Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-08-13
THE cSIivIN MURDER
THE MuRnRR.

Alexander Mcconnell was hanged to-day
at the County Jail, in this city, was the
murder of Mrs. William Colvin. The deed
was committed on Saturday forenoon, the
24th oflast March, at the victims residence,
three miles southwest of Olmsted Falls.
Colvin, with Mcconnell and a man named
Miller, were employed bya Mr.. Crawford
living in the vicinity--tO chop cord
wood. Mcconnell and Miller boarded with
Colvin. On the morning Of the fatal day,
at about ten o'clock, COlvin and McCOD-i
nell started for Berea. After going some
distance, the latter complained of a sore
knee, and concluded to turn back. Mrs.
Colvin had previously left the residence
q rude shanty containing two or three
rooms. Colyin met his wife at Olmsted
Falls. She said she was likewise going to
BeIea, to see friend, but, upon learning
that Mcdonnell had turned back, she decid-
ed to return to the house,. The rest of the
story we will give in the words of McCon-
nells confession, which was made ia Jail,
just one month ago. He says :: "When L
started with Colvin to 90 to Berea on the
morning of the oath of March last, L didnOt
intend to go all the way. IintendedtOturn
back and go to the shanty. There was no
one at the shanty when got there; L took
COlvin's clothes and boots and left my
own in the bed. L then started for the
railroad, past Crawford's, intending to
20 by Elyria westward-the way
came. On the way to the railroad
track l met Rosa Colvin in Engler's
lot, kept on, explaining to her that had
Colvin's things to carry them to him; that
he was going to Cleveland. She said if
Golvin was going she was going too. We
wenton about half way up the lane by Clo-
dell's house, when / told her that if Colvin
didn't get his things he would not go1tO
Cleveland; that was tired and we would
go back to the shanty-I having bethought
me that it wouldn't do to tell the other
story. We then went back to the shanty
by Engler's. After laying down the clothes
and she seeing them, she said she didn't be-
I llieve was going to see her husband at all.
| didn't know what to say. confessed to
her then that was going home to Canada.
She said, /" Have you been robbing the
house?" I said no, was taking some of
COlvins clothes and leaving some of mine
in their place. / then said would take
my own clothes and 60 home, had none
of my clothes on then. She snatched
! up the iron poker, and, placing herself in
the door, said | should not go till William
got home. j insisted that would go. She
said she would go and call in the neighbors,
got my own clothes and started to 60 out
of the door, when she struck me over the
arm with the poker. laid down the clothes
and think / struck her with my fist. j
knocked her down. She got up and struck
/ at me; am not sure if she struck me or not.
/ l seized stick of wood and struck her-I
I think on the back of the head. She fell.
I She jumped up and struck me over the
! head with the poker. I staggered back
against the WALL seized an axe and struck
her on the head-one blow. She died in
stantly, When struck her the blow with
the stick of wood she fell, and kicked her,
which think cut her ear. In twenty min
utes or half an hour alter / struck Rosa
COlvin the last blow, | took her body out
and deposited it under the wood pile. !
held her in my arms good While, expect
ing her to come to; was not conscious when
l dropped the dress, which l had wrapped
around her. After4l had deposited the
body under the wood, / came back into the
house and mopped up the blood. 1t was
not more than fifteen minutes from the time
struck her the first blow, till struck hel
the final blow with the axe. j.. 5,-L
The murder was discovered on the day
followingtts commission. Colvin and Nil.
Ter were at once arrested on suspicion. Tht
preliminary examination to which they
were subjected, at Olmsted Falls, resulted
W
Ouyahoga County Court of Common Pleas
They were accordingly placed within th'
Cleveland Jail. The case seemed envelop
ed in the most impenetrable mystery; Cir
oumstances pointed strongly to the prison
ers, as the guilty parties; but still there
was no decided or conclusive proof to bring
against them; and they certainly did moi
appear 'likeedl brits.F For some dme-i itl was
supposed that the missing Mcconnell haC
likewise been murdered, as not the leas
clue to his Whereabouts could be obtained
Io AS is shown in the above extract, from
McConnell's confession, Mrs, Colyin's re-
mains were deposited beneath a wood pile
near her shanty. They were found there
in frightfully mutilated condition. The
deceased was twenty-eight years of age
Colvin, to whom, she had been married {
little more than one year, was her second
husband. BY her first husband she hat
had one child, -,I,,r',-o -; -. i'.ei ollo
lI .Esj FLIGHT OF, MCCONNELL, lf5if9E4t
I-G" After the helmurder, Mcconnell ransaeket
the shanty; stealing gtherefrom one hundred
dollars in money, and silk dress, 6e.a be
longing to Mrs. Colvin, and an oSere0at;
pail. of pants, Shirts apair of fine boots,
pair ofquarry boots, &C., belonging to Col
VIM With this plqpder,he commenced hi
flight, which led him, first to Elyra, on foot
thence to Sandusky, per railway, On Sun
day he walked to Clyde, and the same daj
to Fremont. q At FREMONT he took the car
for Detroit, and thence proceeded ldirectlj
to his home, near Ottawa, Canada West, a
| which place he had aiwife and six ohildrel
living. He arrived at his home, onfth,
Thursday following the murder.
.fhS''t HIS zRREsf. f.g4&
IT, In the meantime suspicion, in CleVSlant
| and Olmsted, had become somewhat divert
ed from Colvinl and Miller, aud had begun
| to hsteh upon Mcconnell : IL very. nathr
1 ally, occurred to the authorities TO seardI
/ Z for Me- connell ct his Ca1adl Han hOmeI1sA sAe