This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Paxton, Hartis Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/YZ5.2ACIB/936.1.1.1 Message Board Post: Here is the article you requested: Charlotte Observer News, June 1955: A borrowed shotgun, which shattered the quiet of yesterday’s early-morning hours, has claimed its second death victim here. The weapon-wielder, 1 28-year-old enraged husband shot to death his sister-in-law, smashed the arm of his mother-in-law and blew out his own brains. The dead are 29-year-old Pearl Hartis of 1107 N. Caldwell St. and Bervin M. Paxton of 945 N. Davidson St. Mis Hartis’ mother, 54-year-old Mrs. Carrie Hartis, was in critical condition at Memorial Hospital last night, her arm shredded between shoulder and elbow. Police said the 1:30 am siege of violence exploded during a row between Paxton and his estranged wife, Mrs. Delores Hartis Paxton. Officers said Paxton, carrying a borrowed shotgun, knocked on the Hartis’ door at 1107 N. Caldwell St. about 1:30 am. His wife, from whom he was separated, came to the door. The two argued and Paxton struck his wife with the gun at her and pulled the trigger. She pitched dead across a livin! g room couch, her left side smashed below the heart. Paxton walked to a bedroom where his mother-in-law was sleeping and wounded her in the right arm. Methodically, then, he walked out of the house and down the front walk. At the sidewalk step, he sat down, removed his right shoe and sock. He placed the shotgun to his left forehead, pulled the trigger with his great toe, an hour later, he was dead at Memorial Hospital. Dr. W.M. Summerville, Mecklenburg County coroner, viewed the two bodies, and pronounced the deaths murder and suicide. Paxton, a truck driver fo Queen City Mattress Co. was scheduled to come to trial in Domestic Relations Court since Jan. 1. Surviving Miss Hartis besides her mother and sister are two other sisters, Mrs. Frances Pridgen and Mrs. Betty Cagle of Charlotte, and two brothers, William H. and Robert I. Hartis of Charlotte.