Murder or Suicide ?

     Now that I have your attention...Today I was doing some research for the fire department, when I came across this article that I had saved. It has nothing to do with fires, but it is a good example of how things were reported in the papers in the late 1800's. It is from the Tuesday March 14, 1893 edition of the Streator Daily Monitor, one of three papers in the city at the time. I will put it here exactly how it was printed in the paper.
         

          Murder or Suicide ?
---------------------------------------
The Police Department Has A Mystery To Solve.
------------------------------------------------------------

     Fritz Belocks is an aged German who resides in a little black shanty along side of the Alton track, some two hundred yards south of the depot. Last night he got home from Parker's tile factory about 6:30 and upon entering his home he found that his housekeeper, Mrs. Etta Defoid, aged 58 years, had been shot some time during the day.
     The neighbors were alarmed and the police were notified. The woman was taken to St. Mary's Hospital where Dr. W. I. Smithot tended to her injuries. One bullet had entered her head squarely between the eyes, ranging downward. A probe was inserted to the depth of three inches without finding the bullet. The other wound was in the right temple, the revolver having been held so close that the hair was singed.
     The woman's stories are somewhat conflicting. To the police she said that a tramp called at the house yesterday morning and that in attempting to drive him out, she got the revolver. The tramp secured the revolver and shot her twice. To one of the neighbor women she said the revolver had been discharged accidently.
     She gave a circumstantial and minute description of the tramp, but afterward, said that she would not be able to recognize him if she saw him.
     She had been about the house all day with the two bullets in her head and had made no attempt to alarm the neighbors. She had even begun to prepare the evening meal. Pools of blood all over the house indicated that she had moved around freely. There were no signs of any struggle. The neighbors saw no suspicious characters about.
     The woman's vitality is remarkable as she still lives with the two great wounds in her head. Belocks was locked up, although it is not thought that he knows anything about it. He says that the woman told him Sunday that she was tired of life. The police are inclined to give creedence to the theory of suicide.
     Belocks was discharged from custody this afternoon.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Interesting story, isn't it ?  There were a lot of things discussed in it that you would NEVER see in a newspaper today. But back then, this was the only way that people got their news, and with three newspapers in a small town, the more details in the story, the more papers were sold.This story was published at the top of page 4. Where would it be today? If it even made the paper, that is...