The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-04-26

vestigation Made-The Identity of En-
rights Assassin Not Clear.
Barre, the home of strikes and booms, af-
ter an interval of nearly fifteen years finds
itself the scene Of a murder, with the place
Of the crime and the perpetrator of the deed
unknown as yet to the authorities. The
victim is Thomas Enright, a middle-aged
tool-sharpener, who was found Sunday
morning about Fix o'clock beside the track
Of the Montpelier & Wells River railroad,
in front of Henry Frener's residence on
Granite street He was in an insensible
condition and died about ten o'clock, Sum
day forenoon, without regaining conscious
ness or revealing in any way the cause Of
the injury which resulted in his death.
When Policeman NJ. b. Nichols was maxi
ing the last round before starting home, as
he drew near Granite street his attention
was attracted by an object lying beside the
track, which he thought at first was a
blanket, but on closer inspection he found
it to be the body of man lying in a curled
position on his left side outside the rail
with his right leg over the rail and his over
coat pulled up over his head. While
Nichols was endeavoring to arouse the man,
another person came hurrying down the
track, who at first sight resembled some
prize-fighter, judging from his battered face
and blood-drenched overcoat. This man
was Charles Recor
Frank Coffran, an employe of l. j. Boil
ster, Nelson Gay and Will Jackson, the
milkmar, came along about this time. The
i.
was taken into Freniers house. He was
afterwards taken to his home near the long
bridge DR.. c. NJ. Scrbner was called but
found Enright's body cold, with no pulse.
In about four hours the unconscious man
died.
The board of civil authority held post
mortem examination of the body at four
o'clock Sunday afternoon. 1t was con-
Quoted by Drs. j. H. and J. W. Jackson,
c. NJ. Scfibner and w. d. Reid. The ply
sicans made a report to the seectmen hat
death was caused by external violence.
The outside of the head showed a slight con-
fusion and the inside gave evidence that a
terrible blow had been struck There was
also slight mark on the inside Of his right
knee.
Policeman Mason states that there was
an unusual number of drunken men on the
street near the midnight hour and that at
: about two o'clock in the morning he saw
two men helping third up to the Avenue
House. These two men were Nelson Gay
and "Bummer " McCauley, and the man
, they were assisting to the hotel was w. H.
Cochran Of Montpelier. 1t appears that
Cochran registered at the hotel Saturday
. afternoon, and did not again come in until
! two O'Clock Sunday morning, when he went
/ to his room washed the blood from his face,
t and, procuring team at Page Brothers
stable, had Arthur Holt, an employe of the
stable, drive him to Montpelier Cochran's g
actions were very strange, and all the way
to Montpelier he muttered to himself, 90,
it was bloody shameW
, Saturday evening was one of the blackest
in the history of the Granite City. There
were several gambling dens in full blast un-
til daylight Sunday morning and some of
them appear to have been the cause of
several fights. 1t is probable that Euright
was the victim of one Of these rows. When
he was found his hat was missing. 1t was
found Monday within few rods of the
place where he was lying.
The authorities telegraphed States At
torney Stanton, Sunday night and he ar
rived in town Monday noon. A prelim-
mary hearing was begun at the office of j.
W. Gordon, Monday afternoon, before JUS
tice o. b. Boyce, when a large number of
witnesses were examined The public in
Guiding representatives of the press, were
excluded from the hearing by order of o. b.
Boyce and no details are made public.
There are many conflicting rumors and
various clews have been exploded. Coch-
ran appeared at the hearing ON Monday
evening and showed that he was in no way
connected with the murder. A possible
clew has been discovered in a monkey
wrench which e. A. Prindle & Co. claim
they sold Charles Recor, Saturday evening,
and which is covered with blood. This
wrench is said to have been found in Re-
cor's possession, and the Importance of this
clew is seen from a statement of Officer Ma
son, who says that about four o'clock Sum
day morning Nelson Gay told him that
"Charles Recor had got bad blow but
Tom Enright had got worse one with a
monkey wrench" The local authorities
are hard at work and are determined to
find the murderer.
States Attorney Stanton was not present
, on Tuesday, but the investigation was con-
tinued in Gordon's office before Justice o.
B. Boyce. All spectators and representa-
tives of the press were again excluded, and
, Mr. Boyce refused to show the reporters the
, statement Of the physicians who conducted
; the post-mortem examination, Charles
Recor was before the court of investigation
nearly all the afternoon and was subjected
to most rigid examination, the result OF
which is az present only conjecture. One
theory of the cause of the murder that finds
many supporters in Barre is that Enright,
who was strong advocate of the Tool
Sharpener's Union, had made many enemies
among the non-unon sharpeners, that from
, war of words on that subject Saturday
night bad blood was stirred and that some
non-union sharpener gave Enright his death
blow.
Enright leaves large family of children.
} His funeral was held Tuesday morning at
st. Monica's church
THE dead body OF Colonel Charles A.