Boy matricide faces murder charge

International News Photos (New York, N.Y.) · December 6, 1948

Prosecutor Melvin E. Orr is shown questioning 15-year-old William "Billie" Farley, eighth-grade student who, Orr said, confessed he shot and killed his mother, Mrs. Lucy Grogg, through the kitchen window as she was preparing his supper on Saturday evening. Picked up three hours after the shooting, the boy told prosecutor Orr that his mother had slapped his face during an argument over his taking orders for Christmas cards, pocketing the proceeds and selling the samples. The boy's stepfather said, "He ought to be punished and punished plenty." Orr said he would seek a first-degree murder warrant.