Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1879-03-21
AN Kx-vKRxoNTxR AND MS CRIME.

AN IX-vEREoSTER AND HIS CRIME.
William Henry Devlin, the Lowell, Mass.
wife-nurderer. was hanged at the East
Cambridge Jail. Friday. On the scafold be
said: 81 thank all my friends for their
kindness to me recommend all of my
friends to abstain from rum, and | recon-
mend my soul II God" Devlin's neck was
not broken, but he died easily. and in %
miputes lis was pronounc d extinct.
D.ylin was born in Diblin, iceland, in
lived at Rutland, in this State, till the re-
bellion broke out. when be joined the army
and served in the 5:h and 9Th Vermont
regiments. participating il som, of the
greatest battles OF the war. At Antistsm
be received a ssber-cut on the head, from
the fleet Of which he claimed ID have never
fully recovered. He als) had three ribs
broken and his leg injured BY the bursting
of shell a. Malvern Hill. and received a
bullet in his leg at th. Wilderness. At the
close of the war hs went to ST. A!bans. and
met Hannah Elizabeth, the attractive lS-
yesrs-old daughter OF John Manning, a
well-to-do citizen. Devln's habits were
good at the time. his attentions were ac-
cepted by Miss Manning. and he married
the woman he sf,erwsrd murdered, and
moved to Rutland. Alter several years of
sunshine and happiness, Deylin darkened
his home by becoming Incorporate. In 1867
he moved to Lowell and worked as a
butcher His appetite ruined rim. however,
end, losing his position, he became a rail-
road labOrer and then the .nitor of a school
house. but as his drinking habits grew
bis chances for work lessened. The once
kind father became the fend of his home,
his wife and four children suffering from his
cruelty. On the night of October 8, 1877,
the tragedy for which Devlin paid the pen
atty occurred. Quarreling with his wife
because she had borrowed % cents to have
a tooth pulled. he stabbed her with a knife,
knocked her down tried to drown her by
holding her head head in pail If water,
and finally tramped on her body I'LL It was a
mass of bruises and her ribs were broken.
Leaving the woman on the flor ho
retired. and IN the morning she
was dead. During the following day
he completed his murderous work By strang-
ling his motherless baby. Then he warned
his three other children not to till Of his
crime, and left the city. lie was arrested
at Bellows Falls. in a day or two and
brought back to Lowell. where his brutal
crime had raised public feeling t. such
pitch that there was talk OF lyDching
him. He Acknowledged and ploriei in
his crime, and said he was willing to 90 to
Jail for it. Last December he was tried at
Cambridge, alter several delays. lie de-
clircd to plead ggilty to murder in the
second degree, saying 1t was impossible to
convict him IN the first degree. The
prlucipal testimony against him was given
by his children, John II. and Nellie.
ii AID & Years old respectively, who told
the story which had been SO yIvidly I'M
pressed IN their young minds. and his con-
viction and sentence followed Devlin lett
n letter to his fath,rin law and mother In
Law, asking their forgiveness for his crime.
His parents and two brothers are buried at
Rutland, and two of his sisters are now
living at West Rutland. His chldren will
be cared for by his wiie's friends.