Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-10-10
BROKE JAIL.
Two sIurderers at Large.

On Friday night last Appleton At
kinson, aged ~slxty-eight years, and his
son James, aged twenty-eight, broke
Jail at Gayoso, Pemiscot county, Mo-,
on the river 1870 miles above here.
The prison is a small wooden struc-
ture with but two rooms, one of which
is a sort of cell, built Of iron and wood
combined. 1t is situated in one cor
ner of the courthouse square, Gayoso
being the capital of the county. The
prisoners are under sentence Of death
by hanging, having been convicted
two or three weeks ago Of the murder
of the wife OF the younger Atkinson,
also his infant child.
The murderers made their escape
by saving out Of their cell, and it
is reported that friends supplied them
with Winchester rifles to defend
themselves in the event Of pursuit.
The entire male population is in a
lerment over the affair, and large
bodies of men are searching for them
through the woods and swamps Of old
Pemiscot. 1t is belie7ed that in the
event of their being found, short work
will be made Of both.
The m~urderers were guilty OF
one of the most cruel and
atrocious acts in the annals
of crime. The younger Atkinson
married the daughter Of a respectable
farmer six years ago. His father not
liking the match treated the young
wife unkindly, and some time before
the murder she and her husband sep
arated, the lady with her infant re-
turning to her fathers home mile or
SO of, and leaving her five year old
daughter with its father.
One day in June last Mrs. Atkin-
son, Jr., went over to see her eldest
child. While there her husband
crushed in her skull. Having a very
small foot he put on her shoes and
carried the body to the river and
tumbled it in. 1t was found a few
days after, bearing marks oeviolence.
and the theory that she had commit
ted suicide fell through from the fact
that her shoes we're found at the At
|kinson mansion hidden between a
pair ofmattresses.
The child's remains have never
been found, but at the trial the five
year old daughter Of the murdered
woman, related how her grandfather
had dashed its brains out against the
floor, and her grandmother had wiped
up the blood stains with a clott
which she saturated with grease anC
hid in an ash hopper.
A portion Of the cloth not eat
en- by the lye was found wher'
the girl reported it. Will
this exception the evidence wa
purely circumstantial, but it wa.
strong, and, though defended by twI
of the best criminal lawyers in tn
West, the two men, father and son
were both convicted and sentenced
couple of weeks ago. They we're t
have been hung two weeks from Fri
day next.
1t is said that the mother Of th
younger and wife Of the elder Akin
son committed suicide by cutting be
throat some days ago while on a Wis
to her s~on-in-law over in Tennesse
opposite Gayoso. Remorse having lie
her to perpetrate the awful act.
The conviction and sentence Of Ii
Atkiusous was the first successfI
prosecution for murder that eve
occurred in Pemiscot county, thong
more than a hundred men have bee
killed in broils and ~iracases Of varioJ
kind in that part Of Missouri. Til
peculiar a~trocity of their bloody al
was too much to be borne by the pc,
pie even in a section where life is he
at small value.