White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-09-09
WEIRD STORY OF NEVADA,S
MOST CRUEL OF MURDERS

~ q aNoN vi ~ oioi7
ned, but it made little difference,
as the fumes would have suffocated
him in a moment. By working hard
1 succeeded in covering the body
with ore and charcoal, and as the
charge in the furnace sank he soon
was out of sight, and it would have
been impossible to have found the
least trace of him. This work &C.
cupied about fifteen minutes, and
the night boss came around and
l commenced growing because
John was not attending to his work.
The boss hunted around for him
and asked me when | had seen him
last. 1 told him that he had put on
his coat and gone cut complain
ing that he was sick. The boss not
being able to find him helped me
out the balance of the shift, which
was only half an hour. l calcu-
lated the body would reach the
mouth of the tuyers in two hours,
but I did not dare linger around
the furnaces.
After my work was done l went
to my room but could not sleep, and
l felt relieved when the sixteen
hours was up and I had to resume
work again. | never have forgot
ten those eight hours. 1t seemed
as if every shovelful of ore that l
flung into the feed hole struck his
body and that the bubbling of the
blast took to itself speech and up
braided me for my cruelty. When
barring-out time came and l went
to the front of the furnace it Was
him that I was raking out instead
of the clinkers of iron. My reason
told me that the fierce heat had
consumed every portion of him, and
that what had not gone off in the
fumes and run out of the front and
was now a component DarI of the
Stag pile; but IL hallucination fix
ed on my brain and | saw him ma
terialiZed at every part of the fur
mace where my work called me. l
got such a mania for looking into
the feed hole of the furnace that
I soon became loaded and incapaci-
tated for further labor, and upon
my recovery l could not procure an
other situation, as the foreman
seemed to have some suspicious that
was accountable for Johns strange
disappearance. 1 then went into
the charcoal business, and, form
ing a co-partnership with two 9TH
er men, built the cabin in which
+ sit writing this statement. We
burnt coal here for two years and
took my share of the profits, $1,000,
and went east, first paying the fur
mace a visit, which I had done be-
fore whenever I had come to
town. I left Eureka and went to
Wisconsin, to the lead mines. I
could not stay away from a blast
furnace, and whenever I saw one,
there was John in the hottest place,
seemingly haunting me for killing
him. From Wisconsin I went to
Pittsburg; from there to Salt Lake,
and finally. after four years wan
dering, came back to Eureka. I
hardly got off the train before I
bent my footsteps to the old fur
mace. I wanted one more look At
it and I determined to end my
miserable life.
1t still stood in the same spot,
although other ones had been built
close to it. The works were not
running, and for two weeks | used
to go every night and wander
around the premises. I calculated
as to the exact spot where John fell,
the boards that I drew the body
across and the identical feed hole
that I threw it into. Finally the
Waterman drove me away and I
purchased an ounce of laudanum
walked owe the mountain until I
came to the old cabin. AS soon as
I finish this I shall take the poison
and lay down in the bunk. I don't
suppose that n one ever passes
this way. and 7 shall probably lay
here and rot. or the yermin will
feast on me. I cannot go to a worse
hell than what I have been In for
the last six years. II anyone finds
this statement they can verify the
truth of it by looking over the
books Of the smelling company. and
they will find mine ard John MUIR
phys name on the pay roll, and If
r. M Wallis is still in Eureka he
will remember the fact OF Johns
disappearance, for he was The night
foreman at the time.
LEE SINGLETON
The employer Of the sheepherdel-
gave him a calling down for not re-
porting the body to the coroner, and
when Thornton brought in the note
book the facts were investigated. 1t
was ascertained that II man named
Murphy had worked there and dis
appeared about the time mentioned.