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Case File: Froseth Family (1930)
Page 3, Columns 5
"MODEL CITIZEN"
KILLS FAMILY OF
FIVE AND HIMSELF
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Hits Each With Hammer and
Cuts Own Throat
With Razor.
Washburn, Wis. – George Froseth, assistant postmaster for many years and model citizen of this quiet town, killed his wife and four children with a hammer during a melancholic frenzy and then cut his throat with his razor. The killings were discovered when a group of citizens directed by Mrs. E. W. Olson, the school teacher, broke into the house. The dead are: George Froseth, sixty; Mrs. Froseth, forty-five; Neil, thirteen; George and Adelaide, eleven twins; and James, six.
Killed as They Slept
Froseth was believed to have killed his family while they slept. Mother and the children all were found in their beds. Apparently he first visited the room where his wife and daughter slept and struck them down. The condition of their bodies and the room indicated that in his frenzy he dealt blow after blow on them, although it was likely that the first caused death. After wandering through the other two bedrooms and killing the boys, Froseth, it was believed, killed himself in the bathroom. He collapsed in the front room downstairs.
Boy Reveals Slayings
The first news of the slayings came to Mrs. Olson through Robert Thoreson, a classmate of the oldest boy. The Thoreson boy, as was his custom, called at the Froseth home for his chum. No one responded to his knocks and he peeked through the front window. What he saw made him run shuddering to the teacher. “I don’t believe Neil will be in school today,” he told her. “I looked through the window and there’s something awful there. Mr. Froseth was lying on the floor.”
Mrs. Olsen was not impressed until Neil Froseth failed to come to school. Then she notified her husband, who called W. A. Robinson, the postmaster, and Chief of Police James N. Long. The four forced entry into the house. Froseth had been a victim of nervous disorders for years.
