Bessie Amy Bacon Hagerman, a 61-year-old woman, met a tragic and violent end on the evening of February 7, 1949, in her hometown of Medina, New York. A lifelong resident of the area, Bessie was born in the Town of Ridgeway on August 10, 1887. She had been a widow for about a decade, her husband Andrew having passed away some ten years prior. In the years following her husband's death, she supported herself by working at the R. H. Newell Co.
She was an active member of her community, belonging to the Baptist Church, the King's Daughters Class of the church, and the Welcome Rebekah Lodge, where she had served as a past noble grand.
The events of that fatal February evening unfolded in a horrific domestic tragedy. Bessie's son, Carl Hagerman, 28, used a 20-gauge double-barreled shotgun to go on a rampage within their home at 133 Elizabeth Street. Between 6:15 and 6:30 PM, Carl fired five shots, killing his mother, Bessie, his 7-year-old daughter, Nancy, and his 6-year-old son, Andrew Michael. His wife, Frances, was also shot and sustained wounds to her chest, shoulder, and hand but managed to escape the house and seek help from a neighbor before collapsing.
When law enforcement arrived at the scene, they discovered a grim tableau. Patrolman Pratt found Carl Hagerman still alive, but he succumbed to his injuries almost immediately. Inside the house, the officer found Bessie's body in the living room, partially fallen from a davenport. Nearby, her young grandson, Andrew, lay on the floor where he had been reading the funnies. The body of her granddaughter, Nancy, was found at the back of the house, head-first down the stairs, seemingly in an attempt to flee the violence. The tragic event was a murder-suicide, with Carl Hagerman as the sole perpetrator, leaving no suspects to be arrested or prosecuted.
