Conrad Aiken-Murder, suicide and 22 years in Savannah

Conrad's parents were from New England. His father was a brilliant physician and a brain surgeon. His mother was a social butterfly, entertaining and spending money extravagantly. They lived on Oglethorpe Avenue across from Colonial Park Cemetery. At some point Conrad's father began to suffer from paranoia. He became increasingly violent and when Conrad was only 11 years old he heard two gunshots from his parents' room.

He gathered his nerve and crept to their door. Peeping in, he found them both dead. Conrad sadly ran down the block to the police station and told them what had happened.

Conrad was forever haunted by their deaths and the psychological horror of that scene, permeated many of his stories.

In true gothic tradition, in his later years he returned to Savannah and moved into the house next door to the one he had grown up in, the one his parents had died in.

His last 11 years were spent a door away from where his first 11 were lived.

Conrad Aiken, a true son of this city's darker side.

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