Evening star., 1936-07-13
MOTHER BELIEVED
SUICIDE ANDK|LLER
OF 3 IN VIRGINIA
Coroner Says Woman Shot
Parent, IS, and Two
Sons to Death.
BEDS OF VICTIMS ARE
FIRED BY SLAYER
Bodies Found in Farm House
Near Berryville by Another
Member of Family.
BY JOHN III. CLINE,


BERRYVILLE, Va, July 13-Triple
murder and suicide is the theory of
the quadruple gunshot killing early
today of an 87-year- bed-ridden
grandmother. her 45-year-old daugh-
ter and her two grandsons in lonely
farm house miles east of here, pro-
pounded by authorities this afternoon.
Mrs. May Smallwood, one of the
dead, is believed by Acting Coroner
A. P. Osborne to have gone suddenly
insane and killed with shotgun her
mother, Mrs. Virginia Elsea: her son.
Ebert Smallwood, %, and another
son, Alfred Smallwood, II. The slay-
er then is believed to have set fire to
the beds of her victims. Then she is
believed to have turned the gun on
herself.
The four lived in a frame dwelling
in the western foothills of the Blue
Ridge Mountains, a short distance
from the Shenandoah River.
Discovered by Son.
The tragedy was discovered at about
$50 am. by Joe Elsea, son of the
dead octogenarian, and Gilbert Fowler,
who. according to their custom, came
up to the farm house at that time to
meet Ebert Smallwood, who worked
with them on an adjoining farm.
The two men noticed smoke curling
from the house. When they found all
the doors and windows barred from
the inside, they forced an entrance.
In a smouldering bed on the first
floor they found Mrs. Smallwood, a
divorce and daughter -in-law of Sher-
if William Smallwood of Clarke Coun-
ty and Mrs. Elsea. In the kitchen next
to the bed room were splatters of blood
and single-barrel .12-gauge shotgun
Rcys' Bodies Upstairs.
Upstairs iE another bed room and
In different beds were the bodies of
Ebert, the back of his head blown
away by shotgun blast, and Alfred.
dead from two bullets in his chest.
Their beds, too, smouldered from a
fire fed by kerosene.
Elsea and Fowler beat out the fires
and dragged the bodies into the farm
yard. Then they notified authorities
in Berryville, the county seat. At once
Sheriff Smallwood, Coroner Osborne
and Commonwealth Attorney Edward
McC. Williams hurried to the scene.
When they had completed their in
vestigation, after the four bodies had
been sent to the John A. Enders fu-
neral parlor here, it was decided to hold
an inquest at some time later in the
afternoon.
Coroner's Theory.
According to the theory held by
Osborne, Mrs. Smallwood, who has
been in Ill health, reached for her
shotgun at about 6 am. She stalked
upstairs and blew off her elder sons
head.
AS she reloaded, Osborne thinks,
Alfred awoke. His mother fired hur-
riedly, striking him in the chest. Fear
full lest he not be dead, she fired
again.
Her next step, in the Osborne theory,
was to walk downstairs and aim her
weapon at Mrs. Elsea, whom she
fatally wounded in the breast. Then
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into the kitchen, where she pointed
the gun at her left arm pit and
pulled the trigger.
The shot missed her heart, but
pierced her lung. She staggered the
five steps from the kitchen to her
bed-and fell on the srnouldering
mattress.
One gun and five empty shells were
turned over at once to Winchester
fingerprint experts.
Family Lived Peacefully.
The slain family, who lived near
Providence Chapel, a church on
farm owned by a Winchester citizen,
had had no trouble with other per-
sons, according to Mrs. Ammi Kelly,
q kirSwoman, who visited the death
house this morning.
"The four died in their beds" she
said. But they weren't much burnt.
Mr.. Elsea and Fowler must have got
there soon after they were killed"
Mrs. Smallwood was in good spirits
late yesterday, Luther Thompson, a
neighbor, told the authorities.
II was over there all day yesterday"
he said, land everything was all right.
Mrs. Smallwood had asked me to spend
the night"