Democratic messenger., 1894-03-10
HORRIBLE MURDER,
Mrs. Lucretia Baker and Hes
Infant Drained by Negro
Burglars.
THE MEN SLAIN BY HER HUSBAND
The Negroes Bodies Thrown
i'm the Ward and Threat
ened with Cremation.

ehcu WIFI &TcIIIattOUs
As foul crime AS could be- con
ceived was committed early last Fri
day morning in the little village oI
Franklin Park, six miles west of New
Brunswick, \. j. Two young negroe.
Willard Thompson and Henry Ba
ker-bent on robbing young farmer
named Moore Baker of Il 800 bill
which he had. hours before, displayed
10 the negro Baker in spirit of fun,
broke into his house in the dead ot
night.
They entered the room in which the
farmer was sleeping with his wife.
Both were awake because of the fret
ting of a sick baby girl in cradle
beside the bed. The wife herself was
i'll. She would have been mother
again in the course of week
The negroes had armed themselves
with axes. When they found the
farmer and his wife awake they SEEM
ell 10 become frenzied. Thompson
rushed forward and Drained the wife
with single blow of the axe. Before
the husband could spring from his bed
the negro swung the axe again, and
buried il in the head Of the baby,
cleaving the head in two.
Moore Baker. who is a sturdy young
fellow, with the courage of hero,
then began desperate battle for his
own life. That he was victorious was
due only TO the fact that one of the
negro murderers of his wife and child,
Henry Baker, became frightened, and
in attempting TO escape separated from
the other murderer. Willard rhomp-
son.
The farmer picked up a shotgun.
lie attempted TO shoot Thompson, but
the rusty trigger did not answer. He
threw il aside and closed in with the
negro. After terrible struggle, in
which he was wounded. he wreste,l
the axe from the negro's hands. Six
times he struck the murdercr'> head
with it before the wretch fell 10 the
floor dead.
Then the husband and father sought
and found Henry Baker concealed in
a rear room. With the gun that he
fore had refused to work he almost
blew off the top of the negro's head.
Unmindtul of his own bloody
wounds, and leaving the bodies of his
wife, his child and their two murder
ers just NJ they were, the young farm.
er, wearing nothing but a night.shirt
rushed TO his stable and jumped on
the bare back of one of his horses
Over the now-covered roads he dash.
ed to the home of doctor, mile
away, whom he sent to his house al
once As he went at break neck speed
back 10 the home that had been the
scene of such terrible slaughter h,
stopped TO awake and alarm his rela
tives and friends. The entire village
was soon following him.
Such in brief is the story of Il TRACE
dy whose details only increase its hor'
ror and terror.
THE SCENE IN THE HOUSE.
The tierceness Of the struggle tha
Baker had had with the murderer.
was 0vinced everywhere. The room
was bespattered with blood. The fur
niture was overturned. and everything
was in disorder. The bodies of tn,
wife, the baby and the two ugly ne
groes were all within fifteen feet o
one another. As soon as DIR. Hoag
land and the neig ghbors saw that th,
body that they had stumbled owe
was that of the murderer Thompson
they pushed il one side and passed ol
to the bed and the cradle. II tool
but a glance to tell the doctor tha
the mother and child were dead, an,
must have been instantly killed. Mrs
Baker lay on her side'on the bed will
n great cash in the top of her head
the exact length of the blade of tn
axe. Ii had crashed through he
skull after cutting off her hair. max
ing clean wound.
The sight Of the cradle was ever
more horrible. The golden tresses o
the little Gertrude had been dye.
crimson by her own blood. The AK
had struck her with its sharp edge oil
the right side OF the forehead an,
had cut her head almost in two. Sh
must have passed in an instant from
the sleep of life to the sleep OF death
Then the dnciur went hack [.