A TERRIBLE DEED.
JOHN BECKER, JR., OF ARCADIA TOWNSHIP, SHOOTS HIS FAMILY AND THEN COMMITS SUICIDE.

One of the most terrible deeds ever known in the history of Carroll County, was committed Sunday night, by John Becker, who lives in the northeast corner of Arcadia Township, about eight miles northwest of Carroll. When the word reached Manning, Monday, Douglas Rogers and Bert Kraus drove over to see the awful sight, and we are entitled to Mr. Rogers for the following description:

"It was an awful sight," said Mr. Rogers, "and I hope I shall never see another like it. We reached there in the evening, and found that the bodies had not yet been moved from the positions which they occupied when they were shot. The house stands back from the road about twenty rods, in a corn field, and from the house of John Becker Sr., father of the murderer, who owns the house in which the sad affair happened. It was a story and a half house, three rooms below, a kitchen on the north, a parlor on the east and back of which was the bedroom where the father, mother and babe slept. Upstairs are two rooms, a bed room in which we found the five older children, and one unoccupied room. As we went into the bed room below an awful sight met our eyes. Back against the wall lay the wife who had been murdered with the contents of an old musket. She was shot through the throat and back of the head. Nestling in her bosom, and beneath her out-stretched arm, lay a little babe of three months old, apparently in a peaceful slumber, whose little innocent life had been taken by shooting it in the head with a revolver and then beating its skull in with the butt end of the weapon. On the front side of the bed lay the perpetrator with a bullet in his brain and the revolver in the bed by his side. His hand was powder burned from the use of the weapon. He was lying quietly but still breathing. We then went upstairs, and there the sight was worse than below. On the front side of the south bed, lay the fourteen-year-old girl, Caroline, the oldest of the family, with two bullet holes in her forehead; in the middle, lay the little four-year-old son, John, and back against the wall was Lizzie, aged six, whose brains were blown out, many of which were splattered on the wall. All were in an apparently peaceful slumber. On the other side of the room, in the other bed, lay Christine aged ten, and Henry aged eight, both with bullet holes in their foreheads. Christine was dead, but the boy was still alive. He had moved around a great deal and was laying at the foot of the bed in a pool of blood."

Mr. Rogers is of the opinion that the deed was committed early in the evening, as three of the children had vomited and the food was undigested.

A coroner's jury was impaneled about 3:30 Monday afternoon, consisting of C.E. Reynolds, C.C. Colclo and Ed Richman. After viewing the remains, they adjourned till Thursday morning at which time they will meet in Coroner Spaulding's office.

It has since come to light that Becker recently bought chloroform at LeDue's store, in Breda, saying that he used it in a medicine for hog cholera. As to a motive for the deed, We quote the following from the Carroll Herald: "It is in the light of such evidence hard to find a motive for the deed.

But a neighbor told a reporter that there was trouble, though not considered of a serious nature. He alleged that John Becker, Sr., had some time ago notified John, Jr., that he must move away, and that the farm was to be managed by Henry, the younger brother. This was not to John's liking and for a long time he dissented from the ruling relatives and held the fort, but lately he had acquiesced, against his will. It might be possible, that that was the upshot of the whole sad affair. That John may have brooded until he became insane, and then with devilish cunning, concealed his real intention by signifying his readiness to remove.

But rather than leave the home, to which he was attached, committed the most frightful deed ever perpetrated in the history of Carroll County. Later information shows conclusively that the motive was, as above stated, John's desire to stay on the farm. Recently he took a trip to Minnesota with Will Hombach with the purpose in view of buying a farm, but returned home and desired the father to send Henry to Minnesota. This Mr. Becker refused to do and Henry a short time ago commenced plowing on the homestead. John was much incensed at this, although he had agreed to remove. Since that time he has been regarded as more or less insane although he has at no time been under surveillance. Everything goes to show that it was a pre-meditated murder by a man whose mind was somewhat unbalanced.

LATER: The funeral of the wife and five children was held in the Catholic Church at Breda. Wednesday morning, interment in the Catholic Cemetery following the services. The father died Wednesday afternoon, and the little son, Henry, after lingering three days and nights, died Wednesday. Thus has an entire family been unnaturally hurled into the Great Beyond. On Becker's overalls were found blood marks which, beyond a doubt, is the blood of those, for whose existence he was responsible. Later reports also say that a lantern all spattered with blood was found in the room.

The coroner's jury has not yet completed its work, but it is not likely that it will bring out anything new.

As we consider the awful facts of the crime, we can but arrive at the conclusion that Becker was an insane man. No man in his right mind, no matter how nearly depraved he might be, could have the nerve to deliberately take the lives of his own little innocent babes, of his own grown children, and of the wife whose life he promised to protect when he led her to the marriage alter."

October 8, 1897
MURDER AND SUICIDE.
The Coroner's Jury Bring in Its Verdict.
The jury has completed its work in the Becker murder case, by bringing in the verdict of murder and suicide. The following rendered for Mrs. Becker is the same form used for each of the children:
STATE OF IOWA, Carroll County ss,
At an inquest held on Section 1, in Arcadia Township, Carroll County, Iowa, commencing on the 27th day of September, 1897, and ending October 2, 1897, before C.W. Spaulding, coroner of said county, upon the body of Mrs. Anna Becker, there lying dead, by the jurors whose names are hereto subscribed, the said jurors upon their oath to say that the said Anna Becker came to her death by a gun shot wound inflicted by a revolver in the hands of John Becker, Jr., now deceased. In testimony whereof the said jurors have hereunto set their hands, this 2d day of October 1897. ED F. RICHMANN, C.C. COLCLO, C.E. REYNOLDS.
Attest: C. W. Spaulding, coroner.

The work was done thoroughly, every possible bit of evidence being obtained. With Becker, himself, it was a case of suicide and a verdict was rendered accordingly.