The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-28 00:00:00

THE SUN,

CONFESSION OF DUNBAR, THE
AMERICAN DOUBLE MURDERER.
The double murder lately committed in America
by a young man named Dunbar having excited a pro-
found and universal sensation in that country, and
the circumstances under which the crimes were per •
petrated being of a singular kind, we copy the written
confession which the young man made immediately
before his execution, from the New York journals.
THE CONFESSION.
Having had full opportunity for reflection, and with a
clear sense of the importance of the act which lem
about to perform, I hereby declare that I, and I only,
am the murderer of Stephen V. and David L. Lester.
I desire to take the whole blame entirely upon myself,
since by no word or act was I excited or encouraged to
do this dreadful deed, by any ether person whatsoever.
I desire to make this full and tree confession to my
spiritual adviser, in order that I may begin aright to
make that preparation, which I know I need, for the
awful end which awaits me, and I hope and pray that
God, for Christ's sake, will grant me repentance
unto life.
I make it for the further reason that I desire to make
reparation, so far as it is in my power to do it to others,
for the great injury that I have done them, and I pray
that God will forgive me this my greatest sin, and all
my other sins; as I now and here declare that I sincerely
forgive all who have ever done me evil.
For a short time, and a short time only, before the
morning of the murder, I occasionally thought if these
children were out of the way, I should stand a little bet-
ter chance to get at Mr. Lester's property; but I don't re-
member to have formed any distinct purpose to put them
out of the way until Saturday, the day on which this
fetal deed was done. I did not take my wife home on
Friday morning, for the purpose of getting a better
chance to kill the boys; nor did I know that Mr. Lester
was going to mill, either on Friday or Saturday, till the
horses were harnessing on Friday morning to take my
wife over to her father's.
I had seen Stephen, the youngest boy, about the
place on Saturday morning, but did not speak to him,
till about ten o'clock, whn he came to me, at the wag-
gon house, where I was sharpening my sickle tfor the
purpose of cutting corn. He said to me, "I have a no-
tion to go a fishing."
I replied, " you bad better go out and gather but-
ternuts." He said, " I do not want to do that."
When I told him he had better go and gather butter-
nuts, I did not do it for the purpose of getting him
out into a place where I could put him out of the way;
nor do I think I had any distinct purpose at the time to
kill him at all. But when he said he did not want to go
after butternuts, the thought came across my mind that
I could get him out into the bushes and kill him. I
then asked him if he would like to go with me up to-
ward the line fence, and catch a woodchuck. He re-
plied, " I should like to do that."
We started together and went towards the barn, when
I took up the swingle which stood by the post at the
side of the great barn-door; we then crawled through a
hole from the barn into the stable, and from a stable
through a hole in the back part, out into the meadow
towards the woods, and went down into the edge of the
bushes, he all the while keeping a little in advance
of me.
When we got into the bushes we went in a northerly
direction, till we came to the place where he was
afte wards found. I then told him "to look out
nort, towards some bushes, which I pointed out,
and see if he could see the woodchuck ;" and as he
stood looking I struck him a heavy blow with
the swingle just over the left eye. He fell sense-
less upon his side ; he made no struggle and uttered
no cry. I stood and looked at him about a minute, and
then struck him another blow with the swingle across
the back of the head. He made no sound, but
stretched out straight and turned over on his back and
laid perfectly still. I then covered him up hastily
with stones and leaves, just as he lay; carried
the swingle and stuck it under the end of a log,
about five rods south, and then returned to the house.
It did not seem more than two minutes while I was do-
ing the whole of it. I did not throw the stones upon
him for the purpose of making sure that he was dead,
but laid them and the leaves over him to conceal what I
had done. Ido not remember to have had any feelings
at the time, nor did I seem to realize what I had done,
or at least did not realize it as I did afterwards.
When I left to go to the house, I went for the purpose
of getting David, that I might put him out of the way also.
I found him standing at the table, and asked him "to go
with me out to the waggon-house." I started to go out,
and he followed me to the door, when mother came out
of the west bed room and asked David " to get her a pit
of water." He took the pail and went for the water, and I
went to the waggon-house. I watched him; saw him carry
the pad to the door, and saw mother take it, and then he
came out where I was. I took a small cross-handled apple
basket, and put into it two pieces of rope tied together.
One piece I found is the waggon-house, and the other
piece I cut off from another rope which I found in the
same place. I gave him the basket and we went together
out of the back of the barn, to the butternut-tree
which stands near the edge of the bushes. Ho took the j
rope out of the basket and laid it on the ground, and
commenced picking up butternuts. I went out through
the bars toward the corn-field, hung my sickle on a
stump in a meadow, went back to the tree where he was,
picked up the rope and asked him, " if he did not want
to go up on the hill and look fora crow's nest." He
replied, "I will go if you want me." He manifested no
reluctance to go.
We went together up the hill till we came on the top
of the rocks, and then went west till we came to the
tree where he was afterwards found. When we came
to the tree I told him " to climb up and. see if he could
see the nest." He climbed up the tree some fifteen or
twenty feet, and I climbed up after him, taking
the rope with me. I tied one end of the rope round
the tree, and then told him to " look out into
another tree," which I pointed out, " and see if he I
could see the crows ;" and as he was looking I prepared
a slip noose on the end of the rope and slipped it over his
head; when I shoved it up close round his neck he cried
out " Don't Reuben, don't I " and as he cried out I shoved
him off the limb on which he was standing. He dropped
but a short distance, with his arms over the limb on which
his band was resting before I pushed him off. He did,
not struggle, as I noticed, after I pushed him off. I
took off his cap, hung it on a limb just over his head,
came down from the tree, and left him. I looked back
but once after I left the tree, and he hung perfectly still,
and I never saw him afterward.
I went back to the butternut-tree, took the basket,
partly tilled with butternuts, carried them to the waggon
house, put them into the sleigh overhead, remained there
a few minutes, and then went into the house.
Mother had gone up stairs, and was lying down, she not
feeling well that day. I called to her, and told her " that
it wail dinner-time." She replied, " I do not care about
eating, as I do not feel very well; but you can go into the
buttery and eat." I did so, went out after having eaten,
fed the hogs, got my sickle, and then, for the first time,
went into the field and commenced cutting corn. I then
began to be conscious of what I had done. These were
the first feelings of sorrow or regret which I remember
to have felt. I thought, " What would my wife say if
she should find out what I had done." I thought she
would mourn herself to dea'h about it if it should be
found out. I felt as if I would give the whole world if I
could only bring the boys back to life again.
I then began to think what I would do when I went
into the house to keep my mother from suspecting that
I had killed the boys. I could think of nutlike. else
only to tell her that Stephen had said, " that ho
had a notion to go fishing." Atter cutting corn
about an hour I went into the house and asked
mother "if she knew where the little bo3s were?"
She said, " I have not seen Stephen since his
uncle went away, and I have not seen David since he
went out just behind you." She there asked me, "It
I knew where they had gone ?" and I told her, " Per-
haps they had gone a fishing." She said, " Have
you heard them say anything about it ?" I re-
plied " Stephen spoke about going." Nothing further
passed between us at that time,
I they went out to the corn field, remained about half
an hour, and was then driven in by the rain. I had been
in the house but a few minutes when mother came in
from the garden, and asked me if I had seen anything
of the children; I told her I had not. I then went out
again to the corn-field, took my sickle, went back to the
house, and mother asked me again about the children.
She asked me to go after the shower was over, down
the crew to Mr. R. Dunbar's, and see if I could find
them, that perhaps they had got into the creek.
After the shower was over, I went down to the creek
to Mr. Dunbar's, and asked "if they had seen the
children?" They said they bad not. As I went out
to the house, I met Mr. Lester returning from mill,
and I asked him if he had seen anything of the
little boys down the road? He said he had not, and
asked me where they were? I told him, "perhaps
they have gone a fishing, Stephen spoke about
it." He said, "you had better go down to Finkle's,
and if you don't hear anything of them, come back up
the creek." I went down to Finkle's, and asked if they
had seen the boys. They said they had not. I came
back up the creek, and Mr. Lester asked me if I had
heard anything of the boys. I told him I had not.
It was now night. Mr. Lester's mother and myself
spent the evening together ; the children were
frequently mentioned, and they thought perhaps
the boys bad gone over to Mr. Hallenbeck's.
I went to bed about nine o'clock; I then began to
realise more fully what I had done. I kept thinking
" what would my wife say if she should know it?" i
did not sleep much that night; every time I fell asleep
I could hear the little boy cry, " Don't, don't," and
that would wake me up. The next morning
being Sunday, after I had done the chores, I
went down to the place where Stephen was, looked at
him a few minutes, put a few more leaves over him,
went back to the house, and got ready for church. I
felt very sorry that I had killed the boys, and thought
I would give all I had in the world if I could only bring
them back to life again.
Mr. Leiter had gene down to Mr. I:l4l!enbeck's to see
if the children were there; I got up the horses to go to
meeting, and asked mother if we should wait for Mr. Las-
ter. She said, "He told me not to wait for him if he did
not get back in season." We started for church, went down
thee lane as far as the road, where we met Mr. Lester, and
alahildrerlu.estldwmeenttobgacok,bapcukt,
uapndthheelphorsseeesrchanfdorcothne.
firmed to search till about thrte. or four o'clock, then
her about six o'clock. Thernynewxitie'd
took the horses, went for
continued searching, and on Wednesday, and returned with
day and Tuesday we
the youngest boy was found; almost ay, about noon,
was foaulsCOnal.reeds
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a t
me,ahlelinogldeusPt°bnoy
which,
a he nextsu s p
dayci oii ft'
any time during the search intend to send any person
away from the places where I knew the bodies
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the you!=iier, and then banged himself; I lau- ged Davici