Gene Notes

Some random and some not-so-random thoughts on family history.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Thriller Thursday - The Murder of Edna Chinn Sykes

Newspaper account
From the Lexington Herald, July 22, 1914, p 5 c 7.

MRS. EDNA CHINN SYKES KILLED IN LOS ANGELES.

Daughter of Late Claude Chinn is murdered by Jealous Suitor.

Los Angeles, Cal., July 21 (1914). -- Mrs. Edna Chinn Sykes, a native of Lexington, KY and later Norcross, Ga., was killed here yesterday by Charles H. Haag, a contractor, who broke in the room where she was asleep. Haag then killed himself.

Haag has been paying attention to Mrs. Sykes, her friends say, who had brought suit for divorce from William Sykes.  Mrs. Sykes' friends say that Haag had learned that she was receiving $150 alimony and in a fit of jealousy fearing that she might return to her husband, killed her and then himself.

Disposition of her five-year-old son will not be determined until advice is received from his father, who it is believed is in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Mrs. Edna Chinn Sykes, who was shot and killed yesterday at Los Angeles by Charles Haag, was a daughter of the late Claude Chinn, formerly County Clerk of Fayette County, and was born and reared in Lexington.  She was married several years ago to William Sykes, whose home is now in Atlanta.

About two years ago, Mrs. Sykes went to California to be with her mother, Mrs. Chinn, whose health was not good.  Mrs. Sykes has one brother, Joseph Chinn who is in business in Indianapolis, and a sister who is the wife of W. B. Anderson, of this city, a gauger in the Internal Revenue service here. Mrs. Anderson is now in Indianapolis with her brother.

[Blogger's note: Edna was actually married to Leon Odus Sykes, NOT William Sykes.]

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

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