Mexico weekly ledger., 1889-08-29
A Former Resident of this City,
On his Dying Bed, Admits q
Crime for which Anoth-
er Suffered Death.
The Double Murder Of the Vandeventers q
Quarter Of Century Ago-A Start
ling Confession, for the
First Time in Print.

n. y
10y this city and county will
remember, a diabolical double
murder was committed in the VI
cinity of Florida, in Monroe
county. An old gentleman named
William Vandeventer rich, and
highly respected in our neighbor
county, and his wife were muir
dered by an assassin or assassins,
whose object was to secure a sum
of money supposed by the murderer
to be in the house, the old gentle
man having sold large lot of cat
tie on the day of the night of the
assassination. The younger por-
tion of the household had gone to
party in the .neighborheed. Old
man Vandeventer and wife were in
their sitting room, near window,
both reading by the light of a lamp.
Soon a bullet sped through the
window pane and Mr.. Vandeventer
lay corpse then another leaden
missile from the same source struck
Mrs. Vandeventer, and she fell
mortally wounded. She lived a
day or two and told friends that a
negro man had picked her up and
laid her on the bed. The negro
man suspected-Bill Duly, who
once belonged to the Dulys, of this
county-was brought to her bedside
Just before she died and was fully
recognized as the person who
placed her on the couch. He was
tried, convicted and hanged at
Paris, although many persons
thought he did not commit the
deed, and the darkey himself de-
clared, to the last moment before
the fatal drop, that he was lnno-
cent. The writer of this remem-
bers the last declarations made on
the scaffold by the condemned
negro, who said-and we believe
it afterwards developed to be fact
that he was told to meet GER
tain parties at a dismal, lonely
place in the rugged hills about
Florida, and he would be paid a
sum OF money due him. The negro
was on hand, but found out too
late that it was trap to compel him,
at the point of revo]vers, to go with
the murderers to the Vandeventer
residence and aid in the devilish
deed. While the real murderers
fed, after securing only very
small amount of booty, the negro
had compassion enough to render
all the aid possible to the old lady
in her dying condition and kindly
lifted her to her bed.
Now comes the strangest part of
it all, and the disclosure has never
been in print to our knowledge in
fact, the people of Florida say it is
not generally known. The negro
suffered the death penalty on the
galIows for a crime committed by
another. We were told by repu-
table citizens of Florida that there
died in Macon City, about six
years ago, asman who confessed,
on his dying bed, that he fired the
shots that killed Vandeventer and
wife, and his story, at length, cor
responded to a nicely with the
statement made by the negro on
the scaffold at Paris. The man
who made this startling confession
was none other than Perry Thrall,
who, at one time, was resident of
this city and will be remembered
as tolerably fair portrait painter
by many people now living here.
The writer know him well knew
him in Paris when a youth knew
him during the war as a desperate
and daring character-one who
would scruple at nothing to
gain notoriety and other peo-
pies money; knew him after
he came to Mexico, and was
favored by men and fattered
by women. "Pet" was a hand
some fellow, of courteous manner
and dignifed bearing, with face and
hands like those of a lady, was an
ideal cavalier, and could handle a
pistol Ike the twinkling of an eye.
During the war hO .aa .saea several
companions were jay-hawkns on
their own hook and woe be to tis.
man, woman or child who came in
their path if they had anything that
could be "con6scated."
One instance in particular is re-
called. "Pet' and a companion,
now living. dashed into a movers
camp in Monroe county and, with
drawn revolvers and Comanche
yells, forced the party to disgorge
all the money in their possession.
The wife of one of the movers was
SO badly frightened that she gave
premature birth to a child, from
the effects of which che h11nr Ia.