Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-09-05
TRIPLE MURDER.
A Mother, Her Daughter and a Sister
Found ButChered by a Flend and
ROttlng In Their Rooms.
Cincinnnti Ennuirer snooinll


yet to-day the community is plunged |
into a gulf of horror and awful mys-
terry at the discovery of three dead |
decomposing bodies in little house
right on the main thoroughfare Of our
village, close to neighbors, and di.
rectly on the sidewalk. In this little
house for nearly year has lived in
happy contentment, as far as was
known, Mrs. Mollie HATTIE and her
son, Willie e. Anderson, a boy of
eighteen, who for two years has worked
in the Gazette Office. of this place, and
contributed toward his mothers sup
port.
Mrs. HATTIE, whose maiden name
was Gregg, was married to Daniel r.
Anderson, of this place, at her home
in Indiana year or two before the
war. She was a beautiful girl of six
teen, petite In figure, with sparkling
black eyes and lustrous dark hair. She
was warmly welcomed to the home Of
her husbands parents, the late DR.. w.
ii. Anderson and wife, and all went
| lJOcundly Tor a while.
But dissensions came between hus-
band and wife after the birth of their
son, and after long time the unhappy
pair were severed by a divorce, the
husband, who had Joined the army,
having control Of the boy.
After time the lady married again.
and the divorced husband has also
been twice married since. Death d.
vided him from the second, and mu-
tual consent has within the last year
dissolved partnership between him
land the third.
| Mrs. Hates second husband died
in or near Cincinnati in an insane
asylum, and two years ago she came
here to keep house for her boy. They
| had kind friends who encouraged and
assisted them, and Willie, although
abounding in the vigor of youth and
full Of mischief, could not be called a
| wild or bad boy. He was generous to
fault, and his employers here could
find no serious charge against him in
Iany respect. His mother, on her re-
turn here after many years, was still
beautiful and attractive, but, although
/ here in the same place with her first
| husband, conducted herself with strict
1 Ipropriety, appearing but very little in
lpublic and going into no society but
that of her relatives. Her age was
i probably thirty-fve years.
The family of Mrs. HATTIE was in
creased a few weeks ago by the arrival
of her sister and little daughter,
Mrs. Clementine Weeks and Myrtle,
of Cincinnati, who came up to board
a few weeks in the country. The little
girl was about twelve years old. The
husband is Philip Weeks, now, as it
is supposed, in the city.
Since Sunday last, persons passing
the house noticed an offensive smell
coming therefrom, and to-day it got so
bad that this afternoon the marshal
yentured to raise one of the windows,
when the stencil became SO horrible
that nobody could stand near. But
what was his unutterable horror to see
the room in dire confusion and two
dead bodies lying one on bed and
the other under. A further search
revealed a third body in the back
room, and all were in an advanced
stage of decomposition, while the
head Of one in the front room had
been eaten by rats until the hair and
scalp were all gone. The bodies we're
unrecognizable, except by the gar
ments. The mother and child lay in
the front room, and Mrs. HATTIE in the
= back room, near a lounge, and was
covered with a tick, and had her head
mashed.
The greatest confusion reigns all
about the rooms. The poor victims
! had evidently retired. The little
girls pallet lying Oh the floor near the
window board, stained and tumbled
while the child lay on the bed par
TALLY covered by clothes. The poor
mother crawled under the bed to die.
A cash was found on the left side.
The mother looks as if the throat was
cut. Mrs. HATTIE lies in the back
, ROOM
} Coroner Carey has been sent for to
Lebanon, and will be here, when fur
ther reports will be sent.
= Willie Anderson left here Sunday
! morning, saying he was going to Gin
2 cinnati, where he had been sent for to
attend his mother, who, he said. had
} gone there last Wednesday by the 4
am. train. He has not turned up nor
has anything been heard from him
since. He had told friends that his
mother, aunt and cousin had gone to
Cincinnati that morning, but he never
said anything of it at his place of
work.
1t now appears that the house had
been shut up and nothing had been
seen of any Of the family, save Willie,
since Thursday night last week.
Meantime Willie has been boarding
! at hotel, and has been going into the
house on two or three occasions
His friends have detected nothing
peculiar ia Willie's department, and
with the exception that he had not
been working for two days prior to his
2 departure, owing to an accident he
sustained, there is nothing to crimi-
nate him.
, 1t certainly must be, however, that
he had some knowledge Of the bloody
} tragedy enacted in his little home. A
2 fifty pound -four sack of pulverized
? lime had been smpJied Of its contents
over the floor and the bodies IN the
front room, DR.. Anderson is now
gorking on bridges on the Kentucky
railroad, aRd boards at the Kentucky
House, corner aest street and Nc
Lean avenue.