The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-03-30
Murders Alva Stone and His
Aged Wife.
Fatally Injuries the Hired Man
and Daughter.
CRIME is A MYSTERY.
Work at an Ohio Farm
House.
The Fiend Does the Job While
the Victims Sleep.

AKRON, Ohio, March 5o.-At = late
| h ur last night masked man entered
| the farm house of Alvin M. Stone, near
Talmadge, a few miles from this city,
| and in a brief space of half an hour
| committed a horrible butchery. When
he took his departure Stone and his
wife, both aged people, were lying
dead in bed, horribly mutilated, and
Ira Stiilson, the hired man, and Emma
Stone, the eldest of three daught tiers,
were unconscious from blows dealt by
the murderer.
The murderer entered the house
by means of a ladder, which he raised
to an upstairs window. He first
passed through the room in which
Hattie and Flora Stone were sleeping
without awakening them. Going
quietly downstairs to the room in
which Mr.. and Mrs. Stone slept he at
tackled them with a blunt weapon of
some sort, hitting both upon the head.
They were probably rendered uncor-
scious and possibly killed by the
blows, but the fiend, not satisfied with
that, proceeded to mutilate their
bodies with a knife. He cut off one
of Stones ears, slashed him across the
face and abbed him in the back.
Then he laid Mrs. Stones cheek open
with the knife.
After satisfying his fendish desires
downstairs, he proceeded to the room
of Stil.Aon, upstairs The hired man
heard the intruder apparently, for he
had arisen, when he was dealt stun
ming blow on the head. Next the MUIR
derer turned his attention to Emma
Stone, who slept in a room by herself.
When he entered her room she
screamed. That awakened the other
girls, who slept across the hall.
Hattie Stone arose to go to her SIS
ter's assistance, but as she entered the
Iatter's room she was felled to the
floor by blow on the head, but for
tunately was not rendered uncon-
scious. Regaining her feet she ran to
her own room and locked the door.
Throwing a bedquilt about her she
leaped from the window and ran
through the rain and mud to the
nearest nelghbor's quarter OF
mile away. After he had struck
Hattie down the murderer returned to
Emma's room and struck her on the
head, leaving her unconscious. Then
he tried the door ito the room in which
Hattie had left her youngest sister,
Flora, when she jumped from the
window. Finding the door locked, he
battered it down. Finding only Flora
in the room, he asked where the other
girl was. When told that she had
gone for help, he hastily left the
house and made his escape.
Hattie, with the blood streaming
from the wound in her head, managed
to reach the neighbours house, told her
story and then tainted. After she had
been put to bed, the neighbor. calling
for help, went to the Stone house.
There the evidences of the butchery
were discovered. The only person in
the house who was able to speak was
Flora Stone, aged 16, and she was
badly frightened. For this reason all
she could tell was that the man who
his face.
The crime is a mystery. There is
no possible motive for the murders so
far as can be learned Certainly the
murderer was rot bent on robbery,
for in a bureau drawer in Mr.. Stones
room were two gold watches and some
and nothing had been taken.