The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-09-11
NANCY E. GLEN RELEASED.
Freed on the Fifteenth Anniversary
of the Cold Spring Horror.
The Story of the Most Sensational Murder
ChrOnicled in Marion County's Grim
inal Annals-Reminiscence

Tomorrow morning Nancy E. Glen will be re-
leased from the Indiana Female Prison the
term for which she had been sent for perjury,
less the good time allowed by law, having ex-
pred. A Journal reporter called at the prison
yesterday afternoon to see Mrs. Glen, and talk
with her regarding her designs on leaving prts-
on The matrOn being absent, Mrs. johnson, the
assistant matrOn, had doubts about allowing
| the interview, but finally consented. Here an
other obstacle presented. Mrs. Glenn would not
| be interviewed She was pleasant and agreeable,
but disincined to talk about her plans for the fu-
| ture She was dressed in blue-check gngham
dress, without earrings, breast-pin or any orna-
ments, such vain kickshaws being against prison
rule, aud her hair a rich chestnut brown, heavy,
with but little gray in it, was plainly arranged
about her wide and comedy forehead and tied in
a knot behind. She is plump, and, though over
| fifty years of age, shows but few wrinkles. She
| was at work in the sewing-room, where she is
said to be very efficient. She has been ex-
ceedingly quiet and tractable prisoner, one of
the best in the institution. and has washed,
| irohed, sewed, ana at times been employ ed in
the cooking department.
"She looked broken and haggard for some
! time after her husband applied for divorce
from her." said Mrs. johnson, land, though she
made little sign, could see that she keen
sufferer. She now looks much better. She is a
very different woman from what she was when
| she came here, and hope that she Is thorough
| ly changed, and that the remainder of her life
Will be good and peaceful Her son is to
call for her, and she will go and live with him."
Mrs. Glen has no money now, and her days Of
| financiering over. About three months ago
her divorced husband, Frank Glenn, went from
/ nd w hare are
now unknown to ner In answer to a question
as to whether Mrs. Glenn could read, the reporter
was tod that she could read aud write, and has
| always been able to do both during the time she
has been in the prison. and that she NOT only
writes her own letters, but writes for other of
the prisoners. She has never been troublesome,
and has always done her task not only willingly.
put cheerfully She was received into the prison
| March 20. 1880, and by good time" gains six
| months ana eighteen days on her term of I'M
| prisonment.
AN ANNIVERSARY.
Tomorrow Nancy L. Glenn will come out of the
Indiana Female Prison a free woman. II is the
] 9th of September, and to her an anniversary Of
bloody memory. On. that day, fifteen years
| ago, was committed the most horrible and mys-
FERROUS murder In the annals of Marion county.
On Sunday, Sept. ID, 1868, a sand bar in
White river, near Cold Spring, about three miles
from this city on the Charlottesville pike, two
bodies, one Of man, the other OF a woman,
the other that of his wife, Nancy Young. The
right side of the head and face of the man was
| fearfuy shattered, the deed evidently having
been done at short range and with heavily
| loaded shotgun. Hideous as was this sight, a
! few feet 10 the westward was a second horror
surprising it IN ghastliness. 1t the charred
and blackened remains of a small and delicate
| woman, with fair complexion ana auburn hair.
! She was lying on her right side, with her knees
| drawn up, her lower extremlties and the body
| burned to a crisp. small hole in the back of
| her head showed that pistol bullet had put
| end TO her existence, while blood and bruises on
| her forhead and on the crown OF her head showed
that in addition to the pistol bullet she had been
struck with IA club or the butt of gun.
HER ARREST AND TRIAL.
Nearly every one is familiar with the arrests
that foil owed-Nancy E. Glenn, Silas Hartman,
her brother, and william Abrams-and the fear
and cOntrition of Hartman, as his trial drew
! near and which resulted in his suicide in his
cell in jail, where he cut his throat from ear to
ear with a razor. Young and Abrams had been
friends. and were married, on the same night, at
| the Spencer House, eight years before The gun
with which the murder of Young had been COM
| mitted, and which had been found in the water
near the scene of the tragedy, had been bought
| at Solomon's pawn-shop the day before the muir
| der, of a coored employe, who recognized
| Abrams as the man to whom he had sold it,.
| Abrams was sent to the penitentiary for life,
and Mrs. Glenn, also, for life, but after serving
two years in the Southern penitentiary, was
/ granted new trial, by the Supreme Court, on a
| technicality. The long exasperatlng and expen-
| siye trials that followed failed to result in
her conviction tshe was charged with the murder
| of Mrs. Yonngl, and, a5 length, nolle prosequi
| was entered, and she returned to her home.
Governor Williams pardoned Abrams, public
| sentiment being that it unjust to punish
| him longer when the more important actors in
| the tragedy had been allowed TO slip through
| The meshes Of the law, and the opinion grow
| ing that the testimony upon which he had been
| convicted had been of flilnsy character. 1t
will be remembered that IL was shown during
! the trials that Mrs Glen had accompanied Mr..
| and Mrs. Young that Saturday to Cold
| Springs; that her brother, Sas Hartman called
"Sike," had driven out alone, ami by a different
and roundabout road, having hired for the pur-
pose % mare called "Pet," then celebrated for her
rapid qualities, from John Drew, the llveryman.
1t was also shown, though perhaps not conclu-
sively, that when Hartman returned he brought
back woman with him.
| A FEMALE sPECULAToR.
| The straE gest feature in the Glenn case was the
| money transactions 1t appeared that she was
borrowing thousands OF dollars Of Young OF
Abrams and OF others, and paying large amounts
| OF interest for it's use for short time. This in
terest was paid promptly and was of such a
generous figure that it made these men eager to
| lend to her, and they became borrowers of
| others in order to get the money she paid such
| round usury for. The borrowing became larger
and larger until the time of the murder it was
| varionsly estimated that the amount reached
| was from $4,000 to $4,000. Ingenious coun-
sci devised all manner of theories regarding the
use to which this money applied. II was be-
lieyed that the simplest explanation would be
the correct one, and that IL was merely a huge
coincidence game 60 establish credit by prompt
! payment of heavy interest and borrowi in.
hnn S1ffi-