This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Death Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/JW.2ADE/7778 Message Board Post: Boy Killed By .22 Bullet While Playing Hamilton Thatcher, 14 year old boy from San Marino was killed Sunday, Oct. 4, because he wanted to hear how bullets sound when they are coming at you. He was a member of a rabbit hunting party Sunday morning at the old G. P. pumping plant near Willow Springs and had gone inside one of the old tanks to hear how the bullets sounded when they hit the tank. One of the bullets apparently went inside the tank and struck the youth in the side, wounding him fatally. An inquest, held Wednesday, Oct. 7, at the O'Donnell Funeral Home in Mojave by Kern County Coroner Norman C. Houze. Verdict of the jury was accidental death at the hands of persons unknown. Members of the jury were: O. K. Parker, Charlie Spicer, Fred Feh. rensen, Bill Moore, Mrs. Betty Chappell, Mrs. Lily Stradel and Mrs. Rose Phillips. Posted by East Kern Genealogical Society Courtesy of Mojave Desert News California City, Kern, CA Published: 08 Oct 1953