The Portland daily press., 1872-02-03
The Utica Murderess.
MORE INTERESTING FACTS CONCERNING THE
HISTORY OF MRS. BURLEIGH.

MORE INTERESTING FACTS CONCERNING THE
HISTORY OF MRS. BURLEIGH.
A correspondent of the Oneida Dispatch
furnishes additional facts of interest in the
life of Mrs. McCarty, alias Burleigh, in part
to correct statements in Albany and Utica
papers:
Her maiden name was Josephine Augusta
Pagan. She was not properly native of the
South, as those papers have represented. Her
mother, whose maiden name was Phoebe
Burley, and not emma Burleigh," as the
erratic daughter has claimed, was native of
the eastern part of this State, or over the line
in Vermont, and always resided in this State,
except about nine years that she lived in
Richmond, Va, where, soon after their arri-
val, Josephine was born.
The Fagans returned North about 1898,
and purchased a farm in the southern part of
the town of Augusta. Pagan was killed in
1889 or 1910, by falling from his wagon loaded
with lumber while passing through Stock
bridge toward home. The widow continued
to live on the farm till her death in 1864, and
here was Josephine's home till her marriage
with Robert McCarty in 1S45, and subsequent
ly latter parting with her husband in 1882
till her mothers death.
The accounts have stated that Mr. Nc
Carly was Scotchman, which is wrong; he
was native of Lewis county, N. Y, and the
grandson of Revolutionary soldier
Mr.. McCarty went to England in 1850 leav-
ing his family to follow the next year. 1t is
not supposed taht his wife was even unfaith-
full to him till few months after he left,
when, as it was afterward learned, she be-
came criminally intimate with Jesuit priest
At that time her three children were with
her aged mother in Augusta, and she at a
French boarding house, in New York city,
hn AA 20 -.
with this priest, and the round of city amuse-
ments.
Her next downward step was just before
| and while on the voyage to England with her
| children to join her husband. He had pro-
vided passage for them by steamer, but she
fell in with new lover, captain Of packet
ship plying regularly between New York and
London, and disregarding her husbands di-
rections, took passage with him, and shared
his cabin and berth, it was afterward proven
in Court, during several weeks of their voy-
age. This inconstancy was repeated in less
than two weeks after joining her husband.
Then came the exposure and separation.
| A few weeks later, reconciliation on his part
for the sake of the children. Soon after
McCarty took his children to Paris, to avoid
contact with Captain P, and returned him
self to London, to attend to his duties as jur-
or in the Worlds Exposition. In few weeks,
McCarty learned that the Captain was going
| to Paris by rail the following day, and divin-
ing his errand there he determined to follow
him by the same train. He missed that but
took the next, and arrived there about three
hours late. Proceeding at once to his wife's
residence, he surprised the couple in so init
mate relations that there was no doubling
her repeated infidelity. Here followed a
bowie-knife fight, in which wounds were Civ
en- and taken, but the false wife's cries of
murder soon brought others upon the scene,
the combatants were parted and Captain P.
was dragged away. McCarty then shut the
door of the room, turned the key and faced
his wife. An hour afterward he and his chill
dren were on their way to London, and he
saw not his wife's face again for twelve
| years.
From that day her course has been steadily
| and surely downward. She returned home in
1858, and seems to have played the role of a
fast and depraved woman, till she was capa-
BILE of the crime of murder.