Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-10-27
HOW He KILLED HIS BABIES.
An Insane Father Gives Four Children
Arsenic and Shoots Them.

F,,ont tie Ne2O York World.
SUsoUEHANNA, Pa, Oct. 24.-The crime
Of John Howell in numbering his four
children and then innicting fatal injuries
ON himself proves even more horrible in
| its full details than the announce
ment in the brief dispatch Of Sunday In
Dictated, and accident alone prevented the
! list of victims being swelled to eight.
| For hours the solitary farmhouse was a
death-trap, where murderer kept watch
! beside his four victims, ready to Kill any
who approached. Howell is prosperous
English farmer, 40 years old. His farm
lies in Preston township, about three
miles from this place. Howell was known
as Ri Industrious, well-cOnducted man OF
excellent judgment and pleasant temper.
For a year. however, he has been under
treatment tor Bright's disease, and tie
melancholy 50 frequently attendant upon
that affection unsettled his mind. His
mania took a murderOus ana suicidal
form, and il is now learned that for some
time he had been planning to destroy the
whole family.
His opportunity came yesterday, when
his vile and eldest daughter were about
making purchases for the household.
Howell was left in the house with his
other four children, ranging in age from 3
10 - years. The scheme that the craZed
brain Of the wretched man had conceived
was to murder the four children In the
absence Of the other members of the
family, slaY his wife and daughter on their
return, and then end his own life. By
means not fully known he induced the four
children to take arsenic in sufficient guam
titles to cause death, and when they had
fallen into a stupor, by way of making his
work doubly sure, be successfully placed
a pistol close to the forehead of each, and
speeded a bullet into the brain. The
murderous work was ended before noon,
and Howell seated himself, cooked re-
yOlver in hand, to await the coming of
his wife and daughter. About / O'Clock
he saw his brother-in-law approaching
the house, but the latter turned aside
while still at a distance, and thus saved
his life. Disappointed of his prey, Howell
again took up his watch beside the muir
dered babes.
Shortly before o'clock he concluded
that his wife and daughter had determined
TO stay in town over night and he shot
himself twice and fell unconscious beside
the murdered innocents. A few minutes
afterwards the wife and daughter reached
home. Entering the house, they found
the four little ones and their father side
by side, all apparently dead. Poison was
the first idea that flashed across the minds
OF the horror.stricken mother and daugh-
ter, and Fastening to a neighbours they
gave the alarm and called a physician.
When the doctor arrived he pronounced
all dead save Howell, and declared the
fathers injuries fatal. The house was in
perfect order, and the murderer appeared
to have done his awful work with great
carefulness.
Howell recovered consciousness this
morning, and was able at the cOrOners
inquest to tell the story as it is told above.
He confessed that he had locked the door
as soon as his wife and daughter drove
away, and that he cahed his children
from their play to be murdered. One of
them, little girl of 6, was not fully
under the influence of the drug when he
shot her, and she made fight for life, but
he stilled her cries and sent the fatal
bullet crashing into her brain. No one
holds the wTetched man responsible, as
his insanity is generally conceded. 1t is
thought he cannot recover