Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-02-23

Frank Mcdowell was we'll known
here and was we'll liked by those
who knew him and nobody except
the family had suspected that there
was anything wrong with his mind.
A girl who lived near the mellow
ellis and who often rode to town
with Frank in his car, said today
that she had found him an intelli-
gent, well educated youth, and she
had never suspected that he was
mentally unbalanced. She talked to
him just a few hours before he COM
mitted his second crime. Tuesday
afternoon late, she said she met him
in front of the postoffice and stop
ped to talk to him. This was about
the time that he told the police he
was in Bayboro shooting at bottles
in the water. The young woman
said that Frank seemed to be just
as usual, bright and jolly. and she
talked to him several minutes and
then went on little dreaming that
perhaps, even at that time, he plan
ned to kill his parents.
Others who knew Frank well had
remarked on his brightness of intel
lect and his information on general
subjects and only those who had
talked to Rim on religion had any
suspicion that he was not sound
mentally. 1t was only when he dis
cussed religion that he showed traces
of the odd streak that developed into
actual insanity.
Confession of GruesOme Crimes
The burning to death of two sis
ters last year to atone for bias
phemy' against the "Holy Ghost
when me was II years old, and the
murder of his mother and father
Tuesday night as q sacrificial pen
ance for the killing of his sisters,
confessed by Frank Mcdowell, nine
teen-years old, and his weird tale Of
"hazy spells" and halluciations dur
ing which he believed his family
aligned with "the anti-Christ,' stood
forth today as related details OF one
Of the most gruesome murders
in the history of southern crime.
Mcdowell, held in the Pinellas
county Jail at Clearwater to await
trial on a charge of numbering his
parents, Mr.. and Mrs. J. M. mellow
ell, who were shot through the head
while they slept Tuesday night, talk
ed readily. Confessing to the shoot
ing Of his parents, Mcdowell further
revealed that he had started the fire
in which his sister, locked in their
bedroom, persisted on February 10,
1923, in the Mcdowell home at that
time in Decatur, Ga. The origin of
the fire at Decatur, in which his sis
tiers, Williematee, sixteen, and
Marion. eighteen, persisted, had re-
manned a mystery until cleared up
by McDowell's confession yesterday.
Blasphemed "HOly Ghost"
When he was twelve-yea old, Nc
Dowell told officers. he blasphemed
the "Holy Ghost" This occurred on
February 19, and every year, as the
date approached, his mind, he said,
became "hazy" and he believed his
family to be aligned with 1.-The anti
Christ" These Authorizations occur
red annually, he said, until last year
he felt impelled to killed his sisters
as atonement for his "blasphemous'
sin. Mcdowell, when asked what
this sin was, refused to answer.
After his sisters had persisted in
flames, Mcdowell said, his mind
again became clear. and he realized
the seriousness of his crime, but did
not reveal to anyone what he had
done.
On Tuesday, February 10, the an
niversary of his sin" he felt that
he must kill his parents as a sacri-
flee as penance for the murder Of his
sisters, he said.
Kills His Parents
On Tuesday night, Mcdowell told
officers, he went to bed in the room
adjoining that in which his father
and mother slept, without any
thought of violence. He dreamed
that he was commanded by voices
to kill his father and mother. So
vivid and realistic was the dream,
he said, that he awoke, went into
the adjoining room and fired five
shots from a 80 caliber revolver at
his mother and father.
Both Mr.. and Mrs. Mcdowell We're
shot through the right temple,
powder burns indicating, according
to Investigating authorities, that the
shots had been fired from close
range. Officers found both the man
and woman in sleeping positions,
with nothing to indicate that they
had not passed from sleep into
death.
The crime committed, and his
mind again rational, Frank said he
hid the revolver in the bottom of
his trunk, bumped his head against
a door to support a story that his
parents had been murdered and that
he had been knocked senseless by
the murderer. He slashed the screen
of the entrance door to the home to
support his first assertion that he
had heard commotion in his par
ents' room and had been knocked
senseless by the escaping murderer.
A jury last night returned a ver-
dict that Mr. and Mrs. Mcdowell
had come to their death from bullet
wounds inflicted by their son. The
jury recommended that the youth
be held on a charge of murder with
out bail.
Placed between the bodies of Mr.
and Mrs. Mcdowell, authorities
found note typewriter on paper
cut out in the form of a heart, con-
tanning the Lords prayer and eX-
cerpts of Bible phrases, which young
Mcdowell told officers were intend.
ed to refer to his three sins.
Strange Letter
This. letter read as follows:
Our father who are in Heaven
hallowed be Thy name; Thy king
dom come. Thy will be done on earth
as it is in Heaven; give us this day
our daily bread and forgive us our
debts as we forgive our debtors and
cad us not INTO temptation, but de-
liver us from evil for Thine is the
kingdom and the power and the
glory forever and ever, Oh, Jehovah
for thrust in the defiled womb of the
elder virgin of the issue of anti
Christ didst l offer up this prayer
to the spirit writ upon the likeness
of he cross of sin, which didst
weigh heavily upon mine heart, till
pu' sed IN the consuming flames OF
The evil -