On a South Philadelphia farm, Anton Probst kills his employer's entire family in the "Deering Massacre"
One of the most gruesome mass murders ever seen in Philadelphia took place over the course of this day when Anton Probst, a Union veteran employed as a hand at the Deering Farm in James Lane in Point Breeze, then on the southern edge of the city, killed the entire Deering family one by one, seven people in all. Probst was arrested a week later and confessed to the crime. He was tried the following month and executed on June 8, 1866. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
J. Thomas Scarf and Thompson Wescott (eds.), History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1884), 833-834.