Connecticut western news., 1874-11-27
A DOUBLE EXECUTION.
The, Execution of Irwin and O'Mara
 for tho Murder of Two Women-- The Crime.

The Crime.
 On the 27th of, September last year the whole community of Montrose, Pa., was greatly excited by the announce ment that 8 horrible murder had been committed in the townshipof New Mil ford, about eight miles from the county seat. Early on the morning of that day, while it was yet dark, man driving along the road which crosses the track of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western railroad, was surprised that his horse should stop and refuse to pass over the track. The light was too dim for him to discover the cause of the conduct in the animal, and, somewhat terrified, he called for as- sistance. His cries attracted the track master to the spot, and then was re- vealed a scene which made the very blood of the men cold with terror. Upon the track, stark in death, were the forms of two women, one bent by the weight of increasing years, the other advanced to middle life. Upon the later were seen eight gaping wounds, through which the crimson tide of life had flowed out !; the other showed no external marks of violence. At first it was supposed that the vic- tims had been run over by a passing coal train, but the coroner's inquest demonstrated that both had been brutally murdered and then brought to the spot where the bodies were dis covered. The idea could not be sus- tained that death had been caused by accident, and investigations were set on foot to find the authors of the ter rible crime. The bodies' were identi- fed ss those of Margaret O'Mara and Mary O'Mara, mother and daughter. Suspicion at once fell upon the son and brother of the murdered individuals, Daniel O'Mara, and Patrick Irwin, his hired man. The evidence against the accused was purely circumstantial, they protested their innocence in the most emphatic terms; but the chain of circumstances was forged link by link and so encircled the guilty parties that there was no possible chance of their escape. The very means taken to avert suspicion from themselves proved to be the strongest testimony against them. In conveying the bodies to the railroad track, in order to have it ap- pear that they had been crushed by tie cars, 8 trail was left leading directly to the perpetrators of the fiendish cut. rage against Gods image. From the place where the bodies had been laid to the house of Daniel O'Mara, about two miles from Montrose depot, on a back, lone and desolate road, retired from that about about fifty rods, and ap- preached by lane, fenced on one side and skirted by woods on the other, were evidences as plainly as the aveng- ing angel could trace them, pointing unmistakably to the murderers. The marks of wagon wheels and the foot steps of oxen were clearly stamped on the soil, and here and there were seen stains of blood upon the leaves at various points along the road leading to the scene of the murder. In the house there were stronger marks that the deed had been committed there. The walls were bespattered with blood, and everything in and about the prem ises seemed to say to the, sus- pected parties, "Thoa art the guilty ones." O'Mara and Irwin were arrest ed, tried at the January term of the court this year and found guilty.
 On the trial the prosecution sought to show the motive which prompted O'Mara to commit the dreadful act. It seems that on the 23d day of Sep- tember, 1870, Bartholomew O'Mara con- veyed to his son Daniel the farm upon which the family were living, in con- sideration that Daniel should maintain his father, mother and sister during their natural lives. This contract seems to have been perfectly satisfactory to all the parties concerned up to March, 1878, when Daniels father died. Soon after that Daniel O Mara married girl named Pagan and took her to his house, The woman folks failed to agree, the harmony of the family was broken up and Daniels life became anything but a comfortable or happy one, the family qnarrels being of almost daily occur renee and increasing in bitterness. On or about the first of September, 1873, Patrick Irving appeared on the scene. He had been living in the Pagan family and went from them to work for and live with Daniel O'Mars. The diff ficulties seemed to be increased by his presence and by his making overtures of marriage to Mary O'Mara, who re- fused to accept him as 8 suitor.
 It would appear that the fiend which prompted Daniel O Mara to kill his own mother an sister must have whispered to him the plan of taking the bodies to the railroad track as the best means of concealing the crime and averting sus- picion from the murderers. The wagon which he used for farm purposes was distant from the house, and Daniel was shrewd enough to comprehend that if he went for it with his yoke of oxen the noise made by the team in passing might arouse the people living in the two houses between his place and the main road. He therefore brought up his animals, lashed the bodies across their neck and shoulders and started the ghastly procession in the dead hour of the night along that lonely road. When he reached the wagon the body of his sister fell of, and must have lain in tue road while he was at taching the cattle to the vehicle, for al that point the most extensive blood stains were discovered. The bodies were placed upon the track, the wagon brought back, the oxen, bearing the marks of their bloody burden, were turned in the field, and the murderert busted themselves at the house until morning in endeavors to remove the marks of their dreadful deed. These facts appeared on the trial, and so cleal was the evidence that the murderers were speedily found guilty and sen- tenced to the extreme penalty.
 Both prisoners made statements il relation to the affair, but each lays the
 l,A 1khau nbNFo~o that the deed was done in 8 moment ot anger, that the parties were all quar reling, and he took stick of wood an6 struck his mother fatal blow. Seized with horror at the terrible act, he wen out of the house, and on his return found that Irwin had murdered hi sister. Alluding to the transaction, h, expresses the idea that "God forsool