Bayless - Otis - shot by brother
Source: Crawfordsville Daily Journal Friday, 13 April 1894
The following from the Lawrence, Kan., World, will be sad news to the friends of J. F. Bayless and family here:
Otis Bayless, the seventeen year old son of J. F. Bayless, of the Indiana cash grocery, was accidentally filled full of No. 5 shot yesterday by a gun in the hands of his younger brother, who “did not know it was loaded.”
Otis had taken the gun out to shoot a hawk and without firing it had leaned it up against a fence and then sat down to read about thirty feet distant. His brother afterwards began fooling with the gun and it went off putting sixty shot into Otis. One shot entered the eye ball and will probably destroy the sight of the eye. Dr. Gifford was called and afterwards consulted with Dr. Morse. The injured boy is resting easily and the only fear is that inflammation may set in. Theodore Bayless, who fired the shot, is almost prostrated with grief. -s