The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1885-09-26
Killed by a Maniac.

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Sally Lyons was blooming and
buxom country girl when, three years
ago,she was married to Richard O'Neill,
an industrious young countryman, and
they made their home with his aunt,
Kitty Keefe, who had a house near
Silver Creek, little mining patch ten
miles East of Pottsville. Because of
being an Albino Mrs. Keefe was q local
curiosity and known for miles around
as kitty with the blinking eye and
white hair" From the start of their
joint housekeeping the two women were
inharmonious, and, as time passed on
without the wedlock being blessed with
children, Mrs. Keefe frequently taunted
her niece with the fact. Other women
around the neighborhood took up the
cry, until the young wife became almost
amonomaniac upon the subject. O'Neill
ardently wished for children, and this
added to his wife's unhappiness.
On Sunday many neighbors were
gathered at the house of O'Neilps
brother-in-law to celebrate the christen-
Ing OF his youngest child. Sally and
her husband were there and the women
made jokes at her expense. Plenty of
beer and whiskey was provided, and
towards the afternoon everybody was
feeling iovial except Sally O'Nein,
whom the liquor and the references
made to her childlessness had driven
into a morose passion. Suddenly she
reused from her passion, threw a glass
at her husband, stormed at him In the |
harshest language and then flung herself |
out OF the house in a fury, screaming
that she was "going to see Dicks aunt"
About 9 o'clock in the evening the
people in the little cabins near the Albino
woman's heard a noise like chopping.
and in a few moments Sally O'Nein
rushed from the door. Her eyes were
blazing, her hair streaming out behind
her and her dress front streaked with
blood, in which her hands and bare
arms seemed TO have been bathed. She
presented the horTid appearance Of a
raving maniac. Close upon her heels
followed two men, who shouted that
Kitty Keefe was lying dead in her door
way and that Sally o'Neill had killed
her
Men gathered around the screaming
and hysterical woman, who cried out,
IF she's kilt, I'll be happy to swing for
it. She ought 70 have been kilt long
ago." A dozen strong hands were laid
on her, but, with the strength of insanity,
she tore herself loose, and, breaking
through the throng, few back to the
stiffening corpse Of her victim, grasped
1t by the shoulders and dragged 1t into
the middle of the road, shrieking at the
top of her voice, and defying any one to i
touch her. II was a difficult task to ,
secure her, but at last she was bound |
and taken TO jail at Pottsyille at . O'Clock
Monday morning.
Mrs. Keefe had on but one garment, ,
md this and the condition of the interior ]
Of the cabin showed that a terrible
struggle hadstaken place. Mrs. O'Neill
lad evidently found an axe inside the /,
louse and pounced on the old woman ,
while she was in bed. The latter had
,een dragged to the floor, fighting for {
Ter life, ard had been repeatedly struck '
With the weapon until her strength
allied her. Then the murderess had
eyered her head from the trunk, cnt- !
ing away the last thread OF skin. In !
he jail on Monday Mrs. O'Neill raVal
ann recognizes M one.