FRANK J. THENO FOUND SHOT TO DEATH IN HOME-1939

THENO, WRIGHT, DIDESCH, LARSON, KUTCH

Posted By: cheryl moonen (email)
Date: 11/16/2017 at 19:23:34

DUBUQUE TELEGRAPH HERALD AND TIMES JOURNAL; Dubuque, Iowa, August, 3, 1932

FRANK J. THENO
FOUND SHOT TO
DEATH IN HOME
~
Death Pronounced Clear
Case of Suicide – Body
Found By Wife
~
The body of Frank J. Theno, 47 years old, was found in the bathroom of the roadside inn he operated on the Asbury Road, near Asbury, between 1 and 1:30 o’clock Wednesday morning.

A bullet had passed through his heart. On the floor beside the body was a .32 caliber automatic revolver.

Coroner Al Didesch said that it was a clear case of suicide and that Theno was dead for from ten to twelve hours before his body was discovered.

Body Found by Wife
The gruesome find was made by Theno’s wife, who had not, according to the story she related to the coroner, been at the inn since Sunday.

Theno, according to the coroner, was in the place alone from noon Tuesday up to the time his body was found.

Sometime on the morning Theno, the coroner said, told a friend that he was sick and that he wanted his wife to come home. This information was imparted to Mrs. Theno late Tuesday night and she went home arriving here shortly after 1 o’clock Wednesday morning.

Theno was not in his bed and she went to the bathroom in her search for him. There she found his body. He had removed all of his clothing and apparently had been in bed before he ended his life.

Heard Revolver Shot
Peter Larson, employed by the Thenos’, said, according to the coroner, that at noon Tuesday Theno instructed him not to let any person enter the house.

Larson said that along 2 and 3 o’clock in the afternoon he heard a gunshot, but paid no attention to it as he did not believe that it came from the house. He told the coroner he thought that somebody was doing some shooting in the woods in the vicinity.

Inasmuch as Theno was dead from 10 to 12 hours before his body was found, it was believed this shot heard between 2 and 3 o’clock in the afternoon was the one that killed Theno, and that he died by his own hand.

Funeral Friday
Theno’s body was removed to the Didesch Funeral Home and the funeral will be held from their Friday, the time to be announced later.

Theno was born in Dubuque and was at one time a railroad man. He operated the roadside inn at Asbury for the past six years at one time his place was practically wiped out by a fire.

He is survived by his widow whose married name was Grace Wright, and one sister, Mrs. Catherine Kutch, of Dubuque. His parents are dead.