Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1869-06-02
Il Murderers Confession,

murderer OF Mr.. ROGERS, unless
them urderer himself, perhaps a score
OF years from now, shall make con-
iession of his guilt as a murderer who
has just been convicted at Norwich
Englani, for a murder committed in
1871, die. No more extraordinary
case than this has ever been record
Ell. Eighteen years ago there lived
In Norwich man named WILLIAM
STEWARD, aged 80 years, and his
wife, ID years his senior. The wo-
man, although past middle age, was
still handsome ;she was fair, delicate.
OF remarkably neat and cleanly ha-
bits, and the possessor of head of
unusually luXuriant and beautiful
| ffaxen hair She had formed an
attachment to another man before
| she mad married STEWARD; but
she and her husband seemed to live
| comfortably together, and there was
| no Little surprise created among
| their friends when, on the llth of
| June, 1871, STEWARD informed
| them that his wife had disappeared
and, as he supposed, had left Eng
land in company with her former
| lover. On the Goth of June and for
| some days afterwards, small frac-
| ments of what We're supposed to be
| The body OF a young woman were
| found scattered about in different
parts of Norwich. y dog dragged
| one fragment out of i ditch another
| piece was found hanging to a hedge;
a third was picked out of an ash
| barrel a fourth was fished up from
"A sewer and so on. There was a
! hand, from which the ring-tineer
had been severed part OF a pelvis !;
. neat loot n portion of a breast,
| and other little fragments, but no
| part OF head. The fragments were
| examined by expert medical men,
| and pronounced by them to be por-
| tions of the body of IA woman, aged
| probably, between sixteen and TWEEN
ty-tive years. a young woman
| named BILLINGS was missing from
/ Norwich at the time, and The re-
| mains were supposed possibly to be
hers. No shadow of suspicion rest
ell on STEWARD, and in due time
/ the matter was forgotten. He re-
manned in Norwich, and in the
fcourse of the next year formed an
| intimacy with another woman, with
whom he lived for while and finally
married. \ few years afterwards a
| legacy was left to his first wife, and
he was notified to appear and obtain
| II but lie wrote to the attorney
| declInining TO take the money.
But on the lst of January of the
| present year, a man walked into the
police station at Walworth, and
| said To the inspector there: Il am
WILLIAM STEWARD, and / have
"come here to charge myself with
1.-THE murder of mywife at Norwich
| Ion the 18th of June, 1S5l." The IN
| spector warned him to be careful OF
| what lie was saying, and for awhile
| supposed the man to be drunk or in
| sane but he persisted in his state
! ment- He had borne the burden OF
his secret, said he, until he could
| bear it no longer. He had for some
days beer contemplating suicide,
| first, 10y cutting his throat with a
razor, and secondly, by drowning
| himself; "hut the Almighty would
not let him.n He had eaten no food
for two days, and on being offered
| some, he could not eat it. He said
| that he had been to Il house in Wal
| worth where he had first seen his
| wife, and that this circumstance had
so vividly recalled the past to his
| memory that he had resolved upon
| confession. He gave no particulars
| of the manner in which he had COM
| mitted the murder, other than stat
| ing that he had cut his wiie's throat
| with razor, and tnat "they would
| know all about it in Norwich, nwhere
| the remains were still preserved.
| The next morning he adhefed to his
| statement,W with the exception that he
| denied having said that he commit
| ted the murder "wilfully.N On be-
| ing sent toNorwich for trial however,
he Withdrew his confession and when
L., 4 4
his trial he was defended by very
able counsel. The evidence against
him, outside of his repudiated con-
fession, was absolutely nil. The re-
| mains-or, rather, the remains of
| the remains-were produced and
| the same surgeons who, eighteen
years before, had pronounced them
| 10 be portions of the body of a wo-
man not moresthan twenty-five years
old, now said that il was posi- BILE
| they might hc portions of the body
of Il woman iifty-iour years old I!
There was nothing to prove that the
woman who was supposed To be
murdered might not be alive, and
| that in a few weeks she might not
be reading, in one of the colonies, an
account of the execution of her hus-
band for her murder. There was
nothing to show how the alleged
| murder had been committed, or how
it has been possible for STEWARD,
first To have killed his wife, then to
have cut her up into small frag-
ments, and then to have sown these
| fragments all about the town, with
| out bringing upon himself the least
suspicion, or leaving behind him the
slightest trace of his crime. But
| there was the confession, and that
was enough for the jury. They
| could not comprehend that an inno-
| cent man would have accused MINI
self he certainly knew whether he
was innocent or guilty and he said
| he was guilty. True, he had again
| said he was innocent; but the jury
| preferred to believe the first story,
| and they convicted him.
| HY.-Phonogrsphy a.
| at present prIctIsed, is highly fseful
| and very near perfection. NeNerthe-
| less little nlistak will now and then
| occur. \ member of the House of
| Representatives was making a speech
/ in which ne intimated that truth was
/ Gauch dearer To him than party, quo
| ting the latin, "AmicuS Socrates.
| dytjcJJS PidtO est, Se9 major CeTitds'
Socrates is my friend, Plato is my
| friend, but truth il much more my
| friend This appeared the next day
| in the report a. follows: "tI may
| cuss Socrates, | may cuss Plato, said
| Major Neritas - The sounds were
| somewhat like, but then there was a
| little difference in the meaning