Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1914-12-24
"' AUDUBON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER "a 1914
YOUNG BOY TELLS
A PTYFUL STORY
Francis Dunn, Who Shot and Killed
Stepfather South of Marine Sat
urday Morning, Tells Har-
rowing Tale of Abuse

Sobing out his story to his attor-
ney, b. A. Goodspeed, Francis Dunn,
the seventeen year old lad who Sat
urday shot and killed his stepfather,
I. j. McEniry, south of Marine, Sat
urday night told a story of brutality
and abuse on the part of the man
dead by the lads hand, which makes
the blood run cold and which tugs at
the heart strings, and shocked the
lawyer to whom he told it, hardened
as he is in his profession to hearing
tales OF the seamy side of life. 1t is
a story of long continued abuse, of
woman broken at the wheel, of lad
with the heart of a man, suffering
helplessly while the woman whom he
called mother was subjected to the
vilest, most bestial attacks, and then,
/! finally, reason gone for moment,
reverting TO the methods of our for
bears, he killed the man who caused
all the sorrow and all the heartache.
Boy Wanted Little Money
The tragedy of Saturday which has
made the Yuletide but a mere mouth
ing for the boy and his mother, arose
because the boy wanted little money
to spend for Christmas, according to
his story. He had it is stated, husked
out the most of the corn on the place
this year, and had received no money
for it. Friday night he asked his
stepfather for some money and, with
an oath, the boy says, he finally gave
him fifteen cents. That evening he
saddled horse and rode to Atlantic,
patronizing the skating rink here. At
the breakfast table the next morning,
the stepfather asked him how he had
gone TO town and the boy told him
that he rode the horse in. This an
gered the man who started to abuse
the lad. and the boys mother inter
yeped, saying that the lad needed
some recreation that he had not, in
jured the horse, and that he should
not scold him for il. The man, anger
ed at the woman, grabbed her and
struck and ehoked her. He struck
her in the mouth and knocked her
false teeth down her throat, and, as
she was strangling on them, plunged
his hairy fist down her throat and
pulled them out again. The boy and
his little half sisters, according to
his story, were on their knees pray
ing to the man to desist, and he final
ly threw the woman to one side and
went out of the house. The boy sub
sequently went to the corn field with
his shot gun and shot rabbit. He
was good shot and had the carcases
of several rabbits hanging in the
granary at home, expecting to sell
them later, for Christmas money. AS
he came in from the field he met his
stepfather coming back from the barn
and he was still in a towering pas
sion. The boy had his gun in his
hand. He saw the man shaking his
hands in front of him and muttering
threats, and, the boy says, almost in
the same instant his gun was fired
and the man fell with a gaping wound
nm his left side. He says he did not
remember clearly what he had done.
He was frenzied with the memory of
his mothers being abused, and did
not realize what he did The lad says
that the abuse has been going on for
a long time. He also tells that Nc
Entry was brutal to the animals about
the place and that to his knowledge
he had killed two horses and mule
when his passion was reused.
In grim corroboration of part of
the boys story was Mrs. McEniry's
appearance when she came to town
Saturday night to consult the boys
attorney. Her tongue was SO thick
she could hardly talk and the inside
of her mouth was raw and bleeding
from the attacks of the man. He had
struck her in the face and broken her