Missouri Police Say His Confession Clears Dead Nephew He Tried to Frame : Farmer Admits Killing 7 Relatives but Doesn’t Tell Why
ELKLAND, Mo. — The gate on Jim Schnick’s neat little dairy farm is padlocked. The killings happened here and over at the Buckner place.At first, everyone thought that 14-year-old Kirk Buckner had just gone berserk and killed his parents, his three younger brothers and Jim Schnick’s wife. They had found the gun in Kirk’s hand as he lay dead on the floor of the Schnick home. Schnick said he had to kill the boy, his wife’s nephew, to stop the rampage.But now, Jim Schnick is in jail in Marshfield, the county seat, accused…