The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1911-09-23
CUT With AXE
Six People Butchsred as They Slept in
Their Beds ia Two Houses.
A MOST BRUTAL CRIME

Bodies Of the Unknown ASSASSIN
Victims Discovered by Neighbors
Three Days After the Crime Was
Committed With Their Heads
Crushed and Fearfully Mutilated
One of the most brutal crimes
known to that section for many years
has come to light at Colorado Springs
Col. Butchered in their beds by
some persons as yet unknown, who
used an axe, the bodies Of six per-
sons, three In each of two neighbor-
ing houses, were found there We'd
nesday.
The heads of all victims had
been smashed in and the appearance
of the bodies indicated that they had
been dead several days and that
death came while they slept. A re-
port says that the murder has been
caught and that he has confessed
but this is denied by the police Of
ficials, who, it is intimated, fear a
lyli;hing might follow such an an
nouncement.
An axe which had been loaned to
Mrs. Henry F. Wayne, one of the
victims, by J. R. Evans. a neighbor,
last week, was found, blood-stained
by Mrs. Evans on Monday near the
back door of the Wayne home. No
attention was paid to this fact, how
ever, as it was thought the axe had
been used in killing chickens. The
dead are:
Mrs. Alice May Burnham, wife OF
A. j. Burnham, cook at the Modern
Woodmen's Satitarium.
Their two children, Alice, aged 6,
and John, aged three years.
Henry F. Wayne, a consumptive,
until recently a patient at the Wood
mems Sanitarium.
Mrs. Wayne and their one-year-old
baby girl.
The Burnham house is situated at
Dale street and Harrison place, and
the two houses next to it on Dale
street are vacant. Directly in the
rear is the Wayne home and close to
It is that of Evans. The discovery of
the bodies was made by neignbor
who called at the Burnham home,
Not getting any response and motto
ing strong odor, she forced an en-
trance. The bodies of Mrs. Burnham
and those of her two children were
found in their beds, which were COW
cred with blood, and the wall and
ceiling were also spattered.
The woman rushed to the street
and gave the alarm. Immediately a
dozen persons went to the Wayne
house, where there had been no signs
of life since Sunday, and the same ter
rlble scene was presented. In the
beds were the bodies Of Mr.. and Mrs
Wayne and her children horribly
mangled, as in the case of the bodies
in the Burnham home.
That such a crime had been COM
mitted in thickly settled neighbor-
hood and left unrevealed for three
days is regarded as incredible. Not
even a footprint is to be found on the
floor of either house and no one could
be found who had seen any one about
the premises since Sunday, when all
the murdered persons at different
times were in a neighboring grocery
Burnham, who lives at the sanl-
tarium where he Is employed. about
zen miles frOm the c!.r. vas arrested
Son after the discovery Of he crime
but there seems nothing to impllcate
him in the tragedy. His employers
say he was at work when the crime
must have been committed. He was
last seen at his home Sunday after
noon. and is said to have left there
about o'clock.
Little is known Of the Wayne fami-
ly except that Wayne came to the
Modern Woodmen's sanitarium about
ten months ago from Indiana as a
patient. One month ago his term in
the institution was up and he brought
his wife and child here and rented
the house in which they were murder
ed.
When brought into the morgue the
bodies were almost unrecognlzable
The heads of all the six victims were
either cut or smashed and IN almost
every case the number Of wounds in
dicated them urderer had cut and
slashed until certain that life was eX'
tinct.