Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-07-10
Criminal Record.
REVOLVING CRIME.

REVOLVING CRIME.
| CHICAGO, July 9.-The testimony taken be.
fore the coroner's jury on Sunday last at Omar.
| ga, Illinois, in the case of boy whipped and
otherwise tortured to death by his father, Mar
tin Mera, reveals the crime of the latter to have
| been one of the most fendish and revolving in
| the history of the state.
| Ldter-HedrtTeHdin DetdiLs.-The coroner's
| jury examined at Orange, Illinois, the case OF
boy killed by his father, Martin Mera. Mary
| Mera, mother of the child, testified:
My husband, Martin Mera, whipped my son
Martin, aged ten years, two weeks ago Tues
day night. My babe was born on that day, and
did not see the whipping, as il was above in
another room. / heard the blows and heard
the child beg for mercy. The child then went
| TO bed. About ten O'Clock next morning the
child came to my bedroom, followed by his
father, who was whipping him. iie whipped
him severely with a black snake horsewhip.
The child lodged around the room TO avoid the
blows and begged for mercy. The child was
completely naked, his father having COM
PEELED him to strip himself He was swollen
from the whipping he had received the night be-
fore. His father whipped him very hard for ten
or fifteen minutes. At last he stopped and told
the child to put on his shirt. He made an effort
to do so and failed. His father repeated the
order, when the boy said, 81 can't see it; can't
see it. No, father; | can't see you, father; |
can't see you" and fell dying. The fend then
rubbed the boy with spirits and forced some down
MS tufOdt lue CHliu RAISED MS naUuS, moved
his lips and expired. Mera then took the body
and put it under the bed where the sick mother
was lying, and it renamed there until evening,
when he buried it as previously reported.
Sarah Mera daughter of the murderer, aged
fourteen years, testified that her father often
whipped her brother very severely with horse
whip. On Tuesday he brought my brother in,
said that he had not worked, and whipped
and knocked him down twice; father continued
to whip him, and said he would whip him
until he could not stand up; that he would
whip the life out of him; two or three times
he would say this, and brother would plead
with father; Father, don't whip me any more
Oh, don't whip me any more" He was a
good boy, and | liked him. Brother went to
bed about ten O'Clock. He said that he did
not why know father whipped him so, he never
told stories only when father made him;
father would say that if he did not own up
that he had done so and so he would whip him,
and to avoid it brother would own to things
he never did
On Wednesday | got up and got breakfast
ready. Father rose when breakfast was ready,
and brother got up, but felt so badly that he
went back to bed. Father made him get up and
go out and feed the stock, and when he came
back father whipped him and sent him to the
field. He went for him and brought him in and
made him take off his clothes, and then whipped
him and then picked him up and LAID him on
the stove The stove was hot enough to heat an
the stove twice, brother pleading all the while,
'Fatherl don't burn me! don't burn mel" He
screamed very loud, and the skin stuck to the
stove. His skin came off from his back and his
feet and stuck to the stove. 1t smelled so |
opened the door, and father Immediately shut it.
While brother was pleading father said he would
burn him until he worked. have seen father
strike mother with his fists many times. He
knocked brother down several times with the
butt of the horse whip. never saw my brother
after he went into mothers room.
We reproduce the following dispatch, pub
lished last week, showing the fate of this fiend.
Ed.
WATsRKA, July 6-Nearly thousand persons of
this town and surrounding country, including men,
women and children, proceeded to the jail last
night and took therefrom Martin Mera, who brutal
y murdered his son. ten years old, and after giving
him twenty minutes to pray, rope was placed
around his neck, thrown the limb of tree and
hundreds Of ready hands hauled him up and held
him until he was dead. The leader of the daring
party was DR.. Daniels of Gilman, and he and his
abettors claim that Mera could only have been con-
victed OF manslaughter, and for that reason they
were justified in putting the arch fend beyond the
reach of mercy. Mera, previous to his death, re-
nounced Masonry and readopted Catholicism.i