Year: 1870

tive OF the Seven Fold Murder


at UXbridge. .s-


Let any one who would "sup full of hor-
rors," read the details of the murder at
Uxbridge, England. The terrible ealen-


dar of modern crimes furnishes no paraI-


lei to the atrOcity of this barbarous deed.
We can scarcely match it by referring even


to that tale of horrors which Edgar Poe


has constructed on the theory of certain


murders committed by babOon.


The scene of the murder was a neatly
kept brick cottage, divided from pleas


ant rural lane by strip of garden; attach
ed to the house was a smithy, in which
the daily toll of the master of the house
was carried on. The wedding of Mary
Ann Marshall was arranged to come of on


Tuesday, the tweuty-fourth of May, and
her brother Emanuel, of whose household
she was a member, was hard at work late


on the Saturday night before, so that he
might better afford the time to assist at the


marriage ceremony. It seems probable
that the smithy forge was kept glowing,
| and that the strong man was still intent


on his labor, when the gray dawn of Sun
| day morning began to break. Probably,
while the finishing strokes of his labor


were resouuding from his anvil, the door
was softly pushed open and an assassin,
creeping up behind his victim, snatched


up hatchet and dealt him savage blow


on the back of the head. The stroke was


not fatal, for there were marks on the
earthen floor Of a struggle which may have


been short, but which was intense in its
energy and despair. The murderer tri-
umphed, and theSwork, which was begun


with the Ratchet, was ended with sledge


hammer. Some strange and startling cry
appears to have penetrated to the room of


the wife sleeping within the cottage, for
she was found with her gown hurriedly
/ drawn over her night dress, and bearing
| the marks of fatal blows which she had


received on the spot where she was met by
the murderer of her husband as she was
| hurrying into the smithy.


Another death cry must have resounded
through the house, and aroused the young


woman, who was to have been a bride in
two days more, but who was felled as she
reached the bottom of the stairs by the al
ready blOod-stained hatchet. The old
grandmother of seventy-seven years had
reused the three little children who slept
in the room beside her, and, clutching the
youngest in her arms, sought safety in the
back kitchen. But the assassin,1 filled
with fierce appetite for slaughter, and
moved with the determination to destroy
every member of the family against which
he wished to be revenged, struck down
both age and youth with wild and relent- !
less rage.


Such is the nearest approach to a proba-
bic narrative that can be CLEANED from the |
scattered details afforded by the testimony
of those who found the bodies, and from
the description of visitors to the spot. The |
murderer seems to have locked himself in /
with his victims, and with a fiendish de-
termination to have proceeded leisurely to
hide the bodies from outside observation.
After dressing himself in some of the
clothes of the murdered man, and taking
his watch and chain, he quietly let him
self out at a window and took the road to
the neighboring town of Reading, so late,
it would appear, as seven o'clock in the
morning. The neighbors thought the
smith and his family had gone on a jour
ney, and the door was not broken in till
Monday night.


There can be little doubt that the fear
ful crime was committed by brother of
poor Marshall, and that the motive was
revenge. Marshall had caused his broth |
er to be sent to Australia about eighteen |
years ago, on account of his dissOlute mode |
Of life. All this time the exile had been !
nursing his scheme ofYengeance. It seems |
more like scene out Of sensational" ]
play than a tragedy of real life. The man |
sent to Australia suddenly returns and |
gradually makes his way through Eng
land to the village where his brother lived. |
Sometimes he was arrested by the police |.
as a atramp-sOmetimes he was lodged in
Jail for committing petty rObberies. But |
whatever happened to him, the fierce |
flame of vengeance never subsidized in his /
heart. He pushed on until he saw -the |
hnTpnGtnud of bnr fHnr, bE No
gan his worse than hellish work, havin g
pity upon none, but staining his coward
hands with the blood of young and old in
one common slaughter. The passion of
revenge is accountable for many terrible
crimes, but for none more terrible than /
this. For eighteen long years, sixteen
thousand miles away from home, this |
murderer had cherished this burning de- /
sire for vengeance. His hour came, and I
nothing less than the annihilatiOn of an |
entire family could satisfy him. His |
nieces, his sister-in-lsw, his own mother, |
brother and sister, all fell beneath his /
murderOus AK. 1t is believed that no one |
is left alive who can identity him. When |
he was sent to Australia he was a lad of
nineteen. He is now thirty-seven, and |
there must be great changes in his ap-
pearance.


There is still a sister living, and there is |
some slight probability that she will be !
able to identify him. In any case, the |
wretch cannot escape the gallOws. No
political influence" will enable him to
cheat the law. The key of the murdered |
mans house has been traced to him, and
be was arrested, dressed in the murdered
mans clothes. Even the advocates for the
adjustment. of The death penalty would
probably find it hard to plead for mercy for
this miscreant.