Morning journal and courier., 1883-03-21
East Hartford Tragedy.

The Two Old Ladies Probably Murdered
 The Concluding Evidence at the Tn-
 quest.
 At the inquest in East Hartford, Monday, in the case of the two elderly ladies whose unrecognizable bodies were found in the eel lar of their burned dwelling, the concluding evidence was by Brooks Johnson His story was that he learned of the fire at o'clock Thursday morning while on his way from Hartford to Willowbrook. MT. Pratt met him on the river and told him that the house was burned and that the women were roasted to death. Johnson said that he was so over come that he turned around several times, saying My God, what will do! The wit ness said he always got there before the la dies got up, built the fires and did the morn ing chores. He hurried to the smoldering ruins of the fire and threw snow on the place where the bodies were. When asked what his theory of the matter was, he said: It looked as if they had been in the bed, and it had fallen down head first, and the bodies had got turned around. I thought the wo- men must have been chloroformed or suffo- cated. Johnson testified that he had left at o'clock the night before, and that he and his wife were getting ready to move back to the Judson place for the summer. The reason of their moving to Hartford last fall, he said, was to give his wife an opportunity to take in washing. They were living at No 6 Water street, just north of the waterworks He said he didn't think there was any chance for the fire to have caught from the stoves. He put up the pipes himself and they went into the brick chimney. There was never any wood lying about the stoves The Jud- sons were very careful about fire and were not very sound sleepers, as they often used to say they heard noises around the yard. He said he didn't know of anything of value about the house that would tempt anyone to murder the women folks. He found in used to hang in the kitchen. A few days before the fire they had a bill for hay and feed come in-$2O in amount. The women didn't pay it and I said to the man II guess they are waiting for their brother to come on again and give them some money" He testified that he went home from Gold street on the night of the fire at 9 o'clock, and at 10 went to bed He explained the finding of one of his axes in the ruins with the helve burned out He picked it up and hid it under 8 board near the well, and on Sunday found that 1t had been carried off. In his own language he continued his testimony as follows 'tHave D6OA III bA0 hOOOb SUOu O6hl IQ1S W1QtGE chopping- I used to have Charles Allen and another colored man namsd Jones to help me. I only used to sell things that raised, but chopped considerable wood which I sold to MT. Bailey. I gave 1915 oi the money to the women. MT. Anderson ar ranged with me to cut some trees, also Mir. | Steele. Steele's money gave to the ladies last Monday. Anderson hadn't paid for his | The ladies were satisfied with the sale of cut | up wood, but they thought that had beer | cheated in the price paid for the trees. | paid Miss Judson the money for the trees | $6 in silver."- He admitted that the ladies | didn't know anything about the wood trans actions until last Monday.] 'The reason I l didn't give them all the money was because ] was hard up. I told them how was situ ! ated and asked them to let it run for awhile | In my opinion here he hesitated1 there was ! some foul play-they were either | chloroformed or suffocated. I have nc
 suspicion as to who the persons were who committed the deed Havn't found
 the silver dollars in the ruins. MT | Jones' who helped me, is now in jail fol 1 stealing an overcoat. Never told anyone that
 the ladies were expecting money to buy fer l tilizers with. l never had any keys, but
 used to get in mornings by putting my hand
 through broken window at the back dool
 and lift the bar. It was the fore part of Jan | uary that gave the ladies the $15-it was tC
 Hannah. I told them where the money camt | from.''
 Johnson's wife was brought in from Hart
 ford and her testimony in the matter of he
 husbands whereabouts on the evening befor
 the fire was so in keeping with what Johnso,
 had testified to that in the minds of some 0
 the hearers there was a grave suspicion tha
 it had been reheasred.
 This concluded the evidence that was read, to be presented, and at o'clock the jury
 adjourned to o'clock Thursday evening"
 Johnson and his wife came from the jur, | room to Hartford. It would not have beel I out of place to have had him arrested t.
 await the result of the investigation, as h. | seems to have been in position with the 1 unfortunate women to warrant his detention l It is reported that the missing axe bear l signs of human blood on it's head, and that i l may be heard from later in the investigation