The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1884-03-27
HORRIBLE CRIME.
Shocking Slaughter in a Remote
Section of Tennessee.
A Whsle Family Murdered-Swift JUS
tice Overtakes the Butchers.
[sprtngfield (Tenn.) Telegram.I

Springfield tTenn) Telegram.1
Perhaps the worst crime ever committed
has just been perpetrated In this (Robertson)
County. Twenty-Five miles from this place.
near the Kentucky line, lived John Martin,
his wife, and three children, two of them
grown young women, the other boy Of IL.
lived in the neighborhood nearly his entire
life. He had eked out a moderate living on
his little farm, quietly doing his work and
having the respect of every one. Yesterday
he returned from Nashville, where he went
TO procure the final settlement OF his pension
claims, having Teen wounded In the late war.
IL is presumed that this trip was learned
of by certain rough characters living near,
who, bent upon robbery, planned and
executed this most horrible crime, Martin
log house was situated q quarter of q mile
from the Springfield road, about ten miles
northwest from Adams Station. A heavy
growth OF cedars and underbrush hides the
house from the view OF the travellers on the
main road. This isolation prevented the trag-
edy from being discovered until this after
noon. A peddler who came TO the house gave
the first alarm, and the whole neighborhood
was aroused. The door was broken as IL
struck violently with an AK. This door
led into the main bedroom, whore Mar
tin and his wife slept. The scene upon
entering the room beggars all description.
Martin was dead upon the floor, his gray
hair matted and soaked in n pool of blood.
The head was split open in two places by
blows from an AK. The forehead was crushed,
and the glaring eyer were forced from their
sockets. Upon every side were evidences OF
the frightful struggle that must have taken
place. The walls and the floor were bespat-
tered with blood Mrs. Martin must have
been killed as she started from the bed. Her
arms were broken and her face horribly
mangled by the blows of the AK. There was
one stream OF CHASTITY blood.
The most pitiable sight was the little boy,
who occupied trundle-bed in the room.
Evidently he had been taken by one Of the
murderers during the struggle with
the others and choked to death.
In the next room, where the airls lay, the
sight would have melted "a heart of stone.
Everything indicated Il most desperate strug-
gle sor life. Evidently the murderers added
worse crime TO their misdeeds The dis
ordered clothing of the poor girls told palmer
than words of the outrages that had been
perpetrated upon them. After the brutal
assass ms had satisfied their lust they crushed
the skulls of the two girls with the AK, which
was found upon the floor, red with blood. 1t
was sad experience, and every eye that
witnessed the sud spectacle was full of tears.
The house had Teen ransacked from one end
to the other, and tables and chairs were over
turned. The entire neghborhood was filed
with horror at the fearful sacrifice of human
life.
A confusion of footprints was found lead
ing away from the house into the neighbor-
Ing woods Search parties were formed, and
the country for miles around was SECURED for
trace OF the murderers. farmland
named George French was arrested by one of
the County Constables upon suspicion. A
crowd gathered and soon sweiled into mob
of frenZied men. His contradictory replies
convinced them that he was guilty. A rope
was brought and PLACED about his neck,
and the mob swung him up 10 the
nearest tree. He was let down half insens-
BILE, and on coming TO confessed that he and
Jim and Dec Carter, two negroes, workmen
upon the farm OF Squire Davis, had planned
the murder. He gave sickeniny details OF the
assassination, and confessed that all three of
them had outraged the girls. They found 81
200 in money, and divided il between them.
He had hardly finished his story when he was
jerked up and strangled TO DEATH Twenty
shots were fired into his body. The mob made
a break for Davis farm, where the two ne.
groes were found. Although both of them
protested their innocence, the mob hanged
them TO the same tree and shot them while
they strangled.