Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-03-26

q murderer Experience WIN DoBuS meuluIu
In October last Mrs. Marion Moxley, oi
Keytesvlle, Mo-, died suddenly, and, accor.
ding TO correspondent of the St. Louis
Republican, under suspicious circumstances.
Her husband tooi his three children and
Joined his father-in- law in the Indian Terr
tory. After he lad gone the body of the
dead woman was disnterred, and it was
found that the woman's neck was broken in
two places The result of the inquest was q
verdict against Moxley for murder.
He was brought back aud incarcerated in
the county Jail at Keytesvlle and put in
company with young man named Burton,
who had been committed for thirty days for
some slight oHsuse. Sheriff Moore told
Burton the circumstances Of Moxley's guilt,
and asked him to elicit whatever acknow-
Judgments he could Burton shrewdly pre-
tending 10 be medium, and to while away
time proposed to his fellow prisoner to make
some tests. The proposal being accepted, a
oose,jointed chair that responded intell-
gently to adroit pressure was used in place
of a table.
system of signals being agreed upon be-
tween the medium and the supposed spirits,
the question was put, SIS any spirit present
acquainted with either party in the fesh?"
The answer was three raps for yes.
Burton then arranged the questions so as
TO elicit the fact that the wife of the mur-
derer was present.
Did you die recently ?"
Yes"
sHave you any recollection of dying?"
Three raps for yes, very decidedly.
sWill you try to relate to us your expe-
rience by means OF direct questions.from
us ?"
Three raps lively.
"Were you willing TO die?"
Two raps, no.
"Did you die suddenly ?"
Three raps.
At this point of the investigation Moxley
was in q cold sweat, and declared his con-
victions clear and his curiosity gratifed !;
but Burton's zeal was growing as he found
himself increasing in ability to delicately
manipulate his subject, and ho continued to
press questions upon the Spirits" and
watched the effect upon the culprit The
questions were pnt SO as to establish the
identity OF Mrs. Moxley most thoroughly,
attended by unhappy experiences, please
SOoIo IL Sou uiCh huoE 10 SoiiSe q ooeuA 80
death?'
The chair, responding to the intelligence
OF Burton, gave two raps, mo"
ibid you die by acrident?"
"No'
''By foul mcans?"
Eyes"
''At the hands Of an unknown assassin ?"
"No."
"Were you killed by relative ?'
Three loud raps for "Yes" made Moxley
quail afresh and gasp.
In this manner the interrogations we're
continued until the facts of the case, as they
had been previously given to Burton were
substantially brought out, and the trembling
culprit, unable to deny anything, gave Bur-
ton all the money he had to let him sleep
with him that night, for he dared not face
his own conscience in the dark. Singular
as it may seem, this novel method in the
end gave Burton full possession of Moxley's
horrible secret, that he had killed his wife
by breaking her neck, so he might be free
to marry her younger sister. He afterward
told Burton that he loved his wife, and
whatever possessed him to kill her was to
him unexplainable. 1t was asascertained that
Moxley struck the woman twice, each time
breaking her neck; that the murder occur
| red at II o'clock at night, and that he took
his two children to a neighbor's without
stitch of clothes on. All these facts have
since been fully established, and Moxley is
likely to hang through the strategy of bo-
gus medium.