Payette-Ada County ID Archives Obituaries.....White, Margaret Thelma 1924 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/id/idfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Cheryl Hanson ihansonb@fmtc.com December 20, 2005, 8:26 pm The Payette Independent 7-31-1924 The Payette Independent Payette, Idaho Thursday, July 31, 1924 INSANE MOTHER KILLS BABY DAUGHTER Terrible Tragedy Enacted In Lonely Shack On Bench Five Miles East of Boise - four Bullets Sent Into Infant's Brain BOISE - Margaret Thelma White, the 18-month-old victim of her mother's religious fanaticism, lies dead in the Ada county morgue with four bullet holes in her head and the demented woman who bore her sits listlessly on a cot in her cell in jail, where she was taken after Allen Stein and four other men discovered late Monday afternoon that she had slain her infant daughter in the poor ranch house where the Whites lived, about five miles east of Boise on the bench. Mrs. George White, the slayer, fired four shots into the head of her off- spring from a 32 calibre revolver while the baby was playing on the bed in the barren front room of the shack. She fired six shots, evidently missing twice, and had reloaded the gun to shoot herself, but in her own words, "she lost her nerve." The tragedy was discovered by Mr. Stein. W. T. Brown, Albert Hapeny, Edward Frier and I. H. Friar who went to the ranch to get a gasoline engine. The Whites rented the house from Mr. Stein. Mr. White is a laborer. The bullets, which Coroner McBratney believed were shot from very close range, all entered the infant's head on the left side and passed through the tiny brain, coming out on the right side. Any one of the four wounds would have brought instant death. BOISE - The last vestige of her reason rapidly slipping from her, Mrs. George W. White, slayer of her 16-month-old infant daughter, will be a raving maniac within a few days, and it is imperative that she be hurried off to the insane asylum at Blackfoot as soon as possible. This was the statement which doctors and jailers made Wednesday and undoubtedly the insanity hearing, scheduled to begin late today, will result in her commitment to the institution. A coroner's inquest was held Tuesday afternoon and after the jury had visited the lonely shack where the demented mother fired four shots into the head of her tiny offspring and had heard evidence from Doctors T. N. Braxtan and O. H. Parker regarding the mental condition of the woman, the following verdict was returned. "We, the jury, find that the deceased came to her death by gun shot wounds inflicted by a gun in the hands of Mrs. George W. White, whom we believe insane." The funeral of the tiny victim was held at the McBratney undertaking parlors Wednesday afternoon, with Rev. c. W. Johnson of the Lutheran church officiating. The prisoner slept well Tuesday night, but it has become more and more difficult for her to talk coherently and she has had frequent hallucinations. "There's my little baby - right on the bed there," she told Mrs. J. W. Bradshaw Tuesday night before retiring. Mrs. Bradshaw had been appointed by Sheriff L. E. Allumbaugh, to watch the woman, who fears that she many try to kill herself. "My baby looks so bright tonight," continued the prisoner. Later, she said, "I'm certainly glad I killed her because I love her and wanted her to be happy." The attitude of listlessness which has characterized her actions since discovery of the tragedy becomes more and more pronounced and when she talks her voice sounds flat and lifeless and is absolutely devoid of any expression whatsoever. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/id/payette/obits/w/white1098nob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/idfiles/ File size: 4.0 Kb