Hospitalized Wife Killed; Man Ends Life
A 75-year-old man, apparently depressed over the health of his Alzheimer’s-afflicted wife, shot her to death in a Lancaster nursing home Thursday and then killed himself, authorities said.
Franklin W. McCloskey entered Lancaster Convalescent Hospital with a .38-caliber revolver wrapped in a towel and shot his wife, Mary, 72, once in the right temple as she lay in her bed, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said.
“He then sat down and turned the gun on himself,” Lt. Ben Nottingham said.
Nottingham said the couple’s daughter told him that Mary McCloskey had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and other health problems and that she had been confined to nursing homes for about three years. Franklin McCloskey of Rosamond was upset about her health as well as his own medical problems.
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