Kurt Khristian Rideout ⁷⁹²⁸

   Cause of his death was gun shot would in the head.

Bangor Daily News
Bangor, Maine
March 27, 1972
p. 1

Boy, 5, Slays Self Playing With Gun
by Anne Benjamin
News Correspondent

MILLINOCKET -- A five year old boy accidentally shot himself to death early Sunday, just hours after his mother had borrowed a .38 caliber revolver because of threatening phone calls.

Police said Kurt Khristian Rideout, son of Mrs. Linda Rideout, discovered the carefully hidden pistol about 7 a.m. Sunday, and was playing with the gun when it went off.

The boy was pronounced dead on arrival at 7:20 a.m. at Millinocket Community Hospital, Police Chief Richard Rideout said. The .38 caliber bullet had crashed through the boy's head, entering just below his chin.

Until late Saturday, there had been no firearms in Mrs. Rideout's mobile home at the Kelley Trailer Park. But after being harrassed by teenagers during the day Saturday, and receiving several anonymous phone calls in the evening, Mrs. Rideout borrowed the revolver from a friend, police said. The calls had "upset her", Chief Rideout said.

The woman told investigating officers she brought the gun into her home while young Kurst was asleep, and hid it behind some paper bags in a cupboard above the refrigerator.

Police theorize that sometime Sunday morning, Kurt and three year old David Perkins, who was staying with the Rideouts for the night, apparently began exploring the kitchen cupboards.

According to police, Kurt must have climbed up onto the kitchen sink and then onto the top of the refrigerator to reach the cupboard containing the revolver. It was while the boy was perched atop that the gun went off.

The noise woke Mrs. Rideout and her 15 year old daughter, Lynn, who discovered Kurt lying on the kitchen floor.

Police are continuing their investigation of the shooting.