Year: 1870

James Deacon, now awaiting execution at
kingston Canada, for the poisoning Of his
wife, has made the following confession of
his crime and the way he was led into it by a
bad woman:


The confession l am about to make is made
OF my own free will and at my express de-
sire wish it made public, so that my case
may be Il warning to all men to flee from
temptation, whenever the evil one tries to en-
snare them If | had done 50 I would have
now been tree man instead Of condemned
criminal. Through the evil influence exert
Ell over me by a false and wicked girl, am
now waiting to suffer death for my sins
Every word | am about to say will be the
Whole truth. do not intend to screen N.Y.
self, nor do intend to screen others, but tell
the truth to my tellow-men, as will have to
tell my God when l stand before His great
high throne. There will be no hiding any
thing from Him, for all mans secret will be
revealed and his heart laid bare | first be-
come acquainted with Caroline Vancough-
net Il year ago last February at my father
in-laW's. My wfe's sster-in-l4w pro-
posed for me TO hire her sister, Caroline
Vancoughnet, to nurse my wife in her con-
finement hired her accordingly At this
time was staying with my wife at her SIS
ter-ln-laW's. | had very sore eyes, and Car
ollnc insisted on nursing and attending me
as well as my wife. 1t soon became known
to me that she was in love with me. l did
not at this time feel any return of affections
for her This state of affairs lasted as long
as two months. My wife was quite we'll bY
this time, and we discharged her


we hired her again the next spring, as my
wife was not able to attend to all the work
outside and indoors She requested me to
hire Caroline Eancoughnet | hired her
and took her to work with me in the sugar
bush. This was in April AS soon as we
were alone she commenced the same kind of
actions rs she carried on with me the wear
before at her sisters. She kept getting worse
every day, until was completely led away
from my wife. | was now on as intimate
terms with her as if she had been my wife
She told me if would poison my wife she
would marry me in three weeks time. She
kept urging me to do this every day, and
said if did not she would. All that the wit
nesses said against me at the trial, concern
ING our behavior, was true. L could not even
60 out OF the house for few minutes with
out her following me and behaving improp-
eriy. My wife used to tell me that when |
was absent that she could not get any good
out OF Caroline, for she was always talking
about me and watching for my return. NV
wife told me Caroline had wished her dead
Had | not had q kind, torbearing wife, she
would have put us both out of doors, for
Caroline and often went beyond the limits
of decent behavior right before her MY wife
now told me that we had no further use for q
girl, 50 we consulted together and discharg-
ed her. After this whenever | had to 90
away from home to the store or any other
place, was sure to meet her on the way
She proposed to me that l should 90 to
work for Mr.. Shaw, and she should 60 to
work for Mr.. Hicks, who lived next to Mr.
ShaW's. This was done SO that we could be
near to one another. She had by this time
completely bewitched me- and had caused
me to lose all the affection ! ever had for my
wife. | am sorry to say that |, u man of ma
turc years. could be so easily led astray by a
young girl from my lawful wife-onc whom
had no reason to treat as | did.


She was all that was good and kind to me-
and if had only cherished her rs | ought to
have done, | never would have been where
now am. Caroline used to come over to
ShaW's after her work was done, to see me
She asked me if was never going to get rid
OF my wife. This constant urging of hers
nearly set me mad, and determined TO pois-
on my wife on the first opportunity The
first thing did was TO buy half drachm of
stryclnine from Mr.. Shaw, pretending 10
him that | wanted it to poison foxes. adj
ministercd the poison several times to my
wife, in water and tea, but did not give her
large enough quantities to cause death until
gave it to her in the salts. AS soon as my
wife was dead came to my senses, and if 1
could only have brought her back again to
life. would have given the whole world if
it had been in my possession. NV love for
my wife came back to nc with double force,
and the illegtimate love vanished If the
girl had never mentioned poisoning to me
never would have been here. | am making
every preparation for meeting God, and hope
my earnest desire for salvation will be ac-
ceptabe to Him. [ hold no malice against
my fcllow-man, and am satisfied that the iu-
ry did their duty in finding me guilty. | die
in peace with all men, and hope that God in
His mercy will forgive me my sins.