The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1924-12-30
KILLS FOUR
F()R[)REAR
XMAS
Mother Pays for Years Of
Neglect and Meanness.
Shoots Own Baby

~ AnS1H III e0hADa NSWb GeENtGEs
LOGANSPORT, Ind, Dec. 3d.
A tale of torture and suffering,
climaxed Christmas day when her
baby girl received no, presents,
was poured out in q police cell
here today by Emma Hobaugh,
thirty-three, held for yesterdays
shotgun massacre.
God knows all about it." the
frail, emaciated woman, repeated,
explaining the murder of her
father, Henry Bassler,. sixty-nine,
her mother, Catherine, her own
daughter, Viola, three, and her
brother, John, twenty-three.
Knocked Down In Snow.
God knows how mean they were
to me and my baby. They wouldn't
buy me any clothes. they wouldn't
buy Viola any clothes: they didn't
feed u.s. They wouldn't buy my
baby any Christmas toys. She had
no Christmas. They forced me to
toll In the fields, aD6 only yester.
day, Johnny, the only brother I
have in the world, knocked me
down and dragged me out into the
snow.
81 won't say any more about it
now"
Sanity Board to Examine Her.
A sanity commission was appoint
ed by Coroner Stanton to examine
Mrs. Hobaugh today. Neighbors
testified the woman had been i'll
and they believed mentally unbal-
anced for years.
Investigators today were attempt.
ing to reconstruct the crime, to de-
termine how a woman weighing
less than 100 pounds and whose
health had weakened to the break
ing point by long illness could have
carried out the massacre.
Evidence, they say, shows that
Henry BasSler was killed first
slain as he sat in a rocking chair
in the parlor of his farm home,
while the baby. Viola, lay asleep
in an adjoining room The slayer,
investigators say, must have crept
stealthily to the side of the chair,
then raised the shot gun and fired
almost point blank, the charge vir-
tually decapitating the aged man.
The baby was awakened by the
blast, according to the picture Of
the crime, which the investigators
have reconstructed. and as she
propped herself up in bed, the
slayer reloaded the weapon and
pressing the muzzle close to the
child's head, fired again. The lit.
Ito headless body then was placed
in its white reed carriage and the
door of the bed room was locked.
While this was taking place,
Mrs. Bassler was at the barn. She,
the investigators say, was killed
as she walked to the house, her
body being dragged to the house
yard in the snow and there covered
with an old carpet snatched from
the back porch.
Erased Traces Of Crime.
Then. the investigators say, there
was a halt in the killings. John
Bassler was at Logansport and
while the slayer awaited his re.
turn, officers say, kept busy with
amateurish efforts to erase traces
Of the crimes. The kitchen floor
scrubbed in spots and on the wall,
over great blotches Of blood, news
papers were pinned.
The work Of cleaning up was
interrupted by the return of John
and, officers say, he was slain as
he put his hand on the knob OF
the kitchen door. The charge was
fired through a glass panel In the
door. His body then was dragged
to the yard and placed beside that
of his mother.
Mrs. Hobough, a widow, then
went to the barn, saddled q horse
and rode TO the home Of a neigh.
Dor where she was natter arrested.
The CasB county grand Mury has
been called for January Ito invos-
tigatO the killings.