“MERCY” KILLING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21244, 14 January 1939, Page 15

“MERCY” KILLING

PATHOS AND TRAGEDY OF AMERICAN CASE REVEALED BY FATHER'S ARREST United Prf“*s Association —Bv Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received January 13, 7.35 p.m.) NEW YORK, January 13. A mercy-killing, with details of more than usual pathos and horror, was revealed by the arrest of Louis Greenfield. aged 42, a prosperous millinery store owner, who with his wife, tenderly cared for their 17-year-old, list 61b, physically normal, but incurable imbecile son. Jerry, and spent a fortune in an ineffective effort to cure him. After years of treatment by a leading brain specialists, the boy became progressively worse, one particularly distressful aspect of the illness being periodic attacks of paralysis, depriving him of the use of his legs. ■7. Greenfield, after trying unsuccessj fully for a long time to find a chemist who would sell him chloroform, at ■ last succeeded in making a purchase several months ago. and then waited to summon sufficient courage to end his son’s life. Greenfield sent his wife away from home on a pretext to-day. and when Jerry succumbed to a paralysis attack lie immediately put him fully clothed to bed, soaked a handkerchief with chloroform and covered his son's face.