George W. Austin (1935)
AUSTIN, GIBBONS, GILMORE
Posted By: Pat Hochstetler (email)
Date: 12/17/2011 at 08:10:31
Winterset Madisonian – September 5, 1935
Pg 1FEELING RUNS HIGH OVER AUSTIN SUICIDE
Lorimor Residents Resent The Refusal of Wife To Bury Victim
Lorimor—(Special)—Feeling was high in this community early this week as the result of the suicide of George W. Austin, 75-year-old retired farmer and banker here.
Austin shot himself to death early Sunday morning on the lawn of his home here, after kindling fires in the house and garage. The blaze was apparently his attempt to take with him the property, formerly his, but which his wife had persuaded him to deed over to her daughter.
Neighbors were attracted by the blaze and saved the house from the flames, but the garage and the automobile it contained were destroyed.
Austin’s body was being held Tuesday, while efforts were being made to obtain funds for funeral expenses. Although he had been considered a wealthy man, his death revealed that all his property had been deeded over to his wife’s daughter, and she refused to stand funeral expenses.
In a note found by the body, Austin blamed his wife for the tragedy. She was the former Lura Gilmore of Rosendale, Missouri, and is many years younger than her husband. They were married last March.
On the night of the tragedy they had apparently quarreled, for Mrs. Gilmore spent the night at a hotel. Austin planned the suicide thoroughly. He packed a bag with clothes in which he wished to be buried and placed them on the lawn, together with a canary that had belonged to his first wife. Then he set four fires in the basement of the house, and another in the garage. This done, he went out into the yard and fired a shotgun charge into his head. He died instantly.
A note, pinned on a clean shirt in a bag, said:
“To Whom This May Concern: You all want to know what caused this tragedy and my death. This woman I married last spring is the cause of my death and all the rest of this. She has treated me like a dumb brute and threatened everything against me, and I can’t stand it any longer, so I am putting a stop to it all. She made her brags how nice her and her hired man would live as soon as they got rid of me. Now we will see whether they will or not.”
On another note he directed where papers could be found which would provide funds for the funeral. Upon investigation, these notes proved to be worthless.
Austin had no children. The nearest relative is a half-brother in Colorado.
Mrs. Austin was taken to Creston Sunday, by Union county officers for investigation. She was released later.
A committee of Lorimor citizens was negotiating with Mrs. Austin early this week in an effort to persuade her to take care of the burial expense. As the Madisonian went to press she was firm in her refusal.
Austin was well known in Winterset, and was here the afternoon before his death. For many years he operated a farm in Monroe township, about three miles northwest of Barney. After moving to Lorimor he became vice president of the bank there, and was a past master of the Masonic lodge and a member of the Shrine.
Transcriber's note: Burial was made in the Barney cemetery next to his first wife, Florence Gibbons Austin.
Gravestone Photo
Madison Obituaries maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
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