Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-10-11

screaming again as loud as she could,
and the boys cried with her. l begged
Of them to stop, but. they took no notice
Of me. ! was in terrible dilemma;
alone in the woods at night, in strange
country, with the girl lying dead, the
woinan wounded aud screaming, and
the two boys crying out as if in mortal
terror. picked up the feather bed that
was lying at my feet and threw it over
Mrs. II, and the boys to keep their cries
from being heard till the approaching
party were passed. Mrs II. threw the
bed off with her hand, and seemed to
scream louder than ever. ] am sure
the approaching party would have heard
her If they had not been making SO
much noise themselves After she
had thrown the bed off. | put the light
out, and put the bed over her again and
held it so she couldn't throw it off. She
struggled terribly to get the bed of, and
to cry out, till the first of the sleighing
party were almost by us, when she
ceased her cries and struggles. The
boys had also stopped crying / was
afraid to remove the bed until the sleighs
had passed, but did not hold it down af-
ter Mrs. H. had ceased struggling.
As near as / could judge there were
five or six teams Of the sleighing party.
| didn't see them, as the hind end OF my
sled was toward the road, and was closed
up. think there were three or four q
couldn't say which, sleighs pretty close
together, driving leisurely along. l
think they must have been some sort OF
a pleasure party. A short distance be-
hind them was what appeared to be a
loaded team, judging by the craunching
noise the sled made in the snow-and
about the same distance, or a little
further behind that again was another
loaded team. As soon as the last sleigh
had passed short distance removed
the bed. There was no one spoke or
made any noise | called one Of the
BOYS by name, but received no answer.
| then lighted the lantern and looked at
them. The two boys laid on their backs
with their eyes open, and seemed to be
looking straight at me. | spoke to them
again, but could get no answer. then
shook them, but they never moved. |
became alarmed then. ! looked at the
woman; she was laying partly on her
face; turned her over and spoke TO her,
but she showed no signs of life. She had
on hood with the strings tied around
her neck; run my fingers in between
the strings and her neck and pulled
them, so as to loosen them about the
throat. / took the boys comforters off;
then | got snow and dashed in their
faces; / got the bottle Of wine and poured
some in the mouth of the woman and
one of the boys, but couldn't open the
other boys mouth-his jaws seemed to
be locked and his tongue protruded. l
continued to chafe their hands and dash
snow in their faces. heard some more
teams coming, and put out my light. l
worked with them long time, probably
an hour or more-I don't know how long.
| chafed their hands, called them all by
name raised them up and shook them by
turns; but all was of no avail-THEY
WERE DEAD i HAD sMoTHERED THEM
He states that he was appalled, by the
terrible result, and for several hours set
upon the trunks stupefed. At last he
aroused himself to the necessity of
doing something. On his way he noticed
several mineral holes; and he thought he
could dispose of the bodies in them.
| So he fixed up his load of trunks, beds
and four bodies, and wandered for hours
trying to find his way back to Beetown.
When he got there, the holes were too
shallow. He then thought of the river
at Cassville, and had the same difficulty
in finding his way there, and did not get
there until dawn. He went to the river,
half a mile from the town, with his ak,
to cut the hole, but found it so shallow
that, in order to reach proper depth, he
had to go ont far enough to bring him
self in view of the town. He persevered,
however. and when he had cut the hole
he tied rope around the neck of each
body, intending to attach the trunks to,
them as weights. In carrying the
woman he fell, and seriously hurt him
self. He then carried the others and
pushed them into the river through the
hole in the ice. In his second effort to
carry the body of the woman he again
fell So he placed the body on ridge
formed by the juncture of the shore ice
and some floating ice, and, covering it
over with pieces of ice, left it. After
driving some distance, he made fire,
burned up the side-boards and bows of
the sleigh and various articles in the
sleigh, and drove on to Prairie du CHEN,
near which he cut q hole in the ioe and
put the trunks and beds into the river.
He then went home. When the body of
Mrs. Hagerty was found, it showed she
had nearly reached the time as mother
again, but Thompson asserts that, since
the birth of the previous child, he and
she were strangers to each other in that
relation, and that he had no suspicion of
her condition at the time.