The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-04-19
THRILLING INCIDENTS.

THRILLING INCIDENTS.
Experience of Judge Mackey in South
Carolina.
Washington Capital.
Hon. T. j. Mackey, Republican Judge
of the sixth or Chester Circuit Court of
South Carolina, at present in Washington
as the legal adviser or representative of
General Hampton, is gentleman who in
London for example, would become in
one season the autocrat of the English
dinner table. He was described to me
by General Calvert Butler, Senator elect,
as the most wonderful conversationalist
in the State, and acquaintance not only
aAirms but enlarges Buffers description.
In course of recent conversation, Judge
Mackey related the following incident, as
having come under his judicial observa-
ton in his administration of justice,
which, owing to the peculiar condition
of society in his circuit, is partly statute
ry and partly patriarchal in its nature.
The Judge said that some two or three
wears ago, while holding court at Winns-
boro, he noticed girl of wonderful
beauty at the country tavern where he
put up, and, upon inquiry concerning
her, learned that she belonged to fami-
" living there, related to the tavern
Keeper and of the class usually termed in
South Carolina 'poor whites" He
learned that she was soon to be married
to young man of her own class, and he
took so much interest in her fortunes
that he sent her a wedding present.
About six months afterward the Judge
was journeying by rail from one court to
another in his circuit, and met this girl
on the cars. She was dressed in deep
mourning and seemed in great afHiction.
The Judge approached her and in
quired what had happened. She said
she was going back to her husbands
birthplace to bury him, and that the
corpse was in the baggage-car. In reply
to remark that the death seemed to
have been very sudden, the girl began 10
cry and told the Judge that she had killed
her husband by accident. She said they
had lived quite happily together for
about four months, when she discovered
that he was surreptitiously visiting and
corresponding with young woman who
lived several miles away. She had as
certained these facts by intercepting some
of the correspondence. As soon as the
husband found out that his amour had
come to the knowledge of his wife he re-
solved to murder her. So one morning
he ordered his breakfast early, announc-
ing his intention to drive to town sew
eral miles distant from York, where they
lived. Just as they were sitting down to
breakfast he sent his wife for some bread,
and in her absence emptied into her cof-
fee arsenic enough to kill half dozen
people. But as she was returning to the
table his horses, which were hitched at
the door, became restive and began to
pull at their halters. He rushed from
the table and went out to attend to them.
While he was gone the wife noticed some
coffee grounds or other impurities floating
in her husbands cup; and, woman-ike,
took it herself, setting her own cup, which
was clear, by his plate. He then came
in and ate his breakfast. As he arose
from the table and began to put on bis
overcoat he was seized with cramp in
the stomach, succeeded by violent pains,
dizziness and other prostration. The
wife, alarmed, assisted him to the lounge,
and sent a negro boy for the doctor, who
lived few doors away. The doctor came
in few minutes and pronounced it q
case of poisoning as soon as he saw the
symptoms After few moments of ex-
summation of the patient, the doctor said
the case was hopeless, owing to the cor
rosion of the walls of the stomach, which
had already taken place; that he could
allay the pain while the sufferer lived, but
that was all. Upon the ministration of
the anodyne the patient recovered his
speech, and lived several minutes in a
conscious state, during which he made a
confession, and called the doctor and
other neighbors who had come in to wit
ness the facts as above stated. A post
morten, was held and a verdict rendered
by the coroner's jury in accordance with
the confession of the dying man and the
testimony of the physician and other
witnesses. The. facts are of judicial re-
cord in Judge Mackey's court. If they
had been put in the form of plot in q
romance, critics would have declared
them too incredible to be made the basis
of a fiction protesting to represent the
possibilities Of poetic justice in real life.
Another incident was even more re-
markable. One morning, said the Judge,
as I was opening court, Col. Ingraham,
planter whom I had known for many
years, stepped up to the bar, accompa-.
MED by his nephew, boy of thirteen.
This boy was the son of Major Crawford
of the Confederate army, who fell at
Gettysburg. He was pale, slender little
fellow, quite effeminate and unusually
bashful. Indeed, said the Judge, he &C.
ted more like a girl than boy. Colonel
Ingraham addressed the court and said:
"I am here for the purpose of surrender
ing this boy into the custody of the Off
GERS of the law. He shot and killed his
step-father last night"
The Judge then proceeded to state the
circumstances as follows: Some time after
the close of the war, Mrs. Crawford, the
boys mother, married for her second hus-
band man named Legge. She had a
daughter two or three years older than
the boy who was before the court. They
lived pleasantly enough on the planta-
tion owned by Mrs. Crawford until the
girl become about fourteen, when Legge
effected her ruin.
After the intimacy had continued some
time, Mrs. Legge discovered that her
husband had seduced her daughter, but,
to prevent scandal, the affair was hushed
up on condition that Legge should leave
the State and never return. He left, and
after he had been gone some time Judge
Mackey granted divorce upon petition
of the lady, who resumed her widowed
name of Crawford. About year and a
half after these events, Legge returned
suddenly and presented himself at Mrs.
Crawford's residence just after dark. The
house stood at some distance from any