Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1881-03-01
9ailg &enusbtf 5onrnal.
Augusta, Tuesday Morning, Mar. /.
The China Matricide.

CouScu q SiCsst SuoCA III eniS community
Cases in which a son has stricken down
with murderous hand the mother who
bore him are very rarely found in the
records Of crime. Even the instinct of
the savage teaches him better than to do
such deed. But horror is added to hor-
ror in this most unnatural crime commit
ted by Merrill. by the barbarous manner
in which he mutilated the dead body Of
his mother and sought to make way with
the dismembered parts.
That he committed the crime he has
confessed; so there is no doubt Of his guilt.
But on the question what motive he had,
what caused him to do it. he gives no light
in his confession and leaves the public to
vague and unsatisfactory conjectures re-
garding the impelling cause Of his crime.
lie says he had no motive, indicating that
some blind impulse which he did not and
now does not understand urged him to do
the horrible deed.
We learn that his father is man Of
most excellent character, respected by all
who know him as an upright and good
citizen, husband and father.
The mother we hear well spoken of,
though the information we have of her
character is not so full or definite as that
which we have concerning the father
The son we are told by indsputable
authority has been noted as a thief for
several years. He appeared to have
mania for stealing. He stole from the
neighbors. stole in this city and other
towns. He seemed to have no moral per-
ception Of the wrong Of stealing, but
rather to think it was cunning and smart.
Numerous instances have been related to
US Of his stealing. and the criminal records
Of our court also show that he has APP
peared before them charged with theft.
1t Is to this propensity for stealing and to
the obtuseness OF his moral perceptions
Gf he has any at alb that some of the
most intelligent and unprejudced people
of the town in which he resided, who have
known him well as boy and man attribute
the commission of the terrible deed Of
taking his mothers lite. Thus a smaller
crime leads easily to a greater. The
limits of honesty once passed no one can
tell where the ending in crime will be.
The boy was cause of great grief and
trouble to his parents on account of his pro-
pensity to steal. The father was put to
cost for what the son stole from other
parties. and was obliged to guard against
the latter carrying away and selling pro-
ducts of the farm or whatever he could
lay his hands on stealthily. belonging on
the premises. He was not a violent,
dangerous. malicious boy OF whom the
neighborhood had any fears on account
of vicious temper; nobody dreamed that
he would commit murder until the evil
dence of his guilt appeared.
The theory which the people of China
hold, with whom we have couversed upon
the subject. is that the murderer is desti-
tute OF moral perception and sensibility.
and has n mania for stealing; that he did
not murder his mother from revenge be-
cause she dismissed him from the house
last fall, but because she kept constant
watch upon him after he returned home in
February to see that he did not steal from
the house or premises and that he muir
dered her to prevent the watch and guard
she kept against his intended robberies. 1t
is presumed that he had brooded over the
idea Of putting his mother out of the way.
and when he saw her STOPPING over the
robes in the sleigh to remove them
the thought instantly took posses
sion of him that that was the OPP
portunity to carry his purpose into effect.
and he at once struck the blows which
proved fatal. The manner Of doing the
deed, as it actually occurred, could not
have been premedi,ated. but the deadly
purpose had doubtless been smoldering
in his brain for days. perhaps weeks.
This theory furnishes the only explana-
ton of the cause of the murder we have
vet heard advanced. except it be the con-
lecture thatrevenge was the melting cause.
Facts may yet appear which are at variance
with the first theory. but at present it seems
to afford the most reasonable explanation
of this most monstrous CRIME. 1t possibly
adds another to the cases now under inves-
tigstion by scientific and unprecedented
men. in which the abnormal structure of
the brain is such that the individual is
almost inexorably predisposed to crime.
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