The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1855-07-07

{ crimes. They shivered, while the gre
: drops started from their foreheads, and witt
out thinking of.looking for any trail, or eve
gathering up the bones, they started bac
: at full speed spreading the alarm ever,
! where. The excitement now became un
versal, Tremendous. Nearly the Who'll
country turned out for the purpose of unray
elling this alarming mystery; and the 81
perstitious frenzy was in no small deGre
r heightened by the report that this man ha
been shot in the same way as the others
the back Of The head!
These incidents were all so unaccounta
BILE, that | own felt no little sympath
! with the popular association of supernat
} ural agency in their preparation. Henr
laughed at all this, but insisted that it wa
a maniac; and to account for the peculia
dexterity of his escapes and whole manage
n1ent, related many anecdotes of the proven
bal cunning of madmen. The widest mos
absurd and incredible stories were now afloa
among the people concerning this deadly
and subtitle foe Of the Regulators; for it wal
now universally believed and remarked, tina
it was against them along that his enmity
was directed. The story of Henry was
greatly improved upon and added to, and as
some reports had it, the Madman. as Others
the Beared Ghost, was seen in half dozen
places at the same time; now on foot stalk
ing with enormous strides across some open
glade from thicket to thicket-passing out of
sight again before the observer could re-
cover from his surprise; then mounted, he
was seen flying like the shadow of a summer
cloud over the prairies, or beneath the gloom
of forests, always haggard and lean, dressed
in skins with the hair on, and that long
heavy, terrible rifle on his shoulder. | no.
ticed that there was only one class of men
who ventured to assert that they had actu-
ally seen with their eyes these wonderful
sights, and that was constructed of those
who either had suffered, or from their char.
acter and pursuits, were most likely to suffer
persecution from the Regulators--the class
OF hunter emigrants. These men were most
industrious in embellishing all the circum-
stances of character, feats, and relentless
hatred to the Regulators, as highly as the
excited credulity of the public would BEAR
They never saw him except in the vicinity
of the homes of some one of these tyrants!
In their visions this was forever lowering
around them, awaiting the moment to strike
while they were alone and far from any
help.
They carried this thing so far as to attract
attention to it,, and arouse in the cunning
mind of Hinch the same suspicion which had
occurred to Henry and myself, namely. that
all this was the result ofa profoundly acute
and thoroughly organized scheme of this
class, headed by some man of peculiar per-
sonalities and consummate skill, with the
object of exterminating or driving off the
Regulators. 1t seemed impossible, that,
without collusion with many others. the
murderer should have been able to so battle
all pursuit Hinch and his band had been
thoroughly cowed and awed; but the mo-
ment this idea occurred to them, the reac-
ton of their base fears was savage exulta-
ton. Here was something tangible; their
open and united force could easily extermi-
nate an enemy who had acknowledge their
weakness in resorting to secret combination
in assassination from 'the bushn' They
proclaimed "war to the knife"
with the whole class; and during the next
week several outrages, so revolving that /
will not detail them, were perpetrated upon
these men in different parts of the county;
and the fact that during this general tumult,
nothing more was seen or heard of the mys
serious Rifemah, encouraged them with the
belief that they had succeeded in getting rid
If him through the intimidation of his con.
federates.
They had NOW been for nearly fortnight
in the saddle--had glutted themselves with
vengeance, and, as they conceived, broken
lown this dangerous conspiracy against
their powerj and if they had not succeed in
detecting and furnishing, had at least frigh-
tened off their singular foe. They now con.
cluded that they might safely disband. The
day after they separated, one of their num-
Der named Rees--almost as bad and savage
a man as Hinch himself--was riding past a
thicket, in sight of his own house, when he
was shot from it. His negroes heard the
gun, and seeing his horse galloping up to
The house riderless and snorting wildly,
they ran down, and found him stretched in
The road dead. He Das shot in the eye, and
the ball passed out at the back of his head.
When Hinch heard this, he turned per-
ly livid, his knees smote together, and with
a horrible oath, he exclaimed: "It't Jack
Long, or his ghost by Cd come back
for vengancel" 1t was now perceived for
The first time, that all the men had been shot
through the eye, instead Of in the back of
The head, where the ball had only passed
out after entering at the socket. The 9TH
:r heads had been too unpleasantly mutila-
ed for examination, and this fact had not
been before observed. Of course, every.
body was satisfied now, this terrible being
vas in one way or another Unidentified with