Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1867-02-01
other hole in the ice near by, and gave
them ducking in spite Of their remon-
strances.
The Double Murder at Valparaiso

a shocking affair. Page, the murderer, is
about thirty-two years old, of cruel and
tyrannical disposition, and since his mar
riage to Emma Goss, girl of 20, two
years ago, has had much domestic difficulty.
His wife being unable to live with him,
was staying at the house of her stepfalher,
MIR. Long, at the time of the murder,
waiting the issue of an application for di-
vorce, which had much incensed Page,
who had openly made threats that che
should never be divorced from him. How
he carried out his threat is thus told by a
Chicago paper, and the crime was such a
heartless and cruel one, it is no wonder
that, upon Pages arrest few days after,
he had to be conveyed to Jail with the
greatest secresy to prevent his being
lynched -
On Tuesday Page went out to Mr..
Longs house, and sat sometime with his
wife and her mother, apparently in a
friendly manner. About III o'clock, when
the family were asleep, he returned again
and knocked for admission. lie had
learned during the day that NJ. Long was
absent, visiting son some ten miles away.
The old lady came to the door and inquir-
ed who was there. He answered" Page, -
and she told hin, ba conld NOT oo,,a :, ..
that hour of the night. Without further
delay Page burst open the door, and draw
ing six shooting revolver, fired, and the
old lady Of seventy years fell dead at his
feet. His wife, who was sleeping in an
adjoining room, rushed out, and falling on
her knees, begged him not TO kill her moth
e-. Without word the fend raised her
by one am, placed the pistol at her head
fired, and his young wife, too, Tell withou,
groan upon the floor corpse. In the
bed with Mrs. Page was young girl, the
daughter of near heighbor Mr.. Martin
Rudolph), about seventeen years of age,
an invalid. She was called Retty" Ru-
dolph, and was spending the night there
for company's sake, in the absence Of Mr..
Long. Terrified by the fearful scene with
ou', she drew the bedclothes over her head
for concealment, and in doing so left one
foot exposed. The infatuated man discov-
cred this, and rendered more desperate,
like beast, by the taste Of blood, or de-
termined to leave no witness behind him,
rushed to the bed, seized her by the foot,
and threw her upon the floor. Then rails
ing the helpless victim by the left arm and
placing the revolver against her face be
fired. and the ball passed through beneath
the upper part of the nose coming out be-
low the other eye. Again he fired, and
the ball passed through the right shoulder );
again, and one of the feeble wrists were
shattered; still again, and The load passed
through the thigh and lodged in the lower
part of the leg. The contents of the re-
volver were now exhausted, and the three
victims lay at the murderer's feet, appar-
emily dead. But when the morning should
come their cold faces and bloody wounds
would be fearful evidence of his work, and
so their house must become their tomb and
fire obliterate the trace of blood. So the
murderer took the lamp which had been
left, with the light partly turned ont for
the night, and dashed it into fragments up
on the floor; then reaching up to the bu-
reau he lit match and applied it to the
oil, and the room was in a blaze. Then
he seized the girl and dragged her pros
trate form into TIE flame. She groaned
and moved, and seeing that his work was
not complete, the fend seized a heavy
chair, and dashed it upon her head. The
poor victim groaned again, and again the
murderous blow followed. With enough
of life left TO think that she must feign
death she suppressed the cry that her ag-
ony would extort. Placing his ear to her
face and hearing no breath, the murderer
deemed his work complete and fed.
The flames of the burning house shot
up brightly into the air, and gave the first
token of the horrid deed. In about half
hour neighbor, Mr.. Bu>hore, came up
and found the girl lying near the gate,
whiher she had found strength TO crawl,
nearly dead from her wounds and exposure
tc the bitter cold, with no covering but her
night clothes. Within the burning house
he saw the TWO bodies consuming, but was
too late to rescue them. The suffocatioo
girl was carried to her fathers house. and
DIR. Paramore of Valparaiso summoned.
He thinks it possible she may recover,
though doubtful. She has been perfectly
conscious throughout, and gives clear and
positive statement of the terrible affair. to
which she has made affidavit. To-day the
old man, Mr.. Long, some seventy years Of
age, and cripple, came back to find his
house in ruins, and a few charred remains
of his wife and daughter lying as sicken-
ing witnesses of the horrid tale. He him.
self would no doubt have shared the fate
of the res. If he had been at homo a, L.: