I doubt he killed this woman. He was in Chicago working on a big project for several days before this murder; she was in western Wisconsin at Taliesin in Spring Green. Plus 7 people were killed, only 1 was the wife. They were axed to death. FLW was an egomaniac but not a killer. If he was tired of a woman he would just leave her like he did before. Story: The Weekly Home News, August 20, 1914 "Murderer of Seven: Sets Fire to Country Home of Frank Lloyd Wright Near Spring Green" While the members of the household were at dinner, last Saturday, Julian Carlton, a negro servant, fired Frank Lloyd Wrights bungalow, murdered seven and seriously wounded one with a hatchet and another received injuries in jumping from a window. The dead are: Mrs. Mamah Borthwick, their son and daughter, John and Martha Cheney, aged 11 and 9 respectively; Emil Brodelle, aged 30, an architectural draftsman; Thomas Brunker, of Ridgeway, hostler; Ernest Weston, 13-year-old son of Mr. And Mrs. Wm. Weston of Spring Green; and David Lindblom, gardener. The wounded are: William H. Weston of Spring Green, foreman of the bungalow activities, and Herbert Fritz of Chicago. The latter escaped the negros wrath but received a broken arm and glass cuts in making his escape through a window. He was also slightly burned. Mr. Wright was in Chicago, where business had called him several days before and he escaped the murders hatchet. The negro waiter had served dinner to the men in the small room temporarily used for that purpose and to Mrs. Borthwick and her children on the dining porch, which was located just off the guest room where the childs room had been. While they were eating he came to the door and asked Mr. Weston for gasoline, with which to clean a rug, and was given permission to get some. Soon after, those in the dining room heard a splash against the door and in an instant the room was full of flaming gasoline, which the fiend had poured against and under the door. As they attempted to escape, some through the door and some through a window, the negro struck them down with a hatchet. Mr. Fritz was the first out. He says that he and Mr. Brodelle were eating at a separate table, and as the room burst into flames he sprang for the window and made his escape, getting out before the murderer was prepared. Mr. Fritz was followed through the window which was about five feet from the ground, by Mr. Brodelle and Wm. Weston in the order named. As the two latter came through they were hatchted. Fritz says he saw Brodelle staggering about and saw the negro strike Weston. The other occupants of the dining room, he says, got out through the door, which was just beside the window. Mr. Weston said that as he came through the window Carlton struck him with the hatchet and he fell. He got up and ran across the court to the studio. Carlton followed him and struck him a second time, knocking him down. Probably thinking him dead the negro went back to the slaughter. Mr. Weston then ran out another way and found David Lindblom wounded and burning. He helped him extinguish his burning clothing and together they ran to the Rieder home half a mile away and telephoned for help. Above are the stories of the only survivors of the tragedy... The Famous Bungalow The country home, the scene of the terrible tragedy, was a typical Wright creation built some three years ago as a retreat for a man and woman of unconventional ideas and is located on a hill just across the river directly south of Spring Green. It is a long, low structure, carved into the brow of the hill. On three sides the building bounds an oblong court. The fourth side is a terrace joining the bungalow tot he hill upon the side of which it slings. At one end of another adjoining court are the granary, stables and mens sleeping rooms; then, at right angles and connecting the two ends, is that part which contained offices, studio and an open loggia. Then comes the portion, near the entrance to the court, built for Mr. Wrights mother, which was being temporarily used as a dining room by the workmen and draftsmen. Adjoining this dwelling, Mr. Wright himself lived. All this portion is completely burned. Mr. Wright will start at once to rebuild. Frank Lloyd Wright To His Neighbors To My Neighbors: To you who have rallied so bravely and well to our assistanceto you who have been invariably kind to us allI would say something to defend a brave and lovely woman from the pestilential touch of stories made by the press for the man in the street, even now, with the loyal fellows lying dead beside her, any one of whom would have given his life to defend her. I cannot bear to leave unsaid things that might brighten memory of her in the mind of anyone. But they must be left unsaid. I am thankful to all who showed her kindness or courtesy and that means many. No community anywhere could have received the trying circumstances of her life among you in a more high-minded way. I believe at no time has anything been shown her as she moved in your midst but courtesy and sympathy. This she won for herself by her innate dignity and gentleness of character but anotherperhaps any other communitywould have seen her through the eyes of the press that even now insists upon decorating her death with the fact, first and foremost, that she was once another mans wife, "a wife who left her children." That must not be forgotten in this man-made world. A wife still is "property." And yet the well-known fact that another bears the name and title she once bore had no significance. The birds of prey were loosed upon her in death as well as in life, to fee that Moloch of the heart that maintains itself at the cost of "the man in the street," by preaching to him in vulgar language the Gospel of Mediocrity. But this noble woman had a soul that belonged to her alonethat valued womanhood above wifehood or motherhood. A woman with a capacity for love and life made really by a higher ideal of truth, a finer courage, a higher more difficult ideal of the white flame of chastity than was "moral" or expedient and for which she was compelled to crucify all that society holds sacred and essentialin name! And finally, out of the mass of lies which forms the article covering this catastrophe in Sundays Chicago Tribune, is a lie the work of an assassin that in malice belongs with the mad black except that he struck tin the heat of madness and this assassin strikes the living and the dead in cool malice. In our life together there has been no thought of secrecy except to protect others from the contaminating stories of newspaper scandal; no pretense of a condition that did not exist. We have lived frankly and sincerely as we believed and we have tried to help others to live their lives according to their ideals. Neither of us expected to relinquish a potent influence in our childrens lives for goodnor have we. Our children have lacked the atmosphere of an ideal love between father and mothernothing else that could further their development. How many children have more in the conventional home? Mamahs children were with her when she died. They have been with her every summer. She felt that she did more for her children in holding high above them the womanhood of their mother than by sacrificing it to them. And in her life, the tragedy was that it became necessary to choose the one or the other. The circumstances before and after we came here to live among you have all been falsified and vulgarizedit is no use now to try to set them straightbut there was none of the cheap deception the evading of consequences that mark writhings from the obligations of the matrimonial trap. Nor did Mamah ever intend to devote her life to theories or doctrines. She loved Ellen Key as everyone does who know her. Only true love is free loveno other kind is or ever can be fee. The "freedom" in which we joined was infinitely more difficult than any conformity with customs could have been. Few will ever venture it. It is not lives lived on this plane that menace the well-being of society. No, they can only serve to ennoble it. It has sometimes been a source of annoyance to Mamah that one or two friends to whom she occasionally wrote persisted in reading a meaning between her lines that convicted her of an endeavor to seem happy, when they thought she ought not to be. I suppose when we live safe in the "heart of the block" we yearn to feel that in another situation than ourin circumstances we fail to understandthere must be unhappiness, or in circumstances of which we disapprovean "EXPIATION." This is peculiarly "Christian." Mamah and I have had our struggles, our differences, our moments of jealous fear for our ideals of each otherthey are not lacking in any close human relationshipsbut they served only to bind us more closely together. We were more than merely happy even when momentarily miserable. And she was true as only a woman who loves know the meaning of the word. Her soul has entered me and it shall not be lost. You wives with your certificates for lovingpray that you may love as much and be loved as well as was Mamah Borthwick! You mothers and fathers with daughtersbe satisfied if what life you have invested in them works itself out upon as high a plane as it has done in the life of this lovely woman. She was struck down by a tragedy that hangs by the slender thread of reason over the lives of all, a thread which may snap at any time in any home with consequences as disastrous. And I would urge you upon young and old alike that "Nature knows neither Past nor Futurethe Present is her Eternity." Unless we realize that brave truth there will come a bitter time when the thought of how much more potent with love and action that precious "Present" might have been, will desolate our hearts. She is dead. I have buried her in the little Chapel burying ground of my peoplebeside the little son of my sister, a beautiful boy of ten, who loved her and whom she loved muchand while the place where she live with me is a charred and blackened ruin, the little things of our daily life gone, I shall replace it all little by little as nearly as it may be done. I shall set it all up again for the spirit of the mortals that lived in it and loved itwill live in it still. My home will still be there. Frank Lloyd Wright Many architects, including myself, are designers, good at math and logic, but we are also writers. One reason is that architecture school encourages that introspection, the examination of your concepts, your inspiration, and to answer questions like to what do you aspire. The servant may have felt he was back in the slavery days. Who could blame him for feeling upset? But to translate that into murder is just evil. Attempting to burn people to death and them axing them to death instead is pure evil. FLW never married this murdered woman because the wife (and 6 children) he left would not give him a divorce. He had no motive to kill her and the others at Taliesin.

Back to the original post, as I know I am chiming in here very late..I have 2 yes 2 ADULT step sons living with DH & I now, plus a G-son 3-4 days a week. Trish, it never ends, you know when it ends? When you die. I have to be blunt. I love my DH very much, I love my S children but I do NOT want to live with them in their adulthood, they supposedly were staying here temporarily to save $ for down payments on houses but have just been spening money on cars, motorcycles etc with no signs of moving forward in life. This is all acceptable to my DH and he cotinues to enable and support them, there is no end in sight. He cannot say no to anything. We have no privacy and no time to just be a couple. I am going to start travel nursing shortly just to get away from it & get a fresh perspective. I have a very loving husband, he is a very good & kind person. It is his kindness that kills him & our relationship. He is also working like a dog & killing himself to support these adult kids. I see no end in sight for your situation unless the kiddo wants to go back to Dads house, but even at that, he could play the same game with Dad. No his behaviors are not acceptable I don't care what his issues ADD-ODD whatever. It is not okay to speak to your mother like that & the last time my son raised hs voice to me like that (at 14) he got hs mouth slapped. Momma doesn't tolerate lip, learn it-live it. Sorry, flame away folks but he is going on 23, respectful, supporting himself and we have a great relationship. He would not dream of speaking to anyone like that. BUT I have chosen from the start (8yr.s ago) to not parent my S-kids since they were teens already, rather to be a support person in their lives. We have good relationships though somewht superficial but thats ok, I'm not their mother. They know they can come to me if they need to but they also know they cannot use me like they do their father. So when they want money, they go to Dad. DH & I parent completely different. And like you, I am 43, DH 54, I was looking forward to us being couple and the kids being out on their own. I don't want to have a houseful anymore, I don't want to be a built in babysitter, cook, chauffer, etc..but no one cares how I want to live. So we are in similar situations as far as that goes. I can't make my DH change his life I can only change my circumstances. I am hoping the short term (13 weeks assignments) seperations may change his things or maybe I will like living alone again, who knows. My only advice to you is don't think if the son moves to his dad's he will stay there. Long term this kid will be in your life, maybe (probably) he will mature and behaviors will improve but it's a long road. Personally, ifI knew things were going to end up like this I would have left a long time ago. I think you should get on with your life, seperate and let her take care of her son and their issues, otherwise it WILL (I promise you) take over your life. CL

Referring back to liberties taken with Shakespeare works, I must share my Saturday night experience. DH and I have season tickets to a wonderful local playhouse. They do one Shakespeare play a season, and I look forward to it every year. This year the selection was "Hamlet." I opened the program to read that they had opted to make changes to the play in the hopes of drawing a more youthful crowd. They shortened it considerably, the play was done in only 90 minutes. This didn't bother me nearly so much as other choices which annoyed me to no end. I will mention just a few. Hamlet and Horatio conversed using cell phones. Hamlet and Ophelia danced. How did they listen to the music you might ask. Well, they each took an ear bud from the headphones of Ophelia's iPod of course. The play within the play was a movie shown on a big screen and Claudius' reaction was video taped. Laertes also brought a gun to revenge his father's death. All these modern touches seemed so out of place against the traditional language. Are these modern inclusions necessary if we want our youth to appreciate these plays? I managed to foster a fondness for the works of Shakespeare by reading them and seeing them performed traditionally. Certainly, it's hard work to parse the text, interpret the meaning, appreciate the subtlety and humor in what can be unfamiliar language, but does dropping an iPod into the equation mean teenagers will suddenly feel the relevance and begin to flock to Shakespeare? What function do these anachronisms really serve? Maybe I am being grumpy at not seeing the play I was expecting. Maybe someone here can offer an insight on the production manager's motives I might have missed while in my snit. Or would you also have been annoyed?

Most woody material I've encountered at outlets here - or have been sent in the mail - has had significant root problems. The exception has been that which was offered bare-rooted, or was received by the retailer bare-rooted, recently potted by them. (Funny how the main peculiar feature of such material is that the root systems are in full view when received by the end consumer or retailer, or presented to the end consumer - when they pull them out of the sawdust. And not hidden inside a pot or burlapped ball). Meanwhile we've all been living through a We Only Want Color Spots and Edible Plants phase for some years now. One where sales of woody ornamentals fell off markedly anyway - supposedly Monrovia almost went under recently. With everyone in apartments, condos, townhouse-style single family houses with significantly minimized yard space* or rental houses there is no market for huge quantities of decorative trees and shrubs of normal size and vigor. *Even the one that looks like a Hollywood mansion that went at the far back of a double lot along a nearly at-the-beach view street just north of the small downtown here has mostly parking and a turn around for a front yard. Other expensive looking new houses being built in place of the old bungalows or ramblers that have made up this same neighborhood for a long time also more or less fill the lots with architecture. In keeping with this another big boy going in up on the ridge some ways back from the water looks like an L-shaped mini-mall. Yet is situated where it is definitely somebody's private dream home - almost all there will be when it is done is house, garage and vehicle access, with in now characteristic fashion the garden space being limited entirely to narrow strips between the buildings (theirs as well as those of the neighbors) and the paved areas.