People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 April 1896 — MURDERS WIFE AND SON. [ARTICLE]

MURDERS WIFE AND SON.

Atrocious Crime In Hamilton County May Result In Lynching. One of the most atrocious crimes ever committed in Hamilton county occurred in the German settlement, eight miles north of McLeansboro, 111., Sunday afternoon about five o’clock. Ben Boehmer, a well-to-do faYmer 40 years of age, cut his wife’s throat and hanged his S'Oyear-old son to a rafter in his stable. After committing these deeds he covered the bodies with fodder corn to hide his crime, and made his escape to the woods. Boehmer an dhis wife had had trouble for some time over religious differences, he being a non-believer in Catholicism, while she was a Catholic. Sheriff Buck and several deputies went in pursuit of him, and he was captured near Carmi, 111. A great deal of excitement prevails in the German settlement, and lynching is strongly talked of, but it is not thought that Sheriff Buck will bring Boehmer here until the excitement subsides. '