DASTARDLY DADS FROM THE ARCHIVES (New York, New York - 1903)

Even back in 1906, women tried to separate themselves from their abusive husbands--though it wasn't easy then or now. And just like today, abusers in the past used the children to retaliate against their wives and reassert their control. In this case, the wife of JAMES KILPATRICK left him after a "family quarrel" (which I think we can safely assume is a giant euphemism, as all the other evidence points to a violent, manipulative, and alcoholic husband). Four months later, the wife is still she refusing to return to him, so Daddy tries a different tack. He asks if he can take their 8-year-old son out to buy candy. The mother agrees. The father then takes the boy to Central Park and shoots him through the abdomen before killing himself.
One thing that is truly disgusting is that 100 years later, journalists still use the same misleading language. It is still common to see a murder blamed on a family "dispute" or "disagreement," as if to deflect attention away from the killer's responsibility for his actions.

From the New York Times, June 12, 1903

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A03E0D91639E433A25751C1A9609C946297D6CF

DOUBLE TRAGEDY IN CENTRAL PARK

Father Shoots Himself and His Little Son.

Man Dead and Child Terribly Wounded--Result of Quarrel with Wife Who Refused to Live With Him.

Leading a little boy by the hand, a man entered Central Park at East Sevety-second Street yesterday afternoon, and after waking a few yards, clutched the child by the arm with his left hand, turned him around so that he faced him, pressed a revolver to the boy's abdomen, and pulled the grigger, the bullet going clear the body. The little fellow staggered a few steps, and sank unconscious on the greensward. The man then turned the weapon on himself and sent a bulltet crashing through his head.

James Kilpatrick, a bartender, thirty-five years old, was the man who fired the shots, and the child was his son. Four months ago his wife left him after a family quarrel, and went to live at 2 Franklin Terrace. At the time Kilpatrick was working at 771 Eighth Avenue. After the quarrel he threw up his position and took a trip to Jamaica, West Indies.

Saturday last, having returned to the city, he went to the house where his wife was living with a Miss Hopton, and had an interview with her, at which he begged her to resume their old relations, and to live with him again. She refused to do so. The man went away in a despondent state, and is said to have been drinking since.

He called again at the house yesterday afternoon, saw Miss Hopton, and begged her to obtain for him another interview with his wife. Miss Hopton talked to Mrs. Kilpatrick, who said she would not see her husband. Then the man begged that he be permitted to take their son Thomas, eight years old, to buy him some candy. This request was acceded to, and son and father left the house together.

Kilpatrick bought the boy some candy and some ice cream soda at a near-by store. Then he proposed that they go up to Central Park, and the little fellow gladly agreed to accompany his father.

All the while up Kilpatrick talked of his troubles.

"If any one asks you where your mother is, say you have no mother," was the burden of his conversation.

Patrolmen Brennan and Guyder of the Central Park Station rushed up at the sound of the shooting. While Brennan turned his attention to the man, who had dropped beside a clump of bushes, Guyder took the unconscious child in his arms and ran as fast as he could to Fifth Avenue, where he sent in an ambulance call. A Presbyterian Hospital ambulance soon arrived, and both father and son were hurried to the hospital. An examination there showed that the bullet which had entered the boy's body had perforated the intestines in three places, as well as the stomach. Dr. Garrah at once performed an operation, and said afterward that in spite of the his injuries, he hoped he might be able to save the boy's life.

The bullet which Kilpatrick had fired at himself plowed its way clear though the skull from the left to the right temple. He died a few hours later.

Mrs. Kilpatrick was informed by the police of the shooting and hastened to the Presbyterian Hospital. She begged to be allowed to see her son, but did not make any request to see her husband.