‘It took pain’ to end couple’s existence

Press, 25 October 1985, Page 6

‘It took pain’ to end couple’s existence

NZPA-AP Columbus, Ohio With only SUS2S left to live on after paying the monthly bills, a 71-year-old man shot and killed his bedridden wife, lay down next to her and, holding her hand, shot himself. A note that Wilson Whaley wrote was found by their bodies at their home on Wednesday. He wrote of frustration, of welfare cutbacks, and of a society that did not care. He also said that an angel had visited him. The police said that the note did not indicate whether his wife, Mary, to whom he had been married for 43 years, had agreed to the killings. “I’ll tell you what killed him ... the Government cut back all his money. He had nothing to live on. He was always worried about buy-

ing Mary’s medication,” a step-son, Charles Siders, aged 51, said. His mother and stepfather received 3U5600 a month from social security. After their house payment, utilities, and medical bills, SUS2S was left for food, said Mr Siders, who has cancer, has suffered two heart attacks, and faces foreclosure on his home. „ j “He called me on Sunday and wanted to know if I had SUS 26 to buy Mary’s medication,” he said. Mr Siders and a brother, Gene Siders, aged 53, delivered food and what little money they could scrape together each week. Gene was taking food to his parents when he discovered their bodies. Inside the refrigerator of the couple’s two-story home was a bowl of potato chips

and two containers of chip dip. “It didn’t take any courage to pull the trigger. It took pain,” said Mr Whaley’s brother, Howard, aged 67. Mrs Whaley, bedridden since 1978, had emphysema and suffered back and hip problems. Her husband limped, the result of a car wreck two years ago that left him with steel pins in. his leg and hip. Before killing himself, Mr Whaley had neatly placed last month’s medical card, which was stamped “delayed,” by portraits of himself and Mary taken in 1943. “I knew something was going to happen. This Government and President Reagan takes care of every foreigner, but we can’t take care of our own,” said Gene Siders.