Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1882-10-13
THE MURDERED CoBBLFR.
A Strange and Peculiar Family Ex
tra0rdinary Plot:

When the present century was in its |
teens there lived about six miles from
Wexford, Ireland, q well-to-do cobbler |
or "brogue-maker" named Crosbie.
His wife was pretty well along in life,
the mother of eight children, all idiots
and the most of them deformed.
Crosbie employed two men, one
named John Brown and the other John
Hauton. Brown was small and hid
eously ugly man; yet, such as he was
he contrived to win from his employer
the affections of his wife. The entire
neighborhood was aware of the rela-
tons of the guilty pair before the hus-
band began to suspect their intimacy.
When he did he became violently
jealous and abusive. Browns situation
began to be uncomfortable end the
| wife's almost unbearable; and they
plotted to remove the interfering hus-
band out of their way.
One day the workmen were given q
| holiday, and they amused themselves
by walking to Wexford. Brown asked
Hauton to stop at a druggists with
him, and there he
| PURCHASED A QUANTITY OF ARSENIC
ami red precipitate; on the way back,
Brown, of his own accord tod Hauton
that he and Mrs. Crosbie had determin-
ed on the death of Crosbie, and that
the poison was for that purpose.
Strange enough Hauton took the in
| formation coolly, and said nothing
against the contemplated murder. He
even consented 10 become the instru-
ment of an expedient which Brown, in
his amazing ignorance, supposed would
make him entirely guiltless of crime.
| Mrs. Crosbie had commissioned and
given him money to buy the poison,
| and he believed if he did actually de-
liver the poison to her he would not be
guilty in any way. In order, therefore,
to keep within-as he supposed-the
strict limits of the law, he placed Hau-
ton between himself and Mrs. Crosbie,
whose hand he took and also that of
Hauton. In Hauton's hand he placed
the packages of poison, and in his turn
Hauton passed them to Mrs. Crosbie.
By this legerdemain of assassination
Brown kept his conscience clear and
sweet, and bis neck from danger.
Hauton's part was equally strange
for he cared nothing for the individuals
concerned in the tragedy; had no love
for the woman, no particular friendship
for the man, and no hate for the mas
ter, whose death, indeed, would be
misfortune for him, for when the en-
ployer lost his life, the journeyman
would lose his place.
In Hauton's presence Brown and
Mrs. Crosbie planned that she should
administer the arsenic to her husband
On bread and butter, and keep the red
precipitate to be used if the arsenic did
not carry him off.
As agreed upon, 50 done.
After parsaking of the bread and
butter, Crosbie was taken i'll, and his
wife nursed him with great tenderness
and solicitude. Although he suffered
much, Crosbie's strong constitution
seemed to be bearing him safely
| through the shock, and Brown suggest
| ed that his wife should give him the red
precipitate, which the loving and ami
able wife did, in h cup of tea, assuring
the sick man that it would relieve him.
1t did, for he Immediately expired in
the utmost agony.
No inquest was held, and the MUIR
dered man was hurried to his grave
with indecent haste. Brown succeeded
to the business, dismissing Hauton,
who st once left the village, and went
10 live at distance.
Brown did not prosper, however.
The business Immediately fell off to
nothing, and Mrs. Crosbie died sud
| denly. To avoid the care of her large
idiotic offspring, Brown fed, and some
wears passed without an indication that
| Il. j.. s l.,
ever be brought to light. But the old
proverb held good in this case, for
Hauton got religion, and, with this
change of heart, was irresistibly COM
PEELED to ease his bosom of its guilty
secret, there so long imprisoned.
Brown was found in state of almost
incredible poverty and degradation, ar
rested and brought to trial, but upon
the uucorroboratea testimony of a
single witness could not be found
guilty. Browns
PLEA OF "NoT GUILTY."
seemed to be sustained by all the &C
cessories of innocence which pecull-
ar responsiveness could supply. His
cadaverous look, lips blanched with
starvation, eyes in which fear and fam
| inc glared together, wild and matted
hair, his stopping and contracted form,
on which there were hardly enough
rags to hide his emaciation, and the
union of physical meanness with COW
ering debasement, constituted such a
nasuating combination as rendered it
almost incredible that such repulsive
squalid wretch could have been the
| hero Of sanguinary amour.
Brown was about to be discharged
when a most extraordinary witness
was introduced-the eldest daughter of
| the long since murdered man. This
dwarf was only three feet in height,
though eighteen years of age, deformed
in every limb, with head almost as
| large as the rest of her squat and dis
torted body.
Her face was stamped with such an
| uumistakable expression of idiocy that
when she was lifted to table an effort
was made to exclude her testimony on
| the allegation that she could form no
idea OF future state, but she uttered
the word "hel" with such horror that
it was concluded to swear her.
Her appearance was hideous, but
when it became apparent that the
| idiot daughter had come to brand her
dead mother as murderess, the most
painful feeling prevailed the Court and
all spectators.
The girl swore that on the night of
Crosbie's death the eight children slept
in their mothers room, and that while
her father lay cold in death under
meath, the murde-ous pair had aban-
doned themselves to guilty JOY over
his sudden taking off. After this.
TERRIBLE TESTIMONY
1t was remarked by Browns counsel
that the testimony of one child, to have
weight. should be confirmed by the
others whom she swore were present
1t then transpired that only one, save
the female dwarf, was able to artlcu-
late.
A boy, her brother, was now pro-
duced. He was almost as terrible
deformity as his sister, but not quite
SO idiotic. He corroborated his sisters
statement in every particular, and
further deposed that after the death of
Crosbie no one would patronize the
shop. Then Brown and his mother went
off together, leaving the children des-
titute, and that their neighbors, from
| COMMISSION badStaken them into their