Connecticut western news., 1873-02-28
Evans, the Child Murderer.
He Confesses 10 Several Murders, Including the
 Joyce Children in 1865.

OOu40SSeS several
 Joyce Children in 1863.
 Franklin B. Evans, who was tried, convicted, and sentenced to be hung on the third Tuesday of February, 1874, at Exeter, N. H., for the murder of Geor- giana Lowering last October, has made the startling confession that the last fif- teen years of his life has been almost one scene of butchery, all his victims being children '-
 In 1858 he says that he stole away and killed little niece in Derry, N. H., aged five years. In 1861 he assaulted and cut the throat of girl fourteen years of age in Augusta, Me-, for which another man died in prison while the most startling of his numerous crimes is the murder of Isabella Joyce, aged fourteen, and her brother John, boy of twelve, in Bussey's Woods, near Boston, in 1865. These murders, it will be remembered, created the great est excitement all through New England at the time. It was plain that the girl had been outraged, and the whole coun- try was thoroughly searched for the murderer. But at last the old saying that murder will out is again realized It is also charged that on June 10, 1872, Evans outraged woman found dead in the woods near Fitchburg, Mass, and during the year he outraged, mutilated, and murdered Georgiana Lowering, 8 girl of twelve years, in Northwood, N. H., for whose murder he is under sen teRce. His confession inregard to all the above crimes is brief and indefinite except as to the Joyce children, which was made to Deputy Sheriff Henry A. Drew, who arrested him and had him in charge ten days before he revealed to him. the secret of the murder of Georgi- ana Lowering. MT. Drew says that after Evans had confessed the murder he questioned him as to his whereabouts for the last fifteen years. "Finally," /" says MT. Drew, ]" I traced him to Rhode Island, and then to Roxbury, Massachu- sets. Mention of Roxbury, and the similarity of the two murders suggested to me for the first time that he might have perpetrated the murder of the Joyce children, of which had then but dim recollection, and of the circum- stances of which I have now but very little knowledge. I then in- terrogated him on the subject, and the questions on my part and the replies on his were deemed by me of so much i'm portance that immediately reduced the substance of the conversation to writ ing" The following covers the main points of the confession elisited in re- gard to the Joyce children:
 Question by Sheriff Drew - Well, Frank what you tell me, you must tell me now tell me all all about it we're you in Roxbury or were you in Man chester-ten me just as it is?
 A. MT. Drew, was right there when that boy and girl were killed.
 O. Was he stabbed or not?
 A. Yes, he was, several times.
 Q. Did the girl make much ado ?
 A. Yes. =. n. ..
 Q. More than the boy did?
 A. Yes.
 Q. Why did she?
 A. She was raped don't ask me any more, have now told you.
 o. Was the act committed before she was killed? ... .. -. a... s... .
 A. Yes, Mir. Drew won't say any more I have told all about it now. Q. Well, Frank, I guess you have but one thing Was the girl bruised much? ., l.., ,. ;.a-.. Y, .-:,
 A. Yes I won't answer another ques- tion. . ;. ..t. .... .s....;
 MT. Drew-Wel, won't ask you any more.
 MT. Drew states that Evans further said that the house where the children came from was on the left-hand side as you went into Boston from Roxbury, and was two-story house.
 | MT. Drew said to him, "Now, Frank, it was a little cottage-house on the right-hand side as you go toward Bos. ton? ?" ..<. U a .7-. .-....
 Evans replied: "It was two-story house, on the left-hand side as you gc into Boston from Roxbury.'
 The following affidavit is corrobora. tive of Sheriff Drew's statement:
 I, Azariah Waldron, of Stratford, 1T the County of Stratford, State of New Hampshire, depose and say that I wa. keeper over Franklin B. Evans at Henry A. Drew's house that I had conver sation with Evans in regard to the Joyce children Evans said to me, "I hope they won't bring that up till get through with this if they do, what vii they do to me?" I answered, "TheJ will hang you twice" Evans said "They cannot kill me but once."
 AzARIAH WALDRoN.
 Sworn and subscribed to before me
 HENRY A. DREW,