Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1900-06-27
THE GILLIGAN CASE.

The home of Beverly Turner is a
beautiful one near Fergusson's
Wharf, where the placid waters of
the James river stretch in pictur-
esque beauty from Isle of Wight on
the one side to James City county on
the farther shore. The Turner's
have for many years been prominent
men in the business world of this
city. Owners of large ssw-mills and
being industrious and proyident citi-
zens, they having accumulated much
of this worlds goods, and established
good name in their communities.
Mr.. Beverly Turner was twice
married. There are two children
living of the first union, Messrs. Jas.
and Charles Turner, of Richmond.
To his second wife there was but one
child, Miss Isabelle Turner, around
whom the sad story of this crime is
inevitably linked. She was the pet
of Turner home, and the fond father
and indulgent mother were proud of
her youthful beauty and happy dis
position. She was sent to Hollin's
Institute, and all the luxries of life
were bestowed upon her. She is
pretty, and not yet nineteen years of
age, and lived in the conscious secur-
ity of home and protecting parents.
Gilligsn's father was a foreman
for Mr.. Turner in his saw mill, and
he was also his friend and companion.
When the father died Mr.. Turner
turned with affection toward the in
FAINT son of his loyal employee, and
the lad was taken under his care.
"Nick," as the boy was called, grew
to manhood under the same roof with
the daughter, Miss Isabelle, and af-
ter the manner of the romance. the
schoolgirl and the sturdy mill boy
looked upon each other with fond
eyes, and in the freshness of life all
obstacles of birth, social prominence,
or financial elevations were AS naught
before that irresistible leveler-mu-
tual admiration in the bloom of in
considerable youth. This fondness
they hid secretly from even the fond
eyes of doting parents. By the in
Vulnerable wiles that love suggests
they held their hurrid seances, and
inaugurated their secret post office,
where tender missives passed, with
no postmaster to scan the hasty lines,
and where but two people ever came
with eager steps for waiting mail.
When the school-room at Hollins
held the maiden captive, she found
means of assuring him of her con-
stancy in letters that were brought
into court. They bear evidence of
her affection, but nothing more. They
are replete with admonitions and APP
peals to him to lead good life. They
are interspersed with as much senti-
ment as a young girl could well pour
out upon such prosaic thing as rul-
ed paper, and with such companion
as a stub pen, but they betray moth
ing that could be classed, save by a
purlent mind, as aught but indiscreet
proclamation of youthful tenderness
The interest here turns from the
pretty residence of the Turner's
where comfort and even luxury ruled
to the commonplace details of the
stable lot in which the tragedy oc.
CURED. 1t was two nights after
Christmas when the dead body of Mr.
Turner was found in the snow. He
was lying close to the fence at the
fourth fence post from the stable
His lantern, gloves and hat, with
blood stains upon them, were found
forty yards nearer to his house, and
a few feet from huge oak tree. The
wound from which he died was II
the neck. The entire charge of shot
from a breech-loading gun went into
his neck and shoulder, almost com.
pletely severing his head from hi:
body.
Just how his hat, gloves and Ian,
tern with blood on them, could have
been forty yards away, nearer the
house, does not appear, as he could
hardly have gone forty yards after
such wound, and then further away
from his home.
Gilligan is said to have borrowed q
gun, which was loaded, late that af.
ternoon, stating that he was going