Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1880-04-03
A Horrible Death.

A~N'sO'1
Traveller.
A Horrible Death.
SEVERAL months ago the grave of Sarah
Platts, a young lady who died of con-
sumption, was found disturbed, and an
examination showed that the head of the
corpse was missing. What led to the
discovery was the finding of human
iawbone by Fred Auer, a farmer, who
lived near the county graveyard, some
eight miles from the city, where the body
was buried. The fact that only the head
was taken threw suspicion on an amateur
phrenologist named Gordon Truesdale.
Truesdale occupied small farm in the
vicinity with his wife and family of
four girls, the oldest not more than eight
years old. He was a handsome, broad
shouldered fellow, with fair education,
but lazy and shiftless. His great hobby
was phrenology, and he occasionally
lectured on that subject in country
school houses. His ambition to possess
collection of skulls was well known in
the neighborhood, and the desecration
of the Platt's girls grave was laid at his
door, although he was never openly
charged with it.
About three weeks ago Truesdale went
to a physician and asked if person
could become poisoned in handling a
dead body. He received an affirmative
reply, and appeared to be much troubled.
He complained to his wife that his nose
panied him terribly, and he believed he
was taking the erysipelas. He began
doctoring himself with bread and milk
poultices, but without success. His face
began to swell rapidly, and in less than
three days it and his head became twice
their natural size, and lost all semblance
of human shape. Aphysician was called
in against the wishes of Truesdale. He
found the man suffering terribly. His
lips were drawn by the tension of the
skin, and writhed themselves away from
the teeth, in unceasing pain. The cuti-
Gle across the bridge of the nose and
over the forehead was so distended with
the mattery substance underneath that
it seemed as if it must burst every mo-
ment. The eyes were swollen almost to
bursting from their sockets, and were
turned with pain until hardly anything
but the whites could be seen. 1t was
evident that terrible poison was slowly,
but surely, permeating the mans whole
system. 81
The physician, after a careful exam
ination of the unwilling patient, cut
open his skin from about the center
of the nose almost to the roots of the
hair, and then made another cut across
the forehead almost from temple to tenn
pie. From these incisions there oozed 8
mass of loathsome, detestable putres
cence, so terrible in its stencil that the
attendants, save one, ran from the house
Other incisions were made in diferen
parts of the scalp, from which the hail
had been shaved, and from these thi
terrible offensive matter oozed constantly
until the swelling was reduced and tht
head and face assumed nearly their nor
NAL size. Attempts were then made t.
free the incisions of matter by injecting
water into them. 1t was noticed tha
when water was forced into the cut il
the forehead it poured out of the holes il
the scalp. As one of the attendants said
cit seemed as if all the flesh between
the skin and bone had turned to corrup
ton and ran OUT
When Truesdale was told that he coult
not possibly recover, he called his wifi
into the room and confessed to her tha
he robbed the Platt's girls grave, an,
referred to certain night when he lef
the house and refused to tell her wher
he went as the time when he COMMITTEES
, the crime He said he dug down to tn
head of the coffin, broke it open, AM
, taking his knife cut around the neck Q
the corpse through the flesh to the bone
| He then placed one of his feet on tn
t breast of the corpse, and taking tn
, head in his hands pulled and jerked an
! twisted it until it came off by mere force
He afterwards disjointed the lower jay
and threw it where Fred Aur found il
He closed his confession by telling wher
the skull would be found, under th
straw in certain manger in the stable
1t was found there and given to tn
: Platt family i
: The last three days of Truesdale's ea
? istence were terrible, not only to himse
| but to those who watched him. Th
poison from some corpse for it is bt
lieved he had recently opened sewers
graves), which was communicated to hi
5 system by pricking a raw spot on the il
side of his nose, appeared to cours
l through every vein in his body. NJ
l only was his person offensive to tn
9 eve, but the odor and heat of b
breath was so offensive that it was in
possible for the attendants to wait on hil
L properly. The breath was so poisonor
3 that when one of the attendants held h
t hand six inches from the dying man
| mouth it stung the flesh like hundreds {
t nettles Those who waited upon hil
I were obliged to wear gloves, as it ws
4 impossible to wash the Odor from the
4 hands. The day he died his flesh was s
s rotten that it seemed as if it would dro
from the bones if touched, and his eye
Y actually decayed until they became sigh
less.
e For two days before his death coffi
had been in readiness, and the orders
S the physician were to place him in
= soon as the breath left his body, an
/ get him under ground immediatel..
e After his death none of the attendan
e had the temerity to touch the corpse, fe
S fear of being poisoned, SO they gathere
|. the sheets on which the body lay at eae
II end, and thus lifted him into the coffil
: The lid was quickly screwed down, b1
l. before a wagon could be procured tt
IS body swelled and burst it off. 1t w;
q then strapped on, but when the coli
: was taken from the wagon at the grav
t yard just at daylight, it again flew Of
n and the body appeared to swell yisib
o before the Mortified attendants eye
/ The fetid, noisome stencil from tt
l. putrid mass within was such that no OF
$. could attempt to replace the cover, al
IS the coffin was covered from sight as hu
q riedly as possible South Bend lind
T. Special.
a. ~--
es "A painter from Tyneside, whi
in busy putting the finishing touch on tt
x stern of a vessel lying at the shipya
O. where he was employed. was whistlil
Id at his work as merry as a plowma
er The manager, being on deck, heard t
T. painter, but failed to find out
i'll whereabouts for some time. At leng
ps looking over the stern. he deserted t
es man of paint, whose tune was mer
,ir and loud He looked savagely at t
ed man, who took no notice of his appes
he ance, but continued his work until s
to costed by his superior with the folio
d. ing inquiry: 'tDo we pay you
n whistling?' "No,' replied the ma
st; "we gle ye thot into the bargain"