STROUD, Frank

STROUD, MARSHALL, BUCH, WILSON, MCKITTRICK, BUSHNELL, EDWARDS, STRANATHAN, MYERS, SWOPE, DONELAN, DAY, HAINES, MCDANIEL, BUFFINGTON, GOODRICH, GRAVES, THOMAS

Posted By: Roseanna Zehner (email)
Date: 1/12/2005 at 14:30:10

Mills County Tribune
October 2, 1911

Murder and Suicide at Hillsdale Last Friday

Frank Stroud, Crazed With Drink, Kills Mrs. Walter Marshall and Then Ends His Own Life

One of the most shocking tragedies in the history of Mills County was enacted at an early hour Friday morning at Hillsdale.

Frank Stroud killed the wife of his neighbor Mrs. Walter Marshall, and an hour later, as the officers were appearing at his home in an automobile, took his own life.

The Marshalls are tenants on the Henry Buch farm at the west edge of Hillsdale. At about 5:45, just as it was getting day light, Mrs. Marshall was without warning shot down as she was sitting at the breakfast table. Stroud used a shot gun and fired through an open window, the charge entering the back of her head.

He went at once to his home, a half mile away, in the north part of Hillsdale, and later telephoned to his daughter Mrs. D.L. Wilson to come over to his house.

Officers Arrive Early

Marshall at once phoned for Dr. McKittrick at Tabor, and then called up Sheriff Bushnell.

The sheriff with Deputy Edwards were soon on the way to Clyde Stranathan’s auto. They arrived at the Marshall home at about 6:45, and after a few moments delay started in search of Stroud, going direct to his home.

As the officers pulled into the yard they heard a shot fired. Mrs. Wilson, the daughter, was standing in front of the house, and at the sound of the shot she threw up her hands in a frenzied manner. It was thought at first she had been shot, but upon entering the house Stroud was found on the floor, still breathing.

He had blown his face off with a shot gun, and was fearfully disfigured. Death soon followed.

The Husband’s Story

Mr. Marshall, the husband, is at a loss to account for the motive which impelled Stroud to commit the crime. He is inclined to believe that Stroud attempted to win his wife and persuade her to leave him, and was actuated by revengefulness and drunken fury at her refusal.

He says that on Thursday the day before the crime Stroud came to his house while his wife was alone, and he and her brother Clarence Thomas were at work in the corn field. Stroud asked her if she was alone, and then insisted that someone was upstairs in the house. He was evidently drunk, and Mrs. Marshall, becoming frightened and seeking opportunity to escape, told him he could go up and look. He did so, and while he was upstairs, Mrs. Marshall ran out of the house and hid in the bushes nearby, where she watched further developments.

After a time he came down and went to his buggy in which he had come, and drove away rapidly. Mrs. Marshall then started towards the house, but before she reached it she saw Stroud returning on foot, and she stopped, and hid again. Stroud entered the house again and a moment later left again and went back towards his home at Hillsdale, in the direction he had driven.

Mr. Marshall came in from the field about this time, carrying a little boy that had fallen asleep. He met Stroud as he was leaving, and spoke to him, but Stroud did not reply. Mrs. Marshall then came into the house and told her husband what had happened. An inspection of the house showed that Stroud had taken a cloak belonging to Mrs. Marshall that had been hanging upstairs, and that he had left a revolver and some other articles in the road near where he had left his buggy when he first entered the house.

Mrs. Marshall told her husband Stroud’s attitude had been threatening and she was afraid of him. Mr. Marshall proposed to go over to Stroud’s home at once and ascertain what he meant by such action, but Mrs. Marshall prevailed upon him to postpone it until morning. She said Stroud was drunk and unreasonable—that it would be impossible to talk to him, and she feared he would kill or attempt to kill Marshall if he should go to the Stroud home at that time.

The next morning Mr. and Mrs. Marshall talked the matter over again, and were talking about it at the time of the killing. Her brother was at the barn, and Marshall and his wife were alone in the kitchen.

The killing shot came without warning.

Mrs. Marshall was sitting where her head and shoulders could be seen through the window through which the shot came. When it came she three her hand above her head and fell over.

Mr. Marshall then ran out of the house, calling to Clarence at the barn. He saw Stroud run around the corner of the house, and from there he entered a corn field and probably followed it back to him home.

Mr. Marshall says further, that a short time ago a neighbor suggested to him that Stroud was planning trouble for him and his wife—putting pebbles in his path. Marshall mentioned this to his wife, and she replied that he had never made any improper proposals to her, and she did not at that time intimate that there was liable to be any trouble.

Mrs. Wilson’s Story

Mrs. Wilson in her testimony before the coroner’s jury stated that her father telephoned to her at 6:30, asking her to come over at once, but did not tell her what had happened.

She was horrified when her father told what he had done. He told her that he had spent the night sleeping down in the brush on the old “Q” right of way. While they were talking they saw the auto with the officers pass down the road toward the Marshall home.

Stroud said he would stay at the house and “shoot it out till he died.” Mrs. Wilson, fearful for the lives of the officers and the safety of her father, urged him to flee. He told her he had no money, whereupon she told him to hide in the corn and she would go to her home and get him some money.

She was on the point of starting for her home when the officers appeared.

The Coroner’s Inquest

Justice C.W. Edwards of Glenwood was deputized to act as coroner, and the two Glenwood undertakers were notified. E.M. Myers took charge of the remains of Mrs. Marshall and J.A. Swope went to the Stroud home. Dr. J.M. Donelan was also summoned from Glenwood.

The coroner’s jury comprised F.G. Day, J.A. Swope and Everett Haines. Short sessions at each home were held, and their verdicts were in accordance with the facts as we have given them.

Whiskey Destroyed

An incident at the coroner’s inquest was the destruction of a gallon jug of whiskey which had been received by Stroud, but the package had not been opened. Justice Edwards ordered the liquor to be destroyed on request of a relative of the dead man.

The label on the package read: “Intoxicating liquor, 4 per cent alcohol, to J.F. Stroud, Glenwood, Iowa. From J.E. McDaniel, Plattsmouth, Neb.”

The label was misleading, and evidently was intended for beer shipments. The whiskey burned readily when spilled on the ground, and showed plainly that it contained much more than four per cent alcohol.

Stroud is said to have been drinking heavily since the death of his wife a year ago last spring.

C.R. Buffington, at the request of relatives has been appointed administrator of the estate of the dead man.

Funerals on Sunday

The funeral of Mr. Stroud took place from the home Sunday morning at 10:30, and was conducted by Rev. E.E. Goodrich. Burial was made in the Hillsdale cemetery.

His full name was Joseph Franklin Stroud, and he was born in Pennsylvania, and his age was 57 years, 8 months and 19 days.

He was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Alex Stroud, who have lived for a number of years at Hillsdale. He is also survived by five daughters, four of whom are married. Two of the deceased's sisters live in this locality.

The funeral of Mrs. Marshall was held on Sunday afternoon from the home, conducted by Rev. W.N. Graves. Burial was made at Glenwood cemetery.

The deceased was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Abe Thomas, living south of Glenwood, and she was born in Mills County Jan. 6, 1884, and was past 26 years of age at her death.

Besides her parents and husband, she is survived by two small children, ages 3 and 7, and by five brothers, and six sisters.