The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-07-26
Mother and Daughter
Killed last Night.
The Husband and Father Com
mits the awful Crime.
Burns, on the Northwestern Road, the
Scene of the Tragedy.
Both Horribly MutiIated With AN Axe
The Murderer Attempts to Take
His Own Life.

NASHVILLE. July 25.-L Special A
double murder, which in its bloody
parallel in the criminal annals of
this section, was enacted about $50
o'clock last night, about half a mile
from little place called Burns, some
thirty-seven miles from this city on
the northwestern branch of the
Nashville, Chattanooga Il st. Louis
railway.
Maj. J. H. Wynn, a farmer,
murdered his wife and step-daughter
with an axe-mutiIating them most
horribly. He afterward made al IN
successful attempt at suicide with
dirk knife.
The murder occurred at Wynn's
home in the locality mentioned.
Wynn, who was d WidOwer, about
three years ago married a widow
named Mrs. Anderson, who was one
of the victims of his fury last night.
Each of the parties had children by
previous marriages, and the two sets
of children have not gotten along
well.
Their disagreement bred discOrd
between husband and wife, and last
nights CORY tragedy was the culmi-
nation Of the troubles.
AS the murderer is now the only
living witness of the fearful crime,
just what preceded the murder is not
known. 1t is surmised that there
must have been a fierce quarrel
Wynn seized an axe. and, rushing
upon his wife, brought its blade
down with terrible force upon her
head, literally splitting it open. An
other blow yet he struck, and
the head OF the victim, while
still attached to the trunk, had been
split into three pieces.
The murderer then turned upon
his step-daughter, Miss Anderson,
young lady still in her teens, and
attacked her with the same terrible
weapon with which he had slain her
mother before her eyes. The poor
girl threw up her right hand in an
instructive attempt to ward off the
blow. The axe struck her wrist and
severed her right hand from the
arm.
Wynn then dealt the girl several
blows about the head, and rushed
from the house. He went to Coles
burg, about two miles away, where
one of his sons lives. He went to his
sons house and told him what he
had done. Mai. Wynn then attempt
ed to take his own life with a dirk,
and before he could tie stopped he
had dealt himself blow in the neck,
iutlicting wound about four inches
deep.
DIR. Campbell Slayder, who was
summoned, says the wound will not
prove fatal.
Mai. Wynn, it seems, told others
at COlesburg of his crime. At least,
the news got out. At first it was
no, credited, bat wnen a party
from COlesburg, Joined by people
from Burns, went over to Wynn's
house, they found that the muir
derer had spoken the awful truth.
The sceLe presented at the little
farm house will never he forgotten
by those who entered it, and many
of them will see it in their dreams
for weeks to come. Upon the floor
lay the body of Mrs. Wynn. Her
head was in a pool of blood which
had trickled off in little stream.
The daughter, though then still
living, but mOrtally wounded, lay
near by, bloody pool also marking
the resting place of her head. Blood
was spattered over the walls, floor
and furniture, and the clothing of the
two victims was saturated with it.
This morning the daughter died.
Wynn, though not at last accounts
arrested, was under guard at his sons
house. Great excitement exists at
COlesburg and Burns and through
the neighbOring places and some
think a lynching possible.
IN CHANCERT.