The Poole Telegram. — 1879-09-26 (Poole, Dorset, England)

BOY'S TERRIBLE CRIME. A telegram from Cincinnati, dated Sept. 3, in the New York papers just received, says.—" The particulars of the killing of three women st Waynesvile, Ohio, with a hatchet, were briefly telegraphed last night. The suicide of Willie Anderson, son of Mrs. Hatte, one of the victims, news of which has just been received, completes one of the most remarkable cases of crime in the history of the State. The investigations of the coroner and of detectives have developed the following facts :—Mrs. Hatte lived in Waynesville —a small Quaker village in Warren County with Wilie Anderson, her son by a divorced husband, a lad 18 years of age. With her were staying, temporarily, her sister, Mrs. Clemetine Meeks, of Cincinnati, and a twelve-yearold daughter of the latter. A week ago last night, neighbours of the family heard screams issuing from the house, hut little attention was paid to the fact. On Sunday morning the boy Willie left Whynesville for Cincinnati. The same day persona passing the house noticed an offensive smell coining therefrom. Yesterday afternoon it became so had that the marshal ventured to open one of the windows, when the stench became horrible. On entering he found the room in confusion, and two dead bodies, one on a bed and the other under it. A further search re, ealed a third body in the back room, and all were in an advanced stage of decomposition, while the head of one in the front room had been eaten by rats until the hair and scalp were all gone. The bodies were unrecognisable except by the garments. The mother and child lay in the room, and Mrs. Matte in the backroom, near a lounge. The latter was covered with a tick, and the head was hada, mutilated. The victims had evidently retired, the lit le girl's pallet lying on the door near the window-board, stained and tumbled, while the child lay on the bed partially covered with clothes. The poor mother had crawled under her bed to die. Her arm was gashed with blows from a hatchet, as if it had been put up to protect her head. Suspicion was at once attached to the boy, whose peculiar conduct toward the close of the week had been noticed. It appeared by testimony before the coroner that he had left the house on Tuesday night, and spent the rest of the week at all hotel. He was seen, however, several times going back to the place, and the discovery of a dime novel which had been lent to him on Saturday night, lying by his mother's side, shows that he must have spent some time in the house as late as Saturday night. It appears that after leaving Waynesville on Sunday morning he came to Cincinatti, where his father, Daniel It. Anderson, is living. He , stopped at an hotel here over night, and visited his fathee. Last night he resolved to go back to the scene of the , tragedy, whether with the intention of confessing the deed or of putting a !told face on the matter is not known. Ile had no money, and being unable to pay his fare, was put off the tit:lM at Plainville, a few miles from( 7incinatti. He went to an hotel, but was refused admission, not having money to pay for his lodging. Nothing was seen of him until one o'clock to-day, when he was found on a coal-heap near the station, wig' a bullet through his head, and his right hand grasping a limall 32-calibre pistol. He had been dead several hours. The motive of the lad in committing the terrible crime can only be surmised. Ile was living, apparent!), on good terms with his mother and aunt, and was regarded in the village and in the printingoffice where he worked as a peaceable boy. The only theory which affords a clue to the mystery is that he acted for or with his father. Mrs. Matte Was married to Anderson when she was 16 years old. She was a pretty girl, and in her later years was regarded as a handsome woman. After the birth of the son difficulties arose, and a divorce followed. The woman was married to a Mr. Matte, who died not long ago in an insane asylum. The theory of the detectives is that Anderson is in some way implicated in the murder, and that Mrs. Meeks and her daughter were killed because they were witnesses of the deed."  TF.