Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 69, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1898 — CRIME OF A FATHER [ARTICLE]

CRIME OF A FATHER

A New York Shopkeeper Murders Two of His Childrea. A THIRD RECEIVES MORTAL WOUNDS. The Murderer Then Attempt* to Kill Himself— tufoelunnte Mon Commits the Deed While Temporarily Deranged. New York, May 4.—Jacob Gramm, a small shopkeeper 50 years old, living on Morton street, on Tuesday murdered two of his children, mortally wounded a third and inflicted fatal wounds on himself. The children are Ella, five 1 years; John, seven years, and a baby, Frank, 1% years of age. Ella and Frank are dead. The father and the lad John are in the New York hospital. During the absence of his wife, whom he had sent to hunt for a new flat, Gra'mm told a neighbor woman who had been left in charge of the children that he would take them upstairs and put them to sleep. Gramm’s son Edward returned from school at three o'clock and was sent to awaken his father and the children. The chamber door was fastened and he climbed the fire escape, discovering the butchery through a window. Gramm lay on the floor and the three children upon a bed. The children had been frightfully slashed with an ax. Their father had used a bread knife to gash his throat. A note found beneath the bloody ax, written by Gramin, indicated, that his act was caused by jealousy of his wife. Those knowing him state that he was temporarily deranged by intense suffering from rheumatism.