PATRICIDE IN LITEKYAN

A man killed his father in Litekyan in 1905. When you read the story, you'll see how utterly senseless the killing was.

Litekyan is the Chamorro name for the northernmost point of Guam. The Spaniards spelled it Retillan or Retidian and the Americans favored the spelling Ritidian.

Patricide is the killing of one's own father. Sometimes the word parricide is used for the same thing.

Since the murder occurred just 113 years ago, and descendants are sure to still be around, I won't mention last names for the people directly involved in the murder.

AN UNFORTUNATE AFTERNOON

Around 5 o'clock one Saturday afternoon in July of 1905, a grandfather from Hagåtña arrived at his son's ranch house in Litekyan. According to one grandchild, the old man started joking around with two of his grandsons when the father of the boys came in and said, "Instead of joking with them, you should beat them." Another grandchild said that the grandfather arrived and saw that the grandchildren were crying because they hadn't gotten their share of watermelon which the father was slicing.

In any event, provocative words were exchanged between the old man and his son, the father of the kids, and the old man picked up a long piece of wood as if to hit his son on the back. One grandchild said he actually did. The son walked out of the ranch house, towards the beach, with the old man following, clutching the knife which, apparently, the son left on the table.

At the beach, the son asked his father what he intended to do with the knife. "Kill you," replied the old man. At that, the son knocked his father to the ground, grabbed the knife from him and began to stab him multiple times. Some of the grandchildren ran to call neighbors to intervene. But when people began to arrive, it was too late. The old man lay lifeless on the sand, face up. His son was straddled on top of him, still holding the bloodied knife. One of the adult men who came on the scene forcefully took the knife out of the murderer's hand.

ENTER THE LAW

Someone must have gone to Hagåtña in the dark of night to report the murder because, early the next day, the Commissioner of Hagåtña, Lorenzo Lizama Fránquez, gathered a group of men to follow him up to Litekyan to investigate. The Island Attorney, who prosecuted cases, Tomás Anderson Calvo, was one of them. The court alguacil, or marshall, Lucas Pangelinan Camacho, also went along, as well as guards named Enrique Taijeron, Vicente Mendiola, Manuel Taitingfong and Félix Benavente.

They found the body of the old man still lying on the beach, in the initial stages of decomposition. There was no blood surrounding the corpse, since at high tide the sea water came in and washed it away. The men observed stab wounds on the face, neck, chest, abdomen and back of the victim.

The murderer, the victim's son, was waiting for the officials in a neighbor's house. He did not resist arrest and quickly confessed to being the perpetrator. The body of the victim, the arrested suspect and the knife he used to kill his father were all taken down to Hagåtña.

The court documents seem to be incomplete, as I found no verdict and no sentencing.

Whatever may have been the legal punishment, both the guilty and the innocent suffered the loss of a father and grandfather, and the remorse of being responsible for that loss.

LITEKYAN