The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-03-01
TIE MURDER OF MRS. CoR1E1L.-Ws

IHE MURDER OF mRS. CORiELL.-NS naQ
yesterday brief telegram stating that
Mrs. Lester Wallace Coriell had been
murdered on Monday night, near New
market, n. j., it was thought, by two men.
1t seems, however, that the real criminal is
a servant girl named Bridget Durgan, who
first gave notice of the occurrence. A
number Of circumstances have come to
light which prove the guilt Of the accused
almost without doubt. The girl, after
the deed was committed, proceeded to the
house of the Rev. William G. Little, gave
the alarm, and the whole village was soon
aroused, and number Of persons pro-
ceeded to the house, where they found
everything in total darkness. The New
York Herald says:
"The door was shut but unlocked. En-
tering on his hands and knees, and feeling
his way carefully as he went, Mr.. Little
succeeded in crawling across the sitting
room floor and reaching the door ofthe bed
room adjoining, which he found shut. On
opening it a dense volume Of smoke burst
forth, almost suffocating those who were in
the outer room, and Pickering flames,
burning dimly under the black cloud of
smoke that hung about the place, were
seen to be creeping along the bed posts,
and the floor strewn with bed clothes.
Amid the whole, with the hsbiliments
torn to shreds and besmeared with blood,
lay the body of Mrs. Coriell. With the
assistance of the neighbors, Mr.. Little had
the body carried out, and the flames in the
room extinguished. On every side were
evidences Of q fearful struggle. The
hlonHono1 and
charred the bed clothes, which had been
dragged to the door in the scutfie, and
lay huddled here and there in ragged
heaps, stained with blood and gore matted
feathers, torn from the pillows; the kerosene
lamp broken into fragments under the half
consumed crib, in which the little child had
that night been put to sleep by its mother,
together with the broken chair, with the
splinters scared with coagulated blood all
these signs betokened q strife that must
have been one in which the victim con-
tended for life as fercely as did the MUIR
deress to do her hellish work completely.
But the saddest sight Of all, the one that
narrowed the hearts of all those who
crowded round the corpse and gazed, with
palid cheek and trembling lip, upon the
upturned, mangled face Of the dead, was
the body of the unfortunate victim. There
was not an inch Of flesh from the forehead
to the breast that was not covered with
hideous gashes. The jugular vein was torn
out, not cut, and the deep imprint of four
teeth was visible in the left cheek.
Twenty-three stabs in all had the murder
ess made, any one Of which would have in
all probability been the cause Of the death
Of the victim"
An examination was subsequently held
before the coroner, and the marks on the
neck Of the victim were found to CORE
spond with the teeth Of the girl Durgan.
The jury found verdict Of guilty of will
full murder against the accused, and she
was committed for tria \. The Herald says :
"Bridget Durgan, the alleged murder
ess, is stout-built Irish girl Of about
twenty-three years of age. She has an
evil look, that strikes q person forcibly on
beholding her. Her manner throughout
the inquest yesterday betokened that she
was either cunning evil-doer, hiding her
moral ugliness under simulated appear
ance OF half idiot, or was q half-witted
creature in the full sense Of the word.
The unfortunate victim Of the murder,
Mrs. Mary Ellen Coriell, was aged about
TWENTY-FIVE, o woman of uncommon beauty
and suayity of manners. What provoca.
ton the murderess had to commit the deed
is as yet but matter for conjecture.