If you missed the first post about Joseph Checketts click here. This story continues with Frank and the after math of the shot.
Picture: "FamilySearch, FamilyTree," (www.familysearch.org: accessed 15 October 2019), entry for Francis Checketts, PID: KZ2S-MMM.
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Frank stood over his father’s motionless body, with the gun in his hand. He slowly moved to where his mother was lying on the ground. In the background, he could faintly hear his sister calling the police. As he sat by his mother’s side in a daze, the police arrived and burst into the crime scene. Frank released the gun to the officers. Another officer was picking up the butcher knife. Frank stood up and the officers arrested him. That fateful night, he was sitting in jail cell awaiting his court date.
The following day Frank was brought to the Coroner’s office to give a deposition about the death of Joseph Checketts. Frank sat in the defendant chair when his mother walked in. A bandage above her left ear from the night of the gruesome murder. The rest of the children followed behind her.
Many different people testified to Frank's good character. After court resided from a lunch recess, Frank’s sister Eva was the next to testify. Eva testified that Frank told his father to let go of his mother or he would shoot. Joseph exclaimed to Frank that he would kill the whole family before he killed himself. After Eva finished her testimony, Emily Baxter -Joseph Checketts’s sister- was next.
Emily explained to the Coroner’s Jury, that Joseph was always a mean person. When their father was the age of sixty Joseph hit him. She continued with the fact that she was always scared of Joseph.
Emily sat down and her father, Charles, was the next witness called. Charles didn’t say one kind word about his son Joseph. He told the court of an experience of where Joseph struck his wife, Jane, across the jaw in front of a family gathering.
The last witnessed called was Jane. As Jane sat on the stand defending her son, she exclaimed to the court how cruel Joseph was to her over the years. She explained to them, that right before Frank pulled the trigger, Joseph had his hands wrapped around her throat pushing her up against the wall. She was going in and out of unconscious when she heard the gunshot. Jane continued to tell her story about how Joseph hit her with a butcher knife and left a gash right above her left ear.
Once Jane ended her testimony, she sat back down with the rest of the family. Frank and the rest of the family were waiting in anticipation to know what the fate of Frank would be. Fifteen minutes later, after the deliberation of the Coroner’s jury, they came to their decision.
We, the jury, find that Joseph Checketts came to his death from the effect of a gunshot wound in the left temple, said gun being in the hands his son, Frank Checketts, in defense of his mother’s life hence justifiable, in our opinion. We also recommend his release from custody and his acquittal.
Frank was relieved. He knew what he did was out of defense for his mother, but he was not sure if the court was going to believe him or not. Although he was soothed, he was not sure how the public was going to respond to him killing his father. He knew his neighbors would be supportive of him, they knowing how abusive his father was.
The following day, Frank and his family laid Joseph to rest in the Ogden Cemetery. Although Joseph was a mean, abusive, alcoholic man, his whole family showed up for the funeral. Joseph’s brothers were the pallbearers. Charles, Jane, and the children were there.
Just a few days after being free, Frank was charged with voluntary manslaughter by County Attorney E. T. Hulaniski. Although he was not arrested, a bond was set on him for $750 to insure that Frank would be present in court. The morning Frank appeared in court he was detained once again.
Frank was accused of voluntary manslaughter. The courts did not want any future complaints towards him. The judge and the county attorney saw that Frank shooting Joseph was a justified act. They believed that if he didn’t pull the trigger, Frank and his family would have been killed. Frank was set free. Although there was a tragedy in his family, his family was free from the dangers of his father.
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