New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-06-04
THE NEWMARKET MURDER.

On the 25th of February last, Mrs. Mary
Ellen Coriell, the young wife OF physician
residing at Newmarket, New-Jersey, was
brutally murdered in her bedroom. Inc
family consisted of the lady and her husband,
their child, aged two years, servant woman,
named Bridget Dergan, and hired man, VINO
WAS absent at the time of the murder. Dr.
Coriell was also away on that fatal night,
having been called to visit patient at dls-
tapce. Soon after midnight the doctors cousin
and some other neighbOrs were aroused by
Dergan, with the infant in her arms anu
large blood-stain on her skirt. She announced
tint there were burglars at Dir. COrlells house;
that her mistress was probably killed; ana that
she "did not know whether the house was on
fire or not" When the neighbors reached
the scene of the crime, the poor lady
was discovered dead in her chamber,
with twenty-six knife-wOunds on various
parts of her body one of them severing the
iupular vein, and innumerable bruises and con-
tusions. The bed was saturated with blood;
the pillows, bolster, and blankets were cut as
if she had tried to shield herself with them;
the feathers were ankle deep all over the hoor'
and the bed was on fire. The servant girls
story was that two men, named Doyle ana
Hunt. came to the house early III the evening
and asked for the doctor. They came again
late at night, and at her mistresss order she
ran out to find DR.. COriell, taking the child,
strange to say, with her. As she went out she
heard Mrs. Coriell cry for help. She subse-
ouently added to this statement that the two
men had met her in the street day or two
before and compelled her to swear upon the
Bible that she would never reveal the authors
of some deed which was soon to be done; but
they were only accOmplices in the murder; the
actual perpetratOr was woman named Ann
Linen. who had formerly been a servant III the
family. AIMS motive was robbery; the men
were fired by n spirit of revenge for the death
of a child of one of them whom the doctor hau
attended in its last sickness.
But there was one startling evidence OF the
murderer's identity which served far more
strongly than this extraordinary and con-
Trajectory story to fasten the CRIME upon
BRIDGET herself. On the side of the dead
woman's face, just below the ear, were the
marks of human teeth, where she had been
bitten i'm the desperate struggle. Under the
supervision of a dentist, an impression Oh
Budgets teeth was taken iii wax. They were
of rather peculiar shape, and the marks htted
exactly the wounds upon the corpse. There
WAS another damning circumstance against her.
The cries for help which she declared she
heard rs she ran out of the house had been
heard by other persons also, who noted the
time when these fearful screams and
cries of "0h, my poor BABY WOKE
them out of sleep; and IL was
more than half an hour afterward when
Bridget Dergan presented herself AT MI
Coriell's door, pretending that she had just run
from the doctors house, which was not more
than two minutes walk distant. Where had
she been in the meantime If she had ioltered
ON the way. that was proof enough OF her COM
nlicitv: if she had come direct, she could not
have left the house until the bloody work was
ovcr. she must have known that it was a
worse crime than burglary which had been
done; and all her story to the persons whom
she summoned was fabrication. Cuts were
found upon her hands, and it was noticed, as
an indication of her purpose TO run away, that
Immediately after the alarm had been gwen
she went TO her room and put on four or five
dresses. one over another. The knife with
which the wounds were made was found in an
h'D'''N'N''
| Dergan was, of course, arrested, and her ttlal
began on the Goth of May. 1t ended on the
3lst with verdict of guilty, in spite OF the
ingeniofls efforts of her counsel to explain away
the circumstances which told 40 strongly against
her and to make the most of the story OF the
two men, Hunt and Doyle, and the girl Ann
Linen. But all these three proved alibls IN the
most complete and satisfactory manner, and the
ATTEMPT to implicate them damaged Dergan 5
case very materially. The great difficulty III
the way of the prosecution was to show an
adequate motive The girl had always been
well treated by her employers, and had pro-
fessed that she held them as her friends.
To be sure she had received warning
TO leave but do servants now
a-days take n discharge so much to
| heart as To make it cause of murders The
deed probably was not done in a moment OF
passion, for there was one circumstance which
indicates that it was premeditated: the day
before Dergan had asked the man servant to
write to the doctor and warn him that some
thing was about to happen, but he refused,
SAYING she could just as well speak to him.
The suppOsition is that the note in mans
hand was clumsy device to divert suspicion.
No robbery was committed, though bureau
in which money was kept was found over
turned. Had the woman been surprised by her
mistress in the act of opening it, and was the
fatal struggle the result of the discOv-
eryq Not improbable, certainly. The judge
~ hA t1n