Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-08-13
Life Time Citizen and
One Time One of
Wealthiest Menin
County Shot
Down by
Son-in
law
MURDERER WAS
FORMER MAYOR
Tragedy is Surrounded
in Mystery as Dis
covery Was Not
Made Until
Hours Aft
erWard
From Monday's Daily.

From Mondays Daily.
After living to the advanced age OF
ninety years, acquiring fortune OK
no mean amount and seeing 1t graz
ually eaten up by venture after ven
ture, many of them inaugnrated py
his son-in-law, until but pittance re-
mained, George Godfrey, for "a years
resident of Wapello county ana at
one time one of the most innuentlai
nen Of Ottumwa. met q tragic dcaln
Saturday afternoon at the hands OF
Frank DUNCAN, his daughter g. hHs-
band. DUNCAN then turned the gun
upon himself and fired bullet into
his brain, dying instantly.
1 The first man to know of the deed
Twas John H. Mack, proprietor OF
lsaloon located Immediately across the
Nstreet from the DUNCAN home, corner
Hof South Clay and Sherman streets,
who was attracted to the scene about
B:2O o'clock Saturday evening by Mrs.
Dungan's cries 1T was her horrible
experience to come home from an all.
day shopping trip to find her aged
father living dead in the dining room
of the home and her husband, the
murderer. a suicide on the bed In the
room beyond.
From all appearances the men aaa
b. en- dead six or seven hours JUST
when the deed occurred will never be
known. Neighbors and pedestrians
had been passing the residence all day
long but no one heard the shots.
Two Motives for Deed.
Two motives for the shooting are
advanced. It is generally known
among Mr.. GodfreWs acquaintances
that he had backed the younger man
in several costly business ventures
! which had proved failures. It is sup.
;y-sed by these acquaintances. that
reruest for more funds had been re-
t.ffed ald that words followed, Ter.
ninating In the double tragedy.
The grief stricken widow, Frs. Mel
lie DUNCAN advances the theory that
Ter late husband was temporarily IN
sane declaring that her husband was
frequently troubled with mental de.
rangement as a result of a sunstroke
received twelve years ago while In
wyoming.
In the inquests held Sunday after.
noon it " as proven that cool1ess es-
listed between the two men, Mr..
Mack the principal witness, testifyin:s
tlat DUNCAN had often said tc kim
that "he didn't like the old man."
The general feeling is that dispute
eyer money matters was the imnne-
diate goad which excited DUNCAN to
firing the fatal shots.
Last Seen in Morning.
Mr. DUNCAN was last seen about Z
o'clock Saturday morning by MT.
Mack. At that time. Mr.. Mack states,
DUNCAN was on the street. Mr..
Mack asked him to change large
check which DUNCAN could not do.
hut referred him to his fatherin-law.
Mr.. Mack then went to the house and
asked Mr.. Godfrey for the change,
but he did not have it there and sug-
gested that Mack could get the check
eashed at the grocery store block
away of which DUNCAN was the pro-
prietor Mack and DUNCAN then pro-
q eeeded to the store. Shortly after
this, Mack states, DUNCAN said he
was not feeling we'll and that ne was
going home. DUNCAN left the store
and that was the last seen of him
alive.
No one was seen in the house all
day. At 9:20 o'clock at night. Mr..
Mack. who was in his saloon, was at
tracted by the cries Of Mrs. DUNCAN,
who had just reached home.
Finds Man Dead.
He went over immediately and the
results of the double tragedy net his
eyes. Godfrey was lying prone on the
floor in the dining room with bullet
lole through his body. The shot had
entered in front. in the left breast i'm
mediately over the heart and had
PASSED out through the mans back
Lying on his bed in the next room