Murder Suicide @ Mt. Pleasant - 1906

ALLEN, BECKER

Posted By: A.M.W. (email)
Date: 5/26/2004 at 23:10:18

3-1-1906 – Wayland News

MURDER AND SUICIDE AT MT. PLEASANT

Young Man Shoots Young Lady and Kills Himself

Last Friday night, Mt. Pleasant was terribly shocked and clouded with gloom by the awful tragedy of the murder of Miss Florence Allen, and the suicide of Eldridge Becker. The young man and lady had both been to a recital at Howe’s academy, in which the lady was a teacher and the young man a student. The young man had formerly been paying attention to Miss Allen, but lately she had declined his attentions and that night she refused his company. She got home about ten o’clock and soon after young Becker followed her, went into the house and shot her. She died in a very short time. The mother and daughter were alone and when the mother saw that the young man intended to shoot her daughter she shielded her as much as possible, but in so doing she was slightly wounded herself, the ball passing through the fleshy part of her side and striking the daughter in the back, just below the shoulder.

A crowd soon gathered and the excitement was at a high pitch. The question who did it passed from one to another. Circumstances that were called to mind soon fixed suspicions upon young Becker. Several men went to his room and found him dead, he having put a bullet through his own head.