Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 59, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1908 — Craven Son Murders Mother. [ARTICLE]

Craven Son Murders Mother.

Another horrible crime has been enacted in Indiana and it is one of the most degrading that ever took place within Hoosier borders. It was the killing of Mrs. William Blake, of Anderson, by her drink-depraved son, Grover Blake, and a companion of his. The Blakes were a well known and fairly well-to-do family of Ahdqrson and the son was a fine looking young chap but he had wandered from the influences of home when a very young man and had given his parents constant trouble. Thinking it would dp him good his father had induced him to join the regular army one time but the indulgent mother pleaded so for him that he was finally discharged and he returned home to continue the debauchery of drinking and gambling tbat had led him to a life of degradation and that finally bas brought him to the scafJ

Young Blake and a companion named Orlo Reynolds, had become drunk last Saturday and were with-! out money to continue their debauch and so they went to the Blake home, where the son with a hammer as a weapon cooly murde: ed his mother in order to get some money she had refused him. they then took her watch and rings and went to a saloon and later went to Fort Wayne, where they spent a night carousing and they were at the depot await-! ing a tralh for Michigan when they were arrested by officers and Blake after some sweat-box questioning confessed the murder and related the details of the crime. The young men were returned to Anderson, where they are now in jail, Blake with the charge of murder in the first degree against him and Reynolds charged with being an accessory to the deed. The horrible crime presents a forcible argumennt against the saloon, where the boys had spent their money and where the plans for the murder were formed, it also argues against the indulgence of parents for wayward sons, as it Is said Mrs. Blake had repeatedly prevented the son from being punished for various misdemeanors. If punishment had been meted out to him in proportion to the bad things he had done he might have been reformed, his mother’s life spared and he a respected man.