KinSource - Tale of the Week - Tragic Tale. A Maniac Mother Shoots Her Husband.

KinSource

Minnesota Sad Tales

St. Paul Morning Globe, October 9, 1880, p. 1

TRAGIC TALE.

A MANIAC MOTHER SHOOTS HER HUSBAND.

Probable Death of Her Victim - The Scene at the Residence - Sleeping Babies, Dying Father and Raving Mother - Shrieks of the Woman and Pleading Appeals of the Wounded Husband - Her Removal to Jail.

About 8 o'clock last evening there was a call for police on the corner of Seventh and Wacouta streets. Officer Casey, although not on watch, answered the call, and learned that a wife had shot her husband and the presence of authorities was needed. Officer Casey at once repaired to the scene of the tragedy, closely followed by a GLOBE reporter, who speedily obtained all facts, which are as follows:

In May last, a man, by the name of Almon Ford, with his wife and three children, removed to this city from the vicinity of Dundas, in Rice county, and rented the upper rooms of No. 24 Linden street. Mr. Ford is a carpenter by trade, and he soon obtained work, and everything went well with them until last Monday, when Mrs. Ford developed signs of being out of her mind. She seemed to be possessed with the idea that some one intended to murder her. Her husband quieted her fears, however, and went to his work as usual, being employed upon the Gotzian block, on Lafayette avenue, until yesterday morning, when his wife showed such evident signs of insanity that he remained at home to look after the children. Shortly before 8 o'clock in the evening, the babe, an infant ten months old, became restive, and Mr. [Ford] took it in his arms and walked the floor for some time in the vain effort to stop its cries. The cries of the child seemed to irritate the wife and mother, and just as Mr. Ford was about to leave the room with the child in his arms, she suddenly seized a revolver which was in the room and fired, the ball missing the child but entering the right breast of the husband and just escaping the heart. The neighbors heard the shot, and as above stated the news was at once sent to the police. When the GLOBE reporter reached the house he found Officer Casey at the door and a large crowd of excited people on the outside. Passing upstairs the GLOBE man saw a most pitiful sight. The room was carpetless and the furniture of the cheapest kind. Upon the bed lay the wounded man, propped up by chairs and pillows, and beside him lay two little children of two and three years of age, fast asleep, while in the center of the room was the [maniacal] wife and mother, shrieking and screaming, in the charge of Officer Nugent with his one arm. A more sad and pitiful sight could not be imagined. The dying husband, the insane wife, shrieking and moaning, and the innocent children sleeping beside their dying father, presented a scene seldom witnessed even by a reporter.

At every sound the poor woman would cry out that some one was going to murder her, and she would spring up with almost super-human strength and endeavor to break away from the officer. In her wildest paroxysms her husband would say, "Jenny, be quiet," and the sound of his faint voice would have its effect for a moment or two, when the sound of a voice from the crowd outside would startle her again, and the cries would ring out, curdling the blood of those a block away.

It was difficult to obtain any definite information in regard to the affair. The man was in full possession of his senses, and from his disjointed statements the above account of the affair was obtained. Some time elapsed before a doctor could be obtained, but finally Dr. Jones arrived, and he at once gave orders to have the man removed to St. Joseph's hospital.

In the meantime Chief Weber had been notified of the sad affair and he ordered a hack and in person went out to the residence, Arriving there he had the husband taken to St. Joseph's hospital, the insane wife taken to the county jail, and the poor little children to the Magdalen Home.

A GLOBE reporter visited the hospital at a late hour last evening and found the wounded man resting easy, free from pain, but spitting blood. Dr. Jones gives it as his opinion that the man could not live. The ball passed very near the heart and internal hemorrhage is going forward. At midnight when a GLOBE reporter called at the county jail the wife was sleeping quietly, unconscious of the fact that her husband was dying by her hand.

From all the GLOBE could learn from the immediate neighbors, they had lived happily together. Both of them are represented as persons of education and some refinement. It is a sad case in all its features.

St. Paul Morning Globe, October 10, 1880, p. 1

The Maniac Mother

The sad and pitiful story related in the GLOBE yesterday morning, by which a recent happy family was broken up, by the shooting of Almon Ford by his insane wife, was the subject of universal remark on the streets yesterday. Its mournful features were added to yesterday by the poor woman being adjudged insane before the probate judge by Doctors Hand and Mattocks, and ordered sent to the asylum at St. Peter. At intervals yesterday she would have violent spells of hysteria, when her shrieks and ravings could be heard all over the jail building. She was more quiet last evening and at a late hour was resting well. She will be taken to St. Peter to-morrow.

In the meantime the wounded husband is doing well and will probably recover. The hemorraghe seems to have ceased and there are no indications as yet of inflammation setting in. Dr. Jones, his attendant physician, was quite hopeful of him last evening.

The three children have been taken in charge by the Relief society, and will be well taken care of until such time as the father can provide for them, in case of his recovery.