RIGHT TO KILL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 863, 6 January 1930, Page 14

RIGHT TO KILL

FATHER SHOOTS INVALID DAUGHTER THEN COMMITS SUICIDE The creed that murder may be justified in a case of extreme and prolonged sickness finds expression in the death of Beatrice Barton, the 17-years-old daughter of Mr. John A. Barton, the richest and one of the most respected citizens of Two Harbours, Minnesota, U.S.A. In a case parallel to that of Richard Corbett, the Anglo-Frenchman who killed his mother, a victim of cancer, on the Riviera, Mr. Barton shot and killed his daughter, and then turned the revolver against himself. The girl had been a deaf mute and a hopeless invalid from birth. Her father lavished every attention on her, seeking the aid of the most famous specialists in a vain effort to obtain a cure. Recently his sorrow seemed to increase. On a recent Sunday he drove with Beatrice and his two other daughters to the Presbyterian church, but at the church door said he would take the invalid for a short drive in the car. They never returned, and a search revealed the bodies of father and daughter in the car on a lonely road. The revolver in the father’s hand told the story. The girl had died with one bullet through her heart, but her father had fired three shots before killing himself. Mr. Barton was a bank president and an active Rotarian. His fellowcitizens think he preferred not to face a trial for murder, with its attendant publicity. The coroner announced that there would be no inquest. “Mr. Barton killed the child out of pity,” he said. Generally speaking, the inhabitants of the town condone the act as one of mercy.