Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1868-07-29

Miss Tumsden. had made his escape from
rriscn He left in the room he occupied
written statement purporting to be an account
Of the circumstances Of tho tragedy with winch
he was connected, which is published IN the
Richmond Dispatch In this statement, which
is composed in style that shows his want
Of education, he acknowledges his criminal
connection with the unfortunate female referred
to--affirms that the first advances were maze
bv her-but that the devil possessed him, and
he took advantage Of her love for him. When
the consequences Of his guilt became manifest,
he saws, and concealmcnt could 90 longer be
continued. he made every effort to carry her or
to Richmond or some other place, where she
would not be known. He then arranged that
she should be hidden III the woods, and that he
should come to the place, and take her to the
nearest dcpot on the Central r. H., from whence
she was to 20 to Richmond. The spot was
prepared and she was placed under shelter OF
limbs of trees and leaves. Ills statement thcn
goes on as follows:
so on went, and got very near; saw that
the little shelter Was ak torn down, and
thought to myself at first, we'll. it may be that
she has moved somewhere else; this was all or
moment Then it struck me that she has
given this thing out, after all. so on went
up to the place, and found that she vas there,
and | thought at first that she was asleep, but
soon found that she was dead, and l can tell to
all that may ever read this exp anatIon OF truth,
never. never, did have such feelings on me
before. and turned around just about that
little sapling, and saw vial, and l saw there
was something in it so L picked 1t up ana
saw it was the same vial that had bought
for her at March court, at the drugstore at
Orange Courthouse, full Of morphine. st
that time she was suffering with the tooth
ache, and | supposed that was what she wan
rod with II at the same time. She sent also
for for some blucing, which [ bought Of Thomas
T Hatch, and the bluciDg was in her pocket
when the body was examined. Well, then what
70 do | did not know. [ thought J. would take
the vial on home and show it to my wife, and
fell her all about it. Well, as | went ponder
ing along home, not knowing what would be
best in the case, | thought to myself, well, |
have perhaps caused this woman to take her
life now, won't tell my wife anything about
it at all, and if they find her and AN arrested
I will abide the the consequences, let them be
what they may, and as she had told me that
she had burnt the notes did not look in her
DOCkclS dG ill W HcC anu Si't LiiI VI hS2
troyed one that explained all about who / was
going to get to keep her I0r a day or two; and
it would, perhaps, have been better If she had
not DESTROYED either one ior-wc, / went on
home, taking the vial with ne, thinking to
myself all the while that did not know which
would be best, to 20 aud show it to ray vile or
say nothing about it and | just thought to
myself that she is out Of ilG Scrapc, and
want her 10 stay out, rs she has three little
children. / will lust hide it, not thinking ut
that time that would ever have any occasion
70 get it again; but Providence provided in
that case that it should be put where it would
be found again; and hid it about two or three
hundred yards from the house, on path run
ming from the house up by the potato patch,
and | reckon it is between fifty and hundred
wards from the potato patch, On the right, hand
side of the path, at the root Of some httlc
black jack bushes, and some leaves over it: and
4 small rock on the leaves.
swell, hid the vial and went on to the
house, and ms wife said to me, what Go you
think | told hcrY | did not know what |
thought; and SO she said TO me that Mo!!ie
had not gone home | then asked her how
she knew, and she told me that PusS, That IS q
young daughter Of Mir. Lumsdcn'3 had been
over that day and SAID Moila had not been
home Well, the poor writer's mind was then
in all the suffering that one could suffer at the
thought OF what the poor woman had done to
herself
"Now, will tell also what the neck-tlc was
doing at the body. Mollio had it tied round
her abdomen, and she had it on the day she
was at homo last, when she went home to get
somc yarn that she was going to color fer stock
ings or knitting, and she told lie that it was 50
tight that she sat down 10 the table and eat her
dinner and she turned SO sick at the stomach
that she went out and threw up Ill her dinner
as soou as she was done eating; and she told
me also that when her brother Charles was up,
that he asked mother and sister Aon if there
was not something the matter with Fannie,
aud she said her mother asked her about it
that day while she vas at home, and her an
swer to her mother was that you must b. de-
ranged, and that there was nothing Of it at all
and she told NE that she had told her mother