola lay also on the bed with her
pretty curls soaking in her life's blood
She was tenderly laid upon her own
little cot in the same room, where she
expired twenty minutes later.
Van Guilder lived until S:45, after
being removed to the hospital.
Little Ralph's wound is serious, the
bullet lodging in the skull bone, but
not once did he lose consciousness.
Chances are favorable to his recovery.
Grief of the Mother.
Mrs. Van Guilder returned home
about 1:20 to hear the heartrending
story. Her grief was pitiful, and as she
realized her husbands rash deed. she
cried out in anguish: ooh, why was he
not content to take his own life. He
sought to die. Lola my darling, speak
To me; come here, Lola, mama wants
to see you. Wake up, my darling. See
what your fathers done. Oh, why did
he not die" Over and over the pros
trated woman repeated these lines. I'M
til tears of sympathy We're wiped from
the eyes of the little crowd that the
room held. When the police arrived the
wounded were taken to the Holy Cross
hospital. and Lola's body to Evans I'M
dertaking establishment. A post NOR
tenn will be held on both bodies today
to discover the course each bullet pur-
sued. TIE boy VIII undergo a critical
operation this morning, and if he sur
wives it, viii soon be restored to perfect
health.
Man Was Insane.
There is no doubt that Van Guilder
was temporarily insane He was known
to be in debt and without money, and
being sick had no chance of obtaining
funds to carry OF the household. He
had been ailing for more than a week,
and when left alone with the children
he brooded over his hard luck until his
mind became unbalanced In despera-
ton he sought to end his misery, and,
as he intimated in his Setter, thought it
best for the children to die with him.
1t is said by some that Mrs Van
Guiider has left her husband for hours
at time on his sickbed, but everything
else Indicates that she was a faithful
wife.
Heard the Shots.
While at lunch at 1 o'clock, Mr. and
Mrs. p. E. Mckinney, who live at 1910
Windsor avenue, next door to Van
Guilder's, heard the shots, followed by