The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-21
SKULLS WERE CRUSHED
AND THR0ATS CUT
Then Made an Attempt to Crenlate
the Bodies.
John Moore of Hutchinson Charged
With This Atrocious Crime
Bodies of the Five Children Found
Lying Side By Side In the Burn
ing Building-Moore Mounted
Horse and Rode Away, But He
Was Captured.

Hutchinson, Kan, March 20.-An
atrocious crime was revealed here to-
day, when the coroner and his assist
ants removed the dead bodies of five
little children from the house occupied
by John Moore, which burned at an
early hour. A coroner's jury investi-
gated the case, and, in accordance
with the jury's recommendation,
Moore, the father of the dead children,
was arrested on a charge of murder.
The tragedy has caused much excite
ment here, and there is some talk OF
lynching the prisoner. However, a
lynching is not looked for.
When the firemen and neighbors
reached the burning house, the father
was the only member of the family or
seven found outside. His actions were
queer and he would not talk. While
the building was still burning and his
children were within the burning walls,
he took a horse from his stable and
rode away.
When the fremen entered the house,
after having partly quenched the
flames. they found the five children
lying side by side in a bed on the floor,
all dead, but not badly burned. The
dead were: Carl, aged II; Mary, aged
10; Pearl, aged s.; Charles, aged Z; Lee,
aged years.
The coroner's autopsy held this af-
ternoon developed convincing evidence
of an awful crime. The skull OF each
child was deeply indented, and from
the dents long fractures extended. All
but one of the children had been
the little 3-year-oid, a pretty boy, had
been slashed SO deep that the spinal
column had been severed.
1t was upon these facts, and the
strange behavior of the father, that
the authorities base their charge of
murder.
When Moore was called before the
coroner'S jury to testify, he pretended
to believe that an exploding lamp had
caused the fire and that his children
had met death in the flames. He tes-
tilted that he was awakened from a
deep sleep by the smoke, and he found
the house afire all over. 1t was fifteen
minutes, he said, before he recovered
his senses, and then he did not try to
save his children, because he knew
that they must be dead, as the fire
started in the room in which they were
sleeping. His riding away from the
fire he explained by stating that his
wife was away from home, attending
a SICK Ir1enQ, anu lIdI lie WSlAI ~ NcAi
her of their loss. Moore showed little
concern when the jury returned the
verdict charging him with murder.
The family came here from Emporia.
about three weeks ago and rented the
little two-story house in which the
tragedy occurred Mrs. Moore's father,
NJ W. Franklin, whose family came
here from Emporia about the same
time, stated this evening that Moore
had always been a silent, morose char
acter, but that he appeared to have a
great attachment for his children. Of
late. according to Mr.. Franklin, Moore
has been brooding over the fact that
he was out of work, and the father
in-law seems to think that if Moore
committed the crime, he must have
lost his reason brooding over his trou-
bles Moore, however seems to be
sane, and, outside of his actions during
the fire, there has been nothing to bear
out the insanity theory.