Valley Jct. Man Kills 2 Sons, Self

BELL

Posted By: Volunteer: Sherri
Date: 8/30/2013 at 11:03:13

Valley Jct. Man Kills 2 Sons, Self

**Handwritten: April (3) Mon. 1933

Des Moines - (AP) - John S. Bell, aged 59, justice of the peace at Valley Junction, a nearby suburb, killed his two youngest sons this morning and committed suicide.

According to Mrs. Bell, she was awakened by a shot and met her husband as he came out of a front bedroom carrying a shotgun with which he had just killed the younger boy, Jess, 20 years old.

He ordered out of the way on the threat of shooting her, she said, and then went into another bedroom where he shot and killed the second son, Byron, aged 22. He then turned the gun on himself.

Mrs. Bell said her husband had been in ill health and had complained of severe headaches and inability to sleep. A local minister added that he had termed himself "almost crazy from worrying about those two boys" both of whom have been unemployed for some time.

Investigation by Polk county officers of justices of the peace courts have brought to criticism of his court, they declared today. He had served as justice for three years since his retirement as a locomotive engineer on the Rock Island railroad.

In addition to his widow, Bell is survived by two daughters, Mrs. T.W. Sarles of Cincinnati and Mrs. Clare Chittenden of Des Moines, two sons, Dr. ?? Bell of Grand Island, Neb. and Dr. ?.R. Bell of Clinton, Iowa, and two sisters, Miss Carrie Bell of Des Moines, and Mrs. George N. Shepherd of Chester, Mont.

Source: Van Buren Co. Genealogical Society Obituary Book C, Page 206, Keosauqua Public Library, Keosauqua, IA

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