Sins of the father

While trying to discover which, if any, of the State of Ohio's executions great-uncle Charley witnessed I discovered yet another murder* with a family connection. Sadly, this time we are related by marriage to the convicted killer.

Elias Primmer was convicted of killing John Fox and the attempted murder of his wife. Eight months later he was hanged by the neck until dead on Nov. 26, 1856. His was the first legal execution in Hocking County. Little Noah Primmer was about four.

Mary L. Huls married Noah Primmer in 1880, but she died in 1881 just five months after their marriage. 

Elias Primmer was the father-in-law of Charley's first cousin, one time removed. Mary L. Huls was the sister of the Joseph W. Huls of the Letter Scandal.

Noah remarried in 1890. Charley would not have known any of them, except possibly Noah Primmer, Mary's husband, who died in 1912.

(*My cousin Martha Mae King and her husband Jerry Martin were both murdered on Sunday, May 21, 1978 by the .22 Caliber killers.)

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