Newspaper Tidbit: Most Cruel Murder ... (1816)

Connecticut Mirror (Hartford, CT)
22 January 1816

New-York, January 15

The Alexandria papers of Friday, stat that a most cruel murder was committed on the night of the 4th inst. on the person of a Spaniard or Frenchman, between Hay-market and Buckland, in Prince William County Virginia, supposed to have been perpetrated by two unknown persons, who are either Spaniards or Portuguese. It appears that the deceased was seen on the morning of that day travelling in company with the two suspected persons, who were the next day seen returning on the same road; after which the dead body of their companion was discovered near the turnpike road, mangled in a horrid manner, covered over with snow and entirely naked. The suspected persons, and the murdered man were at the house of Mr. Hutcheson on the morning of the 4th. One of them spoke broken English, and said he had with him 500 dollars in money, and about the same amount in small jewellery, which he carried in two boxes in a small valice. He was about 5 feet 6 inches high, dark eyes, hair very black, and face and hands pitted with the small pox--stated that he had come from Philadelphia, and had some friends in Baltimore; that he was endeavouring to raise money for the purpose of redeeming a near relation who was a prisoner in Algiers; that he was going a short distance further with the two persons who were with him, and should return in a few days.

Com. Adv.

Sunday's Obituary: Camper/Chinn/Lowman/Anderson

Easton Gazette (Easton, MD)
22 February 1873

CAMPER.--Near St. Michaels, on the 2d inst., after a protracted illness, John Camper, formerly of Brentsville, Va., in the 53d year of his age.

Richmond Times Dispatch (Richmond, Va.)
30 March 1906

Information has reached here that Fielding Chinn, colored, of lower Prince William county, was shot at an entertainment Saturday night at Occoquan by a negro named Johnson. Johnson made his escape. Chinn died Monday from his injuries.

New York Herald (NY)
20 August 1884

LOWMAN.--At Manassas,Va., Sunday, August 17, ELEANOR LUDLAM, wife of Harvey L. Lowman.

Philadelphia Inquirer (Phila., Pa.)
6 July 1885

FIRE AND LOSS OF LIFE.

WASHINGTON, July5--A fire, in which at least one life was lost, is reported to have occurred in a house occupied by a family named Anderson, at Woodbridge, Va., on Saturday morning. Woodbridge is a station on the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Road, near Quantico, about twenty-four miles from this city.

Crime & Punishment: Murder of William H. Trone (1855)

Charleston Courier (Charleston, SC)
28 November 1855

The Mobile Register of Firday [sic], says:

"Mr. Wm. H. Trone, one of the best known and most esteemed citizens of Mobile, was killed last night in front of the Battle House, by a man named Banks, who we understand lives in Lowndes county, Mississippi.  The unhappy man, who has thus involved himself in the crime of murder, and taken without reason or provocation tho life of a most worthy and respectable gentleman, was, it seems, well nigh crazy from the effects of liquor. It appears that the parties were acquainted, and meeting casually at the door of the Battle House bar room, Trone spoke to Banks, when the latter, with insane fury, fired a pistol into his bosom.  Mr. Trone lived but a few minutes, and Banks was promptly arrested and conveyed to the guard house.

Evening Star (Washington, DC)
28 November 1855

... Wm. H. Trone, who was killed lately in Mobile by Thomas G. Banks, formerly resided in Prince William county, Va.

Alexandria Gazette

1 December 1855

Murder of Mr. Trone at Mobile

The telegraph has already announced that Mr. Wm. H. Trone, a highly respectable citizen of Mobile, formerly of Virginia, was shot in the bar-room of the Battle House, on the evening of 2ed ult. by one Thomas G. Banks, of Columbus, Miss. The Evening News of Friday says:

It appears that Mr. Trone, when in the bar-room of the Battle House, was accosted by Mr. Banks, with whom he had some slight acquaintance, and invited by him to "take a drink." Mr. Trone courteously declined, whereupon Banks instantly discharged at him the contents a single barrel pistol which he held in his hand. Two balls entered the throat of his victim, cutting the carotid artery and causing death in about ten minutes.

Mr. Trone walked rapidly across the room, and fell to rise no more. A road of blood distinctly marked his track upon the floor of the room,and when we saw him he was gasping for breath, and deluged in gore. It was a "story sight" to look upon.

Banks was immediately secured and placed in confinement. He had, we are informed, been in a state of intoxication during the afternoon, and seemed to be quarrelsome, brandishing a pair of pistols in his hands.  No difficulty -- no disagreement had, as far as we can learn, taken place between the deceased and Banks -- intoxication, drink, and the habit of carrying concealed weapons, are at the bottom of this shocking murder. 

Mr. Trone was a frank, chivalrous, well-meaning and generous gentleman and his death under the circumstances, is to be deeply deplored.

Daily Dispatch
2 April 1857

CONVICTED OF MANSLAUGHTER -- Thomas G. Banks, who shot and killed Wm. H. Trone, of Va., at the Battle House in Mobile, was found guilty of manslaughter, on the 20th ult., and fined $500. The case had been removed from Mobile to St. Stephens, Ala.

[William H. Trone is buried in Magnolia Cemetery, Mobile, Alabama.  On his headstone he was born October 22, 1812 in Prince William County.  -- cgl]

Madness Monday: Maggie Compton Perkey Clore

Evening Star (Washington, DC)
21 October 1946

MAN KILLS DAUGHTER, THEN ENDS HIS LIFE

Manassas, Va., Oct. 21 -- A Manassas man, arguing with his daughter about being sent to the county almshouse, shot her to death and then killed himself yesterday, Sheriff J. P. Kerlin reported.

Police listed the father as Thomas Lawson Compton, 65. His daughter, who had been twice married, was Mrs. Maggie Compton Perkey Clore.

Sheriff Kerlin said the father protested plans of his daughter to send him to the almshouse and fired two shots, striking her in and near the heart, and then shot himself through the head. The shooting occurred in the daughter's home on the Centerville road near here. Her two sons by a former marriage, aged 3 and 10, witnessed the shooting the sheriff said.

Beside her sons, Mrs. Clore is survived by her husband, a railroad employee and a daughter, Mrs. Mike Papa.

Dr. E. H. Marsteller, Prince William County coroner, issued certificates of homicide and suicide.


[The death certificate for Maggie Compton Perkey Clore notes her burial to be at Cannon Branch Cemetery in Manassas, VA. ~cgl]

Coming Soon: Justice and Vengeance: Scandal, Honor, and Murder in 1872 Virginia

Just in time for the completion of the renovation of the Brentsville Jail comes a book about one of the most sensational and dramatic murders in Prince William County:

"In Justice and Vengeance, Arwen Bicknell offers the first full account of the events leading up to the shooting of James Clark by Lucien Fewell and the sensational, headline-grabbing murder trial that followed. Set against the backdrop of Reconstruction, tumultuous Virginia politics, and the presidential election of 1872 featuring Ulysses Grant, Horace Greeley, and protofeminist Victoria Woodhull, the first female presidential candidate, Bicknell paints a vivid picture of the evolving South as she traces the families and fortunes of Lucien Fewell, a hellraiser with a passion for drink and for abusing Yankees and scalawags, and James Clark, a rising legal and political star with a wife, a daughter, and a baby on the way."

Justice and Vengeance by Arwen Bicknell is available for preorder here.

Thriller Thursday: Dobson / Burkle

1 October 1916
Richmond Times Dispatch (VA)

KILLS EMPLOYER AND SELF

Mystery Surrounds Double Shooting That Occurred at Nokesville on Thursday

Manassas, VA., September 30 - Mystery still surrounds the tragedy which occurred at Nokesville on Thursday.  Eugene Dobson, colored, who shot and killed his employer, Jacob R. Burkle, a Prince William County farmer, and then committed suicide, was known throughout the neighborhood as an exemplary specimen of his race.

The bodies of the two men were found in separate rooms of the barn on the Burkle place.  A shotgun lying beside the body of Dobson told the story.  He was about fifty years old.

Reports state that Dobson went to the house several hours before the shooting for the gun "to kill a black snake at the barn."  The report of the gun was heard and farmhands in a neighboring cornfield hurried to the barn.

Mr. Burkle was about fifty-five years old and is survived by his wife.

Thriller Thursday: Henry W. Reid

Richmond Times Dispatch
26 January 1908

KILLED ON WAY HOME

Henry W. Reid, From Prince William, Murdered in Washington

Washington, D.C., January 25 -- Henry W. Reid, of this city, who came to Washington from Prince William county about five years ago, was murdered in front of his home, on F Street, near North Capitol, about 1 o'clock this morning.  A few feet from where the body was found another man was held up and robbed earlier in the evening.

Reid's body was terribly cut, and a bloody oyster knife found near by had evidently been plunged through the top of the skull into the brain, producing instant death.  The body was found by two policemen before it had grown cold.  Four arrests have been made, but the police have only slight clues.

Reid was the proprietor of a saloon near Union Station.  He was in the habit of taking home every night the cash receipts for the day, and it is believed that the murderers knew of this, and were seeking money.  They took his gold watch and chain, and probably some change from his pocket, but the police found in the cash drawer at the saloon this morning $146.  Reid was the son of the late William Reid, who ran a hotel near Brentsville, not far from Manassas.  The young man was clerk of the Tremont Hotel for a time, and later opened a saloon.

He was recently placed in charge of the affairs of a new hotel company, which was to erect a hotel near the new Union Station.

The body will be taken to Prince William for interment.

Thriller Thursday: The Late Difficulty in Nokesville

Alexandria Gazette (VA)

25 January 1870

To the editor of the Alexandria Gazette:

Dear Sir: I notice in the Prince William Advocate an extract taken from your paper, in which it is alleged upon the authority of persons living in the neighborhood of Nokesville, "that the late difficulty between Mr. Bunn Grigsby and the Messrs. Marsteller has been settled.  The former was compelled to sign a paper and to submit to a severe castigation, but the later afterwards gave up the paper and expressed regrets for acting so hastily."

We respectfully request that we may be permitted through the medium of your paper to say that no such settlement as above stated, nor has any settlement whatever of the said difficulty been effected.

Very respectfully, L. A. MARSTELLER & Bro.

Nokesville, Pr. Wm. co., Jan 24.

Alexandria Gazette

24 February 1870

THE LATE DIFFICULTY AT NOKESVILLE -- Mr. Marsteller, who was shot at Nokesville on Monday evening last, is reported to be recovering.  The attack upon him was not unexpected, as he had written to a young gentleman in this city, telling him that the difficulty between himself and Mr. Grigsby had not be settled, and asking him if convenient to pay him a visit, and stay with him until the Messrs. Grigsby and their friend, who had been to Morrisville, in Fauquier county, after his brother, but were unable to see him on account of his sickness, left the neighborhood.  These three gentlemen took the night train at Manassas and returned to Lynchburg on the evening the shooting took place.

Evening Star (Washington, DC)

24 February 1870

It was thought last night at Nokesville that Mr. Marsteller, who was shot there on Monday last by Mr. Clay Grigsby, as heretofore stated in the Gazette, might probably recover, though the ball was still embedded among the muscles at the base of  his skull.

Thriller Thursday: Murder of Ella Smith

Richmond Times Dispatch
December 7, 1909

REWARD OFFERED IN MANASSAS CASE

One Hundred Dollars for Murderer of Prince William Woman

Governor Swanson yesterday offered a reward of $100 for the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who murdered Miss Ella Smith and burned her home in Prince William county, four miles north of Manassas and near the Bull Run battlefield, on the night of November 20.

The fire was discovered by a neighbor, but when he reached the scene the dwelling had been burned to the foundation.  Miss Smith's charred body was found in the ruins.

The authorities, after an investigation, announced that they were confident that murder had been done.  The dead woman was said to have had a considerable sum of money in her possession.

Thriller Thursday: Murder of Capitola Butler

Washington Post
February 9, 1899

NO EVIDENCE OF MURDER.

Prince William County Grand Jury Discharges E. B. Reid

Special to the Post.  Manassas, Va., Feb. 8 -- In the County Court, the Grand Jury, after spending two days in hearing evidence, adjourned last night, having failed to find a true bill against E. B. Reid, charged with having murdered his cousin, Mrs. Capitola Butler.

Some time ago Mrs. Butler was found dead in her bed at the home of Mr. Reid, where she was living at the time, her brains having been blown out by a shotgun.  After she was buried her body was taken up and an inquest was held, in which it was discovered that she was in a very delicate situation at the time of her death.

The bitterest feeling had existed for some time between her family and E. B. Reid, growing out of some money transaction, and at the instance of her brother, Reid was arrested on the charge of having murdered Mrs. Butler, and carried before a Magistrate for preliminary trial.  Finding no evidence against him, the Magistrate promptly discharged him.  Mrs. Butler's friends were not satisfied, however, and at the February term of the County Court the matter was brought to the attention of the Grand Jury.  After spending two days in examining the witnesses, they failed to find a true bill.

Mr. Robert H. Campbell, a well-known criminal lawyer of Staunton, was present at the request of the Commonwealth's Attorney, in the interest of Mrs. Butler's friends.

Tombstone Tuesday: Richard and Lucy (Keys) Cornwell

Woodbine Church Cemetery
Photo by C.G.Lynn

CORNWELL

RICHARD CORNWELL

May 17, 1889

August 26, 1950

His Wife

LUCY KEYS

July 30, 1877

May 21, 1948

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Richmond Times Dispatch

August 28, 1950

THREE ARE HELD IN MAN'S DEATH NEAR MANASSAS

Manassas, Va., Aug. 27 -- State and county officers early today found the beaten body of Richard Cornwell, about 60, at his home seven miles south of here.

Three persons later were arrested and charged with murder.  They were identified by Commonwealth's Attorney Stanley A. Owens as Richard Watson, Andrew Cornwell and Mrs. Mary Watson, all of Prince William County.

Owens said Cornwell apparently died of the effects of a beating he suffered yesterday during an altercation with the arrested trio.  The prosecutor said he had asked for an autopsy to determine the definite cause of Cornwell's death.

Owens said he was told by Harvey Cornwell, a brother of the dead man who lived in the house with him, that the victim had been struck during a fight with Watson, Andrew Cornwell and Mrs. Watson.

Friend of Friends Friday: Christmas Eve Murder of George Green

This Saturday, Ben Lomond Historic Site's Holiday Tour will include counts of How Slaves Spent Christmas.  

One especially grim tale of Christmas involves the 1856 murder of cruel slave owner, George Green, that made national news.

~ ~ ~ ~

Boston Herald (Boston, MA)
January 5, 1857

THE MURDER IN VIRGINIA.  The Alexandria Gazette gives the following particulars of the murder of Mr. George Green, in Prince William county, Va, on the night before Christmas: --

"He was in his house when it was entered by three negro women, a young negro man, and a negro boy, all of whom attacked Mr. G., but he kept them off.  During the attack he was struck by the oldest of the women (said to be aged about sixty years) with an axe, which Mr. Green succeeded in taking from her, and with which he defended himself for some time, but was finally overpowered and the axe taken from him, when he made his escape from the house, but was pursued and overtaken by the negroes about 150 yards from the house, and killed.

His body was then taken back into the house, and the house set fire to and burned down.  Mr. G.'s watch, and other articles which he had on his person at the time, were not stolen, but were found with his remains.  The negroes, after committing this diabolical and henious atrocity, went to their quarters, and when the neighbors arrived pretended to be asleep.  Traces of blood were discovered, and suspicion was immediate aroused, and when they were charged with having committed the crime, they made full confession, and were taken into custody, and at once committed to jail.  Mr. Green resided by himself."

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New-Bedford Mercury (New Bedford, MA)
February 27, 1857

Three of the five negroes who recently murdered Mr. Green, in Prince William county, V[a]., were hung on Friday last.  The three consisted of the mother, aged 65, and a son and daughter.  Two others, sons of the same woman, were respited.  About 1,000 spectators were present.

Thriller Thursday: Freed on Murder Charge, Convicted as Chicken Thief

Richmond Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA)
February 26, 1932

FREED ON MURDER CHARGE, CONVICTED AS CHICKEN THIEF

Prince William County Man is Given Year's Term in the Penitentiary

Manassas, Va., Feb. 25 - Walter Woolfenden of near Kopp, Prince William County, who recently was acquitted of a charge of murder in the death of Goodwin Miller, was today convicted of a charge of stealing chickens and sentenced to one year in the penitentiary.

Woolfenden was arrested last October on a charge of stealing chickens from J.M. Shelton, near Woodbridge.  This charge was followed by a murder charge growing out of the deaths of Miller and his wife and child, whose charred bodies were found in the ruins of their burned home.

Woolfenden was not arrested in connection with the Goodwin deaths until it was learned that he had collected insurance on a policy of Miller in which Woolfenden was the beneficiary.  Woolfenden has not been tried for the death of Mrs. Miller for which he was also indicted.

Thriller Thursday: Arundel and Davis Murder (4th Virginia Cavalry)

Alexandria Gazette
February 10, 1864

John T. Arundel and Samuel Davis, of Prince William county, privates in the 4th Virginia cavalry, were murdered one night last week in Dumfries, by a negro man while asleep.  They were guarding from negroes, whom they had captured, and falling asleep one of the negroes murdered both, by knocking them in the head, with an axe.  The Richmond Examiner of Monday last contains the following:  "We learn that on Friday last two members of the Prince William cavalry, named Davis and Arundel, succeeded in capturing four negroes in the Yankee service, belonging to the "Home Guard" of Fairfax county.  The cavalrymen took the negroes to Dumfries, and on Friday night placed them in an unoccupied house.  Having imprudently fallen to sleep, the cavalrymen were attacked and overpowered by the negroes, their skulls cleft by some sharp instrument, and their bodies, mutilated in the most horrible manner.  They were found next morning weltering in their blood, and lived only long enough to relate the circumstances of the terrible tragedy which had befallen them."

Alexandria Gazette (Alexandria, VA)
February 10, 1864