The Decatur Daily Review, Illinois, November 22, 1936

John R. Kizer, a veterinarian, was on trial for the murder of his stepson via strychnine poisoning when he committed suicide. He was also suspected of killing his second wife (the mother of his stepson); her mother and her father; his first wife, years earlier; his niece and her husband; his aunt and her friend; and the husband of a man whose wife he was courting (luckily for the lady she turned him down, saying she was still in love with her husband). 

After killing his wife, her mother and her father, the only obstacle left in gaining the whole inheritance for himself was his stepson, Arnold. All the Bonner fortune had been put in trust for Arnold. The young man wanted to join the army but Kizer realized that if he did, he might remain out of his grasp and old enough to claim the money for himself. So Kizer had to act. He told Arnold to wait a couple years before deciding whether to take such a step. And then he began to poison him.

When Arnold Bonner, the stepson, was hurt during a high school football game and a doctor was called in, it was noted that the young man had extremely high levels of strychnine in his system. When Arnold died, the bodies of his mother and grandmother were disinterred to look for signs of poisoning, but by the time the tests were completed, John R. Kizer was dead.

The picture was taken after he had asked the officers escorting him to his preliminary hearing to stop at a barbershop for a shave and something to drink. He polished off his soda and went to the bathroom before they all got back in the car. When they got to the courthouse, John was writhing in pain, before he became unconscious and died. A bottle of poison was later found in his jail cell.