Submitted By: Janet Fryar Rohlfs

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE (Mt. Vernon)

Friday, January 24, 1936

MAN SHOOTS SWEETHEART, KILLS HIMSELF

Wayne McMahon Critically Injures Mrs. Delcie Folden of Mt. Vernon at His Father's Home East of McLeansboro This Morning

FIRES THREE SHOTS AFTER QUARRELING

One Bullet Strikes Woman above Right Eye, Another in Left Chest, Both Lodging in Body; Man Dies Suddenly

Wayne McMahon, 26 year old Hamilton County farmer, is dead and his 19 year old sweetheart, Mrs. Delcie Folden of this city is in a critical condition at Mt. Vernon Hospital as the result of three pistol shots fired by McMahon, members of his family said at his father's home 10 miles east of McLeansboro at two o'clock this morning.

Relatives of the dead man told Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Fryar of Mt. Vernon parents of the wounded girl, that Mr. McMahon fired two shots at Mrs. Folden and then ?? firing one shot into his right temple. One of the bullets struck the girl immediately above the right eye causing the loss of vision on this side. The other?? left chest. Both lodged in her body and x-ray pictures taken this morning are expected to reveal their exact location.

Mrs. Fryar, leaving the bedside of her daughter for a short time, said that McMahon and Mrs. Folden had been sweethearts for about a year. Both were separated but not divorced from their legal mates she declared. "My daughter went to visit McMahon's sister over a week ago," she continued. "Later she and her sweetheart had trouble. Last night she and the McMahon girl went out together and when they returned about 1:30 o'clock this morning Wayne and Delcie quarreled. He had already retires, but he asked her if she would 'make up' again. She said 'no.'

"He called her into the room where he was lying on a bed, saying, "Well, come her a minute, anyway." She went and then the others in the family heard the shots." McMahon was dead when his father, Matt McMahon, and others in the home reached him. In his hand was a .32 calibre revolver. His body was taken to a McLeansboro undertaking establishment and Mrs. Folden was brought to the hospital here. Her parents live about four and a half miles east of Mt. Vernon. Mr. Fyrar operates a sawmill.

Her husband is Ora Folden. When last heard from he lived in Pontiac, Mich. They have been separated several years.

On Feb. 5, 1936, the following poem was penned by Delcie age 19:

Hidden Pain

No one knows the pain in my heart
No one will ever know that part
I'll just laugh as I've always did;
And keep my sorrows deeply hid

I've lost some teeth and too an eye
But after all I didn't die;
While out there he is beneath the dirt
Deep down in me thats what hurt

Didn't he know sometime I'd forgive?
Seems thats something for which to live
If he loved me as much as he said
Do you think now he'd be dead?

I could love no one more
Though cold ground covers him o'r
There'll always be one warm little spot
Held Secret for Wayne in my poor heart