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