The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-03-24

Honorah Hennessy was found dead in
her tenement on Try street yesterday
afternoon, with the clothing burned from
the body and the flesh charred. Her
husband, James Hennessy, is under arrest
at the Central station pending an inyes-
tigation.
The first impression was that the
woman had been accidentally burned to
death, but more careful investigation i'm
dicates that she was killed by strangula-
tion or blow on the top of the head, and
that the burning of the dead body was
the method of her slayer for allaying
suspicion.
There were no screams 10 indicate the
agony of "a person being roasted alive. IL
there had been there We're people in tho
house at the time who would surely have
heard them.
The tongue of the dead woman pro-
truded between the teeth, clcnchcd so
hard that the blood came.
There was no trace of flame from tho
cook stove on one side of the room TO the
closet in the opposite corner where the
body was and the burning of the wood
work and paper in the closet was ap-
parently done with care and cunning for
~
without, at the same time, doing very
material damage to the tenement
Indications of Assault.
According to the story of a sister, Nellie
McCartin, who lives ia Same house, there
were punches of the dead woman's hair
scattered over the kitchen floor They were
not burned and indicated the frcnzied
attacks of an cnragcd woman rather than
the assault of N man.
The Try street house has four tenements,
two up stairs and two down and the front
door is directly in the center. The stairs
go straight up branching at the top and
extending in curves TO the entrance of the
Hennessy apartments and of the rooms
directly opposite, now occupied by the
three sisters of the dead woman. The
distance between these two doors Is not
more than five feet, the doors themselves,
like the dividing walls, are thin and very
old, and any unusual noise in one tene-
ment would be easily heard in the other.
She Heard No Screams.
One of the three sisters, however, Bridget
McCartin, who was in her house all of the
afternoon, declares that she heard no
outcry.
Another sister Nellie, who came into
her own apartments and joined Bridget
shortly after Mrs Hennessy is supposed to
have met her death Is confident that she
heard a scream.
The story of the husband as told at the
police station today does not throw much
light on the case, but it has inspired con-
fidence in the police TO believe that he Is
not guilty of murder.
The Husbands Story.
He says that he went home at noon and,
according to custom, sent his wife out to
u North Main street barroom to. purchase
n quart of beer for the MONDAY meal.
They drank two glasses apiece, and at 1
O'Clock the husband left the house. He
went back at o'clock and his story of
his whereabouts during the four interven.
ing hours Is corroborated by patrolman
Martin.
He spent the time on Canal street,
walking back and forth and talking with
other men out of work, whom he hap
pened to know. At 3 o'clock he was seen
by officer Martin just above the old Gen.
tral police station, and at another time
he was down in front of the Board of
Trade building talking with his cousin,
jeremiah Henncssy.
Hcnncssy seemed to have no inclination
to go away, although he had with him
$50 in bills, and bank book good for
$780, at the Providence Institution for
Savings.
These were taken from him at the sta.
tion last night. According to the entries
in his bank book he has drawn no money
since 1892.
Discovered the Body.
Hennessy was the first to discover his
wife's body. He went home at o'clock
and upon opening the door to the living
room of the tenement was confronted
with the ghastly sight of the hairless head,
projecting over the threshold of the closet
door, the eyes gazing al a bunch OF cob
webs OH the ceiling and the bleeding
tonguc held fast between the close set