Sign on the Window presents... Truuuuuuuue Crime! Spooky! Because Hollis Brown committed the unspeakable (but singable) and we didn't have room, here's what Mixed Up Confusion was created to serve! Today we talk famous cases of familicide.

We got the heavy hitters: Robert William Fisher, Bradford Bishop, Chris Benoit, Lizzy Borden. We got the historical: Abel Clemmons, Captain James Purrington, Thomas George Woolfolk. We got the early 20th century: George Hassell, Charlie Lawson. We got people too close to today that'll make you feel downright horrible. Daniel also becomes a newsie when he reads the headlines like Rosa Wurzer's from 1901: "KILLS HER SIX CHILDREN.; Crazed by Poverty, Woman Throws Them in a Well, Jumps In, and Deliberately Drowns Them." Or Edwin Stephens from 1905: "INSANE SHOTS END FAMILY. HORRIBLE TRAGEDY AT A ROSS VALLEY CHICKEN RANCH; Sickly Stephens Murders Wife and Three Children in Their Beds, Fatally Shoots Two Remaining Children, Fires at Milkman, Then Takes His Own Life." In the end, John Boecker in 1897 and Lillie May Curtis in 1938 connected (and still connects) "Ballad of Hollis Brown" to this day: "IOWA FARMER'S AWFUL ACT; John Boecker Killed His Wife and Five Children at Night and Then Committed Suicide. ANOTHER CHILD FATALLY SHOT No Motive for the Tragedy Yet Disclosed, Although It is Intimated that There Was Trouble About the Farm;" and "A mother who told officers she was ill and unable to provide for her family killed six of her nine children as they slept at a lonely farm, home near here last night, kissing each good-bye before and after shooting them."

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Season 1 is ova. We will be back for Season 2 on January 8, 2018. We

102 – SELF PORTRAIT

Sign on the WindowBy Sign on the WindowFeb 24, 2020