JAMES H. SAMPSON

The Parkersburg News
Nov. 3, 1953

Funeral services for James H. Sampson, who died Saturday morning from a self-inflicted gun wound, will be held at 10:30 a.m. today at the Cottrell cemetery. The Rev. J. C. Cottrell will officiate and interment will be in the cemetery. The body was taken from the Stump funeral home in Grantsville to the home of his father, Andy Sampson, Sr. Nicut, Calhoun county, yesterday evening at 4 o'clock.




This newspaper death article included photos of both victims. The exact date Howard Sampson died 31 Oct 1953.

EX-CALHOUN CO. MAN SLAYS WIFE IN OHIO, KILLS HIMSELF

Woman's Kin Live on Farm at Coolville
by Albert Woofter
of The News Staff

James Howard Sampson, 58, of Canton O., formerly of Calhoun county, ended his life yesterday, with a blast from a 12-guage shotgun at the home of his brother, about seven miles southwest of Grantsville, some 12 hours after he killed his wife in Canton, State Police Cpl. (?) E. Haynes reported.

Canton city police said Sampson shot and killed his wife, Alice Sampson, 31, formerly of Coolville, in their room in a house on Cleveland Av., Canton, about 6:45 p.m. Friday after a quarrel.

He then fled in a pickup truck and police in Parkersburg and other points were alerted to be on the lookout for him, authorities said.

A girl in her 20's, believed to have been a St. Marys resident, reportedly accompanied Sampson to his brother's home but left with him after Sampson borrowed his brother's shotgun "to go hunting rabbits," Cpl. Haynes said. It was when Sampson returned to his brother's home that he shot himself while sitting in the pick-up truck, Cpl. Haynes said, and the girl who had been with him had not been located last evening.

Cpl. Haynes said Sampson arrived at the home of his brother, Andy Sampson, Jr. on Sinking Springs Creek, near Mt. Zion, in Calhoun county, about 4 a.m. from Canton. The girl, who was identified only as "Goldie," was with him, and they visited at the home for awhile before Sampson borrowed the shotgun from his brother saying he was going to his father's home at Nicut some 20
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Ex-Calhoun Co. Man
Kills Wife, Suicides

(continued from page 1)

miles away, to do some rabbit hunting, he related.

Sampson and the girl left about 5 a.m., Cpl. Haynes said, and shortly after 6 a.m. someone in the brother's home heard the truck pull in. Then they heard the report of the shotgun and discovered that the Canton man had shot himself.

Cpl. Haynes said the shotgun blast entered the lower section of Sampson's chest. Sampson had been sitting in the seat of the truck with his feet and stock of the gun resting on the ground, he said, when the fatal blast occurred.

Prosecuting attorney Victor Hamilton of Grantsville said Sampson had borrowed three shells from his brother and that one shell which had been fired and the two which had not been fired were both located.

It turned out, Cpl Haynes said, that Sampson did not visit his father as he had stated he planned to do.

Meanwhile, at 11 a.m. yesterday Cpl. Haynes received a pick-up notice from Canton to be on the look-out for Sampson, similar notices having been received Friday night by both state and city police at Parkersburg. But the death in Calhoun, of course, cancelled all these.

Cpl. Haynes had no details of the Canton slaying other than Sampson had shot and killed his wife. But Canton police filled in these details.

Canton police who investigated the slaying said it occurred in a room in which the Sampsons had occupied and that it followed a quarrel. One version was that the two had been planning to obtain a divorce.

While she was preparing a meal, it was said, the two got into the argument, and Sampson struck his wife in the head with a garden hoe and left the room. Two other persons who occupied the same house later came to the room and were trying to assist her, Canton police said. Sampson returned and shot her with a shotgun, the blast entering her chest. Her body was removed to a Canton funeral home and was to be taken later to the White Funeral home at Coolville, O., some 20 miles from Parkersburg.

She was the daughter of Mrs. Laura Barringer who resides on a farm at Coolville, Rt 3, some 20 miles below Parkersburg, and her father is deceased, it was learned last night.

The mother said the slain woman previously had been married to Carl Foutty, who she divorced while the latter was serving in the U.S. Army in World War II. Of this union was born a daughter, Florence Mildred Foutty, now 14, who formerly resided with Mrs. Barringer but who presently is living at the Athens Children's Home at Athens, O.

Other survivors include six brothers, Charles F. Barringer, of Coolville, O., Orville Barringer of Reedsville Rt. 1, William Barringer, Sebring, O., Henry Barringer, Malvern, O., Clyde Barringer, Alliance, O., and Ernest Barringer, at home; and two sisters, Mrs. Bessie Dearth, Sebring, Ol, and Mrs. Goldie Founds, Coolville, Rt 3.

Mrs. Barringer, mother of the slain woman, said Sampson had been married twice before and that he has a son, Dallas, another son Ford, whose addresses weren't learned, and a daughter Edith, of Charleston, W.Va.

Sampson's body was removed to the Stump funeral home in Grantsville, where an attache said that he was a native of Calhoun county but had been away for around 25 years. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Sampson, reside on a farm at Nicut in Calhoun county.

Sampson was said to have been a former dog warden at Marietta, O., and was employed as a trash hauler in Canton.

Although first reports said it was believed the same weapon took the lives of both Sampson and his wife, Cpl. Haynes discounted this, saying Sampson took his own life with the gun he borrowed from his brother.

Funeral arrangements for both both victims were incomplete last night.