Washington telegraph., 1850-07-17

TRAGEDY IN GEoRGIA-Confession of
the AccuSed.-The Tallahassee Journal
of the 18th gives us the following:
Our neighbors of Thomas county, Ca,
| are considerably excited in consequence
of the disclosure of an awful crime, and
the arrest and imprisonment of the party
concerned in committing it. The circum-
stances, as we have been able to gather
them from the many rumors in circula-
ton, are briefly these: On the 10th of
| March last, Mr.. Robert A. Pearce, a
very respectable planter Of that county,
| died suddenly at his residence. At the
| time of his death, there was teaching
| school in the neighborhood, and boarding
in the family of the deceased, man who
went by the name of G. Pinckney Henson,
said to be an Englshman by birth, and
aged some 81 or 80 years. Henson was
stranger, but was taken by the hand
by Pearce. and befriended. On the morn
ing of P.'s death, Henson was present,
and administered to the deceased dose
which was taken for quinine. Pearce
soon after got worse, and in about three
hours. died in great agony. Henson then
removed to another boarding house, bu.
| continued visiting the widow and family
Of the deceased, until the rumor was
circulated that marriage would shortly
take place between the PARTIES. The
friends of the deceased interposed and
sought to defeat the marriage; and about
the last of May, Henson himself deter
mined OH bringing matters to close, and
for this purpose he waited on the lady at
hor md rha,~
with her, and on questioning her as to
their marriage, and receiving negative
answer, became violently excited, and
declared that he had poisoned her hus-
band to get her. and if he failed in that,
no one should possess her, for he would
first kill her and then himself The
rumor is that Mrs. P promised COM
pliance with his wishes, but on the next
Monday she drove to Thomasvihe, (the
court being then in session at that place,)
and lodged complaint against him for
the murder of her husband. A true bill
was found against him by the Grand Jury
for the murder, and he was arrested by
the Sheriff and lodged in Jail.
In the prisoners trunk were found a
number of letters. in the handwriting of,
and signed by Mrs. Pearce, which how
ever throw no light OH the awful crime
with which he stands charged. They
are mostly, as we are informed. love-
letters, and only go TO show that there
was some ground for her friends TO fear
marriage was in contemplation between
the parties. BY the direction of the
Court, the body of the murdered man has
been disenterred. and an examination
will take place IN order to detect the
presence Of poison in the stomach. Up
to the 7th inst, Henson continued to pro.
test his innocence, but having failed in
an ingenious attempt to escape, in which
he nearly succeeded, on the morning of
the 9TH he addressed the crowd assem-
bled round the Jail, and confessed :he
crime, but implicated Mrs. Pearce as an
accomplice. charging her with being privy
to all the steps taken to accomplish her
husbands death, and with actually ad-
ministering with her own hands the poi
son he had prepared for the purpose. He
says that the poison was arsenic, purchas-
ed by him from DR.. Nash of this city,
for the purpose of removing a negro boy
who had witnessed too great an intimacy
between him (the prisoner) and Mrs. p,
but failing in killing the negro, it was
then suggested that Pearce be destroyed
by mixing the poison with quinine. which
was done accordingly, with the result as
above stated.
Henson is represented as being blind
with rage at Mrs. Pearce, and is only
desirous to live that he may destroy her.
Public opinion, we are informed. is
unanimous in the belief of the mans guilt
He is said to be good scholar, and a
fine public speaker. He had been select
ed by the Sons of Temperance, of which
body he was a member, to deliver fourth
of July Grafton in the coming month.
We have purposely omitted many
things in this imperfect narrative, in re-
gard to the poisoner and Mrs. p, as being
unfit to appear in the columns of our
paper The lady is extensively and most
respectfully connected. She is the mother
of three children, and is about eighteen
years of age.