The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-10-03


victim to
THE MURDERoUs FURY
of her slayer. There were left on the farm
that day. after Mr.. and Mrs. Atkinson had
gone TO oxford. Lucy, eighteen years of age;
Adah and Louis Atkinson, fourteen years
old; Tom Conkling. one OF the farm laborers,
and Jake Melting, another farm labOrer. Be
fore dinner Lucy saddled her horse and rode
away TO visit some friends, leaving Adah
alone in the house, as the male members of
the farm were at work in the fields Adah
prepared dinner for herself and the men.
After dinner Tom Conkling and Louis went
out into one of the cornfelds, fully mile
from the house, leaving Melting to repair
few broken places in the fence surrounding
the orchard. located in the rear of the house,
Such was the situation. After the murder
Conkling was found to be wearing n
pair of bloody trousers, but he had
been assisting Mr.. Atkinson in the morning
to mark over a hundred pigs. Other labor
ers had been engaged in the same work but
all proved how they had spent the time.
Melting had blood on his shirt but he ex-
planned this by saying he had cut his hand
with an ak while severing twig, and Louis
Atkinson, brother to the murdered girl. cor
roborated him. Melting, however, was nearer
to the house than anyone else. When he
was told of the murder he expressed doubt,
and has remained ut work as usual. Last
Sunday he was found in Lucy's room up
stairs under the bed. When the young lady
entered the apartment to change her apparel
she did not at fist notice his presence. and it
was fully a minute before she caught sight
of q pair of mems shoes
SHE STARTED BACK
and called to her mother. Melting came from
under the bed, explaining that he was look.
ing for lost ten-cent piece. He had not
been accustomed to enter the girls room.
but his explanation was satisfactory and
nothing more was thought of il. Yesterday
a blood stained white handkerchiefwas found
in Nelling's room, secreted among some mus
lin. This muslin had been placed in his
room the Friday before the murder by Lucy,
and at that time no handkerchief was there.
The handkerchief was perfectly new. with
the cost-mark in blue pencil still in plain re-
lief. An investigation brought out the fact
that Melting had purchased two such hand
kerchiefs a short time previously. The blood
on it, however, is not plentiful, and looks as
If il might have come from a bleeding nose
or scratch. Other persons also recently pur-
chased handkerchiefs of the same deScrip-
ton at the same store. The family scout the
idea that Melting is the criminal and he ex-
plains precisely how he spent the time. The
Times correspondent however, not satisfied
with this explanation, pursued his investiga-
ton of this clew more thoroughly, as it was
the best so far discovered. Lucy Atkinson
havior, and told the circumstance occurring
in her bedroom.
Has Melting ever made any improper pro-
pOsals to YOU" was asked.
NO" she blushingly answered.
''Has he ever indicated by language or
gesture that he was at all laSciviOus?
The young lady hesitate1, bnt said: Some
times when l was alone or with another girl,
when no men were near, he would talk vul-
carly"
Miss Adsitt,
AN INTIMATE FRIEND
of the dead Adah, said the same thing-that
Melting had made obscene remarks in their
presence. Jacob Melting is a man fifty years
of age, about five feet ten inches tall, spare
built, with brown mustache and goatee,
sprinkled a little with gray; a gray eye
bright but insincere. and habituated to fur
tive glanceS. lie is general utility man On
the farm. chops the wood drives the COWS
home, and does odd jobs about the house or
fields. When spoken to by the Times cor
respondent he was perfectly self-posseSSed,
ana willingly showed where he had been ali
afternoon, and what work he had done.
Strange as it may seem. only two or three
suspect him at all Another link i'm the
chain OF circumstantial evidence which APP
pears to be surrounding Melting, and which
is regarded by few as important. is the fact
that his pOcket-knife just fitted into some of
gated. Blood was also found on the knife
near the handle This is accounted for,
though, by the fact that it had something to
do with the wholesale hOg-sticking in the
morning. Melting was not personally en-
gagged in the work, but Mr.. Atkinson Dor
rowed his knife TO slit the pigs ears.
There are hundred
DIFFERENT THEORIES
about the murder, and about fifteen persons
are suspected. An Oxford lady in business
is alleged to be implicated in some way by
some of the most imaginative. The reason
for this is il is asserted, that few months
ago the murdered girl discovered a letter
written by woman in which there were
expressions, it is reported, revealing her
character. Adah created excitement at the
breakfast table by reading this tell-tale mis-
sive, and the story goes that the woman
heard of il and vowed vengeance No one
believes that she committed the crime her
self, but there are whispers limiting at
brewIsh ferocity and hired assassins. At the
time the murder must have been perpetrated
some time near o'clock in the afternoon
the woman. it is stated, was nowhere i'm the
neighborhood of the Atkinson farm. A lit
| tie later she was seen driving her team of
blacks with two other ladies in direction
| opposite to the farm. As soon as she heard
| OF the affair she drove out to the house, but
even when hearts were breaking and stern
men shuddering in the horror OF the dread
| ful death, the mother of Adah turned her
back upon the proffered hand of the woman
| A young man named Jake Ladd was cutting
corn in field over half mile away from
| Atkinson's and great excitement was ere
| ated yesterday by the report that he had
said that he had heard the girl scream. A
| woman entered a store i'm Oxford, and with
| all the mysterious air OF n dreadful reve-
latiOn. told how Ladd's mother had told her
that Miss Adah had come
ACROSS THE FIELDS
from the house to visit him and a compan-
ion. to tighten their work of cutting the corn
| with her pleasant chat a1d happy smiles.
After few minutes conversation, she said
she must return home to rearrange her hair,
which was falling in neglect down her back
or waving in rivalry to the Drowned blades
of corn. Not long after she had left the men.
| Laid. it is reported, heard her singing away
at the house, and then scream was borne
| over the fields, awakening thrill of horror
at the weight of terror it seemed to voice
| Ladd looked at his watch and saw it was
| 800 o'clock, and then. nonchalantly pro-
ceeded with his cutting of the corn. This
story was absurd on its face, yet great
many believed il, and believe it still. Those
who have faith in il darkly whisper that
Ladd was anxious to divert suspicion from
/ himself. He and his mother both deny that
| they ever made such remarks, and explain
| Io,v tbo otorxr OriOinofod oiviuO anofhar in