Coroner’s Jury Rules Death of Charles Talbot, 13, Result Of Accident Sunday Afternoon
A coroner’s jury Tuesday night ruled that Charles Wright Talbot, 13 year old Laquey youth, died as a result of accidental shooting Sunday afternoon. According to testimony, Talbot and Gilbert Easterbrook, a 14 year old neighbor boy were playing in a cabin at the home of Talbot’s mother and step-father, Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell A. Kinsworthy, when the accident occurred. At the inquest the Osterbrook boy stated that he and young Talbot had been playing with a knife, throwing it at a tree, and had been playing with a piece of chain. The Easterbrook boy then went into the cabin and took the gun off the wall and when the Talbot boy came through the doorway he pointed the gun at “Chuck” and pulled the trigger, not knowing that the gun was loaded. The bullet from the highpowered Hornet .22 rifle hit the Talbot boy in the throat. Talbot then fell to the floor and the Osterbrook boy ran to his home. When he arrived at home, he did not tell his parents of the tragedy and later went to church.
Three sisters of the slain youth found Charles and called the mother. A neighbor, Mr. Carroll, was passing by on his way to church and called the Highway Patrol.
The 14 year old first denied that he knew anything about the tragedy and later changed his story that the gun discharged when he started to hang it up. Tuesday he told the officers how the accident occurred. When asked why he had told two different stories he said that he was scared. The lad testified that he and “Chuck” were good friends and had never been mad at each other, and played together lots of times.
A sister and the mother of young Talbot stated that they did not hear the shot and also testified that the two boys were good friends and had not had any trouble. The mother testified that she had unloaded the rifle a few days before and had hung it up in the cabin where Charles stayed at night, and that she did not know how the rifle had become loaded again.
CHARLES WRIGHT TALBOT
Charles Wright Talbot, son of Basil and Clara May Talbot, was born September 16, 1947 at Waynesville, and passed away March 19, 1961 at his home on Route 2, Richland, at the age of 13 years, 7 months, and 3 days.
Charles spent his entire life in Pulaski County as a child and a student at the Laquey School.
He leaves to mourn his passing his mother, Clara May, his step-father, Mitchell A. Kinsworthy, and a brother, Basil, all of the home; eight sisters, Virginia Jefferies of Laquey, Lottie Cox of Peoria, Illinois, Elizabeth Norman of Waynesville, and Esther, Jane, Patricia, Julia, and Mona, all of the home; several aunts and uncles and other relatives and friends.
He will be sadly missed by all who knew him.
Funeral services were held Thursday, March 23, at the Idumea Baptist Church at 2:00 p.m., with Rev. Virgil Manes officiating. Burial was in the church cemetery under direction of Moss-Williams Funeral Home of Waynesville.
