The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1892-08-31
WAS VOOLFOLK INNOCENT !?
n SENSATIONAL STORY THAT COMES
FROM PITTSBURG.


robOrating Circumstances.
From the Macon Telegraph.
Can this be true?
Is it possible that an innocent man
was hung when Tom Voolfolk met death
on the gallows for the murder of his
family?
One of the most sensational stories
ever read has been brought out in con-
nection with the horrible massacre. The
Voolfolk murder has been laid at the
door of the murderers of the Borden
family at Fall River, Mass.
People throughout the world have read
of the sickening butchery of the family
of old man Thomas Voolfolk in Bibb
county, 1t was the most horrible deed
then known in the annals of crime.
Recently crime similar in conception
and detail was committed in the little
city OF Falls River, Mass. An old man
named Andrew ]. Borden and his wife
were brutally murdered in their home
on the 4th instant.
Circumstautial evidence pointed strong
ly to the guilt of Lizzie Borden, their
daughter, and the young woman is now
in Jail awaiting further developments.
Since that time an individual, believed
to be crazy, has confessed the crime, but
the detectives find themselves as much
in the dark as ever as to what they con-
slider the real facts i'm tha case
The WoolfOIk's Murderers.
Yesterday the Gpress throughout 1.-THE
country was thrown into fever of ex-
citement by kilograms stating that let
ter had been received by the PittsbuIg,
Pa. ,IDispatch, saying that two tramps
killed the Borden family and that they
were the same who killed the Voolfolk
family in Georgia.
The Telegraph received copy of this
letter by wire yesterday from the Pitts
burg paper and every word of it will
prove interesting reading.
The Letter.
The letter is as follows:>
Pittsburg, Aug. 22.-The following
anonymous letter, written on, the paper
of a city hotel, was resolved by the Dis
patch through the mails yesterday. 1t
is Self-explanatory:
THE following are few and impor-
tant facts which wish to make known
to the public, and am very sorry that
j can't come forth and make them per-
SOnally. / am well acquainted with the
party who took the lives of Mr.. and Mrs.
Borden of Fall River, Mass. There are
several of these men who go about the
country doing such acts as the Fall
River murGer They have killed at
least fifteen people within the last five
years. / have been with them part of
the time and know what I am writing
to be true. l know that I have taken
no hand in these acts to which / refer,
but as l have been with them several
times within the last three years, / fear
to tell my name or their names, unless |
am caught and forced to tell. | was in
New York when the murder took place, 1
and learned that one of these men did
1T. LETT and came to this city. The one
who did the act said he went into the
house to get something to eat, and as he
found no one in the front room, he went
up stairs and went into room. While
he was there the lady came in on him.
She screamed, and he hit her with
large knife or ak that he carries in case
in his pantalOon leg. 1t will weigh as
much as Ghree pounds and is about II
inches long. He then came down stairs
and started out the back way, and met
the old man. AS he did not want to
leave anyone to describe him, he killed
the old man and then went out of the
back way, after the daughter came in the
house. He said he would have killed
her had she seen him. This man and
one or two of his friends were in the
South about four years ago, and while
there were i'll Georgia. Near Macon
they had little trouble with farmer,
so they went to his house one night and
killed all of them but his son, and he got
away, SO they took some of his clothes
and threw them, with blood on them, in
the well. The clothes were found, and,
as they could not find any other cIew to
work on, the son was arrested, tried and
hanged. Now, know this and many
other things of this nature to be true
that they have done, and have known
them to shoot men down and leave their
gun by the dead mans side, and when
they were found it would be pronounced
suicide. The man who killed the Bor-
dens lives in st. Louis, and he told me
before he left for the west that he was
going to write letter and send it back
to Fall River and let them now that the
daughter did not kill her parents, but |
know that he did not do that or l would
have heard of it. To Try to help that
poor innocent girl out VIII om they are
trying so hard to find guilty of some
thing she did not do, have riskel my
life and written this letter. | now take
an oath that what have written is true,
and l would give myself up and tell ali
that [ know if l thought there was any
way for me to escape death. These men
told me that if ever told anything that