Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-01-02

The Montpeliar Argus gives the TO
lowing relative to tie murder case in
the Washington County Court, which
ended on Tuesday, in Il verdict Of murder
in the first degree against the respondent.
Royal S. Carr:
The respondent is an ignorant and .
stupid man Of A., who has already served 1
terra Of ten years in the State Prison .
for the murder Of Mary F.. Loomis at /
Worcester, iii the summer of 1868. This |
YVES horrible combination of outrage |
and murder which at the time sent II
thrill Of hoircr through the entire com
munity. The victim was Il Young mar
ricd wcIGan, the wife Of . brother Of
Austin j. LOOMS, Cars fellow muir
derer One Saturday evening LOOMS
and Carr waylaid her in II secluded spot F.;
Carr held her while Loomis cndeav0red
TO rnvish her, and TIE next morning the
poor thing was found lying strengled TO
death on The edge of an adjacent pond.
They were tried upon II joint indictment
for murder, at the September term OF
Washington County Count, 1868. Carr
vas convicted of manslaugEter, and
Bccnls escaped for want Of evidence.
Carr would havo escaped had it not been
fCT his confession made soon after his ar
rest. His ten years sentence expired
about ais years ago, and he has since lived
with his relatives III Worcester and
Calais. and partially earned a living by
DAVIS works. 1t does not seem that his
iIabcciliiy is so grca; that lie is unable to
distinguish between right and wrong
but he is unable to read G: write he can
not reckon he does moi know all the
names uf the months, or of The days Of
the week. He is now II man of forty-five,
OF good siZe and strong frame, dark com
plexion, and with a face and forehead
which indicates the possession OF at least
average intelligence. Very likely ms
long imprisonment at Windsor neither
improved his disposition nor his mind, and
probably he is now an ignorant brute, i'll
whom the animal predominates over the
intellectual
About the first of last December. m
athletic vagab0nd, said to have been
thrce-quarters Scotch and one-quartar
Indian, named William Wallace Murcom-
muck, took possession of Il deserted
school-housc il East ElmCre. He
brought with him his woman, his dog,
his gun, his fiddle, and but little else.
He was already known to many OF the
residents of these portions of Calais, Wor-
cester and Elmorc which are Ill that
vicinity rs . good fiddler having been
there three or four years before. When
he first came around he was accompanied
by woman he called Mary. This time
good-looking girl whom he called Hat
tie WIS lis wife Murcommuck was
man oi magnificent physique, more than
six feet tall, broad-chested and as straight
rs all arrow. He could read music well,
was quite intelligent, and could play on
the violin with more than common skill.
But ''thc Indian" as he was called, like
the res. of his race, was Gvcrse to work,
and basket making was his main reliance
! for IL livelihood. He soon began to play
at dances in the neighhorhood, and he
| also visited among the residents to some
extent, paying for the entertainment of
| himself and wife with his music. Hattie
told some of the women folks, after she
has got Il little acquainted, that she be-
longed in Lyman, n. II. that she was
only eighteen years old, and had clipped
with Murcommock in the previous May.
She said that Mary, the old wife, had
had Il quarrel with Murcommuck, had
left him, AID was now keeping the shanty
for the woodchoppers ''in the mountain
near where she came from III New Hamp
shire.
As the related the story of her elope-
ment, her parents, farmers III Lyman,
wanted her to marry young man
against her will the Indian was living
with them. and that she fell in love with
him. and followed him off She told vari
GUS stories about the wealth of her folks,
her own gold watch and iewelry andnice
clothes, and there was Il vague rumor IN
the ueighborhood that she had money at
home. So much for the principal drdDla-
It's i)crsOHT.
Among the families in that section was
Ira Carr, who lived in Calais, not far
from the Worcester line, and Chester
Carr, who lived in Worcester, near the
| Calais line, and near the Eagle Ledge
road, both Cousins of Royal. Ira is a
well-to-do farmer, but Chester is rowing
ne'er-Io-well, who does not sustain very
good reputation, and who IS supposed 10
have two or three wives living in different
places. About month before the muir
der Chester and his de .fucto wife invited
Mr.. and Mrs. Murcommuck to visit them,
and the invitation was accepted. Royal,
who was vibrating between Ira's and
Chester's, sometimes boarding at one
place and sometimes at the other, made
the acquaintance Of the Murcommucks
during their visit. Chester carried them
home on Sunday, the Sth of December,
1878 On Wednesday, the1lth, Chester
and his wife drove up to Murcommuck s
shanty, and asked Hattie 10 come down
to their house and sew a few days. She
assenied after consultation with her hus-
band, and he agreed IL come too. Mr..
and Mrs. Carr and she rode down; the
Indian walked to Chester's through the
woods. At dinner Royal, who was there,
asked Murcommuck to walk over to Ira
Cars with him, saving that he wanted to
get an axe, which WAS there, and that
they could have plenty OF cider and II
good time The Indian assented. and
right after dinner both started Through
the woods, with their guns over their
shoulders, and accompanied by the In
| dams dog This was the last ever seen
Of Murcommuck alive Royal arrived at
Ira Cars at about nightfall alone.
There he spent the evening in cleaning
hiR revolver Among other things he
asked of Ira III two men should start
out into the woods together and one
should come back and the other didn't,
what would they do with the man that
didn't come out?' Ira answered, 81
think they would take the man that did
come out, and make him show up where
the man was that didn't come ont.
Royal slept there that night, and the
next morning, having got his axe, started
for the woods, To go over to Chesters.
He arrived there about noon, and on en-
4 a. L. al H..
come" NO" said Hattie where is
he?' ROYAL said that he had parted with
him on the mountain ill the woods, say
ing that he was going further north 10
visit the Sloans. Royal went up 10 Mr..
Plummer H. Richardson's, and worked
all that afternoon with Chester Then
he told Chester, us Chester said. holding
out the five fingers of one hand and one
Of the other, My gun and my revolver
never miss fire Meanwhile the little
widow, as yet uniformed of her bercave-
ment, was overwhelmed with dismal fore
holdings Of misfortune. The preceding
day she was repeatedly insulted by Chcs-
ter, and now had the undesirable atten-
tens Of both 90 combat and rebuff. She
had hardly entered the house on Wednes-
day before Royal had informed her that
her husband abused ESf ny MOI clotiliiS
her better, and asked her why she lived
with the ''old Niger Indian" The Cars
kept house on small scale had only
two beds, and they all slept iii the Litch
en- together Thursday night, Chester and
his wife and child, Hattie and Royal.
Friday forenoon the poor little woman,
becoming wild with grief, and unable to
induce Chester to search for her husband,
iried to find him herself, but lost the
track, became bewilderel, and returned
On Friday afternoon her expostulations
were 60 earnest that "Chet, finally be
came frightened. and. getting Mlnot W.
Harris and Nathaniel lIciscy to accom-
pany him, led the way to where the In
dams corpse lay i'll the prlmeval forest,
near the top OF what il known ~ Little
Mountain. or Hawkins Ledge 1t was
| nu..ii,iIX covered M with rotten wood and