Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1869-02-05
A sensation . IN Actual Life.

is given by the London I)aiiy Aeies.--Lt
would furnish a wonderful theme Tor
elaboration as q sensational novel OF the
period:
THE lapse Of seventeen years and
half has not erased from the recollection
OF the inhabitants Of Norwich the fright
tul sensation which they experienced in
the year Of the Great Exhibition. On
Saturday, the 2tst of June, 1851, q young
man named johnson was out walking in
lane, about q mile from Norwich, ac-
cohpanied by his dog The dog was
ranging neighboring plantation, and
found there piece of carrion, which he
brought out on the road, and with which
he immediately ran home. On Johns0n's
arrival at home he was horrified to see that
the piece of flesh the animal had found
was a human hand He ~ once gave no.
tice to the police, and the plantation was
thoroughly searched, and several other
pieces of flesh were found. On the next
day Sunday, foot was found in the plan
tation, and some of the vertobr5e were dis
covered hidden in a sawpit A black
striped waistcoat, some cotton waste, such
as IS used In cleaning machinery, but be-
| smeared with blood, and roller such as
IS used by the Norwich weavers, were also
found.
"On succeeding davs other parts were
| discovered--now in q field on one side of
the town, then in an entirely opposite
direction; and at length the whole district
was searched, the rivers were dragged and
small pieces of human flesh, evidently
carved in slices from n body, were found
almost everywhere Eight days after the
hrst discovery portions Ofthe viscera were
iound In sewer, cut up into pieces three
inches long the pelvis had been prcvi-
ously discovered, leg bone picked up,
and black velvet bonnet, which had
| evidently been the property Of a person
ot respectable circumstances found in the
nare. On one occasion parts Of the
body were found in spots which had been
previously carefully searched-and 1t was
evident that they had been placed there
| since the first discovery some of the
! pieces had been soaked in water traces Of
deodorizing liquid were found in others,
and, though no part of the hody could be
restored sufficiently to allow Of an inquest
being held, many of the scattered parts
| tnus brought together again lifted sufli-
| GENTLY TO show that they had formed por-
| tons OF one organization. II was said by
the doctors that the body was that of a
female from sixteen to twenty six, that
she had been dead ? fortnight and that
she was in good health whom death seized
her. 1t was concluded by the police and
~ ~ RNbAlN btlul a lllllNGE nGQ UGHu Cinl-
mllted; that the murderer had taken this
strange method of disposiug of the body
bit by bit, and that he was actually 81 his
work still disposing of It in out Of She way
places after the discovery had been made,
ana While the search was diligently going
ON.
ne authorities were convinced that a
murder had been committed, and, as usual
IN such cases, they received numerous ap-
phcations and inquiries from persons
whose friends were missing, but they en-
tirely failed either 70 idenufy the body or
| TO discover trace of the murderer At
one period of the investigation a young
man, who had been heard to make a mvs.
terious observation on the murder, was
| arrested as an accessory; but the evidence
against him amounted to nothing, and he
was discharged, though the police kept a
watchtul eye upon him until they, in COM
mon with the public, forgot the matter.
The public were not long in forgetting it,
| The authorities however, believing
that murder will out kept the evidences
OF the crime in spirits of wine, that they
might be forthcoming whenever they
might be wanted 1t was believed that
murder had been committed, and that u
young woman was the victim; but only
one thing was held to be satisfactorily
proved, and that was that the murdered
female was not an inhahitant of Norwich
at the time of her dccease
! Seventeen years and half passCd by,
and not ray of light had been thrown
ur on the mystery up to Saturday night.
| On that day a telegram from London in
formed the Norwich magistrates that re-
| spectacle inhabitant oftheir city had made
a voluntary confession that he had muir
dered his wife on the 10th of June, 1851,
by cutting her throat that the body was
cut up, and some portions preserved in
spirits; and that they would know all
| about it at Norwich. This precisely tai
| lies with the facts of the haIf-fOrgotten
mystery. The date is six days before the
| first discovery of the hand 10y Mr.. John.
| sons dog, and accords singularly with the
guess which the medical men made during
the succeeding week as to the time which
had elapsed since the body was alive and
healthy
alt is at once admitted by those who
were connected in the investigation that
nobody expected Steward a quiet, inof,
fensive and respectable citizen, he was GO
ing about among them, actually disposing
of the mangled pieces of his wife's body
while they were discussing what this
frightful mystery could mean. How il
came about that the disappearance of
Mrs. Steward was never marked, or chat
being marked it was satisfactorily ac.
counted for to her friends and neighbors,
does not yet appear. At the time, he
seems TO have given IL out that she was
gone on a journey, and to have been be-
lieved at once But how did he account
for her non return? Did he give it out
that she had died on her journey, or that
she had made one of those sensational
disappearances of which we often hear?
He seems at any rate To have lived free
from all suspicion, and as he spoke of this
victim, his first wife, il is to be presumed
that he even married again, and carried
his frightful secret all through the iestivi-
ties OF a bridal.
How it was that nobody ever put to-
gether the two facts Of Mrs. Stewards
disappearance and the finding Of female
body, and how the authorities arrived at
the misleading cCrtaiuty that nobody liy-
ing IL Norwich had been slain, remains to
be seen. A respectable woman certainly
disappeared just at the time that the re-
mains of one were found it. was under
stood that her husband said she was gone
on long journey, aCd he was believed.
She never came back, and no inquiry was
made; but whatever tale her husband told
was again taken on tTusti and Il now
turns out that the husband was the muir
derer for whom the police were searching,
and that the hideous relics in their hands
were all that remained of one who had
been their neighbor and friend"
-.
THE RIVERSIDE MAGAZINE for Feb
ruary opens with frontispiece by that eshb-
lished fayorite, II. L. Stephens, who gives In a