The Butler weekly times., 1897-12-23
WILL CARR Is HANGED
Child Murderer Meets Death
Without FIinching.
IL An Enigma Ia The Last.

her father, William Carr, was Goa.
cernei Hs e1pi,ted thu crime on
b, ga' cws a. lo:3o o'c'o,k this
moyniug
He walked from his cell to the
.scaffold with fiji I'm step and unsup-
ported. Theirs was not trace OF
nervousness, about him while the
moose was being adjusted about his
neck. When asked, as he stood on
the trap door, if he bad auythiog to
ea-, he replied: go ahead; don't
delay" His lips were firmly set as
the black cap was drawn over his
head.
When the trap was sprung the
body of the murderer shot swiftly
downward. The legs were slightly
drawn up during the seventeen foot
decent. The body Strengthened as
as the rope was drawn taut. The
toes rested upon the snow.covered
earth. There was no struggle, not
even the movement OF muscle.
DEATH, so the physicians stated, was
instantaneous so far as sensation
was, concerned although it was
eleven minutes before the heart gave
it's last faint beat. His neck was
Extraordinarily broken, for not
only was the vertebrae disjointed,
the spinal cord was severed.
Carr's Crime Was Unique.
The crime for which William Carr
suffered the death penalty to day
was the murder of his little year
old daughter, Belle Carr, on the
afternoon of Sunday, October 10
His first wife, who was Miss Jennie
Robertson of Hiwatha, Kan., died
three years ago, leaving him two
children, daughters, May and Belle,
aged respectively and 3 years.
One year ago last February hs mar.
ried at Liberty, Mo-, Betty Stephens,
whose former husband, Walter
Stehens, was a son of his foster par.
ents, Mr.. and Mrs. Andrew Stephens.
They lived in Liberty. Mrs. Carr
had son by her first husband, 8
years old. Little Belle and this boy,
Allen Stephens, ,..qnarreled frequently,
and, on this account, Mrs. Carr
formed violent dislike for her step
child. According to the testimon,
of neighbors, she beat and abused
the child in shameful manner
Carr, to all appearances, was great
ly infatuated with his second wife
and was as plant in her hands al
clay in the hands of potter.
Shortly after l o'clock on the
afternoon of Sunday, October 10
Carr took Belle in his arms ant
started on foot from Liberty TO,
Kansas City, following the pupli'
highway. He returned late Sunda,
: night, and on Monday morning re
sumed his work on q farm nea
Liberty, where he was employed q
laborer.
On Sunday, October II. two fsh
: ermen found the body of child on
sandbar in the Missouri river, neal
the mouth of the Blue. It was takel
to Stewart's undertaking rooms i,
Kansas City, where it was viewed b.
+ hundreds of people. Mrs. Eunic
Lovine, domestic, who was separa'
/ ed from her husband, James Lovine
identified the BODY as that Of her
lyear.old daughter, Cecile Lovins
who had been delivered over to be
husband five weeks before. An il
< vestigation showed that Cecil
}. Lovine was alive and vel. at th
e home of her uncle in Lincoln Centa
o Kan.
S Descriptions of the dead child al
# the clothing which it wore wei
printed in the papers of Kansa
s City, and attracted the attention c
t Mrs. Clare, neighbor Of the Carr
d She had noticed that little Belle wa
q no longer visible about the Ca,
g home. The attention OF City Ma
shall Thomson and Deputy Sheri