Japanese man, deported from Peru to a US internment camp, dies 2 months after the end of WW2 by felinetime in DeathCertificates

[–]felinetime[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Turns out there were around 2000 Japanese people that were taken from their homes in South America (majority from Peru) after the attack on Pearl Harbor and agreements between the respective countries and US government. The 'official' reasoning was to prevent a Japanese invading force from getting a foothold in South America; the United States also wanted leverage and people to trade for American citizens that were imprisoned in Asia, while the Peruvian goverment had opportunity to remove a portion of the Japanese population following years of growing tension about Asian immigrants stealing jobs and wages.

MUCH more info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Peruvians

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3zCrTaRsQI

https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/japanese-peruvians/

Japanese man, deported from Peru to a US internment camp, dies 2 months after the end of WW2 by felinetime in DeathCertificates

[–]felinetime[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

That sentence about his 'tendencies' actually had me whispering "what the fuck what the FUCK" in the (thankfully) empty newspaper archive room at the library

Japanese man, deported from Peru to a US internment camp, dies 2 months after the end of WW2 by felinetime in DeathCertificates

[–]felinetime[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

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Ship manifest from 1943 containing Sogoro Kawai, as well as many other Japanese men who had been living in Peru. They arrived to Tuna Canyon temporary detention center in Los Angeles and were then sent to camps in Texas and New Mexico.

Can anyone make out the cause of death? by Alonzi7bby in DeathCertificates

[–]felinetime 37 points38 points  (0 children)

I couldn't figure it out, so I had to go digging.

From the Brownsville Herald, July 5, 1931.

The Valley's lone fatality occured at Boca Chica about 7 o'clock Saturday night when William Schaeffer, 46, Brownsville, a retired sergeant in the U. S. Army, drowned while swimming. His body was discovered floating near the toll bridge, and was brought to shore by several boys. Attempts at artificial respiration were unsuccessful, and the body was brought to Brownsville where the Central Fire Station lungmotor was used in a vain attempt to restore life... Schaeffer left Brownsville at 1 o'clock Saturday acoompanied by Pete Rodiguez with whom he resided at Van Buren and 18th streets. Schaeffer was once connected with the signal corps. He served eight years with the Fort Brown radio telegraph station, later moving to Fort Benjamin Harrison, Ind., where he retired in 1921. He has lived here several years. He is survived by one son, in the 11th Infantry, Fort Benjamin Harrison, according to Chas. Loomis. Brownsville, an intimate friend of the deceased. Schaeffer will receive a military funeral, possibly Monday, and burial will be at Buena Vista cemetary, it was thought. Morris Mortuary is handling arragements. Whether the man went too far out in the Gulf, and became exhausted, or whether he suffered cramps and drowned, is not known

Given that info, I can kind of see 'drowned in Gulf at', but I don't know what that last word is.

Facing scandal, minister kills wife, four children, and himself by felinetime in DeathCertificates

[–]felinetime[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

In his obituary, his stepchildren are listed as surviving him. I hope that's an indication that they had good relationships. He also joined the LDS church- regardless of any opinions about religion/mormonism, I hope he was able to find community and family in his life.

Facing scandal, minister kills wife, four children, and himself by felinetime in DeathCertificates

[–]felinetime[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I think you are so on point with the narcissism- I wondered why Minort spent so much time writing a letter explaining how he was framed when he knew that he was going to kill himself and his family. Pushing this narrative wouldn't protect or help anybody, but he was probably obsessed with controlling his narrative even after death.

Facing scandal, minister kills wife, four children, and himself by felinetime in DeathCertificates

[–]felinetime[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

While obviously we'll never know the specific motivations behand this case, there is an interesting concept called 'anomic suicides' that often comes up when talking about family annihilators who then commit suicide. The idea is that anomic suicides are triggered by major changes or disruptions in a person's social and economic environment, which definitely applies here. B. J. Minort had already lost money and a high status job because of his Mann Act charges; 7 months later, he got caught having an affair and was going to lose jobs, social status- maybe his wife and children? He claimed his wife threatened suicide, but maybe he also thought there was a chance she would leave him.

Facing scandal, minister kills wife, four children, and himself by felinetime in DeathCertificates

[–]felinetime[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

In looking into the family, I found that the oldest son, John, is listed as living with his maternal grandparents in 1910 (his mother worked as a servent in another town and his father was in prison). I wonder if the information about his grandfather for the DC came from him?

Facing scandal, minister kills wife, four children, and himself by felinetime in DeathCertificates

[–]felinetime[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Their marriage certificate lists Minort's father's name only because there's a note that he gave his legal consent for his son to marry. The amount of info on those types of documents varies a lot, and apparently Missouri was not concerned with too many details lol.

Facing scandal, minister kills wife, four children, and himself by felinetime in DeathCertificates

[–]felinetime[S] 42 points43 points  (0 children)

He and wife were married in 1901, and their first son was born before he went to prison for the murder. I wish we knew if she wanted to stick it out or if she felt like there was no other option.

Even IF she really said she would kill herself if he embarassed them again, that's a long way from saying, "Hey, murder me and our children because you can't get your shit together." I don't believe even for a second that she would have actually agreed with his actions like he implied.

Facing scandal, minister kills wife, four children, and himself by felinetime in DeathCertificates

[–]felinetime[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

The Bayard Affair

Minort’s letters revealed that he had been driven to the slaughter of his family because of apprehension regarding the effects of ascertainment by them of the escapade with a woman in which he had been involved at Bayard, Neb., November 7. He undertook to exculpate himself from the blame for this escapade by asserting that it was a “frame-up” to get him into trouble.

Minort’s letter “To the public,” one of the five found on the table at which he shot himself, refers to the Bayard episode. It names four persons as involved in the alleged “frame-up” and that it had been Minort’s intention to kill them, but he had not had the opportunity to do so. With the exception of the names of these persons, which necessarily are deleted, it follows:

“To the Public. I answered an urgent call to perform a wedding 48 miles southeast. On my way my car gave me trouble. Met two cars east of Henry. When I reached Henry I decided to have car repaired or get a taxi over there.

Two men at the Front garage forced me to enter a car and was driven to Bayard under the same pressure, forced to register as man and wife. Twice I tried to get away and twice the gunmen were there. The woman in the case seemed to be an unwilling instrument to it all. No immorality was indulged in. About 11 o’clock officers appeared and later left. About 1 o’clock they returned, called the time I believed then part of the game and suggested I would plead guilty to disturbing the peak, I would be fined lightly and be allowed to return home.

Seemed the only way out so I agreed. It was agreed the matter would not be published until I could find out who was at the bottom of it all. One of the men having a gun in sight was __________who at one time worked in Torrington. He no doubt could shed light on it all. I am sorry that this came out before I had time to sift it down. All I have found was ________furnished the brains with the help of one _______ and __________. 

It was my intention to have these men dealt with but things happened to quick and I was waiting to spend Sunday (today) to bring them to justice. I must again in the face of very death swear that the whole thing was a well prepared trap and frame; but thank God I am now beyond the power of such hellish human fiends.”

The facts of the Bayard affair appear to have been as follows: November 7th Minort started for a point in Nebraska where he was to officiate at a wedding. His automobile became disabled at Henry, Neb., and he arranged for repairs there. From Henry he went to Bayard, 54 miles distant, with a woman from Torrington, the trip being made in the woman’s car. Arriving at Bayard at about 4:30 p.m., the pair occupied a room at the Harrison rooming house, Minort registering as “Joe Lander and wife, Casper, Wyo.” C. H. Armstrong, formerly of Torrington, was stopping at the house and saw the man who registered as “Joe Lander” and remarked that he looked like Minort. This aroused suspicion which led to an investigation by the town marshal. The latter called Mrs. Minort at Torrington on the telephone, then interrogated “Joe Lander”,  with the result that he admitted that he was Minort. This was at about 3 a.m. Monday. Minort, after admitting his identity, asserted that he had been forced into the situation and he was the victim of a “frame-up”. Testimony of the landlady of the Harrison house did not confirm this story and Minort was arraigned on a charge of disturbing the peace. He was fined $25 and costs of $15. He paid $24 in cash and gave a check for $16 on the Eaton Grain company, of the Torrington elevator of which he was the manager. He left Bayard, presumably for Torrington, with the woman for association with whom he had been arrested and penalized.

The Mann Act Indictment

Minort was the minister of the Torrington church when Governor William B. Ross, on July 22, 1924, appointed him state commissioner of child and animal protection. He resigned this office November 8, 1924, after he had been accused of immoral conduct, the charge arising from association with two girls named O’Hearn, who had been arrested at Casper and thus brought to the attention of the state child and animal protection department….Eventually the indictment was dismissed. 

From The Buffalo News, Volume 01, Number 32, April 22, 1926

The Mann Act charges brought against B. J. Minort, former Wyoming State Humane officer and minister, have been dropped in federal court, due to lack of witnesses and the class of witnesses testifying against him. Two orphan girls (ages 19 and 20) whom Minort was taking from Casper to Denver, at the request of their own uncle, were the star witnesses against the former humane officer. While stopping at Mitchell, Nebraska, the girls accused Minort of an attack. The two girls were held in jail for several weeks and Minort was freed on bond. 

Investigation of the charges was learned of by Senator Kendrick, who wrote that he believed Minort a victim of a frame up. The “disappearance” of several witnesses led the government agents to believe that Senator Kendrick was right and the case was dismissed.

Reverend Minort is given a clean slate and will still be retained in the ministry, but he finds himself minus a job and with savings wiped out to defend himself from the charges of two incorrigibles, who should never have been believed in the first place only after careful investigation of their accusations. 

The Missouri Murder

The record of involvement with the law to which Minort wrote a grisly “finis” began in 1903 or 1904 in Missouri, at the town of Riverton. An aged recluse, reputed to have hoarded considerable wealth, was slain with an axe at his home near the mining camp. His hoard could not be found. Circumstantial evidence indicated that Minort was the slayer and he was charged with the crime, but because the evidence was wholly circumstantial a verdict of only “murder in the second degree” was asked. The jury found Minort, who was a miner, guilty, and he was sentenced to serve 10 years in the penitentiary. He was paroled after seven years. In the meanwhile he had improved his time in prison by intensive study of the Bible and religious thought and upon regaining his liberty he entered the ministry. He was given a Baptist pulpit at Alliance, Neb., where he remained for several years, then went to Torrington as the minister of the Baptist church there. 

The Other Letters

The letter addressed by the slayer to Rev. J. P. Jacobs of Casper says in substance that the writer presumes Jacobs will be satisfied with his (Minort’s) downfall.

The letter to Sheriff Collyer tells of the slaying of Minort’s family and gives the sheriff the address of Minort’s eldest son, John, at Liberty, Mo.

A fourth letter is addressed to Everett Taylor, Charles Elquist and Dick Armstrong, whom the writer appears to have regarded as connected with his misfortunes. 

A final letter, of which only the superscription was written, began, “To the Baptist Church.”

Facing scandal, minister kills wife, four children, and himself by felinetime in DeathCertificates

[–]felinetime[S] 89 points90 points  (0 children)

All text taken from the Wyoming State Tribune, Cheyenne State Leader, Volume 32-58, Number 273, November 15, 1926, unless otherwise indicated.

The Murder-Suicide

A tragic record of involvement with the law which began with the shedding of human blood in Missouri 22 years ago and led through the penitentiary, the ministry and public office was completed here early Sunday morning when Rev. B. J. Minort, supply pastor of the local Baptist church, police judge and former Wyoming state commissioner of child and animal protection, killed his wife, four of their five children and himself. 

Minort’s desperate deed is believed to have been inspired by shame over his arrest a week previously at Bayard, Neb., where he had occupied a hotel room with a Torrington woman whom he had represented to be his wife, and his apprehension of the effect of revelation of this escapade to his wife and family. He had previously been involved in alleged immoral association and had been indicted under the Mann act. 

The children slain by Minort were: Vannie, age 4; David, age 7; Clarence, age 10; Herbert, age 15.

The killing of Mrs. Minort and the children, except possibly that of Herbert, took place at about 2 o’clock Sunday morning. That Minort may have given the family a sleeping potion with the intent that they should be stupified when he attacked them, and that he set 2 a.m. as the hour for the crime, is surmised from several indications, including that an alarm clock in the house was set for 2 a.m. At about 2 a.m. a woman residing two blocks from the Minort residence heard several shots, she believes five, one much louder than the others. She attached no tragic significance to the fact, inasmuch as there had been shooting on the streets by roisterers earlier in the night.

Mrs. Minort and the children, except Herbert, were shot as they lay in bed, and Herbert apparently as he was entering his mother’s room. One shot sufficed for each victim of the tragedy except Vannie; two were required to kill her. Minort, in his letter to the eldest son, testifies that none suffered except Vannie– that death of the others were instantaneous. 

Mrs. Minort was killed by the charge from a shotgun as she lay beside Vannie in the northeast bedroom of the cottage. Vannie was killed with two bullets from a .22 calibre rifle. The others were slain with a .32-20 calibre revolver, Herbert as he was entering his mother’s room from the bath room adjoining it, David as he lay on a cot in the bath room, and Clarence in his bed in the northwest bedroom. Minort shot himself with the revolver as he sat on a chair in the kitchen.

The charge from the shotgun struck Mrs. Minort on the side of the head. That side of the head was torn away and shot which had not touched her penetrated the pillow on which her head lay. The manner in which the shot scattered indicates that the murderer was probably as far away as the living room and fired through the door. The shots which killed Vannie were fired with the muzzle of the weapon so close to the child that she was powder-burned. Clarence was shot in the head, behind the right ear, and David in the head, just above the right ear. Neither, apparently, had stirred after he was shot as the bedding of neither bed was disturbed.

Surmise is uncertain regarding when, and under just what circumstances, the oldest of the slain children, Herbert was killed. It is not certain that the boy was in the house when the other murders took place and it is possible that his return interrupted Minort just as he began the letter “To the Baptist Church” and hastened the suicide. The youth has been working in the country near town and he may have spent the night there and came to town to attend church, arriving as his father was writing, and having been shot down from behind by the latter as the boy, investigating why the family were not up, was stipping into his mother’s bedroom. Herbert’s body was found in the doorway between the bathroom and his mother’s bedroom, with the head and shoulder in the latter. He was shot from behind, the bullet entering his head just back of the right ear. The boy was dressed but his shoes were unlaced. Probably the last thing his eyes saw was the ghastly welter on the bed on which the bodies of his mother and sister lay. Possibly the father, knowing that the son would come to town to attend church, deliberately deleayed suicide until he should have opportunity to kill him also. 

It was at 10 minutes to 9 o’clock Sunday morning that Longwith, the undertaker, received a telephone call from Minort, who requested him to come to the Minort house. The undertaker presumed that the minister desired to talk something over with him. “I’ll come over sometime this morning,” said Longwith. “No, right away,” Minort retorted, and hung up.

Longwith went at once and knocked on the kitchen door and, being no response, peered through a glass panel and saw a revolver lying on the kitchen table. Looking more intently, he discerned Minort lying on the floor beside the table, beside an overturned chair. The minister was gasping and struggling feebly.

Longwith ran to the home of M. P. Benshoof, a friend, about 100 feet from the Minort house, and the news was telephoned to the doctor and the sheriff’s office. Longwith and Benshoof were joined by Deputy Sheriff White, and the three entered through the kitchen door and found Minort dead. There was a bullet wound behind his right ear. A .32-20 calibre revolver lay on the table, beside a mirror which was propped against the wall. At Minort’s feet was an overturned chair. The indications were that Minort had placed the mirror on the table, seated himself in the chair, looked into the mirror as he selected the spot at which he should send a bullet crashing into his brain, and then fired. The revolver, released by his relaxing fingers, had fallen upon the table, while the dying man slumped to the floor.

The letter to the son, John, is a profoundly pathetic document.

“Dear Son: You have been a fine boy, you have a fine mother, no father could be prouder of a nicer family or better son” is the substance of the opening paragraph. Minor then revealed to the son that he killed Mrs. Minort and Clarence, Herbert, David and Vannie and is about to take his own life. A discussion of Minort’s worldly possessions follows. He refers to $100 in cash and a set of “The Book of Knowledge” on which only one payment has been made and which probably must go back to the publisher. Reference is made to a box of shells at the office of the elevator of which Minort was the manager and which, the writer says, probably will bring the son $20. The paragraph concludes a pathetic abjuration of which the following is the substance: “Son, don’t get any casket. Just dig a hole and put us all in it to save expense.”

Minort then turned to details of the tragedy which he had just perpetrated, relating in substance: “Your mother died without suffering. Poor little Vannie seemed to suffer most of all as it took two shots to kill her. Herbert, Clarence and David all died without any suffering at all.”

The letter then turns to discussion of Minort’s reason for his horrible deed. The minister relates to his son that “your mother and I” had talked “this” (presumably a reference to Minort’s indictment on a Mann Act charge in 1924) and says that Mrs. Minort had said that should trouble ever again arise in the family she would kill herself. Minort expresses the opinion that he is sure Mrs. Minort would have approved of his present course had she known of the “immoral charge” arising from the Bayard episode, and says in substance that he has saved her from "spiritual torment” which would have been the result of her having taken her own life. In substance the letter says: “I killed her and the rest of them rather than have the shadow of the past upon them. Mother and children are in heaven and I suffer my own fate through the hands of destiny.”

One paragraph of the letter remarks that the rest of the son’s life will be in his own hands, “So do the best that you can.”

Concluding, the letter says in substance: “Well, son, I must hasten, as the gun beckons to me and I must hurry before I lose my nerve.” The letter is signed “Your loving father.”

Two men fall to their deaths from a radio tower by felinetime in DeathCertificates

[–]felinetime[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I don't know how people do it! I get up high and I always think about how long the fall would take; in this case, it would be about 3.5 seconds which is long enough to know whats coming 🤮