FULL TEXT: Houston, Tex. – The routine of everyday living
closed in on Diana Daye Humphries yesterday and to escape the boredom she
ambushed and killed her 14 year old brother, Robert D. Humphries, Jr., “I did
it because everything was so routine,” said Diana. “My mother goes to work
every day and comes home tired. So does my father and he is sick with ulcers.
“Everyone was always tired. Robert was tired of school. It
seemed we were always getting up, going to work or school, coming home, cooking
meats, eating, washing dishes, going to bed and getting it up again.
“I couldn’t stand it! I wanted to kill everyone quick so we
wouldn’t have to suffer any more.”
~ Ambushed In Den ~
The police said Robert did not suffer. He was shot through
the forehead with an ancient .22 caliber rifle as he walked into the den of the
Humphries home.
His sister said she stood over him and delivered a coup de
grace shot in the back of the head.
“I didn’t want him to suffer,” she said.
Diana is an honor student at Reagan High School, where her
teachers and schoolmates described her as a “brilliant student and well liked
girl, not the type to do a thing like this.”
~ Conceive Plan ~
In her written statement to the police, Diana detailed how
she stayed home from school yesterday, “because of an upset stomach,” and then
conceived the plan.
She said she prepared carefully. She went to the garage and
got the old rifle, handed down by her grandfather, and then found the bolt
where her father had hidden it, she said her father, a retired chief Navy
yeoman who now works for a manufacturing company, hid the bolt to keep Robert
from hurting himself.”
She assembled the gun, and went to a neighborhood store and'
bought a box of cartridges.
~ Test Shot ~
“I fired a test shot into my mattress to make sure the gun
worked,” she said.
Then she sat down to watch television in the den and waited.
Robert, a junior high school student, came home first.
“I jumped up and got in back of the television set and
raised the gun, aiming at the place in the door through which I knew he would
walk,” said Diana.
“I didn’t want him to know it was me who shot him. I wanted
to hit him quick, so he wouldn’t hurt.”
~ Diana Fires ~
Robert, his school books under his arm, entered the door and
Diana fired. Robert crumpled to the floor, his school books scattering.
Diana reloaded and shot him again. She covered him with
blanket and. then stationed herself to. await her mother.
Mrs. Humphries, a 34-year-old
reservations clerk for Braniff International Airways, came up; the walk,
outside.
"I saw then that there was no way that I could shoot
mother without her seeing me," the girl sobbed. "I didn't want her to
see me shoot her, so I told her to stay outside."
Mrs. Humphries said as she reached the door, she heard Diana
laughing.
~ Thought It A Joke ~
“But when I placed my hand on the doorknob,” she said. “I
knew she wasn’t laughing but crying hysterically. She told me not to come in,
that she had shot Robert and was going to shoot me.
"I walked in and took the rifle away from her. I
thought she was joking. They're always playing jokes." The girl was turned
over to probation officials today.
Paul Irick, head of the probation department, said Diana would
be given a psychiatric examination.
[“Texas Girl Bored By Routine Kills Brother,” The Sacramento
Bee (Ca.), Sep. 24, 1958, p. 1]
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FULL TEXT: Houston – A 16-year-old
girl who killed her brother because nothing exciting happened around their Houston
home was committed to a state hospital Thursday for an indefinite period.
Travis County Judge Tom
Johnson at Austin ordered that Diana Daye Humphries, a high school senior,
remain in the state hospital there.
The new commitment order was
not contested.
Robert D. Humphries Jr., 14,
was shot to death Sept. 10 as he arrived home from school.
Diana told investigators she
also had planned to kill her mother, Mrs. Robert D. Humphries, but lost her
nerve when she saw her mother drive into the driveway shortly after Robert had
been shot as he entered the den of the suburban home.
[“Girl Who Killed Brother
Enters State Hospital,” Tyler Morning Telegraph (Tx.), Jan. 30, 1959, p. 8A]
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