Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-12-11
A TALE Or BLOOD.

| The Terrible Deed OF . Rejected Sutton FOL
Young Lady's Hand In Nebraska--siz
Lives Sacrificed ON tho Altar of the Green
Eyed Monster.
OMAHA, NEB., December 8.
Details reached here yesterday of one Of
| the most diabolical wholesale bntcheries
ever committed In this State-the killing
of five persons by one man, followed BY
the suicide of the murderer. The scene
of the slaughter is the town OF Wal.
worth, Custer County, q locality without
telegTaphic facilities, which fact accounts
for the time taken for the story to reach
the outside world. Although the crime
was committed Wednesday night, the
news did not reach here until last night,
and even now the facts are not all known.
The victims of the horrible affair. were:
John Finley, widower about sixty
years old.
Mary Finley, his daughter, aged six.
teen.
Fannie Finley, Mary's sister, aged eigh-
teen.
John williams, sutton for Mary's
hand.
Charles Watkins, Fannie Finley's lover.
The perpetrator was Thomas or Timo-
thy Furquin, who was rejected sutton
of one of the young ladies; it is not
known which. All parties were residents
of the town where the tragedy occurred.
The motive for this horrible butchery
was jealousy. The two young ladies
have for some time been receiving the
attentions of Watkins and Williams,
and it was generally supposed there
was to be double wedding about
Christmas time. Young Furquin has
always been considered an exceedingly
quiet, Industrious and inoffensive young
fellow, and though it was an open secret
that he had been an admirer of and sutton
for one of the Finley girls, and had been
rejected, no one ever thought that he was
capable of such crime.
He has for some time been giving
tokens of his unfriendly feelings toward
the young men who proved successful in
winning the favor of the girls, but no one
seems to have ever heard him make an
open threat.
On Wednesday night the two Finley
girls, in company with their lovers, Wat
kins and Williams, attended dance.
Young Furquin had asked one of the girls
to go with him, but she declined on the
score, it is believed, of a previous en-
gagement. This seems to have been the
acme of his bitterness over his unrequited
love, and to have driven him into murder
Gus frenzy. He did not go to the dance,
but laid in wait for the party, nursing
his hatred and planning his revenge.
When the party drove up to the gate of
the Finley homestead, after their night of
pleeasur, Furquin was there with a
double-barrelled shotgun, loaded with
s'blue whistlers." The party were in
spring wagon, just large enough to COM
fortably carry the four. The jealous man
was hid, and, unseen by his victims, he
levelled his gun and fired both barrels in
quick succession at them. The contents
of the gun literally riGdled the bodies of
all four, killing them almost ms family.
Hearing the shooting and the death
screams of his daughters, old man Finley
rushed from the house, and, as it proved,
to his own death, for the murderer struck
the old man blow over the head with
the butt of the gun, and repeated the blow
until the poor fellows brains were beaten
out.
The murderer then completed his hor-
rible work by blowing out his own brains
with revolver.
CONTRADICTORY STORIES.
Such is the story of the horrible affair
as obtained from number OF sources
and reports, all of them, more or less, IN
their character, contradictory, but all
agreeing in their general features.
One report says the murderer burned
the house after committing the crime,
while another says his body was found
on the river bank some distance from the
others, indicating that he had some idea
of escaping after the slaughter, but
changed his mind.
Your correspondent has been endeav
oring to obtain full details of the affair
or absolute confirmation of the story
above given, but has been unable up to
midnight to get anything direct from the
scene.