The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-12
ROY SHOOTS FATHER TWICE.
INT FATHER WAS ABOUT TO USE
STRAP on HIM.


NTH y CIV itNF NuVN nON hhANNu W |
s,udy and wanted TO he an Electrician.
u. ia said in partial condemnation Of John
r.Lar hat he is one Of those fathers who
"a, knows when his hoy has grown up.
". was about 70 use a strap on his l0-year-
~ Nov Willie. late Thursday night, out in
". Weden home, on Washington avenue. |
Cooper avenue, Glendale, Queens
S.~o,,uh. and il was William, the son, sud
ss,Iv ina ginning himself a man, who drew
S..rolver and shot his father twice in the
head.
.A.ra was. and then the boy Willie, terri
49, at what he had done, rushed from his
s.,hsr's house, hatless, ~coatless and without
.ho.s on his feet, and wandered for two
so,,rs in the cold and the driving rain,
.~virU 10 hide himself from the police.
w. father was sent 10 the German Hospital
~ Fast williamsburg with a deep wound
.,der the right eye and the top Of his head
niounbed by n charge of fine shot.
According 20 the story which the boys
,o.ber told the police on Thursday night,
willie came into the house early In the after
,oon before school had been dismissed.
IL told his mother that he had cut his
,.c.ar.ons. When Weden, who is q tin
,oosns contractor, returned to his home
about 10 o'clock in the evening. his first
QUESTION to the boy was, did you go to
school to-day?-
.Yss, SIR" promptly lied the boy. Then
"A. mother told the father that Willie had
MD an untruth. The parents retired to
ss kitchen and took counsel. Willie,
straSdyof the consequences Of his lie, went
n bis room upstairs, partially undressed
hhnself and moved his bureau over against
b, door. leaving only a crack open.
he beard his mother and father coming
up the stairs.
rivs you the soundest licking you ever
had In your hfel" shouted the father as he
approached the head Of the stairs.
The covering boy suddenly stiffened
INTO callow manhood. The half formed
.soss of bravado in him first recognized
IN q thrashing an insult which one man
would never take from another man. He
vas a man and he must defend himself.
So he took out OF a drawer a cheap ~
cslibre revolver. such a boys use 20 pop
~salltes with on the Fourth Of July, and ne
loaded 1t with cartridges filed with dust
Shot, very fine pellets, like that the boys
sboot at robins in their sling shots. Thus
armed Willie stepped to the head OF the
stairs. leaving his barricade in place as a
haven Of retreat in case Of necessity.
His mother W as coming up ahead OF his
father. Willie brushed past the woman
and raised his revolver to fire ut his father.
Mrs. Neden screamed and grabbed at his
arm, but the boy pulled the trigger when
the revolver was within a few inches OF
his fathers head. The charge ranged
downward and tore OF a portion OF his
You would whip me, would you9' cried
the boy in hysteri cal exultatlon. linen
take that, and that" He fred again. This
time the charge drove into his father g
bad wound in the flesh. Weden fell to the
stairs. The mother held the boys arm.
but he tore loose, leaving the sleeve OF his
shirt in her grasp, and rushed down the
stairs out OF the house, half clad as he was.
Mrs. Weden ran screaming into the street:
The neighbors focked into the house and
helped bandage up the wounded mans
head. One pIoughed through the knee
deep mud up to the police station OF the
Eighty-ffth precinct, on top OF the hill, and
notified Capt. Tappin OF the shooting. Inc
captain went out on the case himself, taking
with him Policemen WOodell and Tillman.
Ii was raiuing hard at that hour. The
policemen, carrying lanterns, foundered
through the mud and pools OF water down
&c the Weden house. An ambulance was
summoned and the father was sent to the
German Hospital. Then the policemen
took up the trail Of the fugitive boy.
They found that he had gone to a saloon
known as Secora's Hall, where a rabbit
stew party, so called, was in progress, ana
where several Of the citizens OF Glendale
we're drowning the taste OF the departed
rabbits in variou ~potations. One OF the
party told the police that the half dressed
boy had wandered in there half an hour
before and that they had gi ven him an old
coat. a hat and a pair of bat tered overshoes
Until near midnight the policemen
searched the surrounding territory until
at last they found the boy. crouching in
the corner of a deserted cowshed. fully. a
half mile from his home. They took him
up to the station to question hlm, put, ne
was so benumbed by the drenching he had
undergone that he could give only a halt
ing and incoherent account OF the shooting;
While the boy talked the, water trickled
on his outlandish garb and his teeth cnat-
tered with the cold.
Willie said that his father and mother
we're uuarrelling and that he had fired on
his father to protect his mother from being
beaten. He said nothing about his fathers
police questioning drew half the truth from
the boy. He said that he hated school and
that he wanted to be an electrician, but
bis father would not let him quit the gram
mar school and used to beat him when he
did not get his lessons.
The police kept Willie in the station house
sver night and yesterday took him before
Magistrate Smith of the Second District
Court in Flushing. The Magistrate ordered
him to be locked up in the Long Island City
jail until the result Of the injuries he had
Inflicted on his father should be determined.
John Weden, it is hoped, is not seriously
hurt. He came back from the hospital
70 his home yesterday morning, but later
returned 20 undergo an operation. The
doctors have not yet really determined
whether or not any Of the fine shot pene-
rated the skull into the brain.
From Mrs. Weden and the teachers under
whom the boy studied in school came the
story Yesterday of how Willie Weden be-
heved himself TO be prosecuted finally
turned upon his father with a flash OF the
mature courage that would not tolerate
further beating. Both the mother and the
teachers agreed that Willie was not a bad
boy. He was Just misunderstood.
Though the boy had grown into a spind-
ing, longlegged youth his father would
not allow him to wear long trousers. He
vent to school unwillipgly and ashamed
because he knew that the scholars would
oawl "Pipestems" at him as the daily salu-
tation. He hated the short Knockers he had
70 wear as much as he hated the school and
everybody in il.