 1891 - 1947 (56 years)
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| Name |
James Dixon Bloss |
| Birth |
10 May 1891 |
Siebert, Maryland  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
10 May 1947 |
Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland |
| Notes |
- A Fort Hill High School student, Ethel Mae Bloss, 16, is being held in the county Jail for questioning in the fatal shooting of her father, James D. Bloss, 56, at their North Branch home Saturday night about 10:30. The girl, a member of the junior class at Fort Hill, calmly admitted to officers that she shot her father when he came home and threatened her mother. The shooting took place in an upstairs bedroom where the father, who was in a "drunken condition," according to police, had chased his wife. Ethel Mae went to the room with a .22 rifle and shot her father in the back when he drew back his arm and threatened to hit Mrs. Bloss with a kerosene lamp he was holding. Mrs. Bloss told police that her husband came home from work at the B. and O. shops about 6 o'clock under the influence of liquor, and then left at 7:30 with Frank Bloss, a brother, and two friends, Theodore and Millard Twigg, all of North Branch, to celebrate the fifty-sixth birthday of her husband.
Group Had Been Drinking
Mrs. Louis Rankin, this city, a daughter of the slain man, said that Frank Bloss told her yesterday they had drunk four pints and a fifth of liquor between 6 and 10 p. m. Saturday night. Police confirmed the statement. When Ethel Mae heard her father coming through the field near their home she took her mother and sister, Mary Elizabeth, 11, to the bedroom and locked the door. She then got the rifle and placed a bullet in the chamber. Her father came into the house after kicking in the kitchen door, took a lamp and went upstairs and forced the bedroom door. Ethel Mae followed him to the bedroom and the shooting ensued. State Police said Ethel Mae telephoned them and said: "I've shot my father and he's lying on the floor, in the bedroom at home." Police said the girl met them at the Western Maryland underpass in North Branch and showed them the way over the two miles of rutted dirt road to her farmhouse home. Mrs. Bloss declared her daughter fired the shot from a .22 caliber single-shot rifle after Bloss had broken down two doors and was standing in the bedroom threatening to beat her over the head with a lighted kerosene lamp, and then set the house afire. "Mr. Bloss has been carrying on like this for the past 11 years," Mrs. Bloss declared, "coming home from his work at the Baltimore and Ohio shops in a drunken condition and threatening to kill everybody in the house." Because the slain man had continuously threatened to kill members of the family when he was under the influence of liquor, Mrs. Bloss explained that a shotgun and the .22 rifle had been "broken down" and hidden. The gun was kept in the bedroom, she declared, and when her daughter heard Bloss use a stone mace to break out a panel in the kitchen door, Ethel Mae assembled the rifle and loaded it with a single shell. When he entered the room, Mrs. Bloss said he cursed madly for a short time, then walked toward her as she stood at the foot of the bed and told her he was going to hit her in the head with the lamp. Mary Elizabeth, the younger daughter, grabbed the lamp by the base and pleaded with her father to behave himself and go to bed in the next room, the mother asserted. However, Bloss brushed his daughter aside, warning her "behave yourself", and then renewed his threats against her, Mrs. Bloss said. Ethel Mae, the mother said, picked up the rifle that was standing behind the door and before anyone realized it Bloss slumped to the floor. Mrs. Bloss explained that she grabbed the lamp as her husband fell and blew out the flame. "Then we all walked to the home of Robert Crites, about two miles from our house, and 'Dot' (Ethel Mae) called the police and told them she had shot her father because he was threatening me," the mother stated. "Dot is a good girl," Mrs. Bloss said. "She has made very good marks in school and has worked hard at home, but her father has been acting this way since she was a little girl and the whole family is upset and highly nervous from seeing him come home night after night in a drunken condition and threatening us." State Police said they found Bloss's body lying at the foot of the bed in an upstairs bedroom. Dr. H. V. Deming, deputy county medical examiner, said the man died instantly from a wound caused by the bullet which entered between the fourth and fifth ribs from the back. Trooper G. M. Rotruck and Harry Bosley took Bloss to Memorial Hospital in the State Police ambulance where he was pronounced dead by Dr. Deming. The body is at Stein's Funeral Home.
Yesterday Ethel Mae was questioned in the office of the State's Attorney along with her mother and sister and then returned to the county Jail, where authorities said she is being held for further questioning. County authorities said the girl has remained "calm and composed" throughout the questioning. State Police declared that Frank Bloss, Theodore Twigg and Millard Twigg, the three men who were with the slain man before he returned home, will be questioned.
Besides his widow and the three daughters mentioned, the dead man is survived by three sons, James H. Bloss, Narrows Park; George W. Bloss, Annapolis, and Charles F. Bloss, a patient in a veterans' hospital at Perry Point, Md., and another daughter, Mrs. Elma Lloyd, Cumberland; Mrs. Rachel Bloss, Hyndman, Pa., mother of the slain man, Claude and Frank Bloss, brothers, and Mrs. Frank Monnett, a sister. Another son, Frank Bloss, hanged himself at the North Branch home some weeks ago shortly after being discharged from the Army, police said. Funeral services for Bloss will be conducted tomorrow at 2 p. m. in Stein's Chapel by Rev. W. E. Thomas, pastor of Davis Memorial Methodist Church. Interment will be in Davis Memorial Cemetery. The Cumberland Evening Times, May 12, 1947
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Released on $2,500 bond for action of the October grand jury in the slaying of her father, Ethel Mae Bloss, 16-year-old Fort Hill High School junior, attended his funeral this afternoon and plans to return to school the latter part of this week. The attractive brunette, who has been in the county jail since Saturday night, when her father, James D. Bloss, 56, a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad blacksmith helper, was fatally shot at the North Branch home, accompanied other members of the family to the Stein Funeral Home last night to view the body. Assistant State's Attorney Paul M. Fletcher filed a charge of murder against the girl yesterday afternoon when she was arraigned before Trial Magistrate Oliver H. Bruce, Jr., in Trial Magistrates' Court here. Later she was taken to Circuit Court for a hearing on a habeas corpus petition, asking that bond be fixed, and Chief Judge William A. Huster and Associate Judge George Henderson set the bond at $2,500.
Friend Furnishes Bond
Bond was furnished early last night at the county jail by Earl D. Chaney, owner of a local trucking firm and a friend of the Bloss family. When she was arraigned before Magistrate Bruce, the girl stood by her confession, made to county authorities, and was taken back to the county jail before the habeas corpus hearing was held in Circuit Court. She remained calm during both hearings. Ethel Mae, attired in a pink dress, saddle oxfords and white socks, went into Circuit Court with State Trooper Harry Holsinger near the close of a trial of a damage suit. Her mother and other relatives waited in the corridor until the hearing ended and then took seats in the court room, Mrs. Bloss and Ethel Mae with State's Attorney Morgan C. Harris. The prosecutor outlined briefly to the Court the circumstances of the case, and said Ethel Mae's dislike for her father dated back for three years when she was 13. Her feeling was "very intense" and grew into "bitter hate," he said.
Termed Profane and Vulgar
Harris termed Bloss "a profane and vulgar man, even when he was not drinking." Ethel Mae, her mother and sister, Mary Elizabeth, 11, and Bloss lived in the North Branch home, Harris said, and of the eight children of the marriage, only Ethel Mae and Mary Elizabeth were still at home. On March 12, one of Ethel Mae's brothers, apparently grieving over his twin brother, a patient in Perry Point Veterans Hospital, killed himself, Harris said. He added that there were strained relations between Mr. and Mrs. Bloss and said "they had not been sleeping together." The father was drinking three nights a week before his son committed suicide, the state's attorney said, and then drank every day. Three years ago Ethel Mae was delivering milk to a neighbor when a man by the name of Crites accosted and assaulted her, Harris said, adding that Crites was sentenced in Circuit Court to a year in the House of Correction on the charge. (Crites was later identified as Walter Crites, of North Branch.)
Accused Wife and Girl
Bloss accused Ethel Mae of encouraging the act and accused her and Mrs. Bloss of immoralities, the state's attorney told the Court, stating that Ethel Mae's dislike for her father dates back for those three years. He said Ethel Mae denied her fathers' charges. Because Bloss accused her, his drinking and general conduct, her feeling was very intense and grew into bitter hate, Harris stated. On Saturday, "hard feelings" developed between Bloss and Mrs. Bloss over the theft of a tire of which he was accused, Harris said, and Bloss believed his wife knew something about it and was shielding a relative. Bloss was drinking when he came home Saturday, ate supper and left, joining his brother, Frank, and two men named Twigg and they got some intoxicants, Harris related. When Bloss returned home it was evident from his talk that he was intoxicated, the state's attorney asserted, and Mrs. Bloss and the two children locked the door downstairs and went upstairs.
Broke Into House
He said that sometimes when Bloss was drunk he slept on the porch or in the barn, but on Saturday night he broke in the door, made some threats and then kicked in the upstairs bedroom door where Mrs. Bloss and the children had gone. Bloss was going to throw a lamp at his wife, but Mary Elizabeth grabbed it and she and her mother tried to get it away from him, Harris said. He added that Ethel Mae had a gun that was dismantled, but that she assembled it when she heard her father coming and put the weapon beside her. When Bloss threatened her mother, Ethel Mae shot him through the back and the bullet came out his heart, according to the state's attorney. Case Termed "Unfortunate"
Judge Huster termed the case "most unfortunate" and said that while it is unusual to give bond in capital cases "this is an unusual case." He and Judge Henderson signed the order authorizing her release on $2,500 bond. The petition for her release charged Sheriff Edward Muir with illegally detaining her. Funeral services for her father were held at the Stein Funeral Home with Rev. W. E. Thomas, pastor of Davis Memorial Church, officiating. Interment was in Davis Memorial Cemetery. Pallbearers were Howard Appel, Delbert Valentine, James Reckley, Curtis Bloss, Clarence Malone and Edward A. Taschenberger. The Cumberland Evening Times, May 13, 1947
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Ethel Mae was not indicted by the Grand Jury in October, 1947. All charges were dismissed.
|
| Person ID |
I04200 |
McKenzie Genealogy |
| Last Modified |
29 Oct 2021 |
| Family |
Mary Ethel Monnett, b. 31 Jan 1900, Cresaptown, Allegany County, Maryland d. 24 Oct 1988, Oakland, Garrett County, Maryland (Age 88 years) |
| Children |
| | 1. James Harrison Bloss, b. 30 Aug 1918, Maryland d. 6 Nov 2006, Berkeley Springs, Morgan County, West Virginia (Age 88 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
| | 2. George William Bloss, b. 9 Jun 1920, Maryland d. UNKNOWN [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
| | 3. Frank Ellsworth Bloss, b. 15 Jan 1922, Maryland d. 1947 (Age 24 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
| | 4. Charles Franklin Bloss, b. 15 Jan 1922, Maryland d. 21 Aug 2000, Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland (Age 78 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
| | 5. Anna Rachel Louise Bloss, b. 14 Dec 1924, Siebert, Maryland d. 4 Mar 2002, Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland (Age 77 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
| | 6. Della Elma Retha Bloss, b. 15 Dec 1927, Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland d. 11 Jun 2002, Fallston, Harford County, Maryland (Age 74 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
| | 7. Ethel Mae (Dot) Bloss, b. 1931, Maryland d. 10 Oct 1968, Millcreek Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania (Age 37 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural] |
| | 8. Mary Elizabeth Bloss, b. Private [Father: private] [Mother: private] |
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| Family ID |
F02455 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
29 Oct 2021 |
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