Evening star., 1924-04-15
RELIGIOUS FRENZIES
LEADING TO MURDERS
Two Horrible Slayings in South
Laid to Insanity Due to
Fanaticisni.
BOY CHOPS OFF OWN HAND
0beys Literally Injunction of
Scriptures.
By Consolidated P~sa.

By Consolidated Presa.
ATLANTA, Ga, April i5.--Religious
fanaticisn is believed responsible for
Q number OF murders and case of
self-mutilation which have occurred
IN the south recently.
Quick action OF surgeons and his
own strong constitution are all that
saved Herbert Tingie. seventeen
Near-old farmer boy of Locust Grove,
Ca. when he obeyed literally the
biblical Injunction: IF thy right hand
offend thee. cut IL OF" He laid his
eff with an AK. swinging the heavy
blade nine times before he severed
the bone and the fesh.
TrampIed Father TO Death.
Two weeks before that John Eva
winchester, an eighteeD-ycar- old glrt
living at Seffner, Fia.. slew her sick
father by stamping him upon the face
and chest until she had tranpied the
life out of him. the girl acted at the
command OF her mother, who declared
that Jesus ordered the death of Win
chester because the devi! was IN him
Since then both have been tried. The
mother was committed to an insane
asylum and the daughter was released
because il was shown that she was
acting entirely under her mothers
directions.
At the time OF the Winchester
Ell, nineteen year-old slayer OF his
parcnts and of his TWO sisters, were
fresh in the public mind. lie burned
his two sisters TO death at their home
in Decatur. Ga. and Il year later to
the day killed his parents in St Pc
tersburg, FYa, by shooting them as
they lay asleep in bed. He declared
that he committed all these murders
in an effort 10 atone for the sin of
cursing the Holy Chose when no was
Il I.-
weird story was that as a child he
blasphemed against the Holy Ghost
because he found one day that but
tons were missing from a clean shirt
he meant to put on.
by Fire md Blood.
Later he heard a preacher declare
that such blasphemy was the unpar-
cnly through fire and blood. He in
sisted that in burning his sisters and
ahooung his parents he was seek ing
sach atonement. Mcdowell is in jail
at Clearwater, Fla, awaiting trial.
Herbert Tingle, TIE eighth grade
STUDENT who chopped off his own
hand. is the son OF a wcll-to-do farm
er The family had gone to bed and
Herbert was supposed 70 he asleep.
Instead Of sleeping. however, he
cTpt silently through the back door
of the farmhouse 70 the woodshed.
There ne lighted a lantern and hung il
on a nail near the wood block. Then he
pck ed up heavy AK, placed his right
hand, palm down, on the block and
bsgan 10 hack at his wrist. He struck
nine times. infflcting wounds that
ranged from his wrist to his elbow.
sWIth his hand hanging by a shred
of skin, he ran into the house. hold
ing up the bleeding stump, and cried
"a his father and mother, See, I've
dene it. If thy right hand offend
thee, cut it Off"
Neither then nor while surgeons
dressed his wound did he lose con-
seriousness. He expressed no regret
and refused 10 say in what way his
right hand offended. For weeks past
he had been III the habit of taking
MS Bible under his arm and going
day.
The Staying Of John Edwin Win
chester by his daughter. who was also
named John, is unparalleled in the
history of crime in Florida The
mother told the police she had been
attending a series OF religious serv-
icts held by a healer evangelist and
had become convinced that her llus-
band was possessed OF the devil and
that it was Jesus command that he
be killed. She and her daughter drag
Sed the sick man out into the yard
and there he was tranpled to DEATH
as though under the hoofs Of cattle.
My daughter is not to blame" the
mother said. II commanded her to
do 1t. ! stood over her while she
stamped my husband on the face and
chest for thirty minutes. I threaten
ed her II she showed the least sign of
EclentlnS before he vas dead. She
cried for mercy. but was command
sd by Jesus To end his lifen