St. Louis Post Dispatch
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Contributed by Gigimo
Description: Found Their Mother Dead. Taylor COOK, a Farmer Near Stockton, Kan., Murders His Wife.
Date: March 22 1889Newspaper published in: St. Louis, Mo.
Page/Column: 3
Atchison, Kan., March 22.
Brief details have been received here of a shocking tragedy near Stockton, Rooks County, Kan., 275 miles from Atchison, on the Central Branch division of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Last night about dark two children of Taylor COOK, a farmer, when returning home from school where they had been all day, found their father and mother missing and the furniture in the house broken and everything in confusion. Looking further they discovered the dead body of their mother lying between two feather beds. The body was stark and stiff and the head beaten into a jelly. A club was lying on the floor stained with the blood and hair of the woman. COOK was not to be found and is the man who committed the murder. It is supposed by physicians who examined the body that the murder was done some time shortly after the departure of the children for school. COOK had frequently threatened to kill his wife. He is a shiftless, malicious man and pure deviltry along inspired him to commit the act. Telegrams have been sent all over the country giving descriptions of the fugitive, and the Rooks County authorities are hard at work on the case. There is great excitement in Stockton and a vigilance organization has volunteered to assist in pursuing the murderer.