The Washington weekly post., 1899-12-12
MINISTER A MURDERER
Cut Short a Sermon on Death
TO Kill His Wife.
WANTED TO WE'D A FORMER LOVE

Girl for Whom He Committed the trfme
Turned Against Him af the Trial, and
Gave Evidcnce Which Convicted Him
Murder - singular Circumspectien En-
abIed Him to Almost Conceal His Crime
Paid the Penalty He Preached.
From the St Louis Republic.
The remarkable crime for which the
Rev. George Edgar Morrison suffered the
extreme penalty of the law at Vernon.
Tex, supplies absorbing food for study
for the detective and the criminal lawyer.
but in the vista for reflection which II
opens 10 the scientist who dissects hu-
man abnormalities as they are exhibited
in criminals the case is seldom edualed.
Cesare Lombroso. the great Italian erirr-
inologist, would find in the case of the
Rev. Mr.. Morrison tidbit that he would
roll under his tongue with supreme enjoy
men.. Could a criminologist OF Lombro-
SOS caliber have easy access TO the mate
rials in the case of the Rev. Mr.. Morri-
son, he would in complete absorption lay
back the scalp which covered the Uranium
of the body from which the deputy sheT-
ifs In attendance at the hanging had just
cut the fatal rope. His careful saw would
circle lovingly around the skull. just above
the eyes, and when the cup-shaped piece
of bone, in which the brain throbbed and
planned and plotted the horrible crime
for which its throbbing was foreibly
checked forever. dropped in his hand he
would search out with a scientists mi
mute, loving care the proturberances, the
swells and hOllows-the stigmata of degen-
eracy which made the planning and the
calm execution OF such a crime possible.
He would search The ancestry OF the GRIM
inal for an ancestral heritage, and his
record for previous crimes. that would
make such a crime as the last possible.
and then he would write a book embody-
ing the results OF his work under the title
'Stigmeta Of Dcgenerdcy in the Skull
Formation of a Remarkable Occasional
Criminal
4 C0ld-blooded Murder.
1t was a remarkable crime for which
Morrison forfeited his life to the State of
Texas. 1t was cold-blooded, deliberate,
planned for months in advance and exc
cuted with a circumspectiOn. a perspica-
city, and success rarely equaled in an
mails that are replete with such episodes
The bare statement of the crime-the
poisoning of his wife with strychnine
that he might marry the sweetheart OF
his boyhood days. Miss Anna Whittlesey,
who had grown wealthy since their sepa-
ration-does not tell the story. The crime
itself is not the interesting point. 1t is
the strange. unwavering, unfiagging deter
mination with which the criminal arrang-
ed, weeks ahead, for the climax. How,
sitting opposite to his wife at table, look
ing into her unsuspecting eye day after
day, he arranged for ier death with an
unrelenting pertinaciGy that would be de-
generate if it existed IN the metaphorical
sleuthhound.
The crime is not interesting to the stu
dent Of criminology alone. The practicing
criminal lawyer Iinds in ii material for
study. Morrison was hanged on purely cir
cumstantial evidence. No one had OBJ
served him fill the fatal capsule with
strychnine or administer ii TO his wife
Even his wife, who took the deadly gela'
tine receptacle, supposed it was filled with
bitter but health-restoring quinine, which
her kind husband had obtained for her
Not until the murderer attempted to gar
ner the gain for which he had committed
the crime did his fellow-townsmen put this
suspicious circumstance beside that one
to investigate and examine, and, when
they did, the whole remarkable crime was
laid open.
The Rev. George Edgar Morrison was
pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church
of Panhandle. Tex, and, in addition, he
occasionally filed the puipit of Metho
dist church at Higgins. Tex. a hamlet
about 100 miles south of Panhandle on tbs
railroad.
He mad married Miss Minnie Brady. a
| maiden Of Carbondale, ILL.,, in 1850, ano
had taken her to Texas TO live. He estab
hshed a nice home at Panhandle and exec
| out his pa astoral salary by raising and sell
/ ing cattle. So far as the residents of Pan
| handle knew. his previous career was un
| tarnished. and even after his crime was
discovered no former blot could be traced
| to his scutcheon. Morrison preached reg
ularly In the church at panhandle, ana oc'
| casionally at Higgins, and his congrega
| ton found his sermons inspiring and ele'
yating He was good speaker and had q
remarkable knowledge Of Scripture, whict
| enabled him to brighten his discourse with
| apt citations.
| His wife sang in the choir and botf
mingled freely in the society of the towr
with whose spiritual welfare he wa;
| charged. Their relations were loving anC
not of a character to attract attention.
Met His Old Sweetheart.
In August, 1897, Morrison told his Wifi
and others he was going to Wichita, Kan.
| TO have his throat which was troubling
| him. treated. Instead. he stopped off a
| Topeka, Kan. where a carnival was II
| progress. There, on August %. he me
| Miss Anna Whittlesey. a young lady wht
had been student with him at McKen
dree College. in Lebanon. Ill At tha
! time Morrison was eighteen years old anC
| Miss Whittlesey was fifteen. They haC
been sweethearts at college and had no
| seen each other since leaving the institu
| ton.
Miss Whittlesey had made her own wa,
| since leaving college and had accumulated
| considerable wealth by operating witt
| others a general merchandise store Il
| Topeka. Kan, under the style of III
! Whittlesey Mercantile Company. Morri
son called al her home and introduces
himself and Miss Whittlesey rememberet
| him with pleasure. He told her ne ha,
| been married soon after leaving college
bur that his wife had been dead foT clever
years; that he was raising and selling eat
| tie at Higgins, Tex, and that he had
| cousin. married man. named Guy Z
| Morrison, living at Panhandle Tex
| The next day he wrote her a note askin
! her TO go buggy riding with him. and sh
accepted. During the drive be proposes
marriage and she accepted. He told he
that he would not be able 10 arrange hi
affairs so he could marry for at least tw
years. and she consented to wait for him
| He called on her again next day, makin
burning protestations OF love, and then re
turned 10 his wife In Panhandle.
Everything indicates that at this tim
Morrison. observing that Miss Whttlese
| was a pleasant companion and weil-to-dC
decided to be rid OF his wife. and that 10
| the sixty days following he prepared L
kill her. His falsehood. that a cousin Wit
| the same name and initials as his. wa
| living at Panhandle. bears signs of havin
been told so that Miss Whittlesey, shoul
she hear of G. f. Morrison al par
handle losing his wife suddenly. youI
suppose Ii was his cousin
On August 81 Morrison wrote a letter I
Miss Whittlesey, dated at Higgins. Tex
| ir which he called her darling dear
est" and baby giriie:T said he was lone
iy without her and would return 20 hc
as soonsas possible. To deceive her as 4
the place where the letter was mgIle,