The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1889-05-09
An East Texas Murderer Makes a
Deathbed Confession of
Bloody Crime.
The Mystery of Foul Murder
Comes to Light After
Twenty Years.
Special to the Statesman.

Special to the Statesman.
PALESTINE, May 4.-The cid adage that
''mprder will out" has been stsrtliugly
verified here to-day by the arrest of an
aged man and citizen for an assassination
which occurred twenty-one years ago.
One Sunday morning about that time
boy on the way to the mill found by the
roadside the body of young Polk Ables,
riddled with bullets and lying at the edge
of little glade, seven miles west of Pal
estine. His right foot was pulled off, and
it was known that he had been paid the
sum of $40O few days before.
Robbery was at first supposed to be the
sole motive. Young Ables was on his
way to dance at Mrs. Wright's when
murdered, and parties at the house heard
first horn blow, then gun shots, followed
by the cries of some one in distress. A
short time after this Ben Milan, Oscar
Fields and Devel John Parker appeared at
the dance, and there is tradition that
some woman washed blood from Ben
Nulam's coat sleeve.
Suspicion became rife in the neighbor-
hood, and the further fact soon leaked out
that the murdered man was an eye witness
to the driving off of bunch of horses by
Henry Fields and the parties above men
toned, Ables having detected them swim
ming the horses across the Trinity river.
The four men mentioned above were ar
rested, an examining trial was had and the
parties bound over to await the action of
the grand jury. 1t is surprising to note
the rapid changes of twenty years. In that
period fully thirty people, connected one
way or another with the murder, have died
and few persons now live who remember
the events of the murder or the judicial
investigation which followed. Three of
the reputed asssssips, John Parker, Oscar
, Fields and Ban Milan, have passed in their
che cks and gone to pay their long &C.
counts.
In January last, Ben Milan siokened
and on his death bed confirmed the sus-
pioions of many by death bed confess
sion. He confessed, in the presence of
several persons, that he and Parker sta
toned themselves on the roadside, while
Henry Fields and his son, Oscar, went on
Fields were to blow blast of horn
should Ables' be alone, two blasts if he
had company. The fatal blast sounded on
the stiffness of the evening, and a few
minutes afterward Ables appearing alone
the two concealed assassins emptied
their shotguns and pistols into
his body. This confession revived old
memories and suspicious, and the grand
jury took it up and found evidence to
justify the presentment of bill against
Henry Fields, now very old man and the
only one left of the four actors in dark
tragedy which had we'll nigh faded from
the minds of old men but for Ben Milam's
death bed revelation. Henry Fields gave
$4,000 recognizance this evening and was
released from custody. Young Ables
was on the eve of returning
to Mississippi after his mother. in
tending to settle in this county,
when he was so cruelty murdered. All
this occurred in the flush days of horse
stealing and radical reconstruction, and
Henry Fields was himself elected justice
of the peace soon after the murder, being
q man of considerable influence in the re-
publican party at that time. 1t is not
even known now whether the grand jury
ever got the papers or Investigated .the
murder at the time. Fields claims that
man named Frost, who is dead, did the
deed, and that he is wholly innocent of
the r1TzrE9ar