Sitting Room and Woodshed

Reported Saturday, October 25, 1947.

Eugene Black, town drunkard, found dead.

David Jackson, roomer in Black's house, gave the following statement:

Jackson has a large room over the woodshed. Coming home about 8:00 p.m. on Friday, October 24, he found Black lying on the couch in the sitting room, very drunk and apparently asleep. On the floor beside him was an uncorked bottle of whiskey and Gene's .22 rifle, which usually hung on two spikes on the woodshed wall. Knowing that Gene was dangerous when drunk, Jackson, deeming it unsafe for him to have a gun so handy, took the .22 and replaced it in its accustomed place, the shed. He then went up to his room, read a while and went to bed.

Winifred, Eugene Black's daughter, gave the following statement:

Her mother is a bedridden invalid who never comes downstairs. Winifred does all the work of the house and takes care of her mother. She also has a job as clerk at the local 5&10. This was necessary, as her father had no job and couldn't get one because of drink. On the evening of October 24, she and her father had finished supper and he had gone out again. She was upstairs with her mother with the radio going, tuned in to a Western with lots of shooting. About 9:00 p.m.. they turned off the radio and about a half hour later were startled to hear groans, apparently downstairs. Winnie went down and found her father on the couch, evidently dying. She at once telephoned Dr. Monroe, the family doctor, who also happened to be the deputy medical investigator. Upon his arrival, he made a brief and hasty examination of Black, who was dead by this time, and ordered the body taken to Coffin & Graves Funeral Parlor. At the same time, Dr. Monroe signed the death certificate, giving as cause of death, "acute alcoholism."

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