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Thursday, August 14, 2014

Child Murders in Jefferson and Child Abuse in Ranlo Mill Village, 1933

For those who think the past was golden, here are two items about abuse of children. In the first, a young wife admits to killing her two infant sons because her husband didn't like "boy babies." In the second story, a father beat his 8-month-old son for an hour with a leather strap  "because he cried all the time and it bothered me.”

“Mother Is Charged with Double Murder” from the Aug. 11, 1933, issue of The Landmark, Statesville, N.C.

Jefferson, Aug. 7—Affidavits charging murder to a young farm wife and her 55-year-old husband were prepared Saturday after the woman glibly told Sheriff C.H. Blanche that she had killed her two infant sons within the last year and a half.

The mother said she was led to commit the crimes because her husband complained of the fretting of the children and because he did not like “boy babies.”

The strange tale was unfolded after a physician discovered that four-months-old Mertis Fleming Jr. had died yesterday afternoon of strangulation at the home of his parents.

Without display of emotion, Mrs. Aleeta Fleming told Sheriff Blanche she had choked Mertis Jr. death with the belt of her dress. Then she admitted she gave poison to another son, Louis, also four months old, in February, 1932. The child died immediately, she said.

Both Fleming and his wife are in the county jail here. Neither showed any emotion over the crimes, but Fleming stoutly denied any complicity.

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 “Father Arrested for Beating Baby” from the Aug. 11, 1933, issue of The Landmark, Statesville, N.C.

Gastonia, Aug. 10—Accused of beating his eight months old son, Jimmie, unmercifully for an hour with a leather strap, Dewey Graham, 27, of the Ranlo Mill Village was in jail today charged with assault with intent to kill.

“I beat him because he cried all the time and it bothered me,” said the father.

Officers went to the Graham’s home and arrested him yesterday after neighbors had telephoned them that he had beaten the child incessantly for an hour.

Although the child’s body was a mass of bruises, physicians said there were no dangerous wounds and the baby would recover.


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