VINITA, Sept. 21—A Vinita mother was enroute to Norfolk,
Va., Tuesday, apparently unaware her son had shot and killed
his three children and himself at his Norfolk home.
Mrs. Bessie Burk, an employe of the Eastern State hospital
here, left early Monday after receiving a request from her
son, Vincent W. Burk, to “come and get the children.”
A navy chief petty officer, Burk was stationed at the Little
Creek naval amphibious base near Norfolk.
Police said the 35-year-old veteran fired bullets through
the heads of his sleeping children Tuesday then got into the
bathtub, turned on the water and shot himself in the
forehead. He was dead when police arrived.
The children were still alive, but all died later at a
hospital.
Enroute to Norfolk with the veteran’s mother were her
daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Russell McKisick. None
of the three is believed aware of the tragedy since they
left Vinita by car early Monday morning.
Friends here said Mrs. Burk had received word from her son
that he had been “given legal custody of the children,” and
asked her to “come and get them.” Norfolk county police gave
no immediate indication that Burk and his wife were having
marital difficulties.
Police said they were told the veteran’s wife, Mrs. Margaret
Burk, an Australian war bride, had left the house at 11:30
a.m. and was not at home at the time of the shooting. She
returned to the house later, however.
The veteran’s mother and family have lived in Vinita since
the late 1930s, when his father worked on the Grand River
dam project. His father, Dan Burk, died about four years ago
in Arkansas in what police termed a suicide.
From The Oklahoma, 9/22/1954
Donated by:
Emily Jordan
