Here's everything I could dig up on Arthur James Sackett. It's very interesting what the two different newspapers reported. He was from Fond du Lac and it's paper reported favorably to him. His wife was from Washington, DC, and the paper there said he was basically a scoundrel. I can't figure out what happened to his children. I've tried finding them under Sackett, Sanger and Harrington. Maybe they were adopted out to a different family afterall. Sad. I will continue with his brother Edwin Hiram and sister Ruth Eliza when I get a chance. Kari Roehl The Daily Commonwealth, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin June 18, 1913 Shoots His Wife And Then Suicides Arthur J. Sackett Slays During Insane Fury DIVORCE ACTION PENDING Alleged Infidelity Of Young Wife And Loss Of Position Results in Baleful Tragedy. Crazed by constant brooding over trouble growing out of an estrangement with his wife against whom he had instituted divorce proceedings, Arthur J. Sackett, a son of Mrs. H.T. Sackett, 157 Sheboygan street, shot and mortally wounded his wife and then turned the revolver on himself Tuesday night on a Washington, D.C. thoroughfare. Both died in a hospital within an hour. News of the tragedy reached the Sackett home on Sheboygan street this morning, completely prostrating Mrs. Sackett. A daughter, Miss Ruth, is away in Chicago and the news of the affair will probably be withheld until her return home. Inquiry at the Sackett home this morning elicited the information that Arthur J. Sackett and his wife have been living apart since January when he began divorce proceedings. Mrs. Edward Kent of this city, while in Washington several weeks ago, had a long talk with Mr. Sackett in which he revealed to her the details of his domestic entanglement. “From what Arthur told me,” said Mrs. Kent, “I don’t blame the boy for leaving her.” It is also stated that Mr. Sackett was very fond of his wife, whom he married when she was 18 years of age. The couple have been married for five years and have two children, a boy and a girl. Mrs. Sackett was a Washington girl, her parents residing in that city at the present time. Up to January Mr. Sackett occupied a position of importance in the government service but the domestic troubles caused him to lose his position. The loss of position which held out splendid opportunities for Mr. Sackett, coupled with his home troubles, are believe to have preyed upon his mind to such an extent that meeting his wife on the street his mind gave way and the slaying followed. Athur (typo in text) spent his boyhood in Fond du Lac and was known among his intimates as “Pat”. He left here some years ago and located at Washington, where he entered the government service. It was there that he met the girl that he subsequently married. Mr. Sackett was in Fond du Lac last fall, at the time of the death of his father, Dr. Howard T. Sackett, which took place October 7. He was accompanied here by his daughter, who was then three years of age. In addition to the daughter and son, the latter being two years of age, he leaves his mother and a sister, Miss Ruth Sackett, of this city, and a brother, Edwin, of Billings, Mont. Burial will take place at Washington. The sympathy of the community will go out to Mrs. Sackett and family in this affliction. ***Extractors note: The Daily Commonwealth on June 20, 1913 reports that: Mrs. H.T. Sackett, local secretary of the Associated Charities, has gone to Chicago where she will study for two months at the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy. Her return is reported on August 20, 1913. The Washington Post, Washington D.C. December 23, 1911 Health Office Record Births Arthur J. and Floretta Sackett, boy. (this would be John) The Washington Post, Washington D.C. June 18, 1913 KILLS HER AND DIES A.J. Sackett Blames Girl-Wife for Love Tragedy Shots Fly on Sidewalk Former Street Cleaning Department Clerk Plans Deed Carefully. Couple Separated and Children in Care of Other People-Vaguely Refers to Another Man in Letter He Leaves Explaining Motive for Murder and Suicide –Meets Victim in Pension Park, and Shooting Follows in E Street Arthur J. Sackett, 25 years old, a former clerk in the street cleaning department, at 11:50 last night, shot his wife, Flora, 20 years old, and then himself, on the sidewalk in front of 109 E street northwest. Sackett blew his brains out. He died instantly. His wife lived for half an hour after she had been taken to Emergency Hospital. One bullet had gone through her body, the other through her face, neck and right shoulder. Wife Vaguely Blamed In a letter which was found in one of Sackett’s pockets, and which shows that he had made a thorough preparation beforehand, the young woman is vaguely blamed for the step Sackett had determined to take. The police, however, have been acquainted with Sackett since May, 1909, and it was said in the Sixth precinct last night that he had never supported his pretty, young wife or their two children, one of whom lives with Sackett’s mother, while the other, a girl, 2 years old, has been taken care of by Mrs. Harry Sanger, of 1223 New Jersey avenue northwest, to whom Sackett’s letter was addressed. Sackett and his wife were not living together. Letter to Mrs. Sanger. In part the letter says: “Dear Mrs. Sanger: “I have decided to end everything, as I think it will be best for Flora. She is not doing the right thing and I can’t let the children suffer for her faults. “I am sure that Ruth is well taken care of and I hope you will adopt her, and I am sure that in later years she will be a comfort to you and Mr. Sanger. As to Little John. I don’t know what will become of him, but I wish you could try and have a good family adopt him. Please notify my mother at 157 Sheboygan street, Fond du Lac, Wis. She is the beneficiary of an insurance policy for $2,000, and I think you can see her about money for Ruth’s and John’s education. “I regret this very much, but I have endured this as long as I can, and I cannot stand the separation from the children. “I hope (here is a name used, which the police have withheld) the young man Flora thought so much of will in the future not go between any more married couples, as he has certainly broken up ours. “I must close now, as I am to see Flora soon. With love to Ruth, and hoping you and Mr. Sanger will always remain devoted to each other, as it is the only way, sincerely, yours “ARTHUR J. SACKETT” Arrested For NonSupport. Policemen who have known the pair for four or five years said last night that Sackett’s allusion to another man in the case probably was a deliberate untruth, which would seem to be borne out by the young man’s record. According to Mrs. Sanger, who is the girl’s aunt, and with whom the younger child, Ruth, is living, Sanger* was merely an orderly in Providence Hospital when, representing himself as a doctor, he induced her niece to marry him. That was about five years ago. According to the police records, Mrs. Sackett had her husband arrested on May 3, 1910, for nonsupport, and on January 13, 1911, the juvenile court issued an attachment for him, and he went to Occoquan for nonpayment. Before that, on June 3, 1909, and on May 6, of the same year, he was arrested for obtaining money under false pretenses and embezzlement, respectively. *Sanger is written, but I believe Sackett is meant. K Story of Eyewitness. The shooting and the circumstances immediately preceding it were described to the police by Max Tass, a tailor, 19 years old, in front of whose house the tragedy occurred. Tass said he noticed the couple in the Pension Office park, where they seemed to be exchanging angry words. On his way home he followed them out of the park and passed them at Second and E streets, where they had paused. As Tass entered the yard in front of his home at 109, he said, he heard the couple, who had come on after him, resume their quarrel. Stopping directly in front of Tass’ gate, Mrs. Sackett said, angrily: “Any man who points a gun at me I don’t want to see at all. The first officer I see I’m going to have search you.” Tass said that he was just about to step back to the sidewalk to see if he could be of assistance to the woman when Sackett suddenly drew away from her-he had been pacing along close at her left side-and whipped out a pistol. Shot Wife Twice. He fired twice. The girl screamed and fell, and even as she fell Sackett placed the muzzle of the gun against his right temple and pulled the trigger again. The side of his head was blown in. One bullet, fired at such close range that Mrs. Sackett’s shirtwaist was powder burned, struck her in the left side, passing through her body and piercing several vital organs. The other struck her in the face, passed through and into the neck, and finally lodged in the right shoulder, which it shattered. Policeman Harbaugh of the Sixth precinct station, which is only two squares away from the scene of the double tragedy, was standing at Second and E streets, hardly a square from the spot, when he heard the shots and started in their direction. He found Tass standing over the bodies, and sent him running to the police station to summon an ambulance. Wild Run to Hospital. But by the time Dr. Newhouse arrived from the Emergency Hospital, and another ambulance reached the scene from the Casualty Hospital, Harbaugh and the policeman who had rushed out of the station house, had placed Sackett and the wounded girl in a taxicab and started on a wild run with them for the Emergency Hospital. Sackett was already dead, and his wife was unconscious. She died before the surgeons could prepare to operate on her. The revolver with which Sackett accomplished the crime is a small nickel plated, .32- caliber weapon, and when the police picked it up 3 of its 6 cartridges were empty, showing he had fired three times. In the hospital 6 additional cartridges were found in one of his pockets, as well as the letter which had been quoted, an old letter, on the back of which he had written, “Please notify my mother”, (giving her name and address), and a purse containing no money. Evidently he didn’t have a cent. Wife’s Residence Not Located. The police were unable to learn where Mrs. Sackett had been living, although one of her children, Ruth, the baby, was found with Mrs. Sanger, and the other, John, 3 years old, with the dead woman’s mother, Mrs. James Harrington, who has an apartment at the Royalston, in M street, near Tenth, northwest. Neither Mrs. Harrington or Mrs. Sanger could tell where Mrs. Sackett had been living. Indeed, both, when they had been told of the tragedy, became so hysterical that it was almost impossible to learn anything from them. Sackett had been boarding in the Tyree Café, at 401 G street northwest, where the proprietress of the place said he had been employed, recently in the Cosmos Theater, pending his appointment to a district job of some sort. Enlisted in the Navy. It is said that his parents in Fond du Lac, Wis., are in comfortable circumstances, and that Sackett ran away from home when very young and enlisted in the Navy. Here in Washington he managed to get Senator La Follette, of Wisconsin, interested in his behalf, with the result that he obtained, first, a job in the Navy Department, which he did not hold, and later a clerkship in the District street-cleaning department. It was during an interval between two of the many fairly good jobs he had had in Washington, and while he was an orderly in Providence Hospital, that he met his wife, then a good deal under the legal age limit, and, representing himself as a regular physician on duty in the hospital, induced her to run away with him. They were married while the girl’s parents and the police were searching for her. The Washington Post, Washington, D.C. June 19, 1913 MOTHER IS PENNILESS Potter’s Field for Murderer and Suicide Sackett Passed Bad Checks Wife’s Pleas Prevented Prosecution. Widowed Parent Now Sued for Ring Son Bought While in Wisconsin for Father’s Funeral-Children With Their Grandmother The body of Mrs. Flora Sackett who was shot to death on E street, northwest Tuesday night by her husband, will be buried tomorrow afternoon in Glenwood Cemetery, while that of Sackett, who blew out his own brains after murdering his wife, will be laid in the Potter’s field. Mrs. James Harrington, of the Royalston apartments, in M street, had her daughter’s remains removed yesterday to an undertaking establishment, in which the funeral services will be held preceding the burial. The District will have to bury Sackett. A telegram, received at police headquarters yesterday from the chief of police of Fond du Lac, Wis., says: “Mrs. H.T. Sackett is unable financially to go to Washington or to take charge of the remains of her son Arthur. She would like to have his grave marked or numbered.” Wife’s Home Located. The police learned yesterday that Sackett’s wife was boarding at 522 Second street northwest, and that she and her two children were being supported by her mother and her aunt, Mrs. Harry Sanger, to whom Sackett’s letter of explanation was directed. The younger child, Ruth, 1 year old, was with Mrs. Sanger, while John, aged 3, was with his grandmother. The latter has both of them now. In the investigation which the police made to satisfy the coroner, enough evidence was gathered to found the belief that Sackett, when he killed his wife and himself, carried out a threat which he had made in the hope of coercing his wife into refraining from causing his arrest. Less than two months ago Sackett was sent to the workhouse for nonsupport. After his release, the police say, Judge DeLacy gave him a week or two in which to arrange for the support of his family, failing which he was to return to jail. The police think that Sackett tried to extract from his wife a promise not to hale him into court again. Passed Bad Checks. Several bad checks which Sackett passed in Washington were made good, the police say, by Mrs. Harrington, and it was her pleading, joined with that of his wife, which saved him from prosecution. Even now his mother faces suit for the recover of a $200 diamond ring which, the police say, Sackett obtained from a jeweler when he went to Fond du Lac to attend his father’s funeral a few months ago. Having obtained from Mrs. Harrington the money for the trip, he had the ring charged to his mother, who then had hardly enough money with which to meet her husband’s funeral expenses. Father A Prominent Dentist. Fond du Lac, Wis.,-June 18.-Arthur J. Sackett, who murdered his wife and then committed suicide in Washington, D.C., last night, was well known here, and was a son of the late Dr. Howard Sackett, former president of the Wisconsin State Dental Association. A divorce action had been pending since the first of the year, Sackett being the complainant. Same paper on June 19, 1913, different article, repeated on June 20, 1913 DIED. SACKETT-Suddenly, on Tuesday, June 17, 1913, at 11 p.m., Flora E., beloved wife of Arthur J. Sackett and daughter of Mrs. J. Harrington. Funeral from Lee’s undertaking establishment on Friday, June 20, at 2 p.m. Interment (private) at Glenwood cemetery. 1910 US Federal Census Index Name: Arthur Sackett Age in 1910: 23 Estimated Birth Year: 1886 Birthplace: Wisconsin Home in 1910: ED 110, WASHINGTON, District Of Columbia Race: White Gender: Male Series: T624 Roll: 152 Part: 2 Page: 21A Year: 1910 From the birth extracts I posted earlier child of Howard T & Harriet (Hattie) Brown: Arthur James born 1/9/1886