The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-04-24
A MURDERER,s STORY.
He Killed Twenty-one Persons and
Committed Many Robb cries.
From the Nelo York Sun.

From the Nelo York Sun.
BIFSuSGHAA, ALA, April 19.-To-day
the written confession of the murderer Ben
EIsey, who was hanged yesterday. was
given to the public, and if it is all true, as
he swore it was, his career of crime was
probably never surpassed. Elsey was born
near Dalton, Ga. and at the age of IA killed
another boy over a game of cards. For
this crime he was sentenced TO the peniten-
tiary for twenty years. but was pardoned
after serving eight months. Soon
after his release from prison he
continued for ten years. First he
became thief and gambler, and at the aga
| of Is committed his second murder over a
| game of cards. Soon after that he j1ined
an oath-bouud organized band of robbers
and murderers, who had headquarters in
| Chattanooga, Tenn, and operated in the
principal southern cities A white man was
captain and leader of the band.
They robbed stores and residences and
committed highway robbery whenever
opportunity offered. The leader of the
gang had an invention for blowing open
safes, which is described by Elsey as fol-
| lows:
"His usual way of using it is to put in box
about the size of cigar box, light 1t, then
| burns very slowly and emits no smoke, and
usually takes from four to six hours TO ex-
plode, making very slight noise. About
dark he carries IL to a m archant and asks
him to lay it In his safe till morning, when
he will call and get it. Some time after
miduIghJ he goes back and unloc IS the door
we always have keys that will at any
lock-and takes the money out OF the safe.
He would never let me know how he made
the machine. He also had way of blowing
them open when he found them locked
At Fulton, Ga, in 1885, Elsey and other
members of the gang murdered merchant
and robbed and burned his store In 1886
they robbed and murdered three white men
in Chattanooga and threw their bodies into
the Tennessee river. The same year they
murdered and robbed two men at Rome.
Ga, and committed four Highway robberies
in Knoxville, Tenn, securing several thou
sand dollars. At Pinson, Ga. in the latter
part of 1886 Elsey and three others muir.
dered end robbed his grandmother r ,sa
McCorner, a negro woman 10 years old.
Elsev had lived with her while and knew
she had S340. He planned the murder to
secure this money.
Ia 1887 Elsey assisted in the murder of a
white man and woman in Mobile. Ala. In
1888 Elsey murdered Mrs. Hargrove in
COBB county, Georgia, by splitting her b 3ad
open with an ak. Mrs. Hargrove had $500
IN trunk. Wnlcn ne secured, and the /
he came to Alabama. His two murders
here were the killing of an unknown ped
dler and the Meadows murder, for which he
was hanged. Elsey's confession concludes
as follows:
81 will have to bring this to close, as |
cannot spare any more time on it. While l
have mentioned only few of the many
| crimes | have committed, have mentioned
the most important ones. | have been a
gambler and a thief ever since l was a small
boy, and l have been a murderer and
robber ever since l was IA years
old. | can remember all the crimes
[ have committed / followed nv
crowd most of the time for five
years. | have been implicated in the killing
of twenty-one people, eighteen men and
| three women. Nineteen were white and
two colored. have no idea of what have
stolen, nor of how many burglaries have
been implicated in, nor of how many safes
l have helped to blow open, nor of how
| many people have helped to rob. have
a wife and children at Atlanta. was mar
| ried to another woman here two months be-
| fore | was arrested"