Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1874-02-13
IF, ON the San Francisco ChtOn' cta, January
2Oth I
A TALE OF BLOOD.
A Young Wife HrutaIIy Murdered
By Her Husband-The Mn derer
Cuts His Own Throat and Dies
by His Victims side.

Cuts His own Throat and Dies
by His Victims Side.
Yesterday afternoon, at about three
O'Clock, q respectable looking gentle
man called at the Drouilhat Hotel and
told the waiter in the restaurant that
he wished to see young woman who
he believed lived in the house, and
was known there by the name of Miss
Towers.
The man was quiet in manner, re-
specially dressed in dark clothes, and
apparently about thirty-six years old.
He was stranger, aud had never been
seen in the house before. The waiter
took him to front room on the second
floor, knocked at the door, and in q
moment the young woman known as
Miss Towers stood before them. The
stranger rushed toward her, the two
embraced each other with O kiss, and
closing the door, they left the waiter
in the hall to find his way down to the
restaurant.
A HORRIBLE SCENE.
During the next twenty minutes, the
two were frequently heard in CONVEX
sation, and this was in an ordinary
tone, and with no indication of anger
or excitement of any kind. Soon after
this, an old man employed in the
house had occasion to pass up the
stairs. He saw Miss Towers door
open and she and her visitor standing.
the latter with hat and umbrella In
hand, as if about to leave. In a minute
or two only after this, the men below
in the restaurant heard a noise as
if of scuffle; and presently the noise
of some one falling heavily. The
waiter who had shown the stranger in
rushed up stairs and was Mortified at
seeing the yeung woman lying i'll the
doorway of her room, with the blood
pouring from her neck, aud running
in streams and rivulets upon the floor.
The waiter saw no more, but screamed
| and rushed for policeman. The
noise brought the old man who had
last seen the parties, from an adjoin-
! ing room. AS his eyes fell upon the
CHASTITY scene, the stranger was just
crawling on his hands and knees from
! the bedroom. His throat was cut
| from ear to ear, the blood was pouring
| from the wound in torrents and leav-
ing a red, shiny trail behind him as he
crawled. He reached the young
womans side, laid his head upon her
breast, and sinking down in the pool
of blood by her side, gasped out his
life in one comvulsive struggle.
| IN THE PREuENCE OF THE DEAD.
The two bodies lay side by side, and
the clothing of both, from head to
foot, was actually saturated with
blood. The woman was young-not
over twenty fve-and had evidently
been quite pretty. She had long
streaming light hair, blue eyes, open,
and horrid in their ghastliness, and
beautiful whit, teeth. Her clothing
was neat and fashionably made, and
her wholo appearance and that of her
room indicated a person with some
claim to gentili.y.
The man at her side was large and
powerful. He had dark hair. black
eyes, black mustache and imperial,
and was rather neatly dressed in dark
clothes.
WHO THE MURDERER WAS.
From the papers found on the body
of the man, it appeared that his name
was Randolph Mitchell, although he
had a number of letters addressed to
other names. One OF these was Harry
J. Andrews, and still another Fred.
Perriman. He was an engineer by
trade, aud he had several certificates
among his papers-One Of them GER
tifcate from the United States authori-
ties of his professional ability. All
these were made out in the name of
Randolph Mitchell, and the inference
is, therefore, that that was his true
name. There was not single letter
or paper, though, to indicate what the
parties were to each other, or the
cause of the horrible deed, but from q
circumstance, already known to the
officers, and which will be given
further on, it would seem that they
were husband and wife, and that jeal-
Ou,y was the cause of the deed.
WHAT THE POLICE KNOW.
A member of the police force, who
was slightly acquainted with the
woman, says that she came to this city
some little time ago, and recently went
to work in SCOTS saloon, on the cor
ner of kearny and Sacramento streets.
That she took the room ut the Drou;l-
hat Hotel about week ago, and for
some reason desired to keep her place
of residence secret On Sunday,
the officer said, he was accosted by q
stranger-an oldish man with gray
hair-who said that he had heard that
girl named Annie Towers or Ross
lived in that neighborhood, and he
wanted to know if the officer could di-
rect him to the exact place. He said
he was Miss Towers brother. He
then went into the history of the girl
he was in search of, saying that she
was from Tohoe City, where she for
merly had husband that while liv-
ing there she had been so VIGOROUSLY
unfaithfnl to her husband that he had
poisoned himself and died that he
had heard the girl was in the city, and
he wanted to find her to take her home.
!. He did not tell the officer what his
name was nor her true name. The
officer, not putting much faith in the
story, refused to give the information,
and the man went off. This man, how
ever, does not answer at all the des-
crlptlon to the person who committed
the horrible deed yesterday. tits pos
sible, however, that the man who &C
costed the officer may have been sent
by Mitchell to find out his wife's resi-
dence, and told the story he did for
effect upon the officer. The man who
now lies dead in the morgue is stran-
ger here, and no one has yet appeared
who ever saw him before, but by to-
day it is probable that whatever mys-
terry surrounds the case will be cleared
up. The circumstances now all indi-
cate that the man was the woman
husband, and that he murdered her in
fit of jealousy, because she would not
live with him, and then coolIy ended
his own life.
Among the passengers OH the steam
ship State of Alabama, which left New
Orleans for Liverpool last Sunday
week, was the Hon. Jefferson Davis.
He was directed by his physician to
take sea voyage. His disease, we
learn, is dropsy Of the heart. Mrs.
Davis remains in New Orleans, and il
staying with Mr.. Davis niece, Mrs.
| Stamps Now that the denarture of