State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1831-1836, 1836-04-26
HoRRID MURDER AND ARSON.

n young woman named Ellen JeWett,
boarding with Mrs Townsend, No. III
Thomas street IA house of il-lame) was
murdered in her bed on Sunday morning.
The circumstances, as we have heard
them, are MS follows: Miss Jewett had been
for some time the kept mistress of Richard
j. Robinson, clerk in a respectable mtr-
. camille house in Maiden lane, who, it ap-
pears, from some cause, became jealous,
and demanded of her miniature likeness
of himself, which he had presented TO her,
and also some correspondence that had
passed between them, which she refused
to give up Nothing, however, occurred
to lead to supposition that any violence
was intended. On Saturday night Robin
son visited the house at the usual hour,
and remained with her until three o'clock
OH sunday morning, when he was heard
by those sleeping in the lower part of the
house to come down stairs, and finding the
front door locked, he called out to the
family to let him out; he Immediately
thereafter went to the back door, tlubolted
il, and III the act of climbing over the fence,
his cloak was caught by nail, torn from
his shoulders, and left on the fence, with II
sharp Ratchet tied to its tassals, where it
was found in the morning.
a short time after he left, the inmates
were alarmed 10y dense smoke, which
filled the house almost to suilocation. On
going up stairs into the room of the unfor
tunnte girl, the smoke was found to pro-
coed from her bed, which was OH fire, and
on which lay her dead body; her head
mangled in the most shocking manner,
three deep wounds having been inflicted
on her temples aud forehead. Suspicion
Immediately rested on Robinson who was
arrested about & O'Clock at his boarding
house in Liberty street, and conducted by
the officers to Thomas street, where the
murder was committed, and where the
coroner's jury were sitting over the dead
body.
On seeing the body he exhibited no signs
of emotion, but gaZed around and Oh his
victim cody and calmly.
On his examination he denied his name,
and asserted that he had not been in the
house that night; but woman was bro't
from his boarding house, who swore posi-
lively to his cloak 1t was fully identified
from the following circumstance. There
Were two beautiful tassals attached to the
cloak. One evening last week one of the
tassaIs was broken off, and he put it into
his pocket. On his return to the house,
he showed the cloak with the tassal off,
and also produced from his pocket the one
broken off. \ few days after this he came
again to the house, aud showed the cloak,
and pointed out where the tassal had been
neatly sowed on. On the examination be-
fore the Jury he denied the cloak, but one
of the girls who had seen it after the tassaI
had been sowed on, described it accurately,
and on examination, it was found to cor
respond precisely with the description. To
this lassal was fastened a piece of twine,
which tailed exactly with piece on the
the handle of the hatchct. While Robin
son was dressing himself at his boarding
house in Liberty street, Mr. Brink, the Off
Ger, noticed that his pantaloons were much
covered with whitewash; and on eXamn-
alton it proved that one side of one of the
fences, which he must have climbed be-
fore dropping his cloak was whitewashed
After completing their examination, the
coroncr's jury rendered the following yer
dict:
" 1t is the opinion Of the jury, from the
evidence before them, that the said Helen
Jewett came 10 her death by blow OF
blows inflicted on the head with Il hatcher
by the hand of Richard p. Robinson"
On leaving the house in Thomas street
afte: his examination, Robinson leapec
lightly into the carriage which was TO carry
him to Bridewell, his countenance, clear
calm and unrufiled, and on being put into
his cell, his last request was for some segals
to smoke.
Ellen, was native of Augusta, Maine
and has gone in different places under diff
ierent names, as Dorcas Dorrcnce, Helen
Mar, &c. She was an orphan, her father
and mother poor people, having died while
she was in infancy, and at an early age, il
was said, she was taken from compassion
into the family of Judge Western, who gave
her all the advantages of fine education
ut female academy in the vicinity OF
Augusta, where she was distinguished tol
her talents, beauty, wit and accomplish
> ments. After finishing her studies she feel
n victim, at the early age of sixteen, to the
seductive arts of a young man who held IN
office in one of the banks in Augusta. She
has since lived life of RIGHTEOUSNESS in
Portland, Boston, and this city. She was
twenty three years old at the time she was
murdered.
Robinson is apparently about twenty
years ofage, of good address and confident
manner. and has hitherto borne an unim-
peached character. He was in the employ
of Joseph Hoxie, Esq, who speaks of his
conduct during the two years he resided
with him, in the most exalted terms. lie
is from Durham, in Connecticut, and is oil
respectable connexions.
The halchct found attached to the tassaIs
ofhis cloak, it is said has been identified by
MIR IIoxie's porter, as the Ratchet belonging
to the store. This and the other circum-
: stances referred to, seemed to render the
case so clear that the coroner's jury did moi
hesitate in their verdict 10 make n direct
charge ofcrime upon Robinson. Some o.
his friends, however, insist that he cal
prove an ulib and That he is innocent,
This is one of the most cold-blooded nnt
, orrd murders and arsons ever perpenatcc
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