The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-08-06
BRUTAL TRIPLE MURDER
MRS. w. E. BURT AND HER TWO
SMALL CHILDREN ARE
THE VICTIMS.
A CRUEL, DELIBERATE ACT.
UTTER EMANCIPATION FROM
EVERY RESTRAINT OF CON
SCIENCE WAS THE RED
HANDED MURDERER.
STRANGULAT|ON and AWFUL BLOWS
STRANGULAT|ON and AWFUL BLOWS
DO Their Terrible Work-Evidcnccs
Point TO the Husband rs the Pcrpc-
traitor of the Awful Crime, That
Filled the City With Horror
Yesterday Morning.

\ crime appalling in its cruelty ant
terrific in the indomitablc nerve required
for its accomplishment was discovered
in this city yesterday morning.
Murders that made Paris famous IN
the days when the Seine was wont tc
give up its dead each morning were
never more hcartlcsSly cruel. and never
in their preparation was there more
utter emancipation from every restraint
of conscience.
Mrs. William t. Burt and her two
children, aged and years, respective
ly, were found dead yesterday morn
ing about 10 O'Clock in n cistern on the
premises recently occupied by the fam
iiy NJ 2O7 East Ninth street.
THE PARTICULARS.
Some time last week Mr.. William r..
Burt, brother of Roscoe and Silas NJ.
Burt, the well known shoe dealers, gave
out he was going TO Dallas to live.
Early in the week he sold his carpets,
and Saturday last he sent an express
man with II note to his brothers. asking
them to send him some boxes TO pack his
household goods in.
They complied and saw nothing more
of him until Saturday night about 8
O'Clock, when he visited their store. He
got new pair of shoes there. told his
brothers he was going to Dallas on the
midnight train and that his wife and
children were at her mothers, and that
hc would send for them.
He babe his brothers good bye. There
was nothing unusual in his conduct.
Sunday, Mrs. Powers, mother of Mrs.
Burt, called ut the residence, No. POI
Ninth street, TO visit her daughter, ana
was astOundcd to find it vacant She
made inquiries and learned from sew
cral sources, principally from Minnie
Sims, cook for the Burt family, that
Mr.. Burt had sent them to San An
tonic.
She doubted the story. and it is said
she went so far as to telegraph not only
to San Antonio, but to Waco, with the
hope of hearing from her daughter.
She was so Frustrated yesterday that
the truth of this could not he learned.
BE this rs it may, Mrs. Powers last
Tuesday, impressed with the fact that
her daughter and children had been
murdered. called in Detective Chcnnc-
vile and laid the matter before him.
b q, th,, nm ~
lhe premises, went through the house,
nut found nothing whatever TO Indicate
chat anything was wrong.
Mrs. Powers was still not satisfied,
and. strange to say, she insisted that
her daughter was in the cistern on the
premises at 2O7 Ninth street. Mr.
Billie Brush. who lives near her. went
II see her Tuesday night and promised
he would do what he could to discover
thc whereabouts of her daughter. lie
proceeded to Mr.. V. o. Weeds and laid
the case before him and they called III
Justice Mat Johnson, and it was agreed
to examine the premises carefully the
next morning.
Nlr. Roscoe Burt too, had called on
Mrs Powers. and to satisfy her. he
promised To have the cistcrn examined.
Yesterday morning about 9:3O Mr..
Burt. true to his promise, but confident
that nothing would he discovered. pre-
pared to visit the place. About this time
he learned that boy or boys had report
I'd very bad odor about the premises,
md ON his way up to the house he felt
in with cx-City Health Officer johnson
and requested him to accompany him.
They proceeded to the house, and en-
iered it by the front door.
They passed into the kitchen
and found il filled with horrible
stencil. They also heard the ominous
sum Of myriads of flies underneath thc
floor in the basement, and thither they
went. They found the smell cmanating
Gested that Mr.. Burt go after Sheriff
White and Justice Mat johnson.
He did so while Mr. johnson called
on Col. Il. A. Rutherford, who lives ad-
joining and got from him lantern and
rope.
BY this time Sheriff White and Justice
Johnson had arrived and Mr.. johnson
let the lantern down in the cistcrn, and
then under the titful glare he saw the
bodies of Mrs. Burt and the two children
floating on the water.
Monroe Miller was notified and soon
after preparations were made to rescue
the bodies. and under the direction of
Undertaken Ebert that disagreeable
work was soon accomplished.
The bodies were badly swollen and far