Man Kills Ailing Wife in Lancaster Nursing Home, Then Himself

A 75-year-old Rosamond 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, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

In the second murder-suicide in an Antelope Valley family this week, Franklin W. McCloskey entered the Lancaster Convalescent Hospital carrying a .38-caliber revolver wrapped in a towel and shot his wife, 72-year-old Mary McCloskey, once in the right temple as she lay in her bed, sheriff’s officers said.

The gun was fired from less than a foot away, Lt. Ben Nottingham said. “He then sat down and turned the gun on himself,” Nottingham said.

He said a 90-year-old woman was in another bed in the room when the shootings took place but was unable to provide investigators with details because of her medical condition.

The couple were rushed to Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center, which is next-door to the convalescent home in the 1600 block of West Avenue J. They were pronounced dead about 1 1/2 hours after the shootings, which occurred about 3:10 p.m., officials said.

Nottingham said the couple’s daughter told him that Mary McCloskey had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and other health problems and that she had been confined to nursing homes for about three years. Franklin McCloskey was upset about her health as well as about medical problems of his own, Nottingham said.

The detective said he did not know the nature of Franklin McCloskey’s ailments.

Several patients in an adjoining room were “quite disturbed” by the shootings, Nottingham said.

An employee who answered the phone at the convalescent hospital refused to comment.

It was the second such incident in three days in Lancaster. On Monday, a NASA mechanic committed suicide after he stabbed his eldest daughter to death and shot his wife and two other daughters.