St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-12-12
A FAMILY ANNIHILATED.
Wife and Two Children Dead
Two Others Certainly
Will Die.
THE MURDERER SUICIDES.
Stepdaughter Alone Escapes
Chastity Sight Revealed
to ReScuerS.

RIDGEWAY, Mo-, Dec. 1.-THE most
horrible human butchery ever recorded
in this section was committed five miles
southwest of this city this afternoon.
David q. Spragg, in a fit of insanity,
murdered his wife and two children and
mortally wounded his two stepchildren
with butcher knife. then took his own
life with rifle. The nearest neighbor
of the Spraggs lived almost mile diS~
tant, and it was some time before the
news of the crime spread. In a
few hours numbers Of people ar
rived from town, and an i'll
vestigation of the scene was
made. The most sickening sight met
their gaze. Laying i'll the yard near the
gate were the remains of Mrs. Spragg,
mutilated almost beyond recognition,
and her disheveled hair dragging IN the
pool of blood surrounding her. In the
little dwelling, in one corner of the sit
ting room, lay the lifeless body OF little
Galley, six years old, and in the other
Albert, fOur-year old boy. AlDert's
head. resting Oh the slate with which he
had been playing, was mass Of coagu-
lated blood and brains, while blood still
oozed from the gaping wounds in the
throats of each. On the kitchen floor
With Blood Besmeared
all over his hands and face and still
clenching the terrible instrument OF
death in his hands, and with his head
almost severed from his body, lay the
author of the awful scene. The two
stepchildren Of Sprague, both under
six years old. were taken TO the home
of neighbOrs, where they are dying
from dozens of cuts that cover their
bodies. Evidence of terrible struggle
were plainly visible in the Sprague
home. The walls. books, stove and fur
niiure were spattered with blood. chairs
were upset, the oil can overturned and
things generally turned upside down.
The particulars of the butchery are
learned from Dora Onstatt, step
daughter OF Spragg. She is a child of
eleven years, and, after elud-
ing her stepfather's murderOus
grasp, escaped to a neIghbor's and
gave the alarm. Her statement, some
what broken on account of the intense
excitement under which she labored, is
substantially as follows:
Spragg had been complaining all
morning Of an aching head, and his
nearest neighbor, Mr.. Meyers. was sent
to Ridgeway for physician. Soon after
Meyers departed Spragg tied the hands
of one child behind him aud deliberate
ly cut his throat. Mrs. Spragg ran into
the room at this point and attempted to
interfere, when Spragg made lunge at
her. She ran cut into the yard, around
the house, and then into it again, close
ly followed by Spragg. In the house he
caught her, and desperate struggle
enSued. He
Literally Hacked Her Head
and face into slices, and then, cutting
her head almost from the body, dragged
her by the hair into the yard. Covered
with gore and every minute becoming
more frenZied, he returned to the house
again to continue his work. Dora, who
was sick in bed, had climbed out of a
window in the meantime and escaped.
When the people first began to arrive
they were deferred from entering by
Spragg. who stood in the doorway with
loaded shotgun. Finally Spragg
locked the door, and 1t was then that he
butchered his stepchildren. just as
the crowd was preparing to break into
the house two shots were heard, and
when the door was finally forced open
Snrapp WAS dpSd and tha Soana nc de-
scribed was presented to view. The
two stepchildren, who were still alive,
were cared for, but cannot recover.