Smyrna times., 1899-11-08
BRUTALLY KILLED HIS WIFE.
HARRY WALLACE CRUSHES HER BRAIN
WITH A HAMMER.-TRIES TO ESCAPE,
Captured a Few Hours Later at Mt. Pleas
ant-The Most DastardIy Affair Ever
Perpetrated in ThOrOughfare Neck.

vicinity was startled on Monday morn
ing by the announcement that Harry
Wallace, living near Deakyneville,
had killed his wife by infiicting a ter
rible blow with a machine hammer |
about eight o'clock that morning.
She was the common law wife of Wal
lace, and legally is known as Mrs.
Mary G. Perry.
No one was in the house at the time,
so after the deed was perpetrated Wal |
laced walked out of the house and
told a cOlored woman to go to school
after his little daughter, who had been
gone only a short time, saying that
Mrs. Perry was sick, and then made
his way to the back of the farm and
lost himself in Gardner's woods. He
was not seen again until arrested at
Mt Pleasant in the afternoon by Sta
ton Agent Davis Colpitts, brother of
W. S. Colpitts, of Clayton, and handed
over to the proper authorities.
The woman, after told by Wallace,
went toward the house, and at the
solicitation of a colored farm hand
went in to see the condition of Mrs.
Perry before going after the little
girl, and found her lying dead on the
floor. DIR. B. r. Ferguson and Con-
stable Vanhorn of Blackbird, were
notified, searching parties sent out,
description of Wallace telegraphed up
and down the State line. and the result
awaited for. When DIR. Ferguson ar
rived at the scene of the outrage, he
found the skull of Mrs. Perry
crushed in, life entirely extinct, and
the hammer which was used, wrapped
up in a bloody condition and thrown
up on a shelf.
AS heretofore mentioned, Wallace
was arrested at Mt. Pleasant, taken
before Magistrate Reynolds at Mid
dletown, and held without bail to
await the action of the Coroner Jury.
Late that afternoon Coroner Vandever
went to Townsend, where he empan-
eled jury and held an inquest. No
witnesses were examined. The cor
oner related the story of the affair as
told by Wallace on the train, and the
Jury rendered a verdict that "Mary
G. Perry came to her death at the hand
of Harry Wallace, by being struck on
the head with a hammer, about
o'clock in the morning"
Wallace was taken to New Castle
Jail to await trial at the next term Oi
court When arrested Wallace con
fessed that ''the devil got into him
and he knocked her down with ham
mer," claiming that he perpetrated the
deed under fit of mental alteration
that he did not intend to kill her, but
during an alteration with Henry
Smith, his black man, for driving
horse too fast, Mrs. Perry took the
colored mans part. He averred tina
she ordered him from the place ant
the dispute becoming warm, she threw
machine hammer and hit him on tn
shoulder. At this assault he further
averred that he jumped into her
knocked her down on a lounge will
his fist, and in a scramble for the ham
mer he got it, and taking advantage @
the opportunity struck her across tn
head.
The deceased's maiden name wa
Smith. She was the divorced wife c
VIM. Perry when she and Wallac
went to living together seven year
ago, and was the mother of two Wa
lace children, 5 and years respeC
lively. They were both hard workin
people, as if trying their best to gt
along in the world, but both possesse
high tempers. 1t was no uncommo
thing, it is said, for them to come
blows, and she was in the habit
using any weapon that came With
her reach. Each blamed the otht
because they had no more ready casf
He complained because she had pu
several hundred dollars improvemer
on the dwelling. She complained b
cause he had bought high price
wheat thresher from Shannahan
Wrightson, of Easton, Md, und
the impression that he owned the farr
and further claimed that he had forge
her name to the obligation.
The people say Wallace was subje
to fits of mental alteration, and
one or two occasions attempted su
eide. He was given money to lea
and go West, but he returned
month ago. Since his return they ha
been having number of quarrels,
OF which had its climax in the cru
murder.
The deceased, Mrs. Mary G. PER-
was AZ years and II months old. The
terment will be at Glenwood Cemete
tomorrow morning, Rev. L. W. La
held officiating.