Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-12-02
A HORRIBLE TRAGEDY.
n Maniac Killing his Wife and Babe and
Lady Visitor and Her Two Children
The Murderer then COMMITTING sui-

Wv "'o'J vi teiliple tIuRcuy WHICH OC-
CURED in Monroe county, three miles
west of the village of Lewisville, in
which five persons were killed O Itright
and one fatally injured. The pr incipal
actor in the scene OF blood is Frank
Bedenbaugh, thirty years of q. The
victims are his wife. Mrs. Annie Beden.
baugh Ca daughter of John Jeffres, ESQ,
who lives near Temperanceville); her
babe, aged less than two years; Mrs.
Elizabeth Stephens, aged forty-five, and
her two children, a girl eleven years of
age and boy five or six years of age.
All we're killed outright except the
daughter of Mrs. Stephens, who is so
badly injured that she may not recover.
The tragedy occurred on Saturday
evening, at about dark. The first indi-
cations of the murders were discovered
by younger brother of Btdenbau z
who had been absent at husking and
who returned at about eleven o'clock at
night. Entering the family room on
his return, there being Just enough light
from the smoldering fire 10 cast an
awful shadow upon the scene OF death,
he was Mortified TO find upon the floor
the body of Mrs. Betsey Stephens-a
large, tall woman, with fair face and
hair, now darkened and matted by
blood, which had oozed from her brain
and run down her dress. A frightful
wound Lad been made with the pole of
an AK on the back of the head, above
and behind the ear. On the floor, mot
far away, were three children-his own
babe and two belonging to Mrs. Ste
phens-all dead except one, which was
unconscious and could not recover.
Two of them had their heads crushed,
probably by the same weapon. The
living one had wounds about the face,
/ ut the skull did not seem to be in
jured.
The young man imme diately gave the
alarm, and party OF Mortified neigh
bors soon gathered at the scene of the
tragedy. A search of the premises was
soon begun, but nothing beyond what
has been described was discovered in
the house. The outbuildings were then
searched. In tobacco house n quarter
of mile east of the premises they found
Frank Bedenbaugh, badly wounded.
He had crawled into the house through
n crack in the wall. His throat had been
cut from ear to ear, and blood wounds,
evidently made with hatchet, were on
| his forehead and face. 1t is supposed
that the man had tried to xii, himself
with the Ratchet, and, failing in that,
had used the certain and fatal razor.
| Both weapons were found near him,
| covered with blood. He was yet able
TO speak, and, in reply TO a question AS
TO where his wife was, he designated
the place where she could be found, and
added that he killed her. He was taken
To the house. and lived till eleven
O'Clock the next morning.
The Mortified neighbors went from
! the scene in the tobacco house TO a pas
ture field where the wife, intention
family duties, and with no thought OF
danger in her mind, had gone TO milk
only n few hours before. The night
was dark and rainy. A still more hor-
rible scene was here presented. Here
lay the dead body of Mrs. Bedenbaugh,
with her throat cut and her head beaten
and partly imbedded in mud. The
hGtchet and razor had been used to do
the deadly work, and the fair young
face was marred and mutilateo by the
cruel blows. The bodies were placed
side by side in the house, and all that
Sabbath day, as the news spread, hun
dreds of persons from the surrounding
country visited the ccene of death.
The exact way in which the killing
was done will never be known.
Whether the deed was the result of n
sudden impulse, of a quarrel, or of a
long settled intention, Is not known.
The actions OF the murderer when his
brother left him in the morning were
not unusual, although he complained OF
not feeling we'll. There had been no
family chickering's. and there was no i'll
feeling between the murderer and the
Stephens woman.
Frank Bedenbaugh, the murderer, Is
about thirty years of age. Jasper
Bedenbaugh, his father, is OF German
birth, and has ten children. He Is a
well.to- do farmer, and lives about tour
miles south Of Calais, where he owns 3
farm If some 400 acres. The old m an
purchased the farm where Frank lives
several years ago, and presented TO him.
Frank was man of immense physical
strength, as were the whole family. He
was not of bad disposition, although
the fami y had the reputation of being
fighters. lie had been slightly deranged,
aud was taking medicine for the malady,
but was not regarded AS at all danger.
Gus. He was married only two or three
years ago, and was the father of one
child. He was raising the Oldest child
of Betsey Stephens, who was about ten
years old, and had lived with him for
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