People find StrangeAgo in a variety of ways, including odd and gruesome search strings. Recently, someone found their way here searching for axe murderers of children, and I realized that I never touched on this subject specifically.
Yes, there are many instances in the past of children being axed to death. Each case is terrible, and this article in no way glorifies those who commit murder.
1. Decapitated Her Niece
It was a growing practice in the early 1900s to allow insane asylum patients to take time off from the asylum and spend a few days with relatives. For example, in the fall of 1916, 20-year-old Myrtle Dice was allowed out of the Western State Hospital in Virginia. She went to visit her older sister and while she was there, she took an axe and chopped off the head of her 8-year-old niece. [1]
2. Killed Her Seven Children
In a chilling report captured in just two sentences, a mother of seven killed her children with an axe. The report was published in 1905 and claims that Clarence Markham of Cambridge, Illinois, grabbed an axe and chopped up her children. The youngest child was an infant and the oldest was nine-years-old.
After axing her children, she slit her own throat and died. [2]
3. Mother and Daughters
Axing off the family seems to have been a common event in the early 1900s. While mothers would axe off their children, fathers seemed to axe off their children and their wives.
In 1919, the bodies of a mother, Mrs. McGuire, and her two daughters, ages 10 and 12, were discovered in their Blaine, Washington home. The mother and one of the daughters were slain with an axe. The other daughter had been stabbed to death.
The husband and father was missing and the police were searching for him. A quick search through the newspaper archives did not reveal whether or not he was ever caught. [3]
4. Devastating Accident
Not all axe murders of children were intentional. In fact, I discovered numerous accidents involving children and axes. For example, in 1915 a Michigan farmer was chopping wood. As he swung the axe back, his two-year-old daughter came up behind him and was struck in the neck by the blade. [4]
5. Temporary Insanity
A newspaper report published in 1908 claimed that a farmer experienced temporary insanity when he killed his wife and one-year-old with an axe. When he was done, he tried to kill himself with the same axe, but failed miserably at it. He then grabbed a rope and hung himself. [5]
6. What Did He Expect?
Daniel Cameron, a Tennessee preacher, left his wife and home for four years. When he returned in 1882, he discovered that his wife had had an “illegitimate” child while he was goodness knows where.
In a fit of anger, the man grabbed an axe and cleaved his wife’s head. He then took the unwanted baby, laid it on the floor, and chopped its head off.
Preacher man was taken into custody. [6]
7. Don’t Go Into the Basement
Barber Fred Nevins had frequently threatened to kill himself and his daughter, according to his wife, Josephine Nevins.
Then, in 1921, Josephine had an odd feeling while she was out on a shopping trip. She hurried home, knowing instinctively that something was wrong.
When she got into the kitchen, she found a note written by her husband.
“Don’t go into the basement. Call the police. – Fred.”
In the basement were the bodies of her husband and nine-year-old daughter. The father had killed the child with an axe and then killed himself with a razor. [7]
