The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-12-23
PROTECTED HEB HONE
TipSy Man Shot Down by
Mrs. Hendricks on a Claim.
IN WAS AT TWILIGHT
Jury Decides That 1t Was
JuStifabIe Homicide.

Guthrie. o. T. Dec. 22.-Further par
ticulars of the killing Of Clyde Parker,
the intoxicated man who frightened Miss
Hendricks, alone on a claim in Grant
county. are at hand. In its account Of
the affair the WakiJa Herald says:
One Of the saddest tragedies in the his
tory Of this part OF the country occurred
last Friday night near the Riverside
school house, about eight miles south
west Of here.
Mrs Luta Hendricks shot and instantly
killed Clyde Parker Mrs. Hendricks
husband, william Hendricks, is a con-
ductor on the railroad, and his run is
from Wichita to Ellsworth. Mrs. Hen
bricks lives with her seven children on
the claim, on one corner Of which is the
school house, and about twenty rods
away to the east from the school house
is the dwelling house. A bend in the
creek causes the road to leave the sec
ton line and veer to tn east until it gets
to be nearly on line south Of the house,
when it again turns to the south.
Clyde Parker is a young man p years
OLD, who made his home with his parents
one mile west of the school house, but
who spent much time in town working in
restaurants. painting, etc. He had an
excellent artistic eye and drew some very
striking designs. Training would have
made him a valuable designer. He was
occasionally given to drink however, he
was not considered vicious, but his own
worst enemy. On Friday morning he was
before the police court of Wakta. and
plead guilty Of drunkenness. At about 4
or o'clock he left Waldta in company
with a man by the name of William
Swift, who drove a team of horses hitch
ed to a top buggy.
Just as it was getting dusk a top
buggy passed the Hendricks house, and
went about sixty rods south, where it
stopped, and one man got out and ap-
peared to be foolirg with the pasture
fence. Benny Hendricks, a hoy of z
years old, went to the corn stock field to
drive up the horses, and the man on the
ground got into the buggy, it was turned
around and the men drove slowly back
toward the house, so that they met the
boy where the road veers TO the west,
toward the house Here they asked the
boy where Mr. Rowland lived, which is
about a mile further south When he told
them they turned south again, but had
not gone far until one man got out and
came toward the house and the buggy
drove on. The man coming toward the
house had his hat down hiding his face,
and the boy thought him acting strange
". He soon went to waving a white
handkerchief The boy took fright and
ran to the house and shouted to his
mother to get the revolver for a drunken
man was coming. The family was in a
sod house with the door in the south,
and the revolver was in the frame house
north of the sod house. and to reach it
she would naturally pass out of the door
and around east of the sod house She
ran out and got the revolver and was re-
turning when she met the children just
east of the sod house, and the man near
by coming up, waving his white handker-
chief. BY this time it was so dark that
the features Of man could not be dis
hnguished very far off. Mrs. Hendricks
told the man to go away or she would
shoot him, but he kept coming on. The
children began to shout shoot him,
mamma, shoot him" When he was with
four or five feet of her she shot him
twice, one bullet entering close to the
collar bone, near the center of the heck,
and tn other in the left temple. He fell
with his had to the northeast, and ap-
parenUy never spoke or moved.
As soon as Mrs. Hendricks realized that
she had killed a man she took the chill
dren and ran to the nearest neighbor,
Mr.. E. Corday's and told that she had
killed man He went at once after
Mr.. Howk, and the two went to the
house, where they found Clyde Parker
4ying with his hat over his face. and
partly under his head, still clutching a
white handkerchief in his hand. His
body was removed to his fathers house.
DR. E. 3. Miller, county coroner, was
notified, and he summoned the following
jurors: Emmett Lemon, Charles Neville.
William Black, Ed Carrithers. Theodore
Crosby and Dan Grossly They viewed
the body and then turned it over to his
parents, who took it TO oxford. Kan, for
burial The jury then adjourned to the
Riverside school house and examined
witnesses all day. AT midnight Saturday
they adjourned until Monday without ar
irving at an agreed verdict.
The sentiment of the jury IS that Mrs
Hendricks is free from all criminal
blame
Monday morning the jury again met.
and returned a verdict that they could
not agree as to whether the killing was
jusu6able or not
The jury was discharged and another
summoned, composed Of J. A Meyer. It.
S. Pierce, J. T. Walton, J. S. Sprague. A.
w. Steen and William Flick. They met
i'm the coroner's office and the evidence
was read 20 them. They retired and II
FIVE minutes returned verdict Of JUST
fable homicide