“High Shoals Man Kills Self After Killing Wife,” from the Feb. 1, 1951
issue of the Statesville Landmark
Lincolnton, Jan. 31—A Lincolnton county fish camp operator
and his wife died early last night in a hospital here from gunshot wounds
received about noon yesterday.
Clifton R. Peterson, operator of the camp near High Shoals,
and his wife, Betty, each received a bullet in the head.
Sheriff Frank P. Heavner said that a preliminary
investigation indicated that Peterson shot his wife with a .22 caliber rifle,
then shot himself. The sheriff quoted two witnesses, Ola Gray and Roy Ivey,
both of Charlotte, who were customers at the fish camp, as saying that Peterson
and his wife were arguing, and that Peterson went into the camp kitchen and
returned with the rifle.
Sheriff Heavner asserted that Ivey said Peterson told his
wife, “I’m going to blow your head off.” He then raised the sawed-off rifle and
shot Mrs. Peterson over the right eye. Ivey told the sheriff that Peterson then
stepped back from the booth in which he had shot his wife and raising the rifle
shot at his own head.
The first bullet, Ivy related, just grazed Peterson’s head.
Peterson then cautioned Ivey to stand back and fired the gun again striking himself
in the right temple.
Peterson succumbed at 6:10 o’clock. Mrs. Peterson died at
7:30 in the Reeves-Gamble hospital.
Sheriff Heavner said Ola Gray and Ivey were under $500 bond
as witnesses.
The shooting occurred at Betty’s Fish camp, four miles south
of Lincolnton, off highway 321.
The Lincoln county coroner, Dr. W.G. page, said that an
inquest has been set tentatively for Wednesday morning, February 7, at 11
o’clock.
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