Charlotte, April 9—Ruby Lee Helms, 13-year-old girl, horror stricken and helpless, today saw her father, John Helms, 40, slay three of her little brothers and sisters in succession with a wood axe, and then saw him deliberately blow off the top of his own head with a shotgun, according to the story she, the only witness, told Coroner Frank Hovis.
The quadruple tragedy occurred at the home of Helms, who occupied a tenant house on the farm of Robert Rice, in Mecklenburg county, 11 miles east of Charlotte, about 6:30 this morning. Coroner Hovis said the evidence indicated that Helms had become rather suddenly insane, probably as a result of continued poor health, as he had been suffering from a chronic stomach disease and appeared deeply depressed when talking to a brother a day or two ago about his “hopeless” condition.
According to little Ruby Lee Helms, she was walking about in the yard with the 9-months-old baby, Hazeline, while her mother prepared breakfast, when her father approached with an axe and with the handle knocked the baby from her arms. Then he went into the house and, with the axe, brained two children in bed, while she looked on through a window, the two being Broncho, aged six, and Bleeker, aged four. He then grabbed a shotgun, went out into the yard, placed the muzzle against his cheek, the gun standing on the ground, reached down and pressed the trigger with his thumb, the load blowing off the top of his head.
Mrs. Helms and another child in addition to Ruby Lee escaped without injury and gave the alarm.
From the front page of The Greensboro Patriot, published every Monday and Thursday, April 10, 1922
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