A double tragedy, murder and suicide, was enacted in a store on Main street in Clarkesville yesterday afternoon when Charles Reams, 28, ex-soldier, without a word, pulled out a pistol and sent a bullet through the brain of Ria Bowen, 22, his neighbor, and then turned the gun to his own forehead and fired.
Reams was immediately brought to Brantwood Hospital with a ghostly hole in his forehead, where he died this morning. The body of Reams will be taken to Clarksville this morning for interment.
According to officials, tragedy grew out of an incident occurring on the Bowen farm, five miles from Clarksville, on last Tuesday. Reams, intoxicated and armed with a shotgun, tried to gain entrance to the Bowen home, but was kept out and later carried off by a friend. he made another attempt to get Bowen, but failed, and is said to have threatened the young man’s life.
Bowen’s father sworn on a warrant for Reams, and he was arrested and sentenced by Justice of the Peace J.W. Rhodes to serve 60 days in jail, but was given until Saturday to begin his sentence.
Yesterday Bowen went to Clarkesville and Reams followed, armed. Bowen was standing in the store in the presence of his own father and the father of Reams, when he was shot down without ever knowing his assailant’s intention. No words were passed between them nor did Reams utter a word before he turned the gun on himself.
Both men, single, had known each other for years.
From the front page of the Oxford Public Ledger, Aug. 22, 1924
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073078/1924-08-22/ed-1/seq-1/#words=AUGUST+22%2C+1924
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