Daily Arizona silver belt., 1910-02-11
PEND TO PAY PENALTY
 FOR BRUTAL ATROCITIES.
Murdered Entire Family and Burned Home to Conceal
 Terrible Deed

RICHMOND, Va, February 10.-Un- less Governor Mann sees fit to inter fere, Howard Little, "the sextuple mur- dererD of Buchanan county, will die in the electric chair in the state peniten- tiary tomorrow morning. The condemn ed man has abandoned all hope of re- ceiying respite. He is chiefly con cerned about the disposition of his body. He wants to be buried at his old home in Mcdowell county, West Virginia, and has received assurance that the small amount of money he has left will be used to carry out his wish.
 The crime for which Little is to pay the death penalty was probably the most fendsh in the criminal records of Virginia For the purpose of robbery he wiped out an entire family of six persons and then sought to conceal the crime by burning the bodies of his vic tins.
 The scene of the tragedy was the lit tie town of Hurley, in Buchanan coun- ty. The victims were ''Aunt Betty Justice, an aged woman who was gen orally supposed to keep large sum of money about her, her sOn-in-law, George Meadows, his wife and their three chil- dren.
 On the morning of September 9 last, neighbors discovered Meadows muti- lated body lying in the yard of his de- stroyed home. Two bullet holes through the body and ghastly wound in the neck, which almost severed the head from the body, gave the discoverers their first evidence of the extent of the tragedy.
 A search of the ruins of the house disclosed sickening spectacle. The blackened masses of half burned flesh and charred bones of the two women and three children were found beneath the debris, each body bearing evidence of murder committed before the house was destroyed by fire.
 BloOdhounds were rushed to the scene and a posse started at once in pursuit of the murderer. Many signs pointed to Howard Little as the murderer and within a week after the tragedy he was taken into custody. Little's wife con fessed to having washed his bloody clothing the day after the murders. She stated, also, that he had left their home about dark the night of the tragedy and returned the next morning with his clothes all bloody and torn, and said that he would kill her if she told any. thing about his condition. It was as ascertained that he had borrowed a .32 caliber revolver few days before the crime was committed, and returned it the following Wednesday with tive chambers empty. The body of George Meadows was exhumed, and two bullets taken from it were almost identical in weight with the balls taken from the shells belonging to the weapon Little had borrowed.
 Little's trial took place last Novem- Der and resulted in a verdict of guilty and sentence of death. January : was the date originally set for the ex- eeution, but Governor Swanson granted stay of thirty days in order that the case might be taken to the higher l courts. In the meantime Little was taken to Roanoke for safe keeping, as threats of lynching were made in the county where the trial had taken place. Two weeks ago LIttle's last hope of es- caping the electric char was destroyed when the state supreme court of appeals refused to grant a writ of error in his case.