News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-02-28
LONG ISLAND TRAGEDIES.
a SINGULAR SERIES OF CRIMES.
Three FelOniOus Assaults with Mysterious
Confessions and Arrests-A Review of
the Case.
TFrom the New York Times.1

--A@-NS'I
Since November II, 1888, three felon-
ious assaults, one of them resulting in
murder, have been committed on Long
Island, and within radius of a few
miles. Mrs. Maybee and her unmarried
daughter were waylaid in barn on their
premises, one after the other, and were
strangled. They were put out of the
way in order to leave Mr.. Maybee, an
inlrm and half blind old man, at the
mercy of the murderer or murderers.
The two unfortunate women being dis
patched, the old man was next assaulted,
robbed and left for dead Early in JAN
uary Mr.. and Mrs. Townsend, living in
the same locality, were assaulted by a
person-presumed to be colored man
who, under pretext of getting some
articles or money for laundry
woman, got into the house, beat the
couple, robbed the premises, and left
Mr.. and Mrs. Townsend insensible, or
partially so. Under very nearly similar
circumstances, on Jan. 25, another
couple, Mr. and Mrs. Sprague, in the
region terrorized already by previous
crimes, were also assaulted. Mr.. Sprague
was beaten and left for dead, outside of
the house, and the assailant, described
as molatto, attacked Mrs. Sprague in
the house, where she was awaiting for
her husband to come to his breakfast,
and;;after few cruel blows, compelled
her to give up what money she had at
hand, taking which, he fled.
The unraveling of these crimes and
the discovery of their perpetrators would
furnish work for skilled detectives. The
Long Island constabulary and an assist
ant force have been following clews with
extraordinary results. John Tappan, a
white man, was arrested for the Towns
end assault. He is yet in jail, protest
ing his innocence of any crime what
ever. Simon Rappalee was also arrested
for that crime, the evidence against him
being a pair of blood-stained overalls,
said to have belonged to him. Mrs.
Townsend, brought face to face with
Rappalee, positively identified him as
her assailant Nevertheless, the ac-
cused man proved an alibi and estab-
lished his innocence beyond peradven-
ture, Just in time to save himself from
being Iynched by the infuriated resi-
dents of the region.
Meantime, John Tappan languished
in Jail under accusation of assaulting
the TOwnsends; and before the Sprague
assault, Edmund S. Tappan, his brother,
confessed that he was in part accessory
to the murder of Mrs. and Miss May
bee, standing by and seeing his brother
John kill the two women, one after the
other, and then attack and rob the old
man i'll the house. Finally, one Rugg,
a colored man, was arrested for attempt
ing TO kill Mr.. and Mrs. Sprague, and,
being in custody, clues led directly from
him to the assaults on the Townsends,
of which Rappalee was accused, and to
the Mavbee murders, which Edmund
Tappan says he and his brother COM
mitted.
Without inclining to preiudge the
case, it must be admitted that there are
circumstances about all three OF these
frightful and heartless crimes which
connect them together. 1t might be
said that they were the work of one set
of hands. The same brutality, rough
ness, and directness of intention appear
in each. But the detectives have fur
| nished a new and wholly differing set
of facts for each case. Doyle, tramp,
accused by a fellow-vagrant of the
Maybee murders, was first selected as
the s'undouDted criminal" The So
called confession of Tappan upset that
theory. The evidence against Rappalee,
in the Townsend case, was so over
whelming that he owes to an accident
his escape from a mob. Only Rugg
has been accused of the Spraeue
assault, and circumstantial evidence
directly connects him with the Town
send assault and the Maybee murders.
He has had in his possession property
and money taken from the Maybees anC
the Townsends. These, he says, were
given to him by Edmund Tappan, th'
self-accused accessory to the murder o
Mrs. and Miss Maybee. 1t would ap
pear that the detective theories having
collapsed, Edmund Tappan was pressed
into making his confession" implicat
ing himself and his brother. That con
fession would have stood but for tn
persistence of Rugg, who. following u
his insane thirst for gore and money
disclosed himself as the probable perpe
traitor of all three of the Long Islant
crimes. The detectives have alread.
begun to spin theory to fit the facts il
this dreadful drama, so full of blood.
surprises.