A bitter family dispute in Atlanta ended in violence when Mrs. M.C. Hughes, an elderly woman, was shot to death in her son’s home while two police officers stood nearby.
The officers had accompanied her with a warrant to search a trunk for property she claimed had been taken from her.
As the search was underway, police said Mrs. Frank Hughes entered the room, walked to her mother-in-law’s side, and fired a pistol at close range.
The killing left both husband and wife in custody, and raised questions about a household conflict that had grown from accusations over missing belongings into a fatal confrontation.
Woman Kills Mother-In-Law
ATLANTA, Georgia. — Mrs. M.C. Hughes, an aged woman, was shot to death here late today by her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Frank Hughes, in the presence of two policemen. The shooting occurred in Mrs. Frank Hughes’ home while the elder Mrs. Hughes and two officers armed with a warrant were searching a trunk for an article which she claimed her daughter-in-law had taken from her.
Mrs. Hughes was bending over the trunk with the officers standing nearby superintending the search when the daughter-in-law entered the room, according to the policemen, walked to her mother-in-law’s side and after taking deliberate aim, sent a bullet from a pistol in her hand through the head of the aged woman.
The only witnesses to the shooting were the two officers who took Mrs. Hughes and her husband into custody. The woman is being held on a charge of murder and her husband is charged with larceny and accessory to murder.
The woman said she shot “to relieve Frank of a burden” and her husband issued a statement that his wife was “driven to killing my mother. I am sure she thought she was acting right when she shot mother.”
The warrant to search the Hughes home, police stated, was taken out after she had been ejected from her son’s home and claimed that several articles belonging to her had been retained by them.
In addition to these, an automobile, which was in the possession of Hughes, was claimed by the mother. Hughes claimed that this automobile had been given to him by her in payment for $1,700 which he said he sent her from France while serving in the army during the war.
Source: The Union Daily Times. Union, S.C. December 31, 1923.
