The Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1865-02-25 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

AMERICAN MURDERER. of the deed she says that Burroughs had promised to marry her, end continued to correspond with her until The Cleveland Leader (Federal States) of the 4th inst., gives within a few weeks of his death, and some months an account of the murder of a wife, father, and mother, by after hie marriage with another person. She says that • ayoneg recruiting officer named David L. Bivins, who had she came to Washington without any definite plan of llen,ceteatlaoned at Grafton, and wished to release himself of action, save to see the man she loved ; that in paasin- d .11 lel "reliminary to getting married 11 second time e un er e vantageous cirenmatauces throueh the street she saw some pistols exposed for He went to his former home near Coldwater, sale in a certain shop; that she bought one because, Mich ig' an (where his young wife resided with his father she says "many of the ladies of Chicago carry pistols, and mother), on the lit of the present month. During especially when travelling;" that when she met the absence of Bivine in the evening his wife was sodBurroughs in the hall of the Treasury building, she denly seized with the pains of childbirth, and as las' sod" felt suddenly lifted np ;" her "arm was extended • . father was spending the evening at a neighbour's, the stiff as iron," and she "saw him fall." She adds "I . I old lacier went out to find him and send him for a knew nothing more until I was called back as 1, was do tot, leaving the sick woman entirely alone. During leaving the building." She strenuously denies that her absence, the husband ent,red the house, and, onany improper intercourse ever took place between herself and Burroughs, so that there is no claim that y moved b the delicate condition of his wife, deliberately this is one of the every-day cases of seduction and killed her. While thus engaged his father and mother I entered, and the villain shot and killed both. He desertion. I then hid their bodies in the cellar, set the house The same correspondent from whom we have quoted the on fire, and hurried to the railway station, for. above also says : getting a horse and sleigh, which he let t standing Probably the most startling development of the in front of the burning house. He took the night affair is its exposure of the practice indulged in by traM, then due, from Coldwater, arriving in many women in America of carrying deadly weapons. Grafton on Wednesday. Meantime the horse, Not only the "ladies" of Chicago, referred to by frightened by the conflagration, had broken away this woman. but numbers of the sex in this and got home to his stable; and the fire Jaad been city and the larger towns are guilty of the extinguished, and the bodies—recognised as being dangerous and altogether unwomanly habit It these of murdered persons—discovered. A fragment of is an absolute fact that women moving in respect- broken strap tied to a post in front of the house led to able circles, and with untainted reputations, sport the discovery of the etablekeeper who had hired the delicate little ivory-handled revolvers and repeaters; horse to the murderer; tin identity was thus esteand justify themselves in the practice by the Wished, and on the following day he was arrested in truthful assertion that not only after certain hours of Grafton, when he boldly and fully confessed his the night, but during the day in many portions of the crimes. He distributed among the crowd who country, and especially in this city, no woman is safe gathered around him a number of his autographs, without some protection of the kind, or the written as follows : " David L. Bivins, murderer guardianship of a well-armed member of the opposite ,of his wife, father and mother." He jocosely sex. In how great a degree this demoralining fact is ' bade rood bye to his acquaintances in Grafton, due to the influence of the war is a problem worth the inviting them to come up and see him, and telling them consideration of our social philosophers. they would find him "playing checkers with his nose ' on the gaol windows." This so incensed the crowd of spectators at Grafton Station that they were for lynchirg him on the spot, and were with difficulty prevented from doing so. He was placed oh board the Toledo train and taken back to Coldwater. He is in no danger of meeting his deserts there, as capital punishment is prohibited in Michigan by special  '';/ •,' ,  I   101