Bilek, Frank c1851 - 1897

BILEK

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 10/8/2017 at 12:03:30

Iowa Plain Dealer May 28, 1897, LP, C7

SUICIDE.
A man by the name of Frank Bilek, living south and west of Maple Leaf, commited suicide by shooting himself on Tuesday the 25, blowing the top of his head off. He was about fifty years of age. He leaves a family. The cause is not reported but it is presumed to be the result of a drunken spree he had been indulging for the past four or five days. He sent his wife away and the morning of the suicide she returned, but her daughter said her father was still intoxicated and she had better not come home yet. He placed the muzzle of a shot gun at his forehead and discharged it by a string attached to the trigger.
The coroner’s inquest developed the fact that he visited Cresco the forenoon of the 24th and commenced his spree, driving to Elma the same afternoon and purchased an 8 gallon keg of beer. In the morning he ordered his daughter to bring him a glass of beer, and when she brought it was told to spill the rest, and while doing so was startled by the report of a gun in his room into which he had locked himself. He had threatened to kill himself, but no thought was taken of the matter as he frequently made such remarks when drinking. We append an exact copy of what he left as his will, written by him and dated the morning of the tragedy:
me make a well mine what belong to me property I devided for six girls ome boy gets 200 dollars a piece Joe 200 clame one 80 section one I wish 40 acres section 15 belong to me been sold and devided to children Joe clame the wagon that belong to me horses and every thing I wish the cattle that belong to me sold give it to the children frank 5 dollars John 5 dollars I give Annie 5 dollars of my property FRANK BILEK.

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