New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-05-19
| MAKES HIS YOUNG SON
KILL HIM WITH GUN
Farmer KneeIs Before Weapon,
Laid on Table, and Assures
Boy 1t Is Not Loaded.
ALONE WITH CRAZED MAN
No One in Greenwich Doubts
Youngsters Story of Fathers
Death, Which Coroner Soon
Pronounces Suicide.
nv T.,crrarh to The Tribune !

iNN l''klRF0 u lfe tribune
Greenwich, Conn. MAY 1S-Lester
Hustled, twelve -year-old boy. ran. pale
and frightened. TO the house Of Daniel
Ryan. whose farm adioins that Of the
Hustled family in the northern part OF
Greenwich
I've just killed my father" he cried
"Oh. Mr.. Ryan, come quick, I've killed
my father"'
Ryan didn't believe him. He thought
I. was poor attempt at joke and bade
rhe hoy be off But Lester. crying and
sobbing. made the man think there was
truth in his story. and. alarmed. he went
with him.
| In the kitchen Of the Hustled farm
house RYAN found the body Of the boys
father II lay on the floor. the head
/ horribly dishgured. Death had come
from the discharge of a shotgun less than
la foot away, and even a hasty glance
showed Ryan that the victim could not
have fred the shot himself.
It's not suicide" he decided why
did you do it," he asked the boy then.
But IT was suicide a suicide worthy
of the Imagination of Edgar Allan Poe in
its amazing cunning and strange perver-
sion. The boy Lester is the only one to
vouch for the facts as he tells them. But
no one has been found to doubt his word.
! In the first place there is circumstantial
evidence to bear him out; in the second
place. no twelve-ye year-old boy could weave
such a fantasy.
/ This is what happened. Fred Hustled.
who had never been quite himself after
an attack of influenza last winter went
/ 10 sleep after dinner and woke up about
3 o'clock He told his wife he felt queer.
because he had had a bad dream. Then
he asked her to so 10 the house OF
neighbor on trfiing errand 10 ask
Charley" Young If he would carry their
eggs 10 market Mrs. Hustled didn
want to go. he wasn't fixed to go out,
and said that the baby. the youngest of
five children. was asleep.
Wife Yields and Goes Away.
But he laughed at her objections, and
she finally gave In and went TO Charley
Young's place. The baby was asleep up
stairs. Lester was working in the garden
and the other three children, between
Lester and the baby, were at school.
Up to that point Mrs. Hustled could
testify. What happened afterward is
known only from Testers story.
His father called TO him a few min
utes after his mother had gone up the
road TO ask him If he had seen a hawk
flying over the chicken yard. Lester
said no. he hadn't.
We'll. he was after chickens, SAID
Hustled. and | guess | will get him.
Come in here TO the kitchen
Lester went in, and saw his father
pick up a double barrelled shotgun.
That gun had stood in the one corner
ever since the boy could remember any
thing. and always he had been warned
never TO touch it, because ii was always
loaded. Hustled laid the gun on the
kitchen table, knelt down and looked
into the muzzle, less than four inches
from his eyes
Then he told the boy TO pull the trig-
ger Lester didn't want 10 do 1t. He
vas afraid Of that gun. But his father
insisted
Said Gun Wasn't Loaded.
1T isn't loaded" he said. don't be
afraid"
So Lester snapped the trigger, but he
did il gently. with his thumb, and the
cap wasn't exploded.
Hustled got up from his knees picked
up the gun. recocked IT, and laid 1t down
on the table gain the same way, after
looking down barrel again. Then he
knelt down again and looked into the
black muzzle.
1t isn't loaded" he assured the boy.
"puu the trigger and let us hear how
it sounds"
Lester. sure that II was all right
RULED the trigger again with surer finger
The kick Of the gun threw him on his
back and when he got up he saw a
dreadful sight on the other side of the
table. His father was lying there dead.
with only half Of his head. Then the boy
ran for help. and went looking for the
first man he could find which was Ryan.
They sent for Mrs Hustled and the
Coroner Lester told them all the story
No one doubted it for a second. and in the
face OF the tragedy they tried 10 account
for the mans weird suicide. an act that
will be frightful memory for little Les
ter when he is old enough TO realize IT,.
The boy kept on saving again and again
that his father had neither said nor done
a peculiar thing except to insist on his
pulling the trigger to see how it would
sound.
Husted worked for years 10 lift the
mortgage on mis- farm. II lies in sec
tion thickly dotted with the summer es-
tates of wealthy New Workers He paid
off the last Of his debts not long ago and
refused an Offer of SSOWD for his place
of eighty acres. il is said His friends
think the change from worry L. pros
uccts of ease unbalanced him He was
forty-six years old.
TEACHER AND PUPILS DROWNED.