The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-11-17
A CRIME.

THE BURNING AND RoBBING OF A HOUSE BY
IN WOMAN URN
TO DEATH.
The Pittsburg Commercial, of the Sd inst,
contains the following account of a terrible
crime in that city: Mr.. Jacob Fell, his wife.
two s~ons-Solomon and Joseph, aged re-
spectiveiy % and % years-anda servant
named Margaret Lynch, resided in the
house No.. pa Federal street, not far from
the scene of the great c~oniagration in July
last. Mr.. Fell is a man of considerable
means, and sometimes had large sums of
money in his house Saturday evening the
various member of the family retired to
bed at their usual times, from 8 to IL o'clock,
leaving the house securely locked, bolted
and barred, as they thought. The father
and mother slept in the second story
front, and two sons in a room Immediately
over the dining room, also in the second
story, and the girl in a back room in the
third story. Nothing disturbed the repose
of the family until about 3 O'Clock yesterday
morning, when one of the boys (Joseph)
was aroused by screaming and cries of FIRE
proceeding from the room occupied by Mar
Saret Lynch, the servant girl. He at once
woke up his brother Solomon, and the two
started to the room occupied by Miss Lynch,
but upon reaching the door at the head of the
first or lower stairway. they were met by a
thick volume of smoke, and they soon dis
covered that the, entire stairway. from the
first to the third floor. was in flames. Joseph
started down the stairs with the hope of es-
Gaping through the front door. In running
down the stairway feat which he accom-
plished in the face of a fierce blaze-he
stumbled and fell to the bottom, but immedi-
ately recovered himself and reached the front
door. Here, to his horror, he found the
door locked, and the key out, ard was COM
PEELED to retrace his fiery pathway
as far as the parlor, which he en-
tered and escaped through a
window. He was terribly burned about the
head, breast and arms, and e is doubtful
that he will recover. Solomon escaped by
jumping from a second story window into
the back yard, receiving only slight injuries.
Mr.. and Mrs. Fell procured a BEDFORD and
made it fast to some article of furniture in
the room, and succeeded by that means in
reaching the ground in safety, but with
hands severely lacerated by the rope. Mrs.
Fell, as soon as she heard the alarm, opened
a bureau drawer and took therefrom a roll of
greenbacks containing
ATHoUsAND DOLLARS,
which she placed in a pocket of her dress.
She did not again think of the money for
about three hours after her escape, and she
then fund her pocket empty. AS to what
became of the money she has not the re-
hottest knowledge. An alarm had been
promptly sounded, and as promptly re-
[ SpDllICO ~ w bAO ubDaLbilOAts I'll nc AI0
was ~extinguished fifteen or twenty minutes
after the discovery. Two of the firemen,
when informed of the whereabouts of Miss
Lynch, rushed at once to her room, but
only to find her Frustrated upon the
floor in a dying condition. They
removed her to an adjoining house,
where she died in about two hours
after. The coroner held an inquest on the
remains. the jury returning a verdict to the
effect that her death was caused by suffoca-
ton from smoke and heat. Deceased was
an unmarried woman, aged about 80 years,
and was a sister of James and Patrick
Lynch. two well-known citizens of Union
town, Pa. The investigation indicated that
the house had been entered by burglars that
they had effected an entrance through the
rear door; that they had ransacked the
house from cellar to attic, finding nothing
that they wanted, save a lot of silverware,
valued at about $3.50, which they carried
away, and that they then, out of pure ma
liciousness, set fire to tire premises in three
places-in a large sideboard in the dining
room, in the cellar, and in the closet of the
apartment occupied by Margaret Lynch.