The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-02-16

had reason TO believe her husband knew
something about the crime, and II was
through her that he was finally caught. she
knew he arose on the night OF the murder
and went TO the yard. Once she heard nm
address some one, and when asked who IL
he said it the dog. She recalled
the fact that he Immediately complained or
an aching tooth. and that he left the house,
saying he would go to Glendale near by,
afterward he returned home wearing
bloody shirt. He said his tooth had bled on
1t Whiie G she was getung preanIase r;s1, nrS me
Stone related these facts to friend, who
told the officers.
TRAPPED BY HIS WIFE.
The grand jury summoned Mrs. Stone.
and she furnished the key to the situation
that led to the clearing up of the great
mystery. and Bud Stone was soon under
arrest When arraigned Stone was induced
to make a clean breast of the affair. In do
ing so he maliciously, and it is believed
wrongly. implicated Alonzo Williams,
Grandson Cosby, William Kays, Martin
Yarbrough Clip" Clark and John White.
The men were all arrested and taken to
Jeffersonville to escape the fury of an en-
ragged public.
The affair looked blue for Kays and Will
liams. for the hounds. after passing by
Stones house, had gone TO the home OF
had taken up the trail across the river to
Dubois county, where Kays lived. But
after leaxi5g the ryer had mis seen the doss @
answering Kayss description get In q
wagon at the spot the dogs stopped about
daylight the morning OF the murder.
And Kays had been in Daviess county In
the neighborhood of the crime the day be-
fore Two of the other men could prove
their whereabouts, and the others Were by
force of circumstances, thrown under a
cloud. The night of the arrests a mob
from Washington rode sixteen miles to
vile.
made another confession. in which he ex-
onerated the others I'd laid the blame all
on himself. He said his motive was TO
get a considerable amount of money the
old woman had saved out of her pension
She was believed to have had about 5000
laid by. but s625 was all that was found
says he did not find a cent, but this is
not believed. The money found in the
and secreted in a drawer.
In his second confession Stone related In
Wratten family. Leaving his home about
10 o'clock on the fatal night he armed
himself with a corn knife made Of an old
scythe blade. together with cooper's adj.
The adj he carried his suspender, al
lowing the handle-a short one-to run
down his leg. When he got to the home
the window and noticed Mrs. Ada Wratten
give her husband dose Of medicine. The
himself. About the room the. children were
sleeping. Nerving himself for the awful
work, Stone approached the back door and
and when she opened the door he asked her
If she had ANYTHING that would be good
pain killer" and turned to get it. When
she returned with the medicine Stone
struck her point blank in the face with
he rained blows with the deadly weapon on
her face and neck, telling her to the floor
room rs5i in which the sick man and his chill
dren lay. Ethel rose on her elbow and
cried:
bud Stone. what are you doing here?"
Grasping the adj he dealt her blow on
the forehead that crushed her skull, and
turning to his neighbor.s who had opened
at the unusual noise, he embedded the pole
Of the ADJ in his brain. He then dropped
with several vicious blows The baby was
next attacked. Pulling it from its cradle
he dispatched 1t with one blow across the
back side of it's head, cleaving the skull
His bloody work well begun, the fend
leaped at Stella, WHO had tried to escape,
and she was soon writhing in her blood on
the floor.
STRUGGLE WITH THE MURDERER.
He then tried the door leading to the
room of the old lady. 1t had been made
fast by her on hearing the struggle In her
sons bed room. Stone then rushed from
the house, and bursting open a window,
opening out on porch, he stepped through
The old woman met him and terrible fight
ensued in the dark. Stone showered blows
on the grandmother, cutting off both arms
at the wrists she attempted to protect
herself. She finally fell out of weakness
and loss Of blood, when Stone easily fin
ished her.
Striking a light, Stone beheld his CHASTITY
work. and while he had intended search
ing for the money that had led him to the
slaughter, he says his heart failed him.
and he retreated through the window
When again on the ouside he thought he
some OF his victims might yet be living
He then entered the slaughter pen and
found benson Wratten moving his head
back and forth: Flying at him, blow was
dealt across the forehead. and culver
who afterward partially revived, lay as
rigid as if every spark of life had fled,
and. feeling that the crime, so far as hu-
man knowledge of it was concerned, had
been covered up, he again secured his adj,
through the window into the yard, he left
the scene. Passing a woods pasture he hid
the bloody knife and adj under a log and
covered them with leaves. He then went
TO his home, getting there ABOUT o'clock
Stone was arrested as before stated and
on the last day of the October term of
court he tried for the murder of Ada
Wratten. He entered a plea OF guilty. and
asked the court to be as lenient with him
as possible The jury returned a verdict
pronounced and the date of the execution
fixed at Feb. IS.
Stone was forty years old, weighed 13O
pounds, was a farmer and a religious
fanatic. He brought into the world four
children, one of whom died since the mur-
der. The others mere ha hiac x,itb tbai-