The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1879-09-11
A Terrible Domestic Tragedy.

Another terrible tragedy has been enacted in
Waynesville, Ohio, in which three persons were
found Drained with hatchet. Mrs. HATTIE,
her sister, Mrs. Weeks, and Miss Weeks, her
daughter, a girl of some sixteen or seventeen
years old, were found murdered at the residence
Of Mrs. HATTIE.
Willie Anderson, boy eighteen years of age,
son of Mrs. HATTIE, is supposed to be the per-
son that committed the bloody deed. D. An
derson, carpenter by trade, married Mrs.
HATTIE, whose maiden name was Gregg, and who
lived in Indiana, but moved to Waynesville to
reside after the birth of their child, Willie.
They had some family trouble, and she obtained
a divorce and returned to her native home, and
and afterwards married a man by the name
of HATTIE, who died in an asylum near Gin.
cinnati, after which she returned to Waynes-
vile, and she and Willie, a son by her first hus-
band have been living together for two years
past. .- r.
Mrs. Weeks and daughter were visiting their
sister, Mrs. HATTIE, and expected to return to
Cincinnati last Wednesday morning, accom-
panied by Mrs. HATTIE.
I The neighbors knew no better, as Willie
said that they went on the early
train last Thursday morning, and he
has been boarding at the hotel until
Sunday morning, when he left for the city, ex-
pecting to return Sunday evening Monday
morning sure, but he has not put in an ap-
pearance as yet.
The bodies were in terrible state of decom-
position when found--supposed to have been
murdered last Thursday night.
The town and vicinity are wild with excite
ment. The greatest mystery is why the boy
stayed there for three days after the murder
was committed, and visited the house every
day.
LATER.--As intimated above, it is now de-
fnitely known that Willie Anderson is the
murderer of his mother, his cousin and his
aunt. The testimony of the Ceroner's inquest
developed the fact that cries of distress were
heard issuing from the house at midnight on
the night of the 9th of August, and shortly
after two persons were seen emerging from
the lot in which the house stands, car
rying a large white bundle. The boy
evidently had assistant, whom, it
is not yet known But that he was i'm
| plicated in the crime has been definitely proved
by the fact that he repeatedly vis ted the house
between the time Of the commission of the
crime and the time of its discovery. This, con-
nected with the fact that the boy, on the fol-
lowing Menday, instead of returning from the
city home, as he had intended to do, going to
Plainville, Ohio, and that night committing
suicide, established his guilt beyond all doubt.
He was a great reader of yellow backed novels,
and it is thought by his friends that through
their influence upon him he was lead to the
commission Of the terrible crime. His employer
"a publisher of a paper at Waynesville- and
all his former associates, speak of his habits in
the very highest terms. The landlord of a
small hotel at the village of Plainville,
says that on the night before the
suicide the boy applied to him for
lodging, but the pay being demanded in
advance, and he having no baggage, he walked
away, saying he would return shortly. The
next day in the afternoon he was found with a
pistol shot through the head, near the railroad
track. In his right hand he held a discharged
pistol. The father, who is carpenter and re-
sides in Cincinnati, who spent the Sunday in
Willie's company, is under arrest. He was
divorced from Mrs. HATTIE during the war, and
has been married twice since, being now sep
arated from his last wife by mutual consent.