DASTARDLY DADS FROM THE ARCHIVES (Gadsden, Alabama - 1907)

I guess Daddy O.F. DODSON of Garsden, Alabama really didn't want to be a daddy. So he shot his 4-year-old and tried to shoot his wife, but missed. We forget that in times where legal divorce was less common, fathers abandoning their wives and families was not uncommon at all. Nor was killing your wife or child.

Though this father appears to be white (a "negro" dad would have been identified as such in the press at that time), note that there was still the risk of a lynching or mob violence in response to the slaying. Communities took violence much more seriously in those days--for better or for worse. And note that "insanity" probably received as much--if not more--weight in those days as now.

From the archives of the New York Times, April 19, 1907.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F02E5DD1738E033A2575AC1A9629C946697D6CF&scp=101&sq=father+child+murder&st=p

SHOT BABY WHO GREETED HIM

Father Returned After Year's Absence to Commit Murder.

Special to the New York Times.

MEMPHIS, Tenn.--April 18. When O. F. Dodson of Gadsden, Ala. approached his home after a year's absence, his four-year-old baby spied him from the window and called out, "Daddy! Daddy's come!"

In reply to the joyful greeting of his little one, the father shoved his pistol through the pane and shot the child dead. Then, as his wife ran screaming toward the body, Dodson fired twice, but missed her, and then fled.

He was captured later and lodged in jail. There will be no lynching as he is insane. Dodson is a telegraph operator.