The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1874-02-05
GFrom Lirpincoh's Magaz inc
MURDER MOST FOUL.

: MURDER MOST FOUL.
The aged couple were heartbroken
at the loss of their only child, and
mourned with a grief that refused
to be comforted. Ali 1t was not
long Eefore they would have thanked
God had their daughters fate been
no worse than they at first believed.
The reward offered for the discov-
cry and apprehension of the murder
er of the woman, had stimulated one
man to patient and ceaseless inves-
tigation. He WAS sort of amateur
detective, named Tinsley, who had
no special fitness for his self-assumed
Office, except an intense desire and
persistent brooding that would
sometimes bring form and purpose
out of chaos. He haunted the spot
where the corpse was found, and
meditated upon all the circumstances
of the case, with the pertinacity of
stupidity. A brigl ter person would
have yielded the task in despair, but
his very dullness kept him at it, and
at length gave him a clue that he
steadily followed up. Near the scene
of the murder he one day found a
chignon of coal-black hair. The
dead woman's hair was auburn, and
when found she wore a chignon of
the same color. Close to the cbignon
lay a piece of muddy paper. It
proved to be an old letter, dated
'Near Gettysburg, Pa" 1t was sim
ply addressed 10 my dear husband"
and was signed your "afectionate
wife, Mary" Nobody but Tinsley
would have attached any Importance
to these discoveries, hut it being his
habit of mind to refer everything to
the case in hand, he at once believed |
he had found the key to the awiu
mystery. Yet how easy it was to
account for the presence of these
things here! Hun lre1s of both
sexes, from far and near, had visited
the noted scene, and it was very
probable that some of these had lost
the chignon and the letter. Tinsley,
however, was not at all impressed
with this view of the matter, and
thought it worth his while to go to
Gettysburg and inquire for "Mary."
He did so. 1t was a weary hunt,
and would have seemed fools er-
rand to most people; but at length
Tinsley got on the track of "Mary,"
and he pursued it till he was vel
coined by the Ordolfs as friend and
neighhor of-John Randall. He al
ready knew enough to convince him
that John Randall's wife was the
murdered woman found near Beeville,
and that John Randall was the muir
derer. He had already seen the
minister who married them, and now
he had read Randall's letters written
since the hellish deed, and he thrilled
with horor at their cold-blooded
dupicity and heartlessness. The
evidence was appallingly overwhelm
ing. We cast a veil over the scene
that occurred when Tinsley told that
old, bereft couple what he believed to
be the true story OF their daughters
end.
All Beeville and the country around
was amazed when it was announced
that John Randall had been arrested
for the murder It was incredible.
His character was excellent, both as
a citizen and a soldier, and he was
noted for his abstine nee, not only
from the 1i,es, but from the follies,
into which young men commonly /
fall. Yet when all the damning de-
ve,opments appeared, it seemed i'm
possible to doubt his guilt AS he
had once been high in public estima-
ton, SO now he fell like Lucifer
The popular Indignation rose against
him like tempest, and threatened
him with the summary vengeance of
an excited mob.
On the trial it was positively es-
tabished by the identification O.
clothing and ornaments that the
dead woman was Mary Randall, once
Mary Ordolf; that the prisoner mar
ried her in 1855, and had since
strangely kept that fact secret, not
only from his acquaintances at Bee
vile, but from his own family; in
short, he brought her to Virginia,
and was last seen with her in q
carriage, driving through Beeville on
the Sunday we have already noted;
that at the hotel, on the Saturday
night before, he told his wife that on
tae next day he intended to take her
.1o, -I,oo,o lo,,oo IL NOW, =.