The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1857-06-17
OF WAND.

report in the Toledo Blade, it appear
that he admitted a short time before h
was launched into eternity, that h
killed his wife, but denied the two othe
murders which he had before confessed
The same report, however, says that hi
dying speech was simply the raving o
an over-excited and broken down mind
He was SO thoroughly unstrung that hi
words were more like the workings o
insanity than intelligence. There is bu
little doubt therefore, that tho comics
sions of the two murders in Richland
published in pamphlet form, are correct
He gives his account of the murder o
NOAH HALL, as follows:
CONFESSION.
"Of the crime of numbering Noal
of the = day of March, 1851, 1 entered
his store secretly, by the door, while ht
was asleep, and unseen by any human
eye, committed the deed. Knowing thai
he was about TO start for New York tc
purchase goods, and that he had aeon.
siderable sum of money on his person,
| laid my plans without any communion
ton with others, and resolved to take
HALLS life as the only means of posses.
sing myself of the coveted treasure.
"Before dark, on the previous day, I
went to the store, and in his absence
unfastened the back door and left it in
such a condition that l could enter with
out difficulty. At midnight 1 left my
house aud started on my errand of dark
ness. I found the door just as I had
left it, and on entering the store soon
satisfied myself that Hall was sleeping
soundly. The weapon With which 1 was
armed and which I intended as the in
strument of death was a heavy iron
poker, square and large at one end and
tapering to a rounded point at the other
end. Having carefully ascertained his
position, I struck the rounded point
through his skull on the left side above
the ear, and then gave him a violent blow
with the heavy end of the poker on the
top of his head. He then began to
struggle, and L seized his pillow and
held it tightly over his mouth, to pre-
vent any sound from escaping, and, with
the other hand, grasped his wind-pipe
strongly and held him thus till he ceased
to struggle and life was evidently ex-
tinct. 1t was a fearful struggle, and l
felt a sad relief when it was There
was no great flow of blood from the
wounds and no stains on my clothes.
"When I YVES satisfied that he was
dead, 1 dragged the body to the back
end of the store and commenced my
search for the expected treasure. On
going to the money drawer, I only
found a little change, and began to think
that my crime was to be without any
But on searching the hammock
where he slept, under the bolster 1 dis
covered his pocket book, and on search
ing it's contents found in it, in bank
bills, a little over $500. On getting
possession of the treasure, I Immediately
left the store, and, on the same night,
dug a hole On the back end of my lot and
buried the pocket book and its contents,
and they remained there untouched du-
ring the next six months. When the
excitement about the murder had died
away, I dug up the pocket book and
used the money in small quantities, as l
wanted it, keeping the balance carefully
concealed"
About a year afterward he murdered
a pedlar, who stopped at his hotel for the
The circumstances of this muir
der were sven more atrocioustthan those
attending the murder of Hall. He was
o..
an utter stranger, and Ward lighted him
to bed, as he says, without thinking to
do him any harm. He then went to bed
and slept till midnight, when Cd
awaking, the thought struck him that
the pedlar might have money. He i'm
.ediately arose and went up to his room,
opened the door, went to his bedside and
found him sleeping soundly. He then
vent down stairs and got an axe, and,
returning struck him a blow on the head
which 1901 put a sudden end to his exis-
lance. He then took a dry goods box,
which he had in the yard, ard packing
,he dead man in it put it under his bed
N his own room and went to bed. Two
lays after he took the box in a one horse
some sixty miles and threw it in
10 the Huron river. He was never pub
charged with this murder ;but since
his conviction it has been believed that
ne put the pedlar out of the way. As
the reward of this crime he possessed
of the sum of fifty dollars, and
a few go DDS which he dare not use.
After this murder no went to Shelby
and was married again. His wife died
soon after. A short time subsequent to
this, he married Olive Davis, the woman,
for numbering whom, he was hung
His first confession of this was published
in the Union some time since. That was
made after his sentence was pronounced
and with a view of getting it committed
to imprisonment for life. He then rep
resented that he struck her the blow
caused her death, in the heat of
and after receiving a blow from
her. In his last confession, he admits
that he killed her premeditatedly and
and in revenge for former diff
His manner of disposing of
the body, with all its revolving and horri-
Bile details, scooping up the blood with
bis hands, d%isjointing the limbs, cutting