Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1857-05-14
Trial of Stringcr McKim for the
Murder of NOrcFOss. -


The trial of McKin for the murder O
Norcross, near Altoona, Blair county, Pa.
commenced at Hollidaysburg on Thursday
morning. iisl 19 !
Michael Bonner, subpenaed by Mckim
to prove an alibi, and recently arrested at
Che ter, Pa, when drunk, and supicious
letter from the prisoner found on him, has
been taken to Hollidaysburg as witness
against him-ss have also the two women
with whom McKim spent his time and
money at Pottsyille. The letter found on
Bonner, dated the 9th of April, from the
Hollidaysburg Jail, opened with an accoun,
of the past times, in which Mckim and
Bonner had been intimate associates, spoke
of the present condition of the writer, in
prison, handeuffed, manacled, and not per
m.tted to write, unless he exhibited his cf
fusions to the Sheriff. 1t then told how
the present letter had been written, the a,l-
thor having managed (by bribing girl
who had come to the Jail to see her bro
ther, to have it conveyed secretly to the
Post Office. It then says that McKim has
subpenaed Michael Bonner and his two
friends, Jas. Hewi. g and Geo. Worrell, and
that he expects them to come to his trial
and clear him by swearing falsely. Bonner
and Hewing are instructed TO say, when
placed upon the witness stand, that they
were with McKim at Pittsburg, on the night
of the 18th of January, (the day preceding
the murder) and that all three took the
cars for the east between eleven and twelve
O'Clock. This, of course would clear him
from having been in company with Norcross.
But for fear some of the money that was
seen in the possession of McKim at Read
ing might be identified as having belonged
to the murdered man, those worthless were
to swear that before getting in the cars at
Pittsburg, MeKim, being burdened with
the weight of SO and $40 gold pieces, ex-
changed them for notes with stranger,
who appeared to be from the East, and who
in return gave bills of $50 and Sl0O on
some Boston Bank. The murder was com
mitted beyond Altoona, the peJurers are
to swear that McKiln left the cars tweaty
miles west of that place on the morning of
the tragedy, thereby, from the impossibility
of his travelling the distance named in time
to have committed the murdcr) proving an
abb.
But the guilty man commits himself in
writing, for he says, II was at Altoona on
the day of the murder, but you must sarear
that | got out twenty miles to the west of
that place." Yet, in the face of all these
facts, McKim denies most solemnly that lie
lifted bis hand against Norcross. Heprom-
ises, however, to pay his companions well
if they would assist him to escape. Then
follows an episode exhibiting the touches
on feeling that nature sometimes bestows
upon the most hardened. McKim ina
gincs himself, through the agency of these
men, cleared by a court of justice; pictures
the life he will afterwards lead, and SAYS
that his wife, his child, his associates and
himself will go TO Dunlicth Michigan, and
in happiness labor for their support, un-
known and undisturbed by the world In
conclusion. he tells Bonner how he shall,
through the medium of his wife, answer
the letter.