Looking back: Boy hunts down and kills father and spider eggs hatch in first-grade classroom

IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of Jan. 30 to Feb. 5 in east Idaho history.

1900-1925

POCATELLO — A local boy confessed to killing his father, the Blackfoot Idaho Republican reported on Feb. 1, 1923.

Floyd Sandusky, of McCammon, was being held on a murder charge after his father had “just been pardoned from the Idaho penitentiary.”

The father had been in prison for six years for stabbing his wife 28 times “in an effort to kill her.” Floyd was only 10 years old at the time.

“When (the father) returned home last week and began making trouble, and as Floyd says, ‘threatened to kill them all,’ he took a shot at his father,” the local paper explained. “The bullet merely cut through his nose.”

The father then boarded an eastbound train but Floyd “also got on and hunting him up, he shot him five times.”

Floyd surrendered and said he shot his father in order to protect his mother against further attacks.

1926-1950

PRESTON— A barn on the farm of Shirley Palmer was destroyed by a fire, the Preston Citizen said in its Feb. 3, 1944, newspaper.

The barn was built three years prior to the blaze and was valued at $3,000. It had a “large hay barn” in the center. Between 50 to 70 tons of hay, around 550 bushels of grain and the electric milking equipment all burned.

“Flames swept the entire structure,” the Preston Citizen wrote. “Men worked hard to prevent the fire from sweeping to other farm buildings although much grain in nearby steel granaries was browned by the heat as the fire mounted and would have burned but for water carried by the men.”

Damage was estimated at $5,000 and only part of the cost was covered by insurance.

1951-1975

RIGBY — A first-grade class had a “real learning” experience after a spider was let loose,” The Rigby Star wrote on Feb. 5, 1970.

“While studying insects that are both harmful and useful to man, many insects were brought to the first-grade classroom of Mrs. Ada Anderson,” the article reads. “Among the insects brought were spiders. One of the specimens, a cat-faced spider was in a cocoon in the bottle and inside were many eggs.”

The spider was brought to school in early November 1969. On the morning of Jan. 26, 1970, 10 weeks later, “the children found a very large web outside the container and cocoon, as well as spread over two large desks.”

“Little spiders were in thick clusters or running along the web on the silky threads,” The Rigby Star said. “Many were just hatching and there was still a mass of white eggs in the cocoon.”

Children from other classrooms were invited to see the spiders.

1976-2000

POCATELLO — A woman accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the brake and crashed into a gas station, the Idaho State Journal said on Feb. 2, 1976.

Vicki Minor told officers she had let her son out of the car to buy a newspaper at Chubbuck’s Circle K store on North Yellowstone right before the mishap.

“When she reached over to open the door for him, she noticed the car was rolling forward and attempted to stop it,” the Journal explained. “Instead of pressing the brake, she hit the accelerator pedal and the El Camino lunged forward into the store.”

Five glass windows and a door shattered during the accident. It was estimated that $2,000 in damage was done to the store and $300 in damage was done to Minor’s car.