Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1872-12-13
shocking Murder.
MuTILATIoN OF THE BODY.

of negro by Professor West of Do
yer. Del, last week, and the unusual
character Of the attempts to conceal the
crime, has occasioned considerable ex-
element throughout the state. Mr.. West
was formerly professor in school at
Dover, and is a person of considerable
scientific attainment. For over year
past he had been experimenting with a
new and peculiar kind of gas, the prop
critics of which are not known to any
body but the manufacturer. About the
time that he began his experiments he
had his life insured for $4,000. He
caused the report to be spread that one
peculiar property of the gas was the re-
moval of the skin from the body, and to
prevent all possible Identification, or
even to ascertain the complexion. On
Thursday morning there was terrible
explosion in the professors laboratory.
A man supposed to be the professor was
found on the floor, his head, feet and
hands were missing, and all the skin had
entirely disappeared. The explosion had
set the building on fire, but it was saved
| from destruction. Shred3 of clothing
were found on the disfgured body, which
were identified by the professors wife as
belonging to her husband. There seemed
to be no doubt that the professor had
been experimenting with his gas when
the explosion occurred, and that he had
| lost his life. A strict search of the
building resulted in the discovery of a
quantity of powder underneath the floor
where the body was found, enough to
have blown the body to atoms if the
flames had reached it. A further exam
nation indicated that the head, rect and
hands of the corpse had been cut off and
not blown from the body, and that the
skin had been peeled from every portion
of it. Some days before this the profess
or had hired colored man as a servant.
This man was missing, and people began
to suspect that he had murdered his
master, mutilated the body, placed it up
on the floor of the laboratory, and caus-
ed the explosion. The story of the con.
ductor of the train which left on that
morning at o'clock, to the effect that a
man got on board there carrying large
bundle, but so mufi1ed up as to be un-
recognizable and behaving in peculiar
manner, together with the fact that the
professors wife, when tod of the disaster
to her husband, received the intelligence
without aEy sign of deep emotion, caused
some surprise. When it was known
that his life was insured for S25, 900, sus
picion was aroused and the authorities
went to work. The professor was caught
in Maryland and brought back to Dover
1t was discovered that the colored man
had not killed him, but that he had
killed the colored man. He admitted
the murder, but said that it was COM
mitted in self-defense; that Coach Tur.
ner (the man murdered had obtained a
glimpse of his pocket-booK as he was
paying him for some work done, where
upon he (Turner) picked up hammer
and demanded the money or his life
Turner then, he says, advanced upon
him with the hammer uplifted, when he
picked up bar of iron, one or two feet
in length, and struck him on the back
of the neck, killing him instantly. This
was done on Monday. The commission
of the murder stupefied him with horror,
and his next thought was the disposition
of the body. He began to remove the
body by piece-meal, cutting off the
hands, head and feet, with the intention
of burying them, but the ground was
frozen so hard that he found this to be
an impossibility, and SO resolved upon
the plan to burn the building and the
body with it, he IN the meantime disap.
pearing, in the hope that the charred
remains would be taken for his own, and
the whole affair would be attributed tc
an explosion of the gas which he was
experimenting with.