Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1913-10-14
smooth.

N.SA
we're deliberate and pitiless, the girl
said, in their preparation for the muir
der. They began to make their plans
for "a month and half before the
crime was done, but circumstances
caused several changes in their de,
signs.
They first decided, in a cool, DELHI
crate way, that they could best drown
the wife, but the girls courage failed
and the mans good judgment sug-
gested that other means of death
would be better. Next, they thought
of decoying her in the night to the
cow-pen near the house, and of there
putting her out of the way. But again
the girls heart failed her, and she
asked Spann to put the thought Of
murder out of his mind.
! For the next few days he said moth
ing more to her of the crime which he
had planned during a month and a
half, turning it over and over in his
/ thoughts, considering it with the same
care and shrewdness as though it were
problem of business. But his delay
was merely the forerunner of a quick
decision put at once into effect.
She was awakened at night by his
knocking at the door and opened the
door to find him standing on the
threshold with piece of rope in his
hands
We'll have it over with now" he
said. mo more waiting. Come along"
She followed into the yard, which
was very dark because clouds hid all
but the rim of the moon. Spann walked
noisely up the stops with no effort to
conceal his approach from his wife.
and entered the hallway AS he ex-
planned later he was determined to
have the murder done with and to
waste no further time planning ways
by which the crime could be conceale1.
During the month and a half that he
had thought of the murder, he had
devised shrewd schemes of conceal
ment, but when he actually committed
the crime he showed only brutality.
Followed by the girl whom he was
to marry, he entered the room where
his wife was sleeping, and lit a lamp
standing on a table near the bad. She
awcke. and seeing the two by her
bedside. screamed Susan Eberharr
who stood beside Spann, stopped the
cries of the wife by covering the wo-
mans lips with handkerchief.
Spann slipped the moose of a ropA
over his wife's head; and with the
girl looking on, drew the rope tight.
Slept Several Hours.
Susan Eberhart returned to bed and
slept for several hours. Then sha
was awakened by Spann, who said that
he must leave, for that if he stayed
he would assuredly be hanged. She
could return to her fathers or go with
him, as she liked She would go with
him, she said, and the two left to-
ge'her. running hand in hand from |
the house, the girl still barefooted.
both looking back occasionally with |
fearful eyes. They went on foot for
over 100 miles. But pursuit was
swifter than their fight; and less
than two weeks had passed before
each was in prison and under indict-
ment for murder
A change then seemed to come about
in the girl who had lent her aid in
pitiless murder. She made friends
with the children who passed the lit
boarded Jail at Preston, on their way
10 school; and she made pets of the
birds which flew about the Jail, anc
sven the mice who concealed theEt-
selves beneath the flooring. Sympathy
began to be felt for her; public sympa-
.hy began to hold that she was led into
he crime But with this belief the
supreme court had no patience
A short while later Susan EberhartI
vas hanged upon the edge of the
at Preston. beneath a tall