The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-07-28
0ecaying Body of Her Hus-
band Found in Bushes.
CHASTITY FIND IN A WELL
Clothes and Feathers Drawn
Out of the Depths Of the Water--- The
N.gress Charged With the Crime
Imprisoned.
Especial to News and Observer.)


ments before coroners jury here yester
day and today show the commission of
a foul murder in the outskirts of the |
city one night last week, and all the cir
cumstances point to the wife of the vic |
tim as the perpetrator, Mary LATHE, has |
been placed in jail without BAIL charged
with the murder of her husband, Charles |
LATHE, negro man OF good reputation,
who has worked for several years for the
Brooks Lumber Company.
The circumstances leading up to the |
discovery, first of - body, and afterwards
to the fact of the commission of a das-
tardly crime. as elected at the inquest are
interesting and unusual.
The body OF man, in an advanced
stage OF decomposition was found by Henry
Jeiiry's late Saturday evening, lying in a
clump of bushes, some distance from the
main street of negro settlement in the
outsIrts of the city. Henry had gone to
feed his pigs and his dog persisted SO in
barring at something in the bushes, he
went to see what II was, and made the
ghastly discovery of a dead man lying
fiat on his face, dressed in coat, overalls,
with no shoes or hat. A guard was placed
over the body by the police, and yes
terday a jury of inquest was empanelled.
The body was identified, after some diff
Guilty as that of Charles LATHE whose
house, where he lived with his wife and
one child was not more than seYenty-fv.
yards distant from where the body lay
His wife was Immediately summoned, and
was reluctant to gato The scene. When
| there she declared fhat she could not iden-
tify the body as that of her husband She
stated that he had left home Wednesday
morning with his Sunday clothes on and
told her it would be several days be
fore he came back; that she was not at
all uneasy about his absence as he fre-
quently went off and came bac all right
and she still expected him to come.
Then came the sensation of the nves-
tlgatlon. On Friday, a we'll used by the
| negroes in the vicinity was found to have
feathers in it. The well was examined
and out of it was drawn a suit of bloody
clothes feathers clottcd with blood and
some bed ticking with blood stains on -.
Some of the negroes identified them as
the clothes of Charles LATHE, but Mary
declared they were not
The man found dead had been butchered
with an axe, his head being nearly sew
cred from his body and % fatal stroke
cut across the top of it. He had been ap-
parently struck while lying face down
ward. The feathers, the ticking ard the
bloody clothes indicated that he had been
killed while lying asleep in his own bed
other clothes substituted for the ones he
had on, and those thrown into the we'll
along with the saturated ticking and
feathers Of the bed. The jury proceeded
to the house, where they found that
new piece of cloth had been hurredly
sewed on to the old bed ticking, the piece
found in the well fitting the patch, and
being the same goods as the old ticking.
On the floor, which had been scrubbed
were found blood stains, and an overlooked
clot of blood was found on the head board
OF the bed. An axe was also found, with
distinct evidence of blood stains, although
1T had been rubbed with a brio. There
were no signs of blood on the clothing
or body Of the dead man, which showed
that after being murdered. he was kept
/ long enough to wash off the blood, and
until it ceased to flow, new clothes sub
stituted and his body dragged the dis
tance of scventy-flve yards to the cump of
| bushes.
Through all the investigation, the wife
death of her husband or the exciting reve-
lation connected with it, She shows not
the least feeling of fear, regret or COM
......., asserting that she knows moth
ing about it. In the jail yesterday some
fellow prisoners testify that she told them
she hit him on the back OF the head with
an axe, while he was noddlng In chair
near the bed and his blood spattered on
the bed and this is probably correct for
the whole bed would have been soaked
had he bled while lying there Today
Mary persists in saying she knows nothing
about it. No motive for the crime could
be discovered until this morning, when
there was testimony that Mary was ex-
tremelv Jealous of another woman to
whom her husband was attached and the
theory now is that she dealt the murder
Gus blows and carried out the CHASTITY
plan OF secreting the body and hiding the
evidence of the crime. woman only
would have dragged the body down hill
and left it there in seventy-five yards of
the house. A strong man would have
made some other disposition of 1t. The
ccroner's Jury declare that he came to his
death at the hands of his wife, and she
is in iail awaiting trial at the next term
of the Superior court
THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS.
later dovelopments in the murder of
Charles LATHE. go to show that his wife.
rnaided illed him Wednesday night and
dlsposed of his body and the motive was
ter ieaIousv of another woman. They were
heard ouarrelling Wednesday night, the