Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-30
Tom Voolfolk, at Perry, Ga,
Hanged for a Terrible Crime.
With an Ak He Brains His Father, Step
Mother and Seven Brothers aud
Sisters While in Bed.
The Cause Alleged to be His Dislike for IFS
Step Mother and His Desire to Secure
Full Control OF All Property.
PERRY, GA, Oct. 29.-Thomss J.
Wolfoid was hanged here to-day.

Before dawn on the morning or
August s, 1887, in Hazards dis
triot, Thibb county, some twelve
miles from Macon, nine people
were brutally murdered by a single
assassin. The victims of the awful
butohery were Captain Richard F.. VOL
folk, ST.. his wife, Mrs. Matte Voolfolk;
their children, Richard E., Jr. aged
twenty; Susan Pearl, aged twelve;
Annie, aged ten; Rosebud, aged seven;
Charlie, aged five; Matte, aged eighteen
months, and Mrs. Temple West, aged
eighty four. The scene of the crime was
Voolfolk 8 homestead, an ordinary south
ern country farm house of frame, one
story high, and with four rooms and two
near the side of q central corridor. The
dwelling stood facing TO the east on a
slight emnencs, set back little way
from the road In a clump Of oak trees
The surroundings betokened the home of
q we'll TODD southern planter OF the
better class. 1t was here Captain VOL
folk and his family were living ct the
time of the tragedy on Saturday night
preceding
THE FATAL SUNDAY MORNING
There were ten members OF the household
present, including Mrs. West, who was
a visitor; Thomas Il. Voolfolk, oldest
son. Richard and Charlie were sleeping
in the first room on the left OF the single
trout door. In the next apartment Capt.
and Mrs. Voolfolk and their infant child
occupied one bed in the room. The
other three children, Misses Pearl, An
ME and Rosebud, and old Mrs. West.
occupied the room GU the opposite side OF
the hallway from the parents room, the
apartment at the front or that side being
utilized as parlor.
The first alarm of the tragedy came
from Tom Voolfolk, the only survivor OF
the massacre Tom went to the house
of negro tenant named GreensoCket,
not far from Voolfolk 3 house, about day
and called to him that some one had
killed his father. The news that
TERRIBLE CRIME
had been committed at the Voolfolk
house spread with phenomenal rapIdity,
aud soon great crowd gathered about
the place. Hurried Investigations re-
vealed the crime had not been sxagger-
ated; nine dead bodies were lying in hor-
rid confusion in every room of the house,
Drained with an Ak that had evidently
been secured from the yard. There was
nothing unusual found In the first room
on the left as one entered the house, but
IN the room occupied by the parents,
connected directly with the front apart
ment, were six bloody corpses. Tbs
bodies of Capt. Voolfolk, his wife, their
infant and Miss Pearl Voolfolk lay on a
bed in the corner, the father and mother
and babe having been struck on the
head with the murderous ak apparently
before they Weakened, while the eldest
daughters body had been cast upon the
led after death. On the floor were the
lifeless bodies of Richard and his younger
brother, Charles,
WHITENING IN POOLS OF BLOOD.
Death had been inflicted in each case by
blows with the butt end of an ak, save in
the case OF the little boy, whose head
had been cloven with the ak blade. Not
blow had been struck except on the
head of the victims, and they lay in
their nightgowns where they had been
struck down, and blood and brains from
their crushed skulls had run out. The
room was a sea of gore.
Three other bodies lay stiff in death in
the girls room on the other side of the
corridor. The corpse of Mrs. West and
OF Rosebud, the seven-year- old daughter,
repOsed where they had slept, side hY
side, in one of the two beds in the room.
The body of ten-year-old Annie Voolfolk
lay near the window Rs if she had been
warned OF the
APPROACH OF THE MURDERER
and had sought to escape by jumping out
of the window. Here, as with those IN
the first room, the assassin had dis
patched his victims with blows on the
head with his ak.
Nothing in the house had been dis
turbed, and a small amount or money IN
the pockets of Richard, Jr., had not
been touched. There were no indications
that robbery had been the motive for the
deed.
The story told by Tom Voolfolk was
that he had been aroused by hearing his
father cry out a little before dsy. Just
then Richard had jumped out of bed and
ran into his fathers room. He heard
Richard
KNOCKED DOWN
and then, fearing for his own life,
he had fed, jumping out of the
window in his room and running to
Green Scott's cabin to raise the alarm
and secure help. Walfolk's account of
the crime was unsatisfactory, aud few
believed 1t. Suspicion quickly fell on
him as the murderer, and he was taken
into custody. Investigation showed that
the only tracks about the house, traced
in blood from the blood bestreamed
floor, were those of Voolfolk. Tom ad-
mltted-tney were MS, Out salu ne maze
them when he went into the bloody room
alone after the murder. He was searched
and on one leg about the knee was found
the
IMPRINT OF BLOODY HAND.
He had on shirt much too large fos
him when searched, and afterwards his
shirt was found In a we'll, blood stained
and clottsd with human brains.
The motive for the crime was found in
Tom Wolfolk's enmity for his step
mother, and his desire to have uudis-
puted possession of his fathers property.
Capt. Voolfolk was twice married,
having by his first wife two daughters
and one son, Tom. On account Of
CERTAIN BUSINESS COMPLICATIONS
ne settled the bulk of his property on
his second wife, first. however, giving
his elder children their share. Tom was
not satisfied with his. and hated bic step