Norwich bulletin., 1920-01-19
fsneciaI to Tbe BulIetin)

TuITfI UL -cLI | gether- in the rooms of an undsN ak CT on Furnace street Sunday the harvest of death spread through a neighborhood in the western part O. the town of Brooklyn Saturday by Victor Lipponen,, a Finnish farmer who for the past two years or more has made his home on a little farm, that borders the Brooklyn Hampton highway. At the Day Kimball hos pital in Putnam Sunday another wo- man, a victim of Lipponen, lay bat ting for life against odds that seem- ed almost hopeless and at a home in
 Brooklyn, in the neighborhoed where the worst crime in Windham county $ history was eAacted, was the wife of Lipponen. half eraZed from the eX- perienee through which she had pass ed and suffering from a wound that was intended should end her life.
 The dead are:
 Victor Lipponen, Ss.
 Mrs. Selma Luoniala, 29
 Christian G. Ritter, 46
 Miss Elsie Rose Kinber, 19. Lipponen Baby, aged 4 days. The wounded:
 Mrs. Charles Ray.
 Mrs. Victor Lipponen.
 Lipponen, who evidently suddenly
 went stark mad Saturday afternoon spread dumb terror through the iso- | lated farming region in which he liv- ed with a rampage of murder, arson mutiliation of animals and finally, suicide.
 In the frenzy that drove him on he
 strove to kill every living thing that i he encountered and neither human
 beings nor animals escaped the frenzy
 of his attack. His weapon was a l dull but heavy axe and with this he crushed in the skulls or faces of his victims hacking them savagely as doom. His ghastly work left those
 who came to look upon it sick with
 horror, and it may be said that it has
 no parallel in the history of Windham county.
 Lppenen's carnival of death was in
 augurated at his own home, leaving
 which he travelled through the :; neighborhood, conducting an indiyid-
 uaI massacre at farmers homes-and making, in the course of an hour and 1 a half or two hours, 8 trail of death almost too terrible to contemplate. i And as a climax to the bloody orgy Lipponen sought out a farm, tempo i rarily abandoned, and hung himself, to 1 1 his death by two determined pursu-
 eIs-cheated, they realized as they 1 looked into his evil face, by only a few minutes from delivering that
 swifter end that awaited him had he not used his last minutes to end his own life, and had he shown the slightest resistence to capture.
 ! Up to Saturday forenoon Lippenen
 was not known outside of the town of Brooklyn. and to khe residents of | that peaceful town he was known Il generally as a foreigner, whom most people referred to as Hill" He lived on a little farm called the Corcoran place, was peaeeable and hard work CT. He never interfered with anyone and few of his neighbors entered into intimate association with him, though
 all were friendly exchanging the greetings of the day as they might
 pass. He never had any auarreIs with his neighbors and they never, as they tell the story now, considered that he was other than a normal hard working man. As late as Satur-
 day morning at seven o'clock and ever
 a couple of hours later, when he visi- ted Brooklyn village to do little {, shopping, he appeared his usual sim pie and quiet self and went abou his affairs as any man might do, at
 tracing no attention and pleasantly
 greeting those who spoke to him. Some day, perhaps, Mrs Lipponer may be able to shed some light or , what turned him almost instantly, fn- !. wrat turned him almost instantly, in 1 to death dealing nadman, but LII
 to late Sunday afternoon she was un- able to give any intelligible statement 
 Tragic Trail Begins at Home. i The pages of horror that he wrote i into Brooklyn's history during tht
 tragic morning, however, may be SC : forth as follows:
 , Some time soon after 10 o'clock Lip
 ponen entered the neat little cottage where lay his wife, 2S years of age who on Tuesday last had given birtf
 to child. asld where Selma Luoniala . 29, wife of John Luoniala, of Brooklyn 7 home nurse, was caring for Mrs s Lipponen, and her new born child.
 Lipponen, carrying an axe, entered
 his wife's room and made a Vieiou swing at her with the axe. The at
 tack was ferocious and brutal in tn. 1 extreme. The axe struck Mrs. Lip 2 penen a glancing blow in the forehea,
 and stunned her, though the woun- 5 she received was not serious. It wa :, evident that Lipponens aim was bat or else that his wife rolled over in he
 bed and dedged. In any event Hippo t nen must have felt that her end wa [ kcertain, for he immediately rushe : out into the kitchen and attacke I Mrs. Luoniala, who had seized the in !, fant in her arms and was trying { ! make good her. escape with the chil( Mrs. Luoniala's end was swift an : terrible. One blow of the axe spIi , her skull wide open and in falling o her face in the corner of the kitche I she crushed the infant to death. [ His ghastly work in his home fin fshed, Lipponen went out to the bar : and started slashing at the heads (
 four cows with his axe. The ter : Erifie blows he rained upon them as h y faced them from where they stood i : the stanchions inflicted gapan. h wounds that sunk in through the hid f and flesh and barred the animal
 skulls. His position in relation to tn ? cows was such that he could not in y hiet the full force of his powerfl s blows upon them, but when he ha 3, finished that chapter of his reign : terror in the barn the cows wer
 all deeply slashed across the forehea . and down the sides of their face
 Strangely enough none of the COW
 fell and within two hours were loo1in
 out in a wistfuI way at human bt ings who came to pity them and oft
 them hay which they ate with appal
 ent relish. Dr. F. w. Page, a veteril ariap, later attended to the COW wounds and it was stated Sunday tn | all probably would recover from the
 injuries.
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