Chariton courier. (Keytesville, Chariton County, Mo.) 1878-current, 1879-05-17
A FANATICS CRIME.
A Crazy Second Adventist Offers Up His
Little Daughter as n Sacrifice.
nj n.iI


A Crazy Second Adventist Offers Up His
Little Daughter as Sacrifice.
Especial to the Chicago Tribune.I
of Cape Cod are greatly excited over
the most inhuman murder of little girl
by her father in Pocasset, part of the
yesterday. The mother was a consent
ing party. Charles J. Freeman, the
father, is Second Adventist, and says
the Lord told him to commit the MUIR
der, and the child will come to life SUM-
day morning. For SO hours, he says,
it had been impressed on him that he
doubtful whether it should be himself,
wife, the older girl, or the little girl
Finally he made it clear it must be the
little girl. He did not tell his wife at
first, but at 2 yesterday morning he told
talked it over, agreed it was right, and
then knelt and prayed over it. Both
then went to the room where the two
little girls were sleeping, and, after look
ing at them some minutes, he went to his
shop and got large sheath-knife, sing
ing all the way out and back, and never
feeling so happy as then. He coolly
turned the bed clothes down to expose
the child, his wife standing by, and stab
bed her in the left side. She turned
towards him, lifted up her ans, and said,
"Oh, father!" and he then held her in
his arms till she died, five minutes
afterwards. She was only years old.
The older girl partly awoke, and the
mother carried her out of the room be-
fore she knew of her sisters death, and
she does not know of it now. Freeman
then got into bed with the dead child in
his arms, and stayed till after daylight.
On the way to the station for his mail
he -. brother Adventist, and asked
him to notify all Adveniists in the neigh
borhood of a meeting at his house in the
afternoon. They came, suppesing it
was farewell meeting before Freeman
went on tour as preacher. In the
meeting Freeman told the whole story
of killing the child, and showed the
body to them, and they kept the affair
secret. The murder leaked out
through a young girl who was present,
and who last night was seen in appar-
ent distress by Constable. A little
questioning revealed the whole affair,
but Pocasset is so destitute of means of
communication that it was 8 O'Clock this
afternoon before officers from Barnsta-
BILE reached the town. The house was
guarded by neighbors from 8 O'Clock
this morning, and people were badly
scared by rumor that Freeman had
guns and plenty of ammunition, and
had threatened to kill every body in the
place. The man and his wife were ar
rested without resistance, however, and
taken to Barnstable Jail, shaking
hands with friends before leaving, and
seeming tn be in good spirits.
Freeman was noisy during the ride, sang
comic songs, and he and his wife talked
freely together, and were evidently not
sorry for the deed. Freeman says he is
not insane, and Adventists say the same
thing of him. At any rate, he is sane
and collected tonight. He asks all who
do not believe in God to come to his
house Sunday, and they will see WON
derfll works. The child would be rails
ed, and would help him preach. He
says he never felt so tenderly to his
children as on Wednesday night when
they were put to bed. He kissed them
and played with them, and hoped before
he struck the fatal blow God would stay
his hand as he did Abraham's, but since
the death of the child, a revelation has
come to him, and if the resurrection
does not take place be will despair. On
the train this afternoon he addressed the
40 passengers in justification of his deed.
He was formerly a shoemaker in Lynn,
then a Methodist itinerant, and about 1S
months ago joined in Second Advent
revival craze, since when he has the idea
that he and his wife must awake the
world to a sense of its wickedness, as a
new dispepsatien is near. The excite
ment on the Cape is very great, and a
strong feeling is shown towards all Ad-
ventists.
FATHER AND MOTHER INDICTED.
Boston, May 3.-Freeman, the Ad'
ventist of Pocasset who murdered his
5-year-old child Thursday, was arraign.
ed at Bernstable to-day with his wife,
who is held as accessory. Both insist
that God will fully justify their action
anc relieve them from all human pen
alties. A number of Adventist neigh
bors sustain Freeman in his course
MANY of them are well-to-do farmers
Some of those present at the meeting a
Freeman's house on the day of the muir
der will be arrested on charge OF being
accessory to the deed.
HERR KRUPP, the manufacturer O.
, great guns in Germany, had his little
love romance and marriage, as man.
, another great man has had. One day
being in the theater at Cologne, he wa
struck by girlish face in the box op
! posite; he begged one OF his friends