Washington telegraph., 1852-06-23
From the Maysville Eagle, May 2t
MurdererS Convicted.

| Our readers will remember the horrir
murders committed in the latter end O
February last on the persons of Justice
Brewer and his wife, in Greenup county
KY. These deeds were perpetrated by /:
band of desperadoes, four in number, three
of them named Clarke and one named
Hood. They blacked their faces and fa1
in the night proceeded to the premise.
of their victims Going into the poultry
house, they set the hens to squalling b
which trick Mr. and Mrs Brewer were
enticed out of the house. Mrs. B. went
out first in her night-gown, to protect her
chickens from the fangs as she doubtless
thought Of wild beasts of prey, little
dreaming that they were prowling in the
human form and that herself and husband
were the objects Of their bloody hunt. Mr.
B. followed Immediately and both were sci
upon and beaten to death with heavy clubs
he being killed outright and she left fol
dead, though she fingered insensible and
speeches. till next morning. Their poor
little children, five in number, the eldest
but eleven years old, unconscious of the hor-
rid tragedy by which they were plunged
inte the miseries and sorrows of orphanage,
slept undisturbed, till morning, when, mis-
sing their parents, they wandered to the
neighbors in search of them. This ava
kened suspicion and alarm, and soon the
people of the country roundabout were rous-
ed. The first party arriving at the house,
found the PROSTATE bodies where the assas-
1oft %ho III -
the wife only exhibiting signs of life by an
involuntary contraction of her lower limbs
At IL o'clock that morning her suferings
ended with her life
Antecedent circumstances furnished ground
of suspicion that John Collins, a near neigh
Dor of Brewer, was the instigator if not the
actor of the tragedy A chain of circum-
stances, slight indeed in their origin. but
corroborated and strengthened until they
amounted to proofs, clear and conclusive,
fixed the eye and the hand of justice on
Collins and his accomplices,
TO make brief story of the evidence,
Collins purely out of malice, had induced
the three Clarks and Hood, by threats and
bribes, to undertake the murder. One of
the Clarks was a son-in-law of Collins,
Two of the Clarks were brothers, the third
a cousin, and Hood we believe relative
One of the Clarks and Hood are lads about
II years of age. These four were the par
ties actually engaged in the murders, the
malignant but cowardly Collins, the plan
ner of the wicked conspiracy, purposely re-
naming at home because he foresaw he
would be charged with the murder A part
of the scheme, designed to provide for Col
Inns security was that the young men should
leave their hats with Collins, which would
make it necessary for them to return to his
house, and by this they would be able to
testify that Collins was at home on the night
of the murder. The plot did not probably
contemplate that suspicion would light on
the young men.
Collins and his four accomplices were in
dicted, and he and Turner Clarke, the one
who welded the murderous club, were tried
before the Greenup Circuit Court last week.
These two were convicted of murder and
sentenced to be hung on the 25th of June
next. There was not time to try the other
three before the term of the Court expired,
and they will remain in Jail, ironed and
guarded, till the next term.
The circumstances establishing the con-
spiracy between Collins and the four young
men were so convincing, that we understand
each of them Except Collins) separately
made full confession, even before the trial.
A narrative of the evidence Of the case
would furnish chapter of circumstantial
evidence perhaps as marvellous, but at the
same time clear and conclusive, as ever was
detailed. The very plot of the conspira-
tors, designed to hide their crime, served to
develop their guilt 1t was fine illustra-
ton of that remarkable passage where
Shakespeare makes Hamlet congratulate him
self on the contrivance of the play by which
he expected to expose the "occulfed gull"
of the King in one scene Of it:
Il have heard,
That guilty creatures. sitting at play,
Have by the very cunning OF the scene,
Been struck so to the soul, that presently
They have proclaimed their malefactions;
For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
With most miraculous organ"