Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1893 — ACT OF A DRUNKEN FIEND. [ARTICLE]

ACT OF A DRUNKEN FIEND.

Jordan Kills His Wife, Her Sister, and Parents, and Himself. As the result of a terrible tragedy growing out of a family feud five persons are dead in their country home, several miles east of Seymour. Ind., says a dispatch. Four years ago Clinton Joi’dan, then 21 years old, married a daughter of Joshua Foster, with whom he never lived happily. Last week they separated, and she returned to the heme of her father. The other night Jordan met his father-in-law and accompanied him home in spite of his protests, as ho feared trouble. Jordan promised to behave, but soon after his arrival at Fester’s home he began a quarrel. When Foster then ordered him out of the house Jordan fired at the old man. The ball missed him and struck Cora Foster, aged 17, in the head, killing her instantly. A second shot hit Foster in the head and knocked him down. The old man picked himself up and ran about half a mile to the home of anc-thor of his sons-in-laws, William Powell. He fell unconscious and lingered until late in .the afternoon, when he died. Jordan then turned his revolver on Mrs. Foster, his mother-in-law, shooting her in the neck, the ball ranging downward and causing a wound from which she died. Jordan's wife attempted to defend her mother, and he stabbed her repeatedly in the breast, hands and face, and ended by shooting her through the head. Jordan then opened his vest, placed the revolver against his breast, and sent a ball through his heart. He dropped dead, falling across the dead body of his wife. The revolver was new and had evidently been bought with premeditated purpose of killing his victims. The knife with which the murderer’s wifo was so cruelly gashed was also new and long and had been freshly sharpened. Jordan had an unsavory reputation and in frequent spells of intoxication was ugly and quarrelsome. All the other victims were peaceful and orderly citizens. Jordan, the assassin and suicide, was illiterate and stupid, but had always been considered harmless.