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Joseph E. Cripe

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Joseph E. Cripe

Birth	:	27 Nov 1869
Death	:	6 Dec 1904
Burial	:	Rural Cemetery, Walpole, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate	:	42.1555400, -71.2504400
Description	:	Two people murdered while eating supper and suicide of the murderer was the awful result of "Gilly" BURNS' dissipated life and jealousy of his wife. Tuesday evening just before six o'clock, as the people in the Mrs. Hanna CRIPE family were sitting at the supper table, in the kitchen, at the farm residence, three miles south of town, someone outside the house shot twice through a window and instantly killed Joe CRIPE, an unmarried man 35 years old and Mrs. "Gilly" BURNS, aged 28, who had left her husband and was working in the Cripe household to earn a livelihood for... Read More	Two people murdered while eating supper and suicide of the murderer was the awful result of "Gilly" BURNS' dissipated life and jealousy of his wife. Tuesday evening just before six o'clock, as the people in the Mrs. Hanna CRIPE family were sitting at the supper table, in the kitchen, at the farm residence, three miles south of town, someone outside the house shot twice through a window and instantly killed Joe CRIPE, an unmarried man 35 years old and Mrs. "Gilly" BURNS, aged 28, who had left her husband and was working in the Cripe household to earn a livelihood for herself and two little children, she recently having sent the two others of her four little ones to the Work Orphans' Home at Plymouth. There were at the supper table Cripe, his mother, Miss Martha BRAMAN, aged 75 years, and Mrs. Burns and her eighteen months old baby. They had scarcely commenced eating when there was a shot and a crash of window glass and Mrs. Burns threw up her hands toward her head. Instantly Cripe jumped to his feet and another shot from outside dropped him to the floor dead. Mrs. Burns fell over on her chair, sideways, until her head almost touched the floor and the body lay in that condition until the arrival of the coroner an hour and a half later. A shot gun had been used and one of the stray shots hit the aged Miss Braman just over the eye and produced a bloody but not necessarily dangerous wound, and another knocked out several of her front teeth. Mrs. Cripe ran out and rang the dinner bell and then started screaming across the field toward a neighbors for help and she was heard by some carpenters boarding near and they ran to her assistance. One of them went hurriedly to the home of Kenneth DOWNS, nearby, who came to town and notified Sheriff BAILEY, who with Deputy MORRIS, went quickly to the Cripe home. Soon after they were gone a telephone message from Charley GOHN's place, four miles southwest of town, asked undertaker ZIMMERMAN to come, with Coroner BABCOCK and take charge of the remains of "Gilly" Burns who had shot his head off, in the yard at the home of his sister, Mrs. Sarah WERNER. As it had already been reported that Burns had threatened to murder his wife he was suspected as the murderer and his suicide was accepted as conclusive evidence of his guilt and the officers looked no further for the assassin except to make investigation of conditions which convinced them that Burns was the sole author of the horrible slaughter and the Coroner's verdict will corroborate this theory. Burns had left the Werner home, where he occasionally stayed, about the middle of the afternoon taking his son's double barreled, breach loading shot gun and saying that he was going over to Mart WERNER's and might see a rabbit on the way. About half past six o'clock, Lee BURNS, a nephew of Gilly, saw him come into the barn lot and go toward the house. He approached near the front porch and, in the darkness, palced the muzzle of the gun in his mouth, the other end on the ground, and pulled the trigger by reaching down to it with his right hand. The discharge of the load of shot in his mouth tore away the entire top of his head from the lower part of his face from his mustach down. Of course he died without a struggle and when found by the family, who were attracted by the bang of the gun, he was lying straightened out as if he had lain down and the murderous gun lay across his breast where it had fallen with him. When Sentinel reporters, Carl JESSEN and Glen ROUCH, reached the Cripe home soon after the neighbors and officerrs got there, a gruesome and sickening sight confronted them. The dead woman, half hanging on the chair with hands over her head and partly touching on the floor, stared with wide open eyes toward the door and the blood was running in a stream to a pool of the life liquid in a depression in the floor near by. Lying half under the supper table was the body of Cripe and in his open mouth could be seen the mouthful of victuals he was eating when shot. Blood was scattered over the table and standing in pools about Cripe's body, and Miss Braman, an invalid who had to be helped about the room lay on a lounge with her face all covered with blood and one eye badly swollen as the result of the stray shot wounds which struck her just above the eye brow. Mrs. Cripe was cool and resigned to the awful surroundings and the innocent baby of the dead woman sat in a woman's lap and looked shyly and inquiringly at the strangers in the room. At the same time this horrible sight was sickening strong men at the Cripe home another of equal gruesomness was on at the Werner home three miles west. There the horribly mangled body of Burns lay out in the yard by the front parlor window. The blood ran down into the path into a pool that soon cooled in the night air and small fragments of the torn to pieces head lay about on the ground. The cap of the dead man was smeared inside with brains crushed by the explosion and it was a horrible sight. All three of the bodies of the dead were brought to town in the Zimmerman dead wagon and Val and Leo ZIMMERMAN worked most of the night getting the bodies ready for presentable burial. and there were many curious people called at the cold morgue to see the remains. All three lay in a row on stretchers and all showed the brutality of the tragedy. The woman's left ear and temple, and the left side of her face showed numerous holes made by the buck shot. The head of Cripe was badly torn behind the ear and blue places on his face showed that the shot had come almost through. Burns' fragment of head was wrapped in white cloth and in this condition they will be put in shrouds and laid in coffins for burial. The funerals for Cripe and Mrs. Burns will be held at the Baptist church Thursday at 1:30 p.m. Rev. SWITZER officiating and burial will be made in Citizens cemetery. "Gilly" Burns was born 52 years ago on the farm where his mutilated body was picked up by undertaker Zimmerman and Coroner Babcock. He had always been a laborer, and the most of his life followed ditching for a livelihood. He was twice married. His first wife was Miss Matilda APT. They lived together for a number of years and had five children, two daughters married and living in Logansport, a son George [BURNS] who is an industrious and well respected carpenter, and two other boys. On account of intemperate habits his wife secured a divorce, and about twelve years ago he married Lucinda SPROWL, the victim of his shot gun, who had one child and was the widow of his brother, James [BURNS]. Their family had since been increased by the addition of three children. For the past two or three years their married life has been anything but a happy one, and they have had numerous separations. At one time his wife applied for divorce and at another time she "swore her life against him," but both complaints were withdrawn before they reached a trial. When sober Burns was not considered a bad citizen, but of late years almost all of his earnings have gone for drink, and he was drunk so frequently that his mind was never very clear. The fine marksmanship displayed in committing the murders has astonished many, but it is no surprise to his neighbors. Since his boyhood he has been a champion wing shot, seldom missing anything that came in range of his gun. This ability was acquired by long and patient practice shooting swallows as they dipped about on their flight over the prairies. Public opinion has it that there was no cause for Burns' murder of Cripe. It was not believed that he and Mrs. Burns held any intimate relations as she was merely working at the Cripe home as a hired girl to support herslef, and Burns' desperation in failing to get his wife to return and live with him led him to believe that she admired Cripe and he decided to kill both of them and then himself. Mrs. Cripe, mother of the murdered man, is most pitiably left in the world. Joe was her only support, another son, Clark [CRIPE], being an epileptic and confined in Longcliff Hospital for the insane. The farm on which they lived was to have been theirs in consideration for their keeping Miss Braman as long as she lives, and now that Mrs. Cripe cannot do this she will have no home and is already quite old.

frequently asked questions (FAQ):

Where is Joseph E. Cripe's memorial?
Joseph E. Cripe's memorial is located at: Rural Cemetery, Walpole, Norfolk County, USA.
When did Joseph E. Cripe death?
Joseph E. Cripe death on 6 Dec 1904 in
Where are the coordinates of the Joseph E. Cripe's memorial?
Latitude: 42.1555400
Longitude: -71.2504400

Family Members:

Parent

Hannah Robbins Cripe

(unknow - 1916)

Siblings

Edna Cripe Downs

(1857 - 1932)

Sarah Marie Cripe Babcock

(1862 - 1940)

Mittie M Cripe Ford

(1873 - 1952)

Clark Cripe

(1876 - 1906)

Flowers:

Left by Anonymous on 02 May 2012

~ Remembering ~

Left by Anonymous on 02 Jun 2014

Nearby Cemetories:

1. Rural Cemetery
Walpole, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1555400, -71.2504400

2. Old Burial Place
Walpole, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1517780, -71.2486450

3. Maple Grove Cemetery
Walpole, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1493988, -71.2410965

4. Blake Family Cemetery
Walpole, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1339800, -71.2492200

5. Plains Cemetery
Walpole, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1380997, -71.2835999

6. Revolutionary War Memorial
Walpole, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1369800, -71.2836800

7. Guild Burial Ground
Walpole, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1255989, -71.2339020

8. Charles Sumner Bird Memorial Cemetery
Norwood, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1639600, -71.2082900

9. Moose Hill Cemetery
Sharon, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1410700, -71.2096900

10. Saint Francis Cemetery
Walpole, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1146510, -71.2533120

11. Highland Cemetery
Norwood, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1955986, -71.2177963

12. Terrace Hill Cemetery
Walpole, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1075800, -71.2587300

13. Pine Grove Cemetery
Norfolk, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1309800, -71.3079200

14. Church of the Advent Columbarium
Medfield, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1855700, -71.3034720

15. Oliver Lothrop Yard
Sharon, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1090900, -71.2102900

16. Old Parish Cemetery
Norwood, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1963997, -71.1988983

17. Norfolk Cemetery
Norfolk, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1207600, -71.3099300

18. Chestnut Tree Cemetery
Sharon, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1408005, -71.1753006

19. Sharon Memorial Park
Sharon, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1434200, -71.1742200

20. Vine Lake Cemetery
Medfield, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1869011, -71.3171997

21. Knollwood Memorial Park
Canton, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1478004, -71.1669006

22. West Cemetery
Sharon, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.0956100, -71.2207200

23. Knollwood Cemetery
Canton, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.1463670, -71.1635760

24. Westwood Cemetery
Westwood, Norfolk County, USA
Coordinate: 42.2177400, -71.2225800