Ionia County MI Archives Obituaries.....Starkweather, Clifford 1930
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Marilyn Ransom mlnransom@chartermi.net May 8, 2012, 7:46 pm

The Portland Observer, Thursday, July 31, 1930

The body of Clifford Starkweather, 40, Danby township farmer, was found 
hanging from a tree on the farm where he resided by Charles Pryer, a neighbor, 
shortly before noon Friday.  Despondency over failure of his crops and legal 
entanglements of a criminal nature are thought to have been the motive for the 
man’s rash deed.

Starkweather formerly resided at Lansing and last Fall moved to Danby locating 
on the Jacob Morris farm formerly owned by Horace Rozell, southeast of the 
Grubtown schoolhouse.  His body was found hanging about 25 feet from the 
ground from the limb of a tree in a patch of woods 50 rods from his home.  He 
had been dead several hours when found.

“Things are in bad shape for me, so I am going to end it all” he wrote in a 
letter addressed to Sheriff William Franch that was found in his clothing.  
Two other letters, written to relatives, were also found.

Starkweather appeared to be dejected Thursday evening, his wife told the 
sheriff and Coroner Mathew J. Bradley, who visited the scene.  Friday morning 
he left home, saying he was going to Grand river, not far distant from the 
farm, and would be back in a short time.  When he neglected to return some 
time later his wife summoned Charles Pryor, a neighbor, who discovered the 
body after considerable searching.  Nearby, on a stump, was his cap in which 
was lying a razor.  

Starkweather, according to his wife, had been released from Jackson prison 
last January after completing an 18 month’s term for illegal conversion of 
another’s property.

Besides the wife, Starkweather leaves his father, Henry Starkweather, at 
Eagle; a brother, Alex Starkweather, at Watertown Center, and two sisters in 
Lansing.

An inquest was deemed unnecessary.


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