Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 17, Number 36, DeMotte, Jasper County, 1 August 1947 — AGED MAN GOES MAD, CHOPS OFF HIS WIFE’S HEAD [ARTICLE]

AGED MAN GOES MAD, CHOPS OFF HIS WIFE’S HEAD

Seattle, July 31 A 78 year old man chopped off his wife’s head with a hatchet today and

tried to kill himself with a butcher krlife. Police said Gust Johnson apparently had gone mad while eating breakfast with his wife, Hulda, 75, detective Leo P. Helmer said that from the scene and neighbor’s reports it appeared that Johnson had almost decapitated his wife with a single blow from a hand axe. r Johnson then grabbed a butcher knife, slashed his own arms and plunged the weapon into his head. Running from the house,

he leaped into the family car and tried to drive into Green Lakea large lake inside the Seattle city limits. Mrs. Johnson’s body w’as found on the kitchen floor of their home after patrolmen from a prowler car had subdued Johnson.