Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1882-03-27
THE WATERBURY MURDER

The story of this tragedy needs no
livid coloring to arouse feelings of
adherence for the wretched man who
slew his wife and venerable mother,
or of compassion for the mangled
victims of his demoniac fury. The
simple facts are more narrowing than
language can depict them.
The Mccartney household consisted
of ten persons, Matthew Mccartney,
aged about 45 years his wife, SO !;
seven children, the youngest twins
of II months; McCafrey's mother,
aged 80; and Peter McCue, brother
of Mrs. Mccartney, man between
80 and 40, who had lived in the fam
lily several years, and assisted in car
rying on the farm.
A few days before the tragedy Nc
Cue went to Greensboro with McCaf-
frey's horse and sleigh, taking with
him the boy Martin, to visit relatives
there. No especial noteworthy Incl
dent seems to have TRANSFERRED in the
family till Saturday, the 18th instant.
In the forenoon of that day McCaf-
frey mounted horse, with no other
trappings than a headstall and a
chain around the animals neck, and
started for Waterbury Center, about
six miles distant. He carried a stout
stick about three feet long in his
hand. His daughter Annie says he
took the chain to get it mended.
His conduct on the road, while at the
Center and on his return was such as
to indicate that he was somewhat de-
ranged. He returned at night and
there was nothing particularly strange
in his actions.
1t is generally understood that Nc
Caffrey had been drinking cider very
freely during the winter; that he had
drank cider before going to the Cen
ter, and again on his return; yet it
does not appear that there were any
mutterings of the coming tempest
when night descended on that doom
ed household. Since the birth of the
twins, Mrs. Mccartney had slept with
one of them in small bedroom, a
little more than ten feet square, open
ing out of the kitchen, her mother-in-
law sleeping with the other in bunk
in the same room in a corner diagon-
ally opposite. There was a space
about three feet wide between the two
beds, and a space of about four feet
between the walls and the foot OF
each bed. Mccartney had generally
slept with the child Mary in an adj.
joining but not connecting bedroom
On the night in question Mary slept
with the older children up stairs, but
Mccartney seems to have occupied
his own bed, as the little girl Annie
says her mother made the bed in tina
room Saturday, and that it was tum
bled Sunday morning, as if some one
had slept in it.
During the night Annie was awak
ened by screams from below. Sh
heard her mother crying, ''Don't
Mat; don't y She aroused he
brother John, and the two made.thei
way down stairs. There in the bed
room, in the clear moonlight, the
saw their father in his night clothes
above the form of their mother pros
: trate on the floor in the narrow spac
t between the beds, his hand clutch
ing her throat and alternately raisin
her head and dashing it against th
: floor with all his strength. Then b
r released his grasp of her throat anC
with constant cursing and blasphemy
t seized her hair and continued to be-
I her head against the floor. The la
seized his father and says he ''trie
to reason with him, to make him /
STILL" Their father told them to g,
: into bed and keep still, or he woul
kill them, too; and there in the be
- from which this demon dragged the
II, mother they were compelled to
mute and powerless witnesses of Il
most brutal murder on the records
crime. Their mother gasped them
- faint goodbye, while the fend, st
swearing and cursing, addressing h
9 with indecent language, continued
= assail her with his fists. The dyil
mother asked to be allowed to XII
:: the children, privilege that W
brutally refused. Then the monst
i left his helpless victim, went to t
woodbox in the kitchen, took sti
= of wood, and returning, battered |
- wife's head to a jelly. The Q
= mother, who had been awakened
. the uproar and had CROPPED her W
- to the kitchen, wandered, in b
blindness, into the bedroom and /
= gan to plead with her son. "Dol
kill her, MATT she cried; ''do
: kill the mother of your seven Chi
rem" The old lady's importunit
drew his rage towards her, and n
Caffrey turning round, knocked l
:. down, saying, with fearful GA
as "Lie there with the daughter you L
of so well. He began pounding
# with his fists and beating her he
against the floor. Then he return
of to his wife and again beat her lifel
.oo body with the stick. Hearing
death rattle in his mothers thro
mr. and fired by it with fresh NADINE
,+o he seized another stick of wood, {
;sb with dreadful imprecations beat