The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1857-07-29
Horrible Tragedy in Cincinnati

aOrT1Dl6 IN C1nC1nnaC1
"A Citizen Murdered in Cold
Blood and the Wife Strangled !
At an early hour yesterday morning,
says the Cincinnati Gazette of yesterday,
the city was startled by the announcement
that Mr.. Nicholas T.. Horton, an old, well
known and influential citizen. of the firm
of M Horton u Co., manufacturers of
cnameled CRATES and marble lied iron, had
been brutality murdered at his private res
idence, on Ohio avenue, Vine Street Hill,
in the suburbs of the city. The baleful
news spread, and by 9 o'clock hundreds of
our citizens were anxiously questioning
each other, and marFeling, if the account
of the bloody tragedy, as popularity given,
c,uld be true. A number Of them soon
repaired to the house of Mr.. Horton, and
there beheld a scene well calculated to
freeze their blood, aud heard a sanguinary
tale they ere at first i'll prepared to be-
heyo. ~ 1 -
AUGMENTATION OF HoRRoRs-THE WHOLE
STORY.
Mr.. Horton had been awakened a little
after 4 o'clock by a heavy smoke pouring
into. his chamber, and supposing the house
to be on FIRE he rose and opened the door
and went into the hall, where he was en-
countered by a German serving man, for
some time IN his employ, named Joseph
Lefner, who struck him in the abdomen
with a butcher knife, causing a deep and
CHASTITY wound that proved fatal a few
minutes after, and then ran out of the
house.
Mr.. Horizons mother-in-law, Mrs. Ma
~ Ann Smith. also awakened by the
smoke, came into the hall and beheld MIR.
II. bleeding profusely, and heard him ex-
claim : /" Mother l am stabbed" Mrs.
s., terribly alarmed, ran to the window
and cried "murdcr and fire." and Dir.
Ii. fell in a dying state to tho floor.
The ueighbors soon rushed into the
house and found Mr.. II. not quite dead,
and the family bordering on a state of
phrenzy. They removed Mr. H.,who had
no garment upon his person beside his
shirt, to the yard, and placing him upon
the grass, covered him up with a blanket.
They then looked about for the guilty
party, and soon perceived Joseph Lefner,
near the green house, on the premises,
whom they pursued, when he lay down
They came up to him and found him
bleeding profusely from both his wrists
and from o deep cash in his throat. They
aSkeQ llt0 IL NC udQ muEuCEG0 I HUI
ton, and if he had wounded. himself, and
he expressed assent, but could not speak
Ie was learned a short time after, in a
manner that will be understood from the
dispositions below, that previous to muir
dering Mr.. Horton he had s%trangled his
own wife, residing at No. 623 Vine street,
and then set fire to Mr.. HIS house, with
the expectation of wreaking vengeance
upon tho proprietor for an imagined
wrong. Having accomplished his fell
purpose, he had endeavored to destroy
himself by opening the principal veins
near his wrists, and cutting his throat
with a razor.
II ALLEGED CAUSE OF THE MURDER.
Lofner and his wife had both been en-
ployed as domestics IN the house of Mr..
Horton !; the former for nearly two and
the latter for thrce4or four years. They
often quarrelcd, and L0fncr was in tkc
habit of abusing her, which rendered him
disagreeable to the family of Mr.. H., who
reprimanded him for his conduct. L@fner
had married his wife, formerly Francisco
Kohler, about nine months before
francesca had not recently lived in Mr..
HIS family, but had been there since the
confinement of Mrs H., in the beginning
of last week. The husband had abused
her on Monday, and appeared more than
usually malignant Many have supposed
that the German had contracted a hatred
for Mr.. H.. because of the ccnsurcs of
that gentleman. But it seems the chief
cause of that Insane wrath which impellcd
Lefner to slay his wife and his employer
was jealousy. lie has by signs confessed
this since the tragedy. He, no doubt,
th1ugh without reason, as far as W. can
learn, suspected his wife of an improper
intimacy with Horton.
Mrs. Lefner was much liked by Mr..
Hortoa's family, and, kindly treated, be-
came a faithful and estimable domestic
This conduct on their part may have been,
and probably was, strangely ~misconstrued
by Loefner.