The Cannock Chase Examiner. — 1874-12-19 (Cannock, Staffordshire, England)

CONFESSION OF FORT EN MUM.. DERS BY A MANCHESTER MAN. The following horrible story reaches us from Mexico. It is published in the Toronto Weekly hole of the 27th Nov., having been furnished by a correspondent of the Neir York Tin., :—Mazatlan, Mexico, Oct. 22.—An Englishman named Tom Adams, who, for the past eight or ten years has owned a low tavern and dancehouse in this place, cud gained general notoriety as a desperate character, died on the 15th instant from the effecta of a pistol-shot wound received in a fight several month. ago. Just previous to his death, when assured that his doom was inevitable, he sent for Captain Ver. plank, the Am,ican commercial agent at this peat, and intimated that he had some imrortent dis• closures to make, which be desired should be given publicity in the Eastern States. Capt. Verplank having consented to comply with his wishes, and to take down whatever statements he had to make in writing, the dying man unburdened his conscience by confessing himself guilty of fourteen murders, all but one of whieh were committed in the United States and Canada. Adams commemed his narrative by stating that his proper name was George Worley. and that he wail a native of blanobeeter, England. Ile commenced his career of crime by murdering the second mate of the American ship Cultivator, in the Liverpool Docks, about the year 1854. After this deed be went to Canada. and roved about through those provieces for two years in pursuit of robbery. In the year 1855, at which tin .e be was known by the name of Orton, be was er.gs ged as a sailor on the lakes. While lying in the American port cf Oswego, he murdered a nn‘u whom he understood to be a painter, by throwing him over abridge. He met hie vi tiro in a drinking saloon, where he went to collect a bill of the proprietor, and followed him until the cppertunity was favour. able, when he struck him down with a alung-abot. and disposed of the body in the way mentioned. After this. Adams returned to Cicada, and aseumed the name of Townsend. With two Sc. compliers. he commenced a campaign of robbery, and re:•petrated four Lunde, in the country west of Toronto, ending with the killing of a sheriff a few miles west of Nligara river. That country then became to,, warm for him, in consequence cal the offeriug of large rewards for his arrest, and he escaped on board a schooner piecing through the Canadian canal to the American port of Toledo. From this port he went to Chicago, and committed three murders in that place during the some summer. One of his victims was the captain of a vessel, whom he followed from the St. Charles saloon ; another was a German saloon-keeper, whom he killed in his bed at night in his place of business. which was situated near a railroad depot; and the third was some man unknown to him, whom he murdered after Iris-ring a brothel. After Hume. crimes he was arrested ha Chicago, tried and convicted of a burglary, and served a term of three years in the Illinois State Prison. On obtaining his release Adams went to New York, where he remained about one year. during which time he committed two murders, both of his victims in that city being mon unknown to him. One was a wen. tryman, whom he enticed to the outskirts of the city, and obtained about 2000 dole. on his body. After leaving New York he was engaged in a series of robberies through the Southern States. He retnrned to Baltimore and murdered a prostitute in that city. Subse• oriently he committed a murder in Lomsville and one in Memphis, but of the names of his victims be had no knowledge. Adams left New Orleans about the time of the breaking sot of the war. and went to Vera I Cru,. From thence he went to the City of Mexico, and came to Maorstlan about ten years ago. Since his sojourn here he was widely known and generally feared, his place being ore of this most notorions rendervorm of desperate characters on the coast. He finally met his fate at the handa of a Spanish gambler, named Gonzales, in a drunken quarrel over a throw of dice. Be leaves between 15,000 and 18,000 dole, in cash, or ita equivalent, as the result of his career of atrocious crime, which he has willed to a sister. supposed to be his only living relative, who resides at Sheffield, Eng. land. The legatee needs to be devoid of any superstitious scruples to receive and enjoy such a legacy.  LONDON AND corNTRy