The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1862-11-15
Horrible Tragedy I'm Ohio
Murder aud Suicide.

|. augw s. 5 From the rittsburg Gazette.
On Friday last, horrible tragedy occur
red at Port Clinton, Ottawa county, Ohio
two young women having been brutaliy
murdered by young man. who afterwards
hanged himself. The particulars are as fol-
lows: f.
ION Friday morning, Mr.. T. j. Kirk, re.
siding at Port Clinton, left home on visit,
with his wife and two small boys, leaving
the house in charge Of two daughters
Alice, aged fifteen, and Amy, aged eleven
years, together with an adopted daughter,
Naomi Knight, aged eighteen. A young
man named Henry Riquartz, who had been
employed by Mr.. Kirk during the summer,
was also left on the premises. Soon after
the departure Of Mr.. Kirk, Alice, the elder
drughter, left to have some work done bv a
dentist. She returned between one and
two o'clock in the afternoon, and found the
dinner table still standing, Is If the two girls
and the young man had eaten dinner, but
no person was in tho house. She called
aloud for the girls, but received no answer.
She searched for them In the barn, but with
out success, and on returning to the house
saw Riquartz coming from one ofthe cham
bers. She inquired for the girls, but he
said he knew nothing about them. An
hour passed, but they came not. Alice
went again to the barn, where Riquartz was
but he replied as before. They both return
ed to the house together, when Riquartz
bundled up his clothes 6nd left.
When night came and the girls had not
returned, Alice went to look for them, and
met Riquartz, who then told her he had
seen them at their uncle's house at the vii
lage, and they would soon be home. Alice
went back to the house, and at the sugges-
ton of Riquartz she lit the fire to prepare
for supper, after which she said she would
go ard accompany the girls home.
Riquartz Immediately grasped her by the
throat and strangled her until she became
unconscious. He then bound her hand and
foot, and remarked that he did not desire to
murder her, but only wanted to place her in
such a condition that she could not alarm
the neighbors until he killed himself, then
telling her that the other girls would "never
come back" bid her good bye, and then
left the house.
He was met at the door by woman, who
was going to the house on an errand, and
who asked him where the three girls were.
He replied, up in the chamber. On enter
ing, she found Alice bound - described, re-
leased her, and the two started to alarm the
village.
BY this time 1t was between five and six
o'clock. The people Of the village came and
began to search, when Riquartz was found
hanging in the barn, having been dead
about half an hour. Farther search was
rewarded by the discovery ofthe bodies of
the two girls in the granary, it being evi-
dent that Riquartz had first ravished them
and then strangled them by leather bands
around their neck. The younger girl had
her hands tied behind her back.
The deed was probably committed just
after the girls had got their dinner, and it
appears that after the tragedy had been
done, the muir derer had gone to the house
and eaten his own dinner. An inquest was
held on the bodies, and a verdict rendered in
accordance with the above facts.