The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1870-06-17
A snvnNFoLp HonRoR.
Wholesale Butchery of Family OF
Seven.

about i've O clock yesterday evening.
On arriving she found she could not
get admittance, and consequently
sought the assistance of the neigh
bors. The door was broken open,
when Marshall's wife was found ly
ing dead near the door in her daily
dress, and close by his sister, who
was in her night-dress, also dead.
In the kitchen were two of the chill
dren, apparently about seven and
nine years of age, stretched on the
hearth, and near them was their
grandmother, with another child, re
clining on her arm, all dead. Every
part of the house was searched with
a view to obtain some clue to the
perpetrators of the murders, but the
efforts of those who were so engaged
were fruitless for time. In sup
board the police found joiner's axe
and hammer, both clotted with blood
and brains. No trace of the murde-
rers could be seen. The workshop
which adjoined the house was then
searched, and there, after some sacks
which had been thrown over it were
removed, Marshalrs body was dis
covered. At first it was suggested
that the murders had been perpe-
trated by Marshall, who, it was as
serted, had committed suicide, but,
when it was stated that his head had
been beaten in by some blunt instru-
ment, that theory was abandoned, at
least by most of the villagers.
Subsequent revelations led to the
arrest of a man named John Jones,
alias Owen, alias Jennings. The
Telegraph of May 26th says:
What littly mystery originally pre-
vailed about the mode in which the
crime was committed is also now be-
ing rapidly cleared up. The prison,
er is stated to have been a black
smith by trade-skilled, therefore,
in welding the hammer and deliver.
ing crushing blow on a given point
He appears to have broken in the
smity on Saturday night-whetheI
with the intention of committing
murder or seeking booty is not yet
quite clear. The family were, nc
doubt, asleep; but Marshall, awaken
ed by the noise, had probably hurried
to the smithy, leaving the front door
of the cottage open. On entering G
the smithy, cropping in the uncertain
light, he was struck down from be-
hind by blow from one of his own
sledge-hammers, and his head and
face were battered by q shower of
blows. The murderer must then
have hurried, hammer in hand, and
hot with aroused passion, to the cot
tage, through the open door of which
he entered just in time to meet Mar
shall's wife, who had risen from bed,
and had run only half dressed to
learn the cause of the disturbance.
Blows from the hammer, or from a
chopper, had speedily stunned her;
and her husbands sister, who had
followed close behind, shared the
same fate. Here were three victims;
but four other members ofthe family
still remained, and so long a. they
lived the butchers vengeance was
incomplete, his subsequent impunity
Therefore the work of
was resumed, with a fury,
a savage earnestness, a pitiless con-
sistency of means with ends, that
soon accomplished the desired pur-
pose. Marshall's mother, an old
woman OF seventy-seven, had, like
the younger women, hurried from
her bedroom scarcely dressed. She
had just reached the back kitchen,
following apparently close on the
heels other daughter, when the same
weapon, welded by the same re-
morseless arm, felled her to the
ground. Then came the children.
The youngest seems to have followed
the totteung steps Of Granny" and
10 have been prostrated by one we'll
aimed blow-since its body, with the
head smashed in" was found lying
over the old woman's corpse. The
,wo other children, aged six and
light respectively, met the like fate,
Their heads, too, were "battered in"
But they had apparently struggled
lard against their doom, for they
we're cut in many places, the muir
lerer having at this stage run a
muck at his remaining victims, and
hacked right and left in nervous hur-
Y to get the bloody task finished |
lie succeeded: nothing could have
,een more thorough than the des-
on which the early dawn of
hat quiet Sunday looked. Tossing
he bodies from side to side as a |
butcher might handle slaughtered |
ambs, the murderer seems to have |
ansacked the house at his leisure,
,arrying off whatever was portable, |
nd at the same time exchanging his
Hood stained clothes for some that |
lad been worn by Marshall. Then |
le left the shambles and the palpi- |
ating bodies for his lodging-house |
n Uxbridge.
Outlet to Salt Lake Dis |