Baron's Son Kills Wife and Himself, Say Jersey Police

I was researching a branch of my tree and came across the obituary of a cousin three times removed or some such. In that article, the names of her family members were included. I added the names to my private, off line tree; these are my cousins, after all. I then went and looked at my DNA and found a person with one of those names... What a find! So I contacted her through Ancestry and we have been having a delightful time comparing notes and talking about the research we have done.

One of the things she lead me to was this article. Now von Boecklin is not biologically related to either of us, but peripherally so.

What a fascinating and heartbreaking story.
I found the article in the New York Times archive, from 1978. Written by Robert D. McFadden.

A 74-year-old “gentleman farmer” and cat fancier apparently shot and killed his wife, a pet cat and himself in a murdersuicide Thursday morning at their home on a 150acre estate near Blairstewn. N. J.. the New Jersey state police reported yesterday. The victims were identified as Rupprecht von Boecklin, the son of the late Baron. Rupprecht von Boecklin of Rust. Baden, Germany, and his wife. Mary, 36. Mr. von Boecklin. who moved Ito this country about 30 years ago. was ‘ known to neighbors as an eccentric who kept cats, as well as statues and figurines of cats, and had cat figures carved on his ovra tombstone years ago. Mr. an Mrs. von Boecklin were found shot at their estate, Red Cat Farm, in Warren County. about 10 miles from 1.112 Pennsylvania border in northwestern New Jersey, about 7:30 A.M. Thursday. Suicide Note Found Shortly before that the state police received a telephone call, allegedly from Mr. von Boecklin. The caller was said to have told the police that he had shot and killed his wife and was about to take his own life. Arriving a short time later, the police found Mrs. von Boecklin dead on the floor of a den and Mr. von Boecklin fatally wounded and lying on a bathroom flocr. Both had been shot once in the head. Mr. von Boecklin was pronounced dead about two hours later at Newton Memorial Hospital.
Authorities found a revolver believed used in the shootings and a purported suicide note by Mr. von Boecklin, but they refused to divulge the contents of the new or to give any information about the weapon, saying the investigation of the deaths was continuing. The police said that the couple's pet. cat had been shot in the head and killed, and that their German shepherd dog also had been shot in the head, though not fatally. Neighbors said yesterday that the cou- ple had lived a reclusive life on their farm. Trespassers, they said, were occasionally greeted at gunpoint, even if they had intended only to ask for directions. Statues and figurines of cats adorned the grounds, and signs depicting cat figures proclaimed the farm's name. At Cedar Ridge Cemetery in Blairstown, Mr. von Boecklin installed a tombstone for himself and his wife more than a decade ago. The red granite stone had a crouching cat carved at the top and a mouse in bas relief below, and bore inscriptions for Mr. and Mrs. von Boecklin giving, only years of birth. Several cats were buried in the family plot, according to neighbors, who said some members of the community had objected.

The U.S. threatened Ecuador into dropping a U.N. resolution to promote breastfeeding.

It has been such a long time since I have written, but I couldn't sit idly by and not post this little tidbit. If this is true, Holy shit. In this climate with everything going on between Russia and the US/Trump, it's hard to put into place, unless, of course it was a power play.

With all we know about the benefits of breast milk, why would the US threaten Ecuador over a resolution? The story tells us why... But that makes me want to throw up.

photo by Mauro Pimentel/AFP/Getty Images (taken from The Week Magazine on July 19, 2018)

The delegates to this spring's World Health Assembly, the annual gathering of the United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, expected that a resolution to promote breastfeeding would pass easily. Then the U.S. delegation tried to water down the resolution, siding with the $70 billion infant formula industry, and when that failed, the State Department threatened Ecuador, which had planned to introduce the resolution, The New York Times reports, citing interviews with more than a dozen participants from several countries.

"The Americans were blunt: If Ecuador refused to drop the resolution, Washington would unleash punishing trade measures and withdraw crucial military aid," the Times reports. "The Ecuadorean government quickly acquiesced." Other Latin American and African nations declined to step in, fearing reprisal from the U.S., and the U.S. also reportedly threatened to withdraw its funding for the WHO. "In the end, the Americans' efforts were mostly unsuccessful," the Times says. Why?

It was the Russians who ultimately stepped in to introduce the measure — and the Americans did not threaten them. ... A Russian delegate said the decision to introduce the breast-feeding resolution was a matter of principle. "We're not trying to be a hero here, but we feel that it is wrong when a big country tries to push around some very small countries, especially on an issue that is really important for the rest of the world." [The New York Times]

Decades of research shows that breast milk is the healthiest food for infants, providing nutrition as well as hormones and antibodies, and a 2016 study in the British medical journal The Lancet estimated that universal breastfeeding would prevent 800,000 child deaths a year and save $300 billion in global health-care costs. Infant formula sales have flatlined in wealthy nations but are still growing in the developing world.

Written by Peter Weber at the New York Times.

I found it in the Week, in the July 20th edition.