Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1891-07-22
A STARTLING STORY
Five Murders Confessed by a
Woman on Her Deathbed.
AN OLD TRAGEDY RECALLED.
A Crime Credited to Frank Hancock
Committed by His Wife.

With the Aid OF Two Men She ChlOro-
formed Her Husband and Killed Him
Being Discovered by Her Children She
Seized a Butcher knife and Stabbed
Them to Death.
AUSTIN, Pa, July ga startling story
comes from one of the lumber camps at
Kettle Creek, this county, the truth of
which interested parties have started out
to investigate. In April, 1889, the people
of all this region were Mortified by the
news that Frank Hancock, a lumberman
living at Blue run, near the Tioga and
Potter county line. had murdered four Of
his children and then com mitted suicide
by hang ing himself in his house. The
news was made known by Hancock's
wife, who had been absent from home on
the night of the tragedy.
Her story was that she had gone
home and found the four children lying
dead, some in the house and some in the
yard. They had been stabbed and fright
fully mutilated with a big butcher
knife. The Oldest child was II years
old. A fifth child, a babe, was asleep
and uninjured in a pool of blood at the
side of one of its murdered sisters. A
note, apparently in the handwriting of
her husband, was found in the house
in which he confessed the terrible Grim g,
giving as his reason his desire to rid Is
wife of himself and children because of
her conduct.
Startling Story.
A few days ago a messenger from the
Kettle Creek camp went to Coudersport,
the county seat of Potter County, with
the startling story that Mrs. Hancock
hod AiaH In tho and hot hofara
dying she had made confession, which
not only acquitted the husband of the
murder of the children and himself, but
which declares that she herself and two
of her paramours, whom she named, but
whose names are not made public, MUIR
dered her husband and the children.
The confession Is to the effect that she
had become alarmed at the threats her
husband had made against her because
of her persistent unfaithfulness to him,
and, egged on by the two men, she re-
solved, with their aid, to put Hancock
out of the way. The plan was to chloro~
form him while he was asleep, hang him
to a rafter and place note In his pocket,
as If written by himself, stating that he
had committed suicide and why.
Butohered tho Children.
Mrs. Hancock succeeded in chlorof orm-
ing her husband while he was asleep in
bed, and the two men, who were waiting
for the signal, entered the house, pro-
vided with rope and were hanging Han
cock when the oldest child awoke, rose
up In bed, and, seeing the strange men,
made an outcry. The mother herself
seized butcher knife and tried to
brighten the child into silence, and TAIL
ing, she stabbed it to death. The other
four children, being Weakened by the
noise, were all butchered as the first had
been, to silence them. The babe, being
too young to be dangerous to the MUIR
deress, was not harmed.
A new note then had to be written to
include the murder of the children, as
we'll as the suicide, and Mrs. Hancock
according to the alleged confession,
wrote it, surrounded by the victims of
the horrible nights work. She and the
two mon then went away, and the ne xt
day she made the announcement of the
frightful discovery she had made on com
ing homo.
man who lives in Austin came from
Coudersport yesterday, and he says that
the story, horrible as 1t is, is generally
believed there. Further developnn ents
are expected in a few days.