The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1911-01-03
INSANE WOMAN SLAYS HUSBAND.
Laurens Farmer is Killed Blow With
Axe-WOman Flees to Negro Ca
bin and Tells of Deed.


bin and Tells of Deed.
AS he peacefully slept, E. A. Hamil-
ton, one Of Laurens county's leading
young farmers, was killed in his room
Wednesday night by his wife, Mrs.
Della Brown Hamilton, at their home
four miles southeast Of the city. The
deed was committed by Mrs. Haml1-
ton while in fit Of mental alteration,
from which she has periodically sui
fered for several years, having during
the past year spent some time at
sanitarium. In her deadly work Mrs.
Hamilton used a small hand axe, and
apparently with one terrific blow
crushed her sleeping husbands head,
causing instant death. With the ex-
eeption Of their infant child no other
persons were in the room.
Mrs. Hamilton arose about IL
o'clock and must have gone outside,
where she procured an axe. She re-
turned to the room and struck her
sleeping husband a fearful blow in
the head with the dull end Of the axe,
knocking deep hole in his skull and
splattering blood over the walls. An
other large wound was made in the
neck as if she had cut him with the
sharp end OF the axe. His entire head
was mutilated. Death was imne-
diate.
Fled to Negro Cabins.
Taking her youngest child, about six
months old, she then went to One OF
the nearby negro cabins and told what
she had done. The alarm was given
after Mrs. Hamilton had taken her
baby and gone out to the colored
cooks house. At 1 o'clock the sheriff
was notified. Meantime neighbors and
relatives hurried to the scene and
found Mrs. Hamilton in terrible
state. One of the negroes went for
help, and soon Mr.. Herly Blakely, her
brouher-in-law, arrived and found Mrs.
Hamilton lying across bed. When he
approached she sprang up and strug-
gIed violently to get away from him.
In trying to make her escape from the
premises she is said to have dragged
her brother-in-law several hundred
feet before becoming exhausted, after
which she caImed and talked about
the tragedy, at times expressing sor-
row and again saying it was all for
the best. Subsequently Mrs. Hamilton
was placed in a room and locked up
until early Thursday morning, when
she was brought to the county jail,
and there kept until she was carried
to the State Hospital for the Insane
at Columbia.
=. Universal sorrow. is expressed at
the pathetic case. Mr.. Hamilton was
in aLurens only Wednesday, and was
in very buoyant frame of mind. The
past season had been a very success
full one with him, he having sold at
one time, alone, over seventy-hve
bales of cotton and out of the years
crop had gathered between two and
three hundred bales. He was pros
porous and among the most substan-
tial citizens of the county, being high
" esteemed for his many sterling
qualities.
An Unbalanced Mind.
There were no domestic troubles in
the family and the deed was the out
come Of actions resulting from an un-
balanced mind. Mrs. Hamilton has
been in a feeble state of mind for
some time, and herself realized it, for
recently she had requested that all
weapons and dangerous instruments
be removed from he: reach to prevent
her getting hold of them in case the
feared fit of insanity should come.
However, as it was not thought that
her condition warranted such steps,
no precautions were taken.
Peculiarly Sad Case.
The case is peculiarly sad, sur
rounded as they were with large and
happy family and hundreds Of acres
of productive farming land. They had
six little children, the oldest Of whom
is about thirteen years Of age and the
youngest about six months old. While
ample means are left for their sup
port, they must miss the care and at
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