The Sun. — 1847-08-24 (London, England)

DIABOLICAL MURDER IN KEN TUCKY.  The Louisville Courier contains an account of a most atrocious and cold-blooded murder. A few gentlemen, five in all, among whom was Dr. J. F. Pendergrast, united in establishing a school in the vicinity of Dr. Pendergrast's residence. In February last Mr. W. W. Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, was employed as a teacher; and Dr. Pendergrast having taken a dislike to him, not only refused to send his children to the school, but in every way attempted to injure Mr. Buchanan in the estimation of those whose confidence he had won. At length Mr. Buchanan having submitted to this treatment as long as he thought suitable, addressed a letter of remonstrance to the Doctor, and hereupon, as it seems, the Doctor declared that Mr. Buchanan should never teach in the school -house again. The neighbours of Dr. Pendergrast were still satisfied with Mr. Buchanan's teaching, and three of the five owners of the schoolhouse employed him for another quarter, one of the three being the husband of Dr. Pendergrast's sister. On the 14th of June Mr. Buchanan went to one of the owners of the school-house, who had the key, and requested him to go over with him and put him in peaceable possession of the house, in order to guard against a difficulty with Dr. Pendergrast. This gentleman, Colonel Montgomery, complied with the request, and took his daughter with him as a pupil. Soon after they reached the school-house, in which some six or seven children were assembled, while Mr. Buchanan was sitting on the step near the door, and Colonel Montgomery was sitting inside of the house near the door, Dr. Pendergrast was seen sallying forth from his dwelling with his three sons and a negro man, the negro carrying a basket of rocks and the doctor's double-barrelled gun, and when they reached the school-house the doctor saluted both Mr. Buchanan and Colonel Montgomery with the most offensive and insulting epithets he could muster into service, and commanded them to leave his house, accompanying the order by throwing rocks twice at Mr. Buchanan. Colonel Montgomery mildly replied to Dr. Pendergrast that he had as much privilege to be there as he had ; upon which one of the boys assaulted Colonel Montgomery with a rock, in which the others joined; and while the colonel was defending himself from the boys, both the Doctor and the negro also assailed him. It is supposed that while the family were on Colonel Montgomery, Mr. Buchanan endeavoured to take some of the assailants off his friend. All that is positively known is, that Dr. Pendergrast called his negro to hand him his gun and he would shoot the —. Colonel Montgomery had one of the boys down, and the others on him, and supposing the threat was for him, he turned his eyes towards the Doctor, and saw the gun was pointed beyond him, and, looking in that direction, he saw Mr. Buchanan fall on his face when the gun was fired. This stopped the fight, and when Col. Montgomery got to the young man he found him dying—he had been pierced with forty shots but a shade less than buck-shot. These are the uncontroverted statements of the case. It is not unimportant to mention, that after Mr. Buchanan was killed, one of the boys went to the corpse and turned his head over, to show where he gave him a blow with a rock, and another, after surveying the dead body, met with the hat of the murdered man in his; path, and furiously kicked it as far as he could send it. We regret to add to this horrible recital, that the cowardly murderer was still at large when the courier wrote. The officers of justice (?) who were at hand at the time winked at the murder, and abstained from any attempt to arrest the miscreant, and when more faithful men were found, he had disappeared, though a magistrate boasted that he knew where he was.—Washington Globe.