Rockdale County GaArchives Obituaries.....King, John Nathaniel, Sr and Charlotte Ann Johnson King, October 11, 1926
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Phyllis Thompson http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002524 September 5, 2011, 8:15 pm

The Conyers Times, October 15, 1926

King Kills Wife, Self Over Loss of Wealth

Canton, Ga.- Unwillingness to leave his wife penniless and alone led John N. 
King, Sr., former retired capitalist and banker of Rochelle and Sylvester, to 
shoot her and then kill himself, it was revealed in an inquest into their 
deaths, held here this afternoon after the finding of their bodies early this 
morning on a road near Holly Springs.
     Although notes left by King hinted at a suicide pact the probe failed to 
establish such an agreement and the verdict rendered was that Mrs. King came to 
her death as a result of two bullet wounds through the head, inflicted by her 
husband, and that King had then killed himself.
     The bodies were found in a small coupe drawn up alongside a lonely road 
near Holly Springs on the Atlanta Highway early Tuesday. The pair had died 
clasped in each others arms. They had been dead for several hours and evidence 
introduced at the inquest indicated that the double killing had taken place 
about midnight Monday after they had left the Marble Inn, at Tate, managed by 
Mrs. King. It is presumed that they had started for Atlanta as the car was 
headed in that direction. The gasoline tank of the coupe was empty and it is 
thought that this might have led King to act on the domination to kill his wife 
and himself, which he evidently had fostered for some time.
     Several notes to friends and relatives and one to his son, John N. King, 
Jr., employee of an Atlanta bank, were found on King’s person. They told of a 
vain struggle against financial reverses that culminated in the failure of the 
Manley chain of banks in which King is believed to have suffered heavy personal 
losses.
     One note addressed to “The Public” said that ill health, coupled with 
financial reverses and an unwillingness to leave his wife alone, had decided 
him to end everything.
     A short poem, the text of which was not made public at the inquest, 
written by Mrs. King praising her husband and expressing her love for him, was 
found in King’s pocket. A request was written on this in King’s handwriting 
that the poem be buried with him.
     The dead man’s son and Judge G. A. Johns, of Winder, the slain woman’s 
brother, arrived here in time for the inquest and have taken charge of funeral 
arrangements. The bodies will be shipped tomorrow from the Jones undertaking 
establishment, where they were brought by the sheriff after being found this 
morning, to Rochelle for burial. --Atlanta Journal.
     Mr. And Mrs. King are well known in Conyers, where they spent a year just 
after the closing of the First National Bank of Conyers, he being the first 
receiver ____ ____ here.
     Mrs. King was a social favorite in Conyers, having visited here when a 
young lady. Her home at that time was in Social Circle.
     While here they made their home with Mrs. Dabney.


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