Unduly Intimate

KILLED HIS SON

Man Near Richardton Arrested for the Killing of His Son.

There was excitement at Richardton the first of the week when it was noised around that John Brown had been suspected of killing his twelve-year-old son.

It seems that the boy was killed on Saturday, and that the father went to Richardton, where he procured a rough board box and had the son buried on Sunday.

The father tells that he does not know how the boy was killed. He left him to open a gate near the house to let some horses in or out, and on returning to the place found John dead.

The neighbors tell a different story. They say that the father became enraged at the son for some reason and pounced upon him with the intent to beat him, and there killed him. They say that when the fight began the mother and other children went into hiding, where they remained for a long time. On the witness stand at Richardton the mother said that she was away and did not know anything about the matter. The children, however, testified that the enraged father killed John and threatened to treat them in the same manner if they told.

The exhumed body showed a bruise on one wrist and that the neck was broken. There was also a bad rupture in the vicinity of the abdomen.

The coroner's verdict was that the young man came to his death at the hands of his father, by felonious means.

The coroner issued a warrant for John Brown's arrest and he was placed in jail to await a hearing.

Wahpeton Times, 5/27/1904


Ransack Church


Posted 05/01/2018