The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-04-06
A WOMAN HANGED.
The Crime for Which Mrs. Neaker Went To
thc.GalIows in Vermont.

The Crime for Which Mrs. Mcaker Went 70
thc.GalIows in Vermont.
detailed account of the crime for which
Mrs. Emeline l.. Meaker was hanged n few
days ago at Windsor, VT, is as follows:
In the early hours of the morning of April
q, 1880, the dead body of Alice Meaker was
discovered by Sheriff Atherton, of Water
bury, lying in q dark swamp in the outskirts
of the adjoining town of Duxbury under a
mass of muck and brush. The news of the
murder created great excitement throughout
q large section of country. The atrocity of
the crime aroused intense public Indignation
against the perpetrators.
For year previous to the time of the
murder there lived on rugged and barren
slope of the Green mountains, i'll the town of
Duxbury, in small weather-beaten tene-
ment, the Meaker family, comprising six
persons. Horace and Eneliue l.. Meaker
we're husband and wife, aged respectively
fifty and forty-two years. Louis Alhon and
Nellie Meaker were son and daughter, of
nineteen and twenty-one years of age. The
family were poverty stricken and unlettered.
The old man and won IN were both deaf
and the boy was dull and stupid. Into this
household in the winter of 1880 were ushered
two little orphans-brother and sister
Henry and Alice Meaker, half brother
and sister of Mr.. Meaker, who had been
sent from the poor home i'll Charlotte to find
home. Alice, with fiaxen hair delicate
complexion and bright eyes, was eleven
years old and precocious for her age. She
was sad and melancholy child and never
played with the children of the neighbor.
hood. As she was capable and smart, Mrs.
Meaker kept her home to do the household
drudgery. The neighbors seldom saw Alice,
but frequently in passing the house they
we're alarmed by hearing the shrill cry of a
child. Stories of brutal treatment of little
ht Mrc aaG hal ,,a 4
and on several occasions the girl La / escaped
from the Meaker house in n half -starved con-
dition and called on neighbors for food
Suddenly Alice was missing. This was on
the twenty-fourth day of April. The next
day was Sunday, and several neighbors, sus-
pecting that the child had been foully dealt
with, went to the Meaker house, but were
refused admission. This aroused their sus-
picion, and one of their number went down
next day to Waterbury village and informed
Sheriff Atherton of the circumstances
Meanwhile a report had reached the officer
that Almon Meaker had bought some
strychnine of the village druggist, and
young Meaker had bought forty grains
of the deadly poison on the Friday previ-
Gus, telling the druggist he wanted it to
Kill ra;s. The suspicious of the officers
were strengthened by the contradictory
stories told by Almon Meaker when ques-
toned by them as to his whereabouts on the
Friday night in question. 1t was further
ascertained that he hired livery team that
night, as he said at the time, to carry his
sister to Stowe. To Sheriff Atherton he
stated that he and his mother took little
Alice and carried her to the Richmond depot
and that she had gone to Canada on the
cars. On being closely questioned, how
ever, young Meaker broke down and refused
to answer any more questions. This was on
Monday night. Taking Almon in room
alone, and after bringing great pressure to
bear on him. Sheriff Atherton forced q con-
fes sion OF the murder from the lips of young
Meaker. He first said that the terrible crime
was committed by himself; that little Alice
had gone TO Il better land, and that her
troubles We're all over. The self-confessed
murderer offered to accompany the officer
alone to the swamp where he said the body of
the poor girl was buried. Thereupon at mid
night Sheriff AthertoD and his prisoner set
out on their dreadful mission. They drove
seven miles through mountainous road
when the murderer suddenly said:
Stop this is the place" Alighting from
the team, young Meaker led the way through
dismal swamp some ten rods, and, point
ing to heap of muck and underbrush, said
" She is under there. Now have done as
agreed to- The officer and the murderer
carried the body of tie dead girl to he team
turning from the swamp Almon briefly told
the story of the murder. The arrest OF the
Meakers Immediately followed.
In his confession Almon said "My mother
came into the pantry, where l was getting
lunch, and asked me if would help her
take Alice to the mountain and leave her
there to starNe told her no, | would not
1t ran along u few days. and she urged me
to h ZIP her get rid of Alice. She persisted
In tax n her off and leaving her where no
one would find her and let her starve. |
to take her back to Charlotte.
My mother said that if l would not
assist Ter i'll the course she wanted to take,
she proposed te kill the child outright. She
urged me to help her to do it. but | did not
consent until the Tuesday before. She con-
tinually urged me, and said il could be done
by poison and would be an easy DEATH |
Will say here that if had thought her death
would have been SO terrible / never would
have consented to it. She made the plan to
procure strychnine, and | procured it of
druggist Carpenter, of Waterbury village and
paid ten cents for it. This was Friday night,
the night of the murder. Invent Immediately
to livery keeper and got team. and went
over home and put the team back of the
barn. Mother had put Alice to bed with
her clothes on. and mother took her out of
the window, telling her we were going to
ride. My father was in bed. Mother and
Alice W liked 81 ort way up the hill through
the field, and came to the road where | had
the team. They got in and drove through
the street, and gave the poison on the
Henry Hill below the street, when we put
in some sweetened water and gave it to her.
We drove on, and in about twenty minutes
the poison took effect and she went into con
WILSON'S. My mother held her hands over
the little girls mouth to prevent her max
ing II O se We started for sandbank
toward stowe. and took a shawl TO bury her
with But she died so soon as we stopped
at swamp, where the body was shown
Deputy Sheriff Atherton."