Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-06-24
NEARLY FOUR OF A KIND.
One White and Three Colored MUIR
derers Swing Into Kingdom Come.

MEMPHIS, June Brenish, Parker
Harris, Ed Carr and Hardy Ballard, all negroes
except Brsnish, were hung from the same gall
lows here this morning at 11:2S o'clock. The
crimes of three of them were remarkable for
their similarity.
The crime for which Frank Brenish, the
only white man Of the quartet of murderers
executed this morning, was the killing of his
wife, Mary Brenish. on the night OF July 5
last. The couple were married in 1887. lived to-
gether until a short time before the tragedy,
when Mrs. Brenish left her husband. owing to
his neglect to provide for his family. She OBJ
tanned employment as a chambermaid at a
hotel, visiting her children daily. Brenish
waylaid her at frequent intervals, begging her
to return to him, and finally threatening to kill
her if she did not.
About 9 o'clock on the evening of July 5
Mrs. Brenish left her home for the hotel,
accompanied by her sister and by a child by a
former marriage. Brenish intercepted the
party near the corner of Union and Third
streets and upon her refusing to go
home with him drew a long keen-bladed
knife and buried it TO the hilt in
her neck. She never spoke and death was al
most instantaneous. Then the murderer,
backing himself against the wall of "a building,
drew the sharp blade Of the knife across his
own throat, inficting q wound tho recovery
from which constitutes one of the most re-
marksble cases in the annals of sur
gerry. The wind pipe and esophaegua were
severed and as it was thought by the physicians
he would die in half an hour nothing was done
for him beyond administering opiates. His re-
marksble constitution, however, pulled him
through, and with the aid of tracheotomy
he thrived aud grew heavier than ever.
ANOTHER LIKE IT.
On Sunday August Is, a murder and at
tempted suicide occurred which SO closely re.
sembled the Brenish tragedy Of six weeks be-
fore that the first might have been taken az a
pattern for the second. The facts in the case,
the disputes and the causes that led to the
second tragedy were exactly the same
as in the first. The victim was
Lethe Harris, an octoroon of more than ordi-
nary beauty. and the murderer, Parker Harris,
her husband, a mulatto. The woman was in
stantly killed and although tie slayer's wind
pipe was partially severed he was out OF danger
in a few days On the very day and at the very
hour when the jury returned a verdict Of
guilty of murder in the first degree against
Harris for killing his wife another
negro was preparing himself for the gallows
by the commission of a similar crime. At 4
O'Clock on Saturday afternoon, November 3,
Ed Carr, a negro, entered the station house,
pistol in hand, and announced that he had
killed his wife, Sallie Carr. He gave as a rea-
son that his wife was unfaithful to him. He
made no defense. The trial lasted only two
days and conviction was the result.
Last Christmas was signalized by the CON-
mission of two foul murders. Early in the
morning the body OF q colered man, who had
been murdered for his money, was found under
the Bayou Bridge on Elliot street. He was
never identified nor were his murderers ever
captured.
The second murder occurred at 8 O'Clock in
the evening. L. Pinkston, o street car driver,
Was stabbed to the heart by Hardy Ballard. n
negro. Ballard boarded a Main street car for
South Memphis terminus and upon being re-
guested to deposit his fare, advanced to the
front platform and with the words: "Here's
your nickel, =" stabbed Pinkston in the left
breast with a knife. Death resulted in a few
moments.