Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 284, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1914 — WIFE UNFAITHFUL, HUSBAND MURDERS [ARTICLE]

WIFE UNFAITHFUL, HUSBAND MURDERS

William McCoy Killed Wife and Paramour at Frankfort—horrible Crime After Discovery.

Frankfort, Dec. I.—One of the most horrifying double murders ever recorded in the criminal annals of Indiana was committed here at 6:30 o’clock this rporning. Norma McCoy and her paramour, John Byreley, are dead, William McCoy occupies a felon’s cell at the Clinton county jail, and Doris and Opal McCoy, the little children of Norma and William McCoy are left worse than orphans. This is the toll of a wife’s unfaithfulness, a friend’? deception and an outraged husband’s wrath. / Just at the break of a nefw day, £ - the Working people along Rossville avenue were busy getting ready to resume their daily toil, the stillness .of the air was broken by the sharp report of a shotgun, followed by the agonized scream of a woman and four mate reports of the gun. Hurried investigation made by the neighbors living near the home of William and Norma McCoy revealed the slaughter that had taken place in the street in front of their homes. On the south side of the. street John Byreley lay mortally wounded. Mrs. McCoy lay dead at the edge of the sidewalk, in the yard that surrounds the house, which a few minutes before she called home, and William McCoy, her (husband, stood over her prostrate foun with a smoking shotgun in his hands. Little Doris and Opal' McCoy, clad only in their nighties, stood shivering in the doorway of the McCoy home, calling alternately, “Papa! Mama!’’ neither realizing that the mother for whom they called would answer no more, nor that the father who hoard but did not answer, was a murderer. The scene was the most pathetic that ibas ever.been witnessed in all Clinton county. Knowing of his wife’s infatuation for Byreley, and believing that clandestine meetings were being held at his home during his absence, McCoy, in place of going to work, watched for developments at his humble home. He saw John Byreley, his one-time friend, and companion, come up the street and enter the yard of his home. McCoy went to the home of a neighbor, and borrowed a double-barrel six-teen-guage shotgun, on the pretense that he wanted to kill some cats. Jacobs gave his neighbor the gun and six shells, and he departed. When McCoy entered the house his wife and Byreley fled. He followed them and fired a charge at Byrel’ey, striking him in the back. The next charge struck him in the shoulder. Mrs. McCoy, seeing that her hubsand was firing at Byreley, ran between them to try to save him and received the third charge. It entered (her left shoulder. Byreley fell prostrate in the street. f ; Mrs. McCoy returned to her Own door yard and fell on her knees before her husband. She begfeed, “Ob, papa, please don’t shoot me,” but her plea fell on deaf earn McCoy reloaded the gun and placed the muzzle at his wife’s head and fired, blowing her brains out. He then crossed the street to where Byreley lay and seeing that he was still breathing placed the gun within a few inches of his face and fired. He then ran to his home and picking up bus children carried them into the house. McCoy went out of the house through the kitchen, picking up a bottle of carbolic acid that was on a shelf. He started to drink it as a neighbor knocked the bottle from his hands.

Byreley did not die at once but passed away later. McCoy was taken to jail. He talked about his crime, saying that (he had been informed by neighbors about Byreley’s attentions to his wife and that he had tried riot to believe their stories, but his wife had informed him that she loved Byreley and expected to leave with him. When he saw with his own eyes the things his neighbors had told him he became enraged and the deed followed. Byreley’s wife had left him because of his attentions to Mrs McCoy. Byreley had claimed to be a friend, of McCoy. The murderer informed the officers and reporters that he was glad he had killed the man who had darkened his home, but was sorry he had killed his wife. He said he had not intended to do so, > but was overcome with irage. Frankfort was never so wrought up over a crime as it is at this time. Why suffer catarrh and let it ruin your health and happiness. Simply breathe Hyomei. B. F. Fendig sells It on the “No-cure-mnpay” plan. Begin treatment now and get quiek and lasting relief.