The Way it Was

100 years ago

A question of insanity

MACON, Mo. -- Dr. L.M. Thompson, formerly superintendent of the home for the feeble minded at Marshall, was on the stand here as an expert witness in case where one side claimed the testator was of unsound mind.

In answer to the long hypothetical question of the attorney who called him, Dr. Thompson gave it was his opinion that the testator was afflicted with senile dementia.

50 years ago

14 killed in St. Louis area twisters

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- Tornadoes struck a second death blow on Missouri yesterday in as many days by claiming 14 more lives for a total of 51 and 270 injured.

Small towns in southern and eastern Missouri were hit by rash of tornadoes even as workmen still dug in the rubble of Kansas City suburbs where less than 24 hours before a tornado claimed 37 lives and injured 200 persons.

Six persons were killed in a twister which leveled Fremont, a town of 201 which only 10 days ago was hit by a flash flood.