People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1896 — CRIMES OF A CRAZED BARBER. [ARTICLE]

CRIMES OF A CRAZED BARBER.

Shoot* His Father-In-Law and Mother-in-Law and Himself. Newton, lowa, Feb. 12.—At noon Tuesday Charles Phares shot and killed his mother-in-law, Mrs. R. T. Smith, and shot his father-in-law, R. T. Smith He then killed himself. Phares was a barber by trade and had been out of work for some time. R. T. Smith is a jeweler and has lived here for about four years. He is dangerously wounded and it is feared he cannot recover. It is believed that Phares was crazy. Mrs. Phares was not present when the tragedy was enacted and is so prostrated that she can throw no light on her husband’s conduct. At noon Phares entered his own home and shot his father-in-law, R. T. Smith, in the left side of the face, the bullet passing out at the right ear. He then turned the revolver on his mother-in-law, shooting her in the mouth. The bullet lodged, in the brain and produced instant death. As soon as Phares had shot boch his father-in-law and mother-in-law he went outside and shot himself through the left temple, dying instantly.