KENTUCKY TIMES-STAR

Wednesday January 09 1935

SEVEN SLAIN BY FUGITIVE; ENDS OWN LIFE

Five Members of Cincinatti Deputy Sheriff�s

Family Killed; Two Others Reported

To Have Been Wounded.

MASSACRE NEAR CRAB ORCHARD, KY.

Mother, Father, Two Sisters and Brother of

Hamilton County Officer are Victims

Of Killers Rage.

Five members of the family of Hamilton County Deputy Sheriff Modam Helton, 32 Crescent Avenue, Wyoming, were among seven person slain in their homes, near Crab Orchard, Ky., early Wednesday, by a crazed fugitive, dispatches stated.

The fugitive, a brother in law of Helton, later ended his life when surrounded by a posse.

The dead members of Helton�s family are:

William Helton, 68, his father.

Mrs. William Helton, 68, his mother.

Howard Helton, 32, a brother and former Cincinnatian.

Miss Lola Helton, 23, a sister.

Mrs Stell Collett, 35, a sister.

George Collett, 35 former roadhouse proprietor and husband of Mrs Stella Collett, and charged wit the wholesale killings shot and killed himself in a tourist camp at Brodhead, Ky., about seven miles from the scene of the massacre.

The two others slain by Collett dispatches stated were Julian Borders, 52, farmer and his wife, same age.

TWO ALSO WOUNDED

Lonnie and Carlo Helton, brothers of Deputy Helton also were wounded by Collett, dispatches stated. They are expected to recover, however.

First word of the tragedy was received at Wyoming police headquarters Wednesday at 3:30 a.m. by Night Patrolman George Distler. He in turn notified Deputy Helton, who together with his wife and two children left immediately for Crab Orchard.

Howard Helton, one of the dead, until two years ago lived with his wife and two children on Mills Street Lockwood, and operated a grocery store on Woodbine between Sheehan and Hartwell Avenues. He also had worked as an attendant at the Full Measure Gasoline Station, Wyoming. After disposing of his grocery he purchased a farm in Kentucky.

His wife, Mrs. Zella Helton, in some manner escaped the killer. She telephoned the Wyoming police immediately and asked them to notify Deputy Helton. She has two sisters living in Wyoming. They are Mrs. Helen Patrick, 66 Clark Road, and Mrs. Jessie Johnson, 74 Clark Road.

Collett, according to Sheriff D. C. Clark of Rockcastle County, Ky., had been hunted since October on warrants charging him with receiving stolen goods. He formerly had operated a road house, Sheriff Clark said.

Sheriff Clark said that Collett had returned to the Helton home, on Copper Creek, near Crab Orchard with dramatic suddenness about midnight and engaged in a quarrel with the Helton family over the disposition of property. It was said that his wife had refused to deed over to him property in her name.