One of the stories of the poor that go unrecorded.

Around 1946 Louis Shearer laid his head on the railroad track in Richmond Indiana and committed suicide.  Louis was my Uncle but not my blood kin.  Louis had three children that lived beyond infancy.  One was Robert.  Robert was older than me but we played together.  Therefore, this is a story about Robert.

He was probably born in Rockcastle County Kentucky in the late thirties or early forties. Robert was considered by the family as "not right".    One of my blood kin uncles was going to give him and his brother an IQ test one time.  So he asked his brother "what kind of horse is a filly?"  His brother thought for awhile and said he didn't know.  So he asked Robert "What kind of horse is a filly?".  Robert thought for awhile and replied.  "I don't know but I think it is some kind of horse".

As we go back on the family tree we find Louis.  The day Louis committed Suicide he had tried to borrow a gun from a friend so he could kill his wife (my aunt Lizzie).  He also was facing  charges for one attempted rape and another rape charge was pending.  This was two different young women that he had attempted to rape.

Going farther back on the family tree (one more generation) with Louis's father we find a wife beater.   I assume this happened in the 1920's.  Louis's father had severely beaten his wife.  He was confronted by Louis's Grandfather who shot and killed him.  In other words Louis's Grandfather killed his father that was a wife beater.  Louis's Grandfather then took in his daughter (Louis's) mother and the children (three I think) to raise.  The two boys were named Louis and Benny.

They were strange boys.  This was before the era of serial rapist profiling or serial killer profiling.  Anyway probably in the 1930's Louis hit Benny in the head with an axe, yes the kind you chop wood with.  I ask my mother if it was the sharp end or the flat end of the axe?  She said it was the sharp end.  Benny recovered, but became a religious fanatic and was never right after that (if he was ever right before).  Benny chased his mother with an axe saying "If the tree bears bad fruit cut it down".  Benny ended up in the mental hospital for some time.  My uncles visited him once and said that Benny thought he worked for the government.  He did not even know he was in a Mental hospital.

Louis, although he was never technically caught, cut up his Grandfather's horse.  I asked my father about it and he just said he cut it up real bad but it did recover.  Of course I have visions of him standing there (while in his teens) just chopping on this screaming horse with a large knife.  The serial killer profilers would have a field day with this one.  In case you are not aware the serial killers have a history of torturing higher life forms such as dogs and cats.