DASTARDLY DADS FROM THE ARCHIVES (Rochester, Michigan - 1906)

While it might be debated whether murder-suicides have increased over the past year, it is also evident that the paternal annihilation of the entire family is not exactly a new phenomenon either. This 1906 case involving family annihilator CLARENCE A. BARNUM makes that abundantly clear. Note that economic woes are blamed for the father's actions--a trope you still see today, though research makes it clear that economic pressures do not "cause" murder; they are simply an additional stressor for violent and controlling men.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9407E4DE103EE733A25750C0A9679C946797D6CF

From the New York Times, January 3, 1906.

KILLED THREE AND HIMSELF.

Farmer in Michigan Murdered Wife, Daughter, and Son.

ROCHESTER, Mich., Jan. 2. --Alarmed by the deserted appearance of the farmhouse of Clarence A. Barnum, who recently located near here, neighbors broke into the house today and found Barnum, his wife, his daughter, Louise, aged 23, and his son Clinton, aged 16 all laying dead. The wife and the son and the daughter had apparently been murdered by an axe. A single-barreled hotgun lying hear Barnum's body and the fact that his head was almost entirely blown off showed how he met his death. Mrs. Barnum's body lay in the woodshed.

The appearance of the house indicated that the family had just finished breakfast to-day when the insane frenzy of the father broke out. Evidently there had been a terrific struggle as the mother and children battled for their lives. Two other sons and a daughter were away from home when the tragedy occurred.

Barnum sold a farm near Homer, Mich., a few months ago and located here late in the season. It is said that the harvest in his new home did not meet his expectations and that he had become despondent. This was made very clear in a letter he had written to a brother in Waterloo, N. Y.