In the News! "Kills Father with Hammer"

 

Kills Father with Hammer

What an interesting newspaper title!  This is an article that came up when I was researching my grandfather’s little brother – Fred Schoenewald. Now that’s a show stopper!  What are they talking about???

Below I have included the newspaper articles that can be read in more detail; however, here are the highlights.

James Rau, 21, went over to Adam Schoenewald’s house where he met with Fred. He asked Fred to drive him over to the home of his sister and Fred agreed to do so. At that point, James told both Fred and Adam that he had killed his father. While Fred drove James to his sister’s house, Adam called the police and James was taken to the county jail.

James’ story to the police:

He had slipped up behind his father and killed him with a hammer, then cut his throat. The sheriff asked why. James replied “Oh, I don’t know. It just came over me that this was a good time to kill him and I did”.

When asked if he had stopped to think what would happen to him, he stated: “Oh perhaps electrocution or hanging, it did not make any difference as he was Christ and bound to hang anyway” James said he quarreled with his father about having a family.

What exactly happened after that, I am not sure as I did not do any additional research on this event. But it sure sounds like James must have been somewhat insane to kill his father and then be so calm about it.

Source: Page 1 of Northern Idaho news, published in  Sandpoint Idaho on Tuesday, May 28, 1929.