The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-08-17
FIVE MURDERS.
The Weeks Bloody Record of Abbeville
County, S. G.

COLUMBIA, S. c., August 16.-Last week
will long be remembered as a bloody week
In the history of Abbeville county, S. G.
On Friday night Julia Burton, wife of
Ned Burton, was found dead in her bed
with great cash in her head, evidently
pnade with an AK. The dead body of
her husband was found suspended from
q rafter in the same room. One end of
q trace-chain had been run through
the ring at the other end, so as
40 ma Ike a loop or slip-knot. This loop en-
Circled his neck The other end was
fastened around the rafter 1t was evident
that he had done this work himself, and
dumped from the loft, as his neck was
Broken. 1t was a case of murder and sui
eide, the result of the husbands jealousy
sof his wife. The deeds were committed
whilst the other members of the household
were absent at church.
On Sunday morning Charles jenkins,
q railroad labOrer, was talking with
n woman with whom he was
diving. Peter Ashley stealthily crept
up behind him and struck him in
the head with an gX, killing him instantly
jealousy was the cause Of this crime also,
the woman having formerly lived with
Ashley whom she left to go with Jenkins
The murderer escaped
The most horrible crime in this bloody
chapter was the murder of Nelson Nash, a
farmer, whose body was found Monday
mornlng in gulley in the woods. Nash
had the care of Sam Nance and Marion
Nance orphan children of his brother, aged
respectively l0and u years. These boys are
in Jail and unhesitatingly confess that
they murdered their uncle. They talk
freely of their crime, and calmly show the
bloody spots on their clothing They say
their uncle was cruelto them, and whipped
them severely on several occasions, and at
the time of the killing the boys were under
threat Of another severe beating One of
them, some time ago, ran away from home
because of cruelty, and Nash went after
him on horseback and used buggy whip
on him all the way home. He afterward
whipped one of them cruelty be
cause the cows jumped out of
liking up the gap. They declare
that their uncle's wife urged them to
&ill him, assuring them that they were too
young TO be punished. On Sunday while
Nash wife was at church, and he was
STOPPING in the act of putting a cabbage
( In the pot for the family dinner, Sam
Btealthlly stepped up behind and dealt him
a fearful blow on the head with a hatchet
Nelson said, ''oh God" and rushed out
into the yard where he fell TO the ground.
The two boys then beat him to death with
q heavy pole, AK and a hoe, mangling his
body in horrible manner. The youthful
murderers uIed the dead mans feet with
a chain, hitched the chain to a single
tree and took the horse aud dragged him
off across a cotton field at noon on
Sunday to a neighboring gulley, and there
covered him with pine tops They charge
Alfred johnson, about u years Old, with
assisting in the work of hauling off and
Concealing the body. Alfred is also in jail
The final tragedy Of the week eliminated
yesterday morning. when Rosa Wilson
Sied from the effects of a pistol shot fired
about two weeks ago by John Connor, her
1over, the bullet penetrating the brain.
Connor claims that his pistol went off ac-
Cidently, but Rosa, in her ante-mortem
statement, stated he shot her purposely,
after quarreling with her for permitting
another young man to escort her home
Srom church. Connor is in jail.