DASTARDLY DADS FROM THE ARCHIVES (West Orange, New Jersey - 1935)

Hey, I'm an easy going kind of gal. Really I am. I'm perfectly willing to accept that back in 1935, a reporter really believed that dad GARTH A. JORDAN fatally shot his 3-year-old daughter because he was "lonely" for her. That somehow, this "loneliness" line was not just a cover for Daddy's coercive control issues, his anger at his "estranged" wife who had just informed him that she wanted a divorce, and a generally abusive personality--stuff that really wasn't written about or much understood back then. What's not excusable is why you still hear this crap about "depressed" or "lonely" killers in today's media.

From the New York Times, March 26, 1935

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10A10FD3B59107A93C4AB1788D85F418385F9

KILLS DAUGHTER, 3, SHOOTS SELF

Salesman, Unable to Persuade Estranged Wife to Reunite Family, Critically Wounded.

LONESOME FOR THE CHILD

Told Mother He Could Not Live Without Her--Nurse in Hospital Finds Dead Baby is Her Niece.

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.

WEST ORANGE, N. J., March 25.--Distressed because his wife's opposition to a reconciliation meant he could not be with their daughter at all times, Garth A. Jordan, 29 years old, a salesman, fatally wounded the child, Linda Lee Jordan, 3 1/2 years old, in a park drive, then shot himself. This evening he was in a critical condition.

The tragedy took an added poignant turn when Miss Agnes Lee, a nurse in Orange Memorial Hospital, called in on the case, discovered the child was her niece.

Wife Employed in Newark.

Jordan recently had come from Nashville, Tenn., his home. He and his wife, Mrs. Esther Irene Jordan, 26 years old, were on speaking and corresponding terms, though estranged. When she left her home at 68 Clifford Street, East Orange, this morning, as a bookkeeper for the Public Service Corporation, Mrs. Jordan informed the housekeeper that her husband probably would call to take Linda for a drive. She instructed the housekeeper, Mrs. Marshia Neill, to let Jordan take the child out, as he had done several times before.

Jordan arrived about 9 A.M. He seemed cheerful as the child entered his car. Where they drove in the next two hours or so has not been determined. At 11:20 o'clock, Charles McLaughlin, Essex County park policeman, passed Cherry Lane, a drive off the main highway in the wooded South Mountain Reservation, a county park at West Orange. He recalled later that he saw no one in the lane.

Twenty minutes later, however, two truckmen passing along the highway, saw a parked car and two bodies. The automobile stood about fifteen feet from the highway. On a running board was Jordan with a bullet wound in his head. Just below his right hand lay a .38-calibre pistol. On a mudbank, fifteen feet away, lay Linda. She had been shot in the left ear and the stomach. Pinned to the steering wheel was a penciled note reading, "Please notify Mrs. G.A. Jordan, 68 Clifford Street, East Orange."

The truckmen, Paul Otto of 34 Nye Avenue, Newark, and Charles Grant of 46 Richmond Avenue, Maplewood, hurried to police headquarters in the park. McLaughlin sped back with them. He placed the unconscious man and his daughter in the automobile and rushed them to the hospital. The child died on the way.

Child's Aunt Faints.

When Linda was being examined for possible signs of life, Miss Lee, an older sister of Mrs. Jordan, with whom the latter made her home, was called in. Recognizing Linda, she fainted. When revived, she said the child was her niece. The mother, notified in Newark, collapsed, but went to the hospital. She said she could give no reason for her husband's act. Jordan regained consciousness for a few minutes later in the day, but was unable to speak.

In Mrs. Jordan's story of her marriage, the police said they believed they found the motive for the tragedy. They put aside a suggestion that there might be a doubt whether Jordan did the shooting.

Mrs. Jordan said she met her husband in Chicago in 1927. They were married there the following year and traveled together until 1931, when they settled in Mount Prospect, Ill., where Jordan set up an automobile business. The child was born that year. The couple parted early in 1933 after many differences. Mrs. Jordan went to East Orange to live with her sister.

Though estranged, the Jordans corresponded. Jordan, returning to the road, visited his wife and daughter during 1933 and had custody of the child for three months. He appeared again last July and November, when his work took him to this region, and was permitted to take the child driving.

Jordan arrived again last Friday. It was during this visit, the police said, that he learned his wife was adamant toward his efforts at reconcilation and had decided to seek a divorce. There was no bitter quarrel, however. Jordan came for the child yesterday and drove her to the Bronx Park Zoo. When he returned late in the day, he said he probably would take the child riding again this morning and his wife acquiesced.