Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1890-11-05

PERRY, Ca, Oct. 29.-Tom Voolfolk
was hanged in the county jail here st
1:3O this afternoon, for the commission
of crimes that are not equaled in the
bloodiest pages of criminal history.
Just before dawn on the morning OF
August6 6, 1887, in Hazards district, Bibb
County, twelve miles from Macon, nine
people were brutality murdered by a
awful butchery were: Capt. Orchard F..
Voolfolk, ST.; his wife, Mrs. Matte
Voolfolk their children, Richard F.,
Jr, aged 20; Susan Pearl, aged II;
Annie, aged 10; Rosebud, aged 4;
Charlie, aged 5; Matte, aged
IS months, and Mrs. Temple
West, aged 81 The scene of the muir
ders was the Voolfolk house, an or
binary Southern country farm house.
1t was in this home that Capt. Voolfolk
and his family were living at the time
of the tragedy. On the Saturday night
preceding the fatal Sunday morning,
there were ten members OF the house
hold present, including Mrs. West, who
was visitor in the house. Thomas G.
Voolfolk (he eldest son. Richard
and Charlie were sleeping ia the
first room on the left of the single front
door, In the next apartment Capt, and
Mrs Voolfolk and their infant child oc-
cupied the one bed in the room. The
other three children, Miss Pearl, An
ME and Rosebud, and old Mrs. West,
occupied the room on the opposite side
of the hallway from the parents room,
the APARTMENT at the front on that side
of the house being utilized as a parlor.
The first alarm of the tragedy came
from Tom Voolfolk, the only sur
vivor of the massacre. Tom went to
the house of negro tenant named
Green Socket, and called to him that
someone had killed his father. Soon
great crowd was gathered about the
place. Nine dead bodies were lying in
horrible confusion in the house, every
one of them Drained with an ordinary
wood axe that had evidently been
taken from the yard. The bodies of
Capt. Voolfolk, his wife, their infant,
and Miss Pearl Voolfolk, lay on the
bed in the corner, the father and
mother and baby having been struck
on the head with the murderous axe
apparently before they awakened,
while the eldest daughters body had
been cast upon the bed after death.
The murderer left the lifeless bod
les of Richard Voolfolk and
his younger brother Charlie well
tering in pools of blood Death had
been inflicted in each case by blows
with the butt of an axe, save in the case
of the little boy, whose head had been
cloven with the axe blade. Three 9TH
er bodies lay stiff in death in the girls
room on the other side of the corridor.
The body of 10-year-old Annie Wool
folk lay at the window as if she had
been warned of the approach of the
murderer and had sought to escape by
jumping out of the window. Here
as witt those in the first room
the assassin had dispatched
his victims with blows on the head with
his axe There were no indications
whatever that robbery had been the
Tom Voolfolk was that he had been
awakened by hearing his father cry out,
a little before day. Just then Richard
had jumped out of bed and run into his
fathers room. He heard Richard
knocked down and then, fearing for his
own life, he had fled, jumping out of
window in Lis room and running to
Green Sockets cabin to raise the
alarm and secure help.
Voolfolk s account of the crime was
unsatisfactory, and few believed it. Sus
picion quickly fell on him as the MUIR
derer, and he was taken in custody.
tracks about the house, traced In blood
from the blood stained floor, were those
of Voolfolk, but he said he made them
when he went into the bloody room
where he went after the murder. He
wac searched, and on one leg
about the knee was found the i'm
print of bloody hand. He had On
q shirt much too large for him
when searched, and afterward his own
shirt was found in the we'll, blood
stained and clotted with human brains.
The motive for the crime was found N
Tom Woolfclk's enmity for his step
mother, and his desire to have undis
puted possession Of his fathers proper
tv. Capt. Voolfolk was twice married,
having by his first wife two daughters
and one son-Tom. On account of certain
business complications he 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 his stepmother and her
children in consequence. At the time
of the murder he adjourned to his IA
theirs house, after spending all the
money his father had given him. He
was working on the farm until he could
get something better to do.
At that time Voolfolk was q years of
age. lie was ABOUT average nelgnL,
compactly built but not stout, with
dark hair and eyes and black nous
tache. His expression was rather boy
ish than otherwise. He had always
been of sullen disposition and made
few friends. His dislike for his step
mother and her children was known,
and he had been heard to say that he
ought to have the old mans property
and he intended to have it some dav.
Voolfolk was charged with the
murder of the nine members of his
fathers household by the coroner's
jury, and in December, 1887, he was
brought to trial in Macon before Judge
Gustin, of the Bibb County superior
court. The theory of the defense was
that crazy negro Of the neighborhocd
had committed the crime, but the theo-
ry failed and was practically aban-
doned before the trial ended. The jury
found Voolfolk guilty, after being
out but a few minutes, and he was sem
fenced to death. The supreme court
granted new trial, however, and in
March, 1883, he was tried at Perry,
Houston County, a change of venue