Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1853-07-30
From the Crescent
love and Murder.

A CIR hlucd By her esterdaV
morning the residents of st. Peter street, be.
tween Poydras and Perdido streets, were start
led by the announcement of one OF the most
shocking murders that has ever darkened the
annals ofcrime. A young and beautiful girl,
seventeen years of ags, known as Berthenc
Sweten in her days OF innocence, but since heI
lapse from virtue, designated as Eliza Love.
alias Lizzy Phillips, was found dead in her bed
or st. Peter street, near Poydras, with wounds
upon her head going to show that she had been
inhumanly murdered. Information of the fact
was conveyed to the First District police by a
man named A. NJ. Bellew, who keeps groce-
ny store at the corner of Poydras and st. Peter
streets, opposite the markell He went to the
Police Office about two o'clock yesterday morn
ing, and reported that foul play had been COM
mitted upon the Unfortunate girl. Lieutenant
Petrie, being aware that Beliew had been liv-
ing on terms of criminal intercourse with her,
Immediately suspected BelIew of having COM
mltted the murder, and took him into custody.
Repairing to the house where the body was, it
was Immediately seen by the officers that a foul
murder had been committed. The body lay
stretched on a bed, with brain oozing from a
fracture in the skull, while the once beautiful
form was swollen and %disigured, reeking with
corruption, and an object Of loathing and dis
gust.
The Coroner was called to hold an inquest
on the body; witnesses were summoned, and
the inquiry proceeded.
A daguerreotype likeness of the deceased
was shown; but zone would have recognized
by the picture the swollen and gangreened
form that now lay in the sleep of death, swell
terIng in its own corruption.
Witnesses testified that the deceased had liy.
ed with a man named Bellew in guilty COM
merce, and that lately he had become Jealous
OF her. She was accustomed to call him by the
familiar name of Frank" He had pretended
to love her to an extraordinary degree, and she
had often been heard TO say that he had treated
her kindly.
1t was in evidence that on Tuesday night
the deceased and Bellew had slept in the room
together where the body was found, and that
the next morning, on leaving the apartment,
Beitew had told some one that if any inquiries
were made for the girl, to say that she had gore
over the river to Algiers, where her mother
lived, and that she would not return any more.
VA the same day the conduct of BeIlew SEEM
ed rather strange, and he WAS observed to in.
duige more freely than usual in drink. He al
to slept several hours in a bed in the grocery,
that had been placed there for a boy who had
been hired by him as porter. On Wednesday
evening BeIIew and a man named Joseph Ma |
Varre, and also Il brother to Navarro, went to a
in the lower part of the city, and
remained there some hours. On his return he |
had a large trunk conveyed into the room
where The dead body of the girl lay, from
which the suspicion arose that he had intended
to place the body in the trunk and convey it
away. Aknife and an AK were found in the
room, which, it is conjectured, were intended
so be used in cutting up the body, as it other
wise could not be slowed in an article so small
as the trunk. The extreme heat of the wealth
err, and the rapid decomposition of the body,
most penetrating odor, it is supposed
the moving Of it liable to detection;
whence the resolve of Bellew to convey infor.
nation to the Police in order to avert suspicion
from himself, He stated to the officers that
something was wrong in his neighborhood, and
that he feared Eliza had been murdered (she
having deem seen for a day or two) and as
a suspicious looking Frenchman had been in
the habit Of visiting her.
The wound on the body of deceased looked
as II 1t had been inflicted with an iron bar
IhiCe quarters oi an lncn IN Qlameter.- |
blow must have caused instant death, as
the girl made not the least noise, as was testi-
tied to by a woman living in the next room, d.
Vlded from the apartment of the deceased by a |
thin board partition. Neither were her clothes
all disarranged. Her dresses were living on
a chair by the side of the bed, neatly folded up,
a handkerchief was tied around her bead and
her night clothes were all in the most perfect
order.
On the fingers of the deceased was found a
which it seemed an attempt had been made
% remove for the finger was much lacerated.
She had been seen to wear other rings, which
we're found in the possession of Bellew, when
arrested. Bellew also had d gold watch belong
ng to her, which was recognized by Lieut.. Pc
RE as one which she had brought to his shop
or repairs, while he was engaged in the Jewel.
y business. A box was found laying on a Ia
lie in the room, broken open, which was known
0 have contained about $3.50. These circum-
however, should not initiate against
he accused, as from his intimate association
With the girl he might well have become pos.
essed of the watch and rings without erimi-
ality. +,
The jury of inquest returned a verdict, de-
that "the deceased came to her death by
blow or blows inflicted with a blunt instru, l
tent in the hands of A. NJ. Bellew." The &C. I
used was committed to prison to await his ex-
- ~, 49, H. L----