Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-11-04
FEARFUL CRIME IN JACKSON.
Mrs. Edward Green and Her Son and
Daughter
Murdered With a Club by Young
Man Named John Morgan, an
Adopted Son--The Motive Robbery.
The Young Fiend Caught and Con-
fesSed the Crime = Prospects Of
Lynching.
Special to the Register.

special 10 the register.
Parkersburg, w. Va, November g.
Detective J. R. Mehen brings news
here tonight of horrible murder
which occurred eight miles southwest
of Ripley, Jackson county, last night,
and the prospects of lynching bee at
Ripley tonight is very fiattering.
light miles from Ripley, on Grass
L., in an isolated place, resides Mrs.
Edward Green, a widow, formerly Mrs.
Francis Pfost, mother of President
Pfost, of the Bank of Ripley, and also
of DR.. James Pfost, of Spencer, and
with her resided two grown daughters
by her first husband, aged respectively
twenty-six and twenty-eight years,
and also son, James, by her first
husband, aged twenty-one years. With
the family until recently resided John
Morgan, who the family adopted when
quite young, but who recently sought
employment within two miles of the
Green homestead and frequently called
at the house.
Yesterday the widow Green disposed
of a horse for which she received p5S,
and Morgan heard of the transaction.
When he passed the Green homestead
in the afternoon, he inquired if the
horse had been sold, and if they had
received the money for it. and was
told by young Green that they had, and
Morgan went on his way.
The family retired as usual and were
awakened about midnight by an alarm
at the door, and Mrs. Green, who is
over seventy years of age, answered
the call and demanded the name of
the caller, and was told that it was
Morgan. She thereupon opened the
door, when she was struck on the head
with a club and felled to the floor,
her assassin raining blow after blow
upon her PROSTATE form. Her two
daughters and son rushed to her assist
ance, and the eldest daughter met
similar fate. The son endeavored to
escape, and had gotten some distance
from the house, near a corn crib,
where he was overtaken by Morgan
and Drained. Before leaving the
house the murderer thought he had
completed his work, as he had struck
the youngest girl a blow over the head
which stunned her, but she recovered
before his return and fed to some
bushes nearby and remained there I'M
til this morning, when she gave the
alarm.
A posse Of neighbors soon arrived
and the young woman related her
story and told who had committed the
deed. Morgan was soon tracked to
dense underbrush, near the scene of
the crime, and was overpOwered and
bound hand and foot and taken to
the Ripley Jail. He had the money on
his person and his hands and clothing
were covered with blood.
The crime was the most fiendish
one ever committd4 in Jackson county,
md is the second murder is fifteen
years. The victims of the murder
we're beaten in such a manner as to be
1nrecognizable and blood and brains
we're scattered all over the room.
Hundreds of people gathered in the
town during the day, and the feeling
against Morgan is very bitter. He
confessed the crime and said his only
motive was robbery. The murderer
is intelligent looking and is about
twenty-five years of age. Threats of
lynching are heard On every side.