Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1881-01-05
HIS ARREST ma BARN.
He CoNFEssES THE CRIME IND Is
LYNCHED.

night December 26, lSoU, ana on lne
following Monday, December 9th
The whole dreadful affair Is quite
fully presented in the following dis
snatch. from McClure's Philadelphia
Times of December 2S, 1880:
BETHLEHEM, Dec. 27.-Not only the
quiet borough of Bethlehem and the
adjacent country, but the whole OF
Northampton county, was horror
stricken this morning by the discov-
ery that Jacob Geogle and his wife,
Annie, had been butchered while
asleep in their beds, at their home Cd
Monocacv creek, about three miles
north of here. This, added to the
speedy discovery, confession and
lynching by the infuriated populace
of the murderer, Edward Snyder,
who boarded in the family of his VIC
tins. has thrown the community into
a state of excitement never known
here before. Jacob Geogle lived with
his wife and three children, Alice,
aged II Mary. aged y, and Henry,
aged ii years, III comfortable stone
house, which stands facing the road
running between this place and Bath
He came hsre about year ago from
the vicinity of Plain6eld. Geogle,
who was thirty eight years old, work
ed in the Coleman ore mines Sny-
der, the murderer, also worked IN the
Coleman mines and has boarded with
the Geogles since July last He was
"a wears old and came from Mount
Bethel. Snyders motive for the muir
der was brutal lust for the daughter
Alice. While living with the Geogles
he made repeated attempts to de-
bauch her. Alice, who is mere ship
of a girl, plain and unattractive, re
pulsed him and informed her parents.
Google, 1t seems, threatened Snyder
with the consequences if he did not
let the girl alone. Snyder then de
termined upon revenge on the parents
and the ruin of the girl at all hazards.
Last evening the Geogles had com
pany at supper Constable Samuel
b. Fogel and his wife and two young
daughters of Aaron Young, aged l.
and II years, were there. Snyder
was present and seemed in his usual
spirits. Snyder joined the children
in singing hymns they were practis-
ing for a Sunday school entertain
ment. The party broke up quite late,
Mr.. and Mrs. Fogel going home, but
the young girls, at the earnest solici-
tation OF Alice and Mary Geogle, de-
cided to stay all night with their
friends. Mr.. and Mrs Google re-
tired to a small bedroom on the first
floor opening off from the kitchen
and also communicating with the sit
ting-room. Snyder slept on a cot Ill
the hallway, at the head of the stairs.
Two bedrooms opened of this hall
way. Alice Geogle and the Oldest
Young girl slept in one of these bed
rooms and the other three children IN
the other None OF the rooms in the
house were locked HS9ut midnight
SNYDER arose from hie cot, crept
stealthily down stairs to the kitchen
where he lighted a candle, by tIe
light of which he found an axe he
then gently opened the dor9r ieadln9
into MIR. ana Mrs. Geogle's BEDROOM,
placing the candle on a table III tGc
kitchen SO that its light would, with
out awakening the sleeping victims,
enable him to see where to strike
Both the victims were lying on their
backs, with their faces upturned,
sleeping quietly. Google lay next
the wall, his wife occupying the front
side of the bed. The murderer raised
his weapon and struck Gogle terri
fic blow with the pole of the axe,
crushing in his forehead in fright
full manner. So deadly was the blow
that slight tremor was the only sign
that the murdered man made In
another instant the forehead of the
sleeping woman had been crushed in
the same manner. lien the mur-
derer turned the blade of his axe and
chopped his victims il a most fright
full manner. The mouths OF both
were cut nearly to the ears and the
necks were cut by repeated blows
until the heads were nearly severed
from the bodies. Leaving his bloody
axe lying across the mutilated bodies
of his victims, Snyder returned to
the kitchen and took off his blood
despatched shirt, the only garment
that he wore, and replacing it with
clean one crept back up stairs and
entered the room where Alice and her
friend, Miss Young, were asleep. Bit
his first attempt to carry out his
brutal intentions with regard to Alice
awoke the girls, who screamed and
fought off the villain and woke up
the smaller children. vino slept in the
next room Little Mary, hearing the
screaming and struggling in her sis
ter's room. ran down stairs to alarm
her parents. A moment afterwards
she came up stairs again, crying wild
ly that her mothers face was all
bloody and that she could not wake
her Snyder, still dressed only in
his shirt, seized the three younger
children and threw them into the
room where the two older girls
crouched shivering in terror He
locked them all IN this room, and pro-
ceeded coolly to dress himself. He
then went TO the house of George B.
Ritter, a farmer, living near by, whom
he aroused and told that he was
afraid Mr.. and Mrs. Geogle we've
dead: that burglars had broken into
the house and killed them, and that
he (Snyder) had had a desperate fight
with the burglars. Ritter, at the en-
treaties of his wife. who was greatly
alarmed, declined to leave her, but
sent his hired man, Hugh Sandt, with
Snyder. These two then met Joseph
Santee, who sent Snyder and Sandt
back to Goggles house, while he went
to call Reuben Schmiele and Con
stable Fogel. When these three
reached the scene of the traoe6v