Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-04-02
Ros1ueLZ Farmer
Kills His Wife
AndWoundsSeLf

were going to take me back to the
sanitarium. They were trying to
| break up my home. 1t was a plot.
l ran to the door when 1 heard the
automobile come up, and my wife
came running after me with the gun.
1 reckon she wanted to stop them
| from taking me away. 1 grabbed
| the gun to kill myself. I didn't mean
| to hurt her. After that l don't know
exactly what happened"
Jewett S. Peek, a prominent farm
er of Cobb county, who killed his
wife on the front porch Of their
home near Roswell Wednesday after
noon a@d then drove twenty miles
| to Atlanta to surrender himself, gave
| this version of the tragedy Thurs
day morning as he lay in bed at
| Grady hospital, suffering from a bull
| let wound in his left forearm, in
flicted by himself in the struggle
with his wife for the pistol with
which he killed her.
He talked in jerky, disconnected
sentences, grooming with pain and
shifting about on his pillow. He is
sandy-haired, sandy-moustached
man about forty-five years old, his
| faced burned brick red from the
sunshine. Save for his wild story
of plot against himself and his
home, he gives no evidence of the
| insanity to which the doctors at.
| tribute his crime.
Peek owns fertile farm about
four miles from Roswell on the Mari
eta road. Here he lived with his
wife and their five children. Alma.
fifteen; Leroy. thirteen; Ingram.
eight; Denver. three. and Lillian.
fourteen months
Several weeks ago, say neighbors,
Peek was sent to DIR. Brawner's sani-
tarlum at Smyrna, because he shot ar
ne1ghbor, Leo Sims. without causa
or warning. He was released some
days ago after physicians believed he
mad recovered from a temporary do. -.
rangement
Fatal Shooting
Wednesday afternoon he shot his
wife through the head She fell
face downward on the front porch.
blood squirting out onto the bahv. Til.
Ian. she held in her arms. Peek. in
some manner. shot himself in the LETT
arm while trying to get the pistol
from her Then, say neighbors IL
fired twice at his 15-year-old daurh-
ter, Alma. The climax of the shoot.
ing came when Peek, Leroy Peek,
the baby, Lillian; his eight-vear-o1d
son, Ingram, and Mrs. CLYDE Peek
ms slster-1n-law, with her two chill
dfen' piled into Peek's automobi1a
ana rode to the Atlanta police sta
Iloh' Wheie the party arrived with
Feek raV1ng incoherentIy about a
mob that was going to hang him. ana
with the woman and the children al.
most frozen blue. Alma ran IN t,o
cotton house and hid. Denver soueht
refuge at a neighbours
eek was taken to Grady hospital.
Where ms wound was dressed and
ne spent the night under guard. He
W., MIL De taken to Marietta some time
Cobb county. u
Neighbors say that Peek becama
deranged from brooding over finan-
clal troubles. Once before. since re-
turning, from the sanitarium. thew
declared, he had threatene to xiii
Mrs. Peek will be buried Friday
morning. after funeral services AZ
a ~ O'clock at Harmony church. The
children are being cared for At tha
nome OF a neighbor. N. o. Barber.
fe9k appeared calm and talked
f fiHi1Ifiniy Thursday morning of the
"rb hit was > all all plot" he said.
peen trying to break up my home
me me T bn my wife and daughter.
and ne nad me sent to the santa.
rum While 1 was away he sent
oscar Farmer and his Wife-they
work on my farm---out to my place
10 try to win my wife away from
me. knew he was either going to ,
have me killed or sent to the iasshr
asylum for life.
Monday morning Farmer tried to
XIII me. L was out in the front yard
putting some, gasoline in the auto
mobile and he started toward me
with an ak. | got on the other side
of the automobile, but he followed
me three times around the car.
begged him not to kill me, and he
finally una went away, saving he was
just going TO cnop some stove wood.
Saw Automobile Party
"Wednesday afternoon 1 was sit
ting in the Kitchen, when L heard an
and looked out and it was the same
people who took me 70 the SANTA
rum before. | knew they had come .
after me again, and I started to yell.
My wife was nervous and excited
too, and she began to cry. Finally
the automobile drove off and we sets
tied down again.
"a few minutes later my brother
and man named jim Dawson drove
after i
the front porch My wife ran after
me. She had the gun: 1 don't know
where she got it. They had taken ia
and Leroy had the keys. I reckon
she got the keys from Leroy.
II ran at her to get the gun and
kill myself. 1 didn't mean to hurt
her. / don't know what happened
that. But I didn't mean to. I don't
remember shooting at anybody else.
Drove to Atlanta
well, after that we took the baby
and got in the car. Leroy was driv-
ing. 1t was just me and Leroy and
the baby in my lap. We started to
Marietta to get protection, but we
heyre af ftr y and s. ksE %y tu SaiS
around and started back. We picked
up the little boy, Ingram, eight years
old, and he went with us in the car.
we came across MIS-. Clyde PeeK,
my sister-in-law, with her children,
and they got in the car. It's not true
I forced them to get in. She came
along of her own accord. We were
scared to go to Marietta. I was
scared they would get me. So we
drove to Atlanta, and that's all there
is to it."
1t was strange party that drove
up in front of the Atlanta police sta
ion late Wednesday afternoon-Peek
in 1o
rear the woman and the other chill
dren huddled in the bottom of the
car the baby'S face splattered with