DASTARDLY DADS FROM THE ARCHIVES (Owingsville, Kentucky - 1904)

There's not a lot of detail here, but you get the impression that dad NIMROD BYRD was seriously deranged. One can only imagine what his family--and the community as a whole--put up with until Byrd's own 70-year-old father shot him dead in self-defense.

From the New York Times, July 10, 1904

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E01E7DC1138E430A75753C1A9619C946597D6CF

SHOT DEAD BY HIS FATHER.
Kentucky Man Tried to Murder Parents, Wife, and Child.

OWINGVILLE, Ky., July 9.--Nimrod Byrd, aged 30, came from Lexington to his home near Stoops during the night, very much intoxicated, set fire to his bed, and attempted to burn it and the occupants. Failing in this, he attempted to murder his parents, wife, and child.

He was finally disarmed and locked in a room. He broke open the door, seized a butcher kife, and was rushing at his father, Almaza Byrd, aged seventy, when the father shot him dead.

Young Byrd had previously attempted a murder of his wife, and last Autumn shot a policeman. The father then embarrassed himself financially in defending his son.