The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-06-08
was heartily applauded by the spectators,
who showed the very best feeling through
out the day.
CUT THEIR THRoATs.
A Benton Mans Attempt to Kill His Wife
and Himself.

~~SO-~ ~~~-0t
1age..was thrown into state of the wild
est excitement Sunday afternoon, at
about 8 o'clock, by the report that man
had killed himelf and wife out on the
China road. With her throat cut from
ear to ear, Mrs. Adelia Clapp staggered
into the door yard of the home of William
Green and fell to the ground. MIR. and
Mrs. Green assisted the half-unconscious
and terribly wounded woman into the
house and at once despatched a messen-
ger for medical assistance. The woman
was bleeding profusely from the wound
but when kind hands had made every
effort to stanch the flow of blood and
partially succeeded, she recovered suffici-
emit strength to say that she had been as
saulted by her husband.
The messenger who had been sent for
surgeon succeeded in finding DIR. Rand,
of Fairfield, driving through the village
DR.. Rand at once drove to Green and
began to attend the woman's injuries.
Mrs. Clapp, in the meantime, had told
the women folks that her husband had
attacked her with razor, and when she
fell he had turned the razor on himself
and was out in Lunt's woods. At once
party started out in search of the man.
Clapp was found with cut in his
throat and bleeding profusely, in the
woods of the pasture of Mr.. Lunt in the
town OF Winslow, only short distance
from where he fell at first, or where it is
cTrT ho f,11 L
mitted. He was taken to Green's and DR..
Rand turned his attention to the woman
again. Clapp was at once removed to his
home at Benton Falls. He was either I'M
conscious or was feigning it for he would
not speak, although it was plain to be
seen that he was breathing regularly and
the doctor expressed himself as satisfied
that he would live.
The story of the crime as detailed to a
reporter by Mrs. Clapp is as follows:
Mr.. and Mrs. Clapp started out for a
walk just after dinner and at his sug-
gestion. Their stroll took them down the
river to the China road and into the
woods and pasture. They penetrated the
Lunt's woods for quite distance and
nothing had gone wrong, when suddenly,
without any warning whatever, Clapp
turned upon his wife and muttering
something to her unintelligible, struck
her in the face with his fist. After strik-
ing her several times and knocking her
down, he began to kick her about the
limbs and body.
Shn hncar,,p Nd
the husband took knife from his pocket
and drew it across the fallen woman's
throat cutting cash from ear to ear and
penetrating the wind pipe. Mrs. Clapp
thinks it must has been the infiicting of
the wound that brought her back to con-
seriousness, for she recovered sufficiently
to stagger to her feet and run through the
woods, when she found that she was
wounded in the throat and bleeding pro-
fusely In seems that when Clapp th ought
he had succeeded in killing his wife he
had turned the razor with which he had
attacked his wife and inflicted upon him
self wound two inches deep and laying
open the wind pipe.
1t is believed by some that Clapp was
made insane by a rigid religious life,
and that he believed his wife did not
want to be Christian. These think that
during the forenoon yesterday, he DELHI
erately planned to kill his wife and him
self, and that he took the means and way
he did because he was insane and sought.
as insane people do, to go off away from the
sight of everybody and there commit the
crime that had disturbed his mental
equilibrium.
Clapp's fierce attack upon his wife,
without the usual preliminary quarrel to
lead up to such an attack, was that of
man made mad by the constantly tortur-
ing pangs of jealousy.
Clapp is improving and will recover.
Mrs. Clapp passed a restless night but
the physicians say her injuries will not
prove fatal unless unforeseen complications
should arise.
A Peculiar Robbery Case.