The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-06-18
A Louisville Actor Takes to the Pulpit
aAd Preaohes His First Sermon.
A Negro Burglar Shot and Fatally
Wounded by Policeman.
A Man Gored to Death by an Infariated
Cow Mt Warsaw.
LEAvENwORTH.

A Kentucky Crime-A Man Murders His
Wife by Butchering Her With an Ak,
and Then Cuts His Own Throat
Special to the Sentinel:
LEAyENwoRTH, Ind, June 16.-The devil is
still loose in this part of the country. The
horrible details of the Mauck family butchery,
which took place in Harrison county, but
short distance from this town, on the 9Th day
of April, are still fresh in the minds of the
people. And now another tragedy, occurring
almost in our midst, adds Its shock TO the
already sensitive public.
Opposite Leavenworth, in Meade county,
KY, is little cabin which has for some time
been occupied by William Padgett, his wife
Nancy and their three children, boy
aud two girls. William Padgett Is man OF
morose, sour disposition, and not of good hab-
its. For long time he has been very abusive
OF his family, and about nine weeks ago left
home, after cruelty treating his wife, and only
returned Saturday at midnight.
Almost upon his entry to the house he COM
menced his customary abuse of his wife, and
this he kept up, two OF the children say,
until daylight. The wife arose from her bed
yesterday morning and commenced getting
breakfast. There being no coffee in the house
the little boy, about II years
old, was sent by the father over
to this town to purchase some
The father then sent the other child, daugh-
ter, out upon some errand. The third child, a
girl, was absent from home, at a neighbors'
for whom she was employed as servant to
aid in the support Of her mother and the other
children. Padgett was thus left alone in the
house with his wife.
What Immediately followed will probably
forever remain hidden. But it is known that
Padgett, during the absence of the children.
went out to the wOOdpile and procured the
ak. and with this re-entered the house, and
with the edge split his wife's head open, and
then turning the instrument of death
beat her brains out with the
poll. This fiendish act accomplished,
the savage butcher went to a drawer and pro-
cured a razor, and with it cut his own throat
almost from ear to ear, inflicting frightful,
alive this morning.
The boy returned from Leavenworth with
the coffee, and made the discovery of the
murder and attempted suicide. "Who did
this, father?" he asked. al did it; killed
Nancy" responded the father, and then be-
came unconscious. The boy went out and
called for his absent sister. who soon appeared
He then returned to Leavenworth and gave
the alarm, and soon q large number of people
went over to the scene of carnage.
On entering the house an awful sight met
the gaze OF the excited crOWQ. Inc cnllQren
had all reached home, and standing with faces
pale as death, and shivering with horror, they
gazed upon their parents, stretched side by
side upon the floor in a great pool of blood
They were too much horrified to weep, and
only moaned piteously as they looked upon
the PROSTATE, mangled forms of their parents
There were blood stains upon the furniture
and cooking utensils, and portion of the
brains of the wife had oozed out and mingled
with the blood upon the floor. She was moi
yet dead, but unconscious and immovable, and
witt, aSenacity for life almost unparalleled
continued to breathe until O'Clock in the
evening, when her troubled soul passed int
eternity.
Physicians had arrived with the crowd, and
Padgett received such medical attention 81
could be bestowed, but the doctors say he car
hardly recover. He is still alive to-day, and is
closely guarded, and soon as he can b'
moved will be taken to Brandenburg, the
county seat of Meade county, and lodged II
jail. Some of Padzett's friends claim that h,
was insane, but this is the old, cid story, ant
will not go for much in a Meade county cour
under the present state of excitement. 1t Il
believed had all the children been at hom
when their mother was so brutally butcheret
they would have shared the same fate.