A.E. Flowers Kills His Wife, Then Himself, Nov. 8, 1923

Farmer Kills Wife and Then Takes Own Life. . . Shooting Followed Wife’s Refusal to Return to the Home of Her Husband

By the Associated Press

Smithfield, Nov. 8—A.E. Flowers, a tenant farmer, yesterday shot and instantly killed his wife, slightly wounded Earle Stephenson, a youth, and then ended his own life, according to a report made to the sheriff’s office today. Stephenson was struck by a stray bullet while sitting on a log in front of the Flowers home.

The Flowers have been separated for several years, and, according to the sheriff, the shooting followed the refusal of Mrs. Flowers to return to her husband when he called on her yesterday. Flowers, according to authorities, has served a term in Federal penitentiary in Atlanta on conviction of illicit manufacture of liquor.

From the front page of the Concord Daily Tribune, Nov. 8, 1923