The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-13
THE RICHMOND HORROR.

Insanity. Starvation, and Denfh-PartIculurs
of the shocking Occurrence.
The singular death of Nancy Hayes, in Rich
mond, Va, the fact of which has been already
noted, has particular interest here, as the par
ties concerned are known and have connections
in Philadelphia The following particulars we
find in late Richmond paper
Hayes, who talked nationally on some sub
jects, being questioned, said his sister had been
lying there twelve or fourteen days. When she
first laid down. he said, she complained of
something like erysipelas and pains in her back,
arms, and legs, and wished she was dead. After
a day or two she quieled, and then he took it
for granted she had gone to sleep, and waited all
this time for her to wake. In the meantime he
had nothing to eat, and had lived, according to
his account, on water and coffee. Being asked
why he did not get something from the neigh
bors, he replied that he was waiting for his
brother Sam to come home from Philadelphia,
and that he hadn't been off the lot for sixteen
years"
The facts of the finding of the body WIS COM
municated to Deputy Coroner Seabrook, of
Mayor Ellyson's police, and soon after to the
first police station. Representatives of both the
police forces now on duty in the city were soon
on the ground and the house was searched by
Captain Parker. He found in an old chest a
bag containing about $500 In Confederate
money, $1S in Federal currency, and dollar or
two in nickels and coppers. In the out-houses
were found the carcasses of two fine calves,
WHOSE u6aIQ udu D6eu Cuubtu Dy bJaTVaUlOQ, ana
all the domestic animals about the establishment
had shared the same fate. Nothing further
worthy of note was observed except the entire
absence of everything edible.
hHayes was with great difficulty induced to
leave the miserable hovel of which for a week
past he had been the solitary occupant. He
moaned piteously that ''he couldn't leave his
sister, and then mumbled something about a
secret which he couldn't tell. The officers took
him to the first police station, and on the way
he told them again that il was sixteen years
since he had been on the street. Coming near
the old Union Hotel, he exclaimed, as though
recognizing an old friend, ''Why, there's the
Union Tavern!" At the station he was given
something to eat and, drink and was very
tractable,
In the afternoon q jury was empanelled by
Deputy Coroner Seabrook, with e. A. j. Clop-
ton as foreman, but little testimony was pro-
duced. Mr.. Timothy Kerse testified that he
knew the deceased, and that some weeks ago,
when she was suffering with O sore foot, his
wife had dressed it several times. Since that
time witness had seen nothing of either Miss
Nancy or her brother until this morning, when
her death was discovered as above related. The
jury rendered verdict of "death from natural
causes"
This singular and shocking affair has Of
course, excited much comment in the lower
increased by the fact that Mr.. Samuel G. Hayes
a former resident of Church Hill, was brother
of the deceased, and that she has respectable
| and wealthy relatives now residing in Phia
delphia. 1t is said that Mr.. Hayes has fire.
quently tried to get her to leave her miserable
dwelling for better quarters, but without sue
cess.