USA > Ohio > Champaign County > The history of Champaign and Logan counties : from their first settlement > Part 8
USA > Ohio > Logan County > The history of Champaign and Logan counties : from their first settlement > Part 8
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37
The two children, as has already been stated, died in the month of April, 1839, and on the 26th of September, 1839, five months af- ter, the poor mother met her terrible fate. The intervening time
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had been passed in fear and trembling, and she watched over and guarded her only remaining child with tenfold care and anxiety. She feared that the blow which she thought had been aimed mainly at the head of the disowned Henry, was still reserved for him, and she therefore followed him with the argus eyes of a mother, when evil or danger threatens; she watched his depart- ure, and longed for his return when absent at his daily labor, and folded him to her heart as its only solace unuer the heavy weight of sorrow and affliction she had been called on to endure. Henry loved his mother equally well, and did much to ease her heart of its heavy burden.
On the 26th of September, hearing that her brother George was unwell, she gladly embraced the opportunity of sending Henry to assist his uncle on the work of the farm for a few days, knowing that there at least he would be out of harm's way. It was the first time that he had ever been absent from her, and when she bade him farewell, and admonished him to take care of himself, little did she think that it was the last time she ever would see him- that ere the ensuing dawn of day she would herself be lying a mangled and mutilated corpse. Such was the melancholy fact, as the sequel proved.
The events of that night and the two succeeding days are wrapped in impenetrable darkness, no witness being left but God and the murderer that can fully describe them, but such a scene as we are left to imagine, we will endeavor to narrate.
On Saturday morning, the 28th of September, 1839, Mrs. Rachel Abel, the wife of Mr. George Abei, came to the house to see her sister-in-law, and so soon as she entered the door she was surprised to see Hellman lying in bed in the front room, with his head, face and clothing covered with blood. With an exclamation of won- der she asked him what was the matter. He replied, affecting to be scarcely able to speak from weakness and loss of blood, that two nights previous, at a late hour, a loud rap had summoned him to the door : on opening it, two robbers had entered, one a large, dark man, ( meaning a negro ) and a small white man, when he had immediately been leveled to the floor with a heavy club. How he had got into bed he said he could not tell, but that he had been lying there suffering ever since, unable to get out. On hear- ing this story, and from his bloody appearance, and apparent faint- ness, not doubting it, Mrs. Able exclaimed, "Where in the name
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of God is your wife ?" to which he replied, "I do not know, go and see." On pushing open the back room door, a scene of blood met her view that it would be impossible fully to describe. In the center of the room lay the mangled corpse of the poor wife, with her blood drenching the floor, whilst the ceiling, walls, and furniture, were also heavily sprinkled with the streams which had evidently gushed from the numerous wounds she had received in the dreadful struggle.
Mrs. Able immediately left the house, and proceeded with all dispatch to the house of Gen. John Abel, which was but a short distance off, and on relating to him the story of Hellman and the condition of his sister, he immediately pronounced her to have been murdered by her husband. Charging her as well as his own wife and family, not to go to the house again, until some of the. neighbors had entered, he proceeded to make the fact known, and in a short time a large number had assembled. In answer to their inquiries Hellman told the same story, and with faint voice and apparent anguish, pointed to the bloody and apparently mutilated condition of his head, still lying prostrate in his own bed. The condition of the house also bore evidence of having been ransacked by robbers, every thing having been emptied out of the drawers and chests and thrown in confusion on the floor. His story being credited by the neighbors, he was asked where he had left his money, and on looking at the designate i place it was found to be gone. A small amount of money, $16 60, belonging to Ifenry, which had been deposited in the heft of his chest, had also been abstracted. The reader can doubtless imagine the scene, and the commiseration of the neighbors for the unfortunate victims of the midnight assassin.
At this moment Gen. Abel entered, and shortly after him a cor- oner and a physician. Twelve men were immediately selected as a jury of inquest to examine into the cause of the death of Mrs. Hellman. The jury being sworn, and having entered on their du- ty, Gen. Abel openly charged Andrew Hellman with being her murderer. The jury were struck with astonishment as they looked at Hellman, lying prostrate in his bed, and demanded of the ac- cuser what evidence he had to substantiate such a charge. The afflicted brother in reply stated that he unfortunately had no evi- dence, but desired that the physician in attendance would exam- ine Hellman's wounds. The examination was accordingly made,
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and the result was that not a scratch, a cut, or a bruise could be. found on any part of his person. Not only morally but practically was it thus established, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that "her blood was on his head." He had evidently taken up a quantity of her blood and thrown it on his head and shoulders, in order to give credence to his story, which act alone served as a positive evidence of his guilt. On a search being made of the premises, his axe was found, leaning against the bar post, about fifty yards from the house, reeking with blood, and hair sufficient sticking to it to identify it as that of the deceased-his knife, covered with blood, was found concealed on the hearth of the chimney-his tailor socks were found in the cellar, covered with blood-and the shirt he had on, as well as his arm, was saturated with blood up to the elbow. Thege was, therefore, nothing wanting to identify him, fully and conclusively, as the murderer, and he was forthwith com- mitted for trial; and the remains of his victim, having laid two days exposed before discovery, were, on the evening of the same day followed to the grave by a large concourse of friends and rela- tives, and deposited by the side of her two children, whom she had sorrowed over but five months previous.
From the condition of the body, as well as other marks in the room, there remained no doubt that the murder had been com- mitted in the most cold-blooded, premeditated and malicious man- ner. The body was lying on the floor, but from the fact that a large quantity of blood was found in the center of the bed, it is supposed she was lying asleep at the time of the attack, wholly un- conscious ot any impending evil. The stains on the pillow indica- ted that she had partially risen up after the first blow, and had been again knocked back on the bed. The soles of her feet were saturated in blood, which led to the belief that she had managed to get out of bed, and had stood erect in her own blood on the floor before she was finally despatched. Six distinct cuts, apparently inflicted with the handle of an axe, were discovered on her head. The hands and arms were dreadfully bruised, as if she had in the same manner as his second victim, endeavored thus to ward off the blows aimed at her head, whilst the little finger of the left hand, and the fore-finger of the right hand were both broken. A large gash, laying open the flesh to the bone, was visible on the right thigh, apparently inflicted with an axe, and across the whole length of the abdomen there extended a heavy bruise, in the shape
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of the letter X, in the center of which was a large mark of bruised blood, at least six inches square. An attempt had been made with the axe to sever the head from the body, and three separate gashes passing nearly through the neck, the edge of the blade entering the floor, appeared to have been the finishing stroke of the bloody deed.
The fact of his having hewn up and dissected the body of Ma- linda Horn, can no longer therefore be considered a matter of wonder. It was only the second act of the bloody drama, and well did he understand his part. The man who had passed, without being conscience-stricken, through such a scene of blood as we have just described, was doubtless capable for any emergency, and he probably disposed of his second subject with the same ease of mind that a butcher would quarter a calf.
After he had been some time in prison he confessed he had hid- den his money himself, and that it was in a tin cup behind two bricks on the breast of the chimney. A search was there made, and money to the amount of $176 24 in gold, silver, and bank notes was found, with promissory notes to the amount of $838, ma- king in all $1014 24. There were also in the cup two certificates for sections of land in Mercer county, Ohio. The money belonging to his son Henry, which had been taken out of the chest, was found stuck into a crack on the jamb of the chimney. His acknowledge- ment of the concealment of the money was of course looked on as a full confession of guilt. He of course obtained possession of it, and it is thought found some means of transmitting it to a friend in Baltimore, from whose hands he afterwards again obtained pos- session of it. His farin in Starke county, having three dwellings on it and considered to be a very valuable piece of property, he deeded to his son Henry during his confinement, which is in fact the only worthy act with regard to the man that has yet come under our notice.
A few months after his arrest a true bill was found against him by the Grand Jury of Starke county, and he was brought out for arraignment before the Court of Common Pleas, and there made known his determination, as he had right to do, to be tried before the Supreme Court. At length the term of the Supreme Court commenced, and two days before the close of its session, his case was called up for trial. Having secured eminent counsel, they urged on the court that the case would occupy more time than that
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allowed for the close of the term, and finally succeeded in having it postponed to the next term, which, meeting but once a year, caused a corresponding delay in the trial. .
He was accordingly remanded back to the jail in Bellefontaine, Logan county, Ohio, which was a large log building, from whence on the 13th of November, 1840, after being confined nearly four- teen months, he made his escape. It had been the custom to keep him confined in the cells only during the night in cold weather, allowing him to occupy an upper room during the day, depending almost entirely for his security on the heavy iron hobbles that were kept attached to his legs. The means whereby he escaped have been the subject of much controversy, and several persons have been implicated as accomplices, either before or after the fact. Since his arrest he has positively denied having any assist- ance, and states that, having got the hobble off of one foot, he started off in that condition, carrying them in his hand. On the night of his escape he had been left up stairs later than usual, and there being no fastenings of any consequence on the door, he walked off. He was immediately pursued and tracked to the house of a man named Conrad Harpole, near East Liberty, in Logan county, in the neighborhood of which, a horse, belonging to one of his attorneys, was found running loose, and it was ascertained that he had there purchased a horse, saddle and bridle, and pursued his journey. He was then traced to Carrollton in Carroll county, where he had formerly lived, passing through in open day. He was here spoken to by an old acquaintance, but made no reply. Some of his pursuers actually arrived in Baltimore before he did, and although the most dilligent search was made for him, assisted by High-Constable Mitchell, no further trace could be found of him. They, however, were under the opinion that he was concealed in the city, and finally gave up all hope of detecting him. The next thing that was heard of him was in York, Pennsylvania, where on the 28th of September, 1841, about ten months after his escape, he appeared before John A. Wilson, Esq., a Justice of the Peace, and executed a deed for 640 acres of land in Mercer county, in favor of Charles Anthony, Esq., one of his attorneys.
We have heard it positively stated, though we cannot vouch for its correctness, that in the fall of 1841, which is about the time the deed just mentioned was executed at York, he was a resident of Baltimore, and kept a small tailor shop on Pennsylvania Avenue,
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near Hamburg Street, where he was burned out. If so, he then passed by Another name, and had not yet assumed the name of Adam Horn. He made his appearance in Baltimore county in the neighborhood of the scene of the last murder early in the year 1842, and commenced boarding at the house of Wm. Poist, in the month of May. On the ensuing 17th day of August, 1842, he was married to Malinda Ilinkle.
The horrible particulars of his se ond wife's murder, we present our readers in the succinct and satisfactory account of it that we glean from the evidence produced upon the trial. Horn was ar- raigned before the Baltimore county Court, and the case came up before Judges Magruder and Purviance, on the 20th of November, 1843. The awful barbarity of the man's crime, and the hardened indifference he exhibited in regard to it, created a thrilling excite- ment in the public mind, and at an early hour a crowd had assem- bled on the pavement cast of the Court-house, in the area above, and all along the lane. Shortly before the hour, the van drove up below, and was instantly surrounded with an eager throng, anx- ious to catch a glimpse of the prisoner. The prisoner was taken out, and, after a considerable struggle with the crowd, brought into the court room. In five minutes thereafter, the whole space allotted to spectators was crammed to every corner.
Two days were occupied in empanelling a jury, which finally consisted of the following gentlemen, citizens of Baltimore county, exclusive of the city : John B. H. Fulton, Foreman ; Alexander J. Kennard, Stephen Tracy, Melcher Fowble, Hanson Rutter, Wir. Butler, Benjamin Wheeler, senior, Abraham Elliot, Samuel Price, Henry Leaf, Samuel S. Palmer, James Wolfington.
J. N. Steele, Esq., Prosecuting Attorney for Baltimore county Court, opened the case in a lucid and effective manner. He spoke to the following purport :
"I shall in the prosecution of this case expect to show to you, that the prisoner, in the early part of the year 1842, came to reside in Baltimore county, under the name of Adam Horn ; but that his real name is Andrew Hellman; that a short time thereafter in the course of the ensuing summer, he settled in the country, purchased some land, bought a store, and worked at his trade as a tailor ; he became acquainted with the deceased, and in August, 1842, mar- ried her; that some time thereafter their domestic life was dis- turbed by frequent bickering's and angry dissensions; that Hora
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was dissatisfied, saying to his neighbors that she was too young for him, that she loved other men better than himself. I shall show you that this prisoner is a man of deep-seated malignancy of char- acter, of passionate and violent temper ; and though we know some facts in relation to their habits of life, we know not what private feuds and what severity of treatment the deceased may have been too often exposed to. I shall show you that upon one occasion she had gone to church, contrary to his desire, and that upon her return, he threw her clothes out of the window, and put her violently out of the house, in consequence of which conduct she remained absent several days. I shall show to you that some time before that event he had looked upon her and spoken of her, evidently to find some cause to be rid of her; and after she was gone, he applied to her the most opprobrious epithets, peculiarly degrading to the character of a woman and of a wife, and openly threatened that if she returned to his house he would shoot her. Nor was this a temporary feeling raging in his heart at one time more violently than at another ; not an outbreak of temper for the moment, but as I shall be able to show you, a malignant, deep- . settled and insatiate hatred. Thus they continued to live together until the 22d of March last ; on the evening of that day, she was seen the last time alive-that evening at sunset, and these two thus unhappily paired, dwelt in the solitude of this house alone ; not another human soul lived within those walls; these two alone on that night were in sole companionship, moved by feelings which the event can alone explain.
"There was deep snow on the ground that night; there was also a tremendous tempest; it was the worst night remembered during the winter ; the wind blew a hurricane, and the snow was banked up in the roads, and at every eminence which offered re- sistance to the wind, in a manner which rendered it almost im- possible to move; and on that night he was in the house with his deceased wife ; the next morning he was seen to go up the road ; he passed the house of Mr. Poist, his nearest neighbor, with whom he had been intimate since he first went into the county, but said nothing to him about the absence of his wife; but went on to the house of a German acquaintance ( who has since committed sui- cide ), and said to him, as I expect to show-the counsel for the defence admitting his testimony as given at the jail-that his wife had left him two hours before day ; that they had had no quarrel,
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yet she had gone ont on such a night, in the condition she was in ; he told this German that she had taken $50 in money from a cor- ner of the store in which she had seen him count it; but I shall show you, gentlemen of the jury, that he told another person that she took the money from a trunk up stairs ; and still another per- son What she took it from a chest in the back room, thus stamping the fabrication with its true character of falsehood. The snow that had fallen remained upon the ground some ten days, at the expiration of which period, I shall show you that Horn weut to the house of Mrs. Gittinger, and requested her to engage for him a housekeeper ; that matters continued thu- antil Sunday, the 16th of April, when Catharine Hinkle, a sister of the de- ceased, hearing of the absence of Mrs. Horn, went to the house of the prisoner; that although they had previously to that time been on the most friendly terms, Horn, without refusing to speak to her, spoke with manifest reluctance, seemed confused, colored in conversation, and otherwise betrayed uneasiness and guilt; that on being first questioned by Catharine, he said his wife had left the house, on the evening referred to, about bed-time; but afterwards, before she went away, apparently recollecting the contradiction that would exist, he told her that Malinda had gone away about two hours before day. I shall then show you, gentle- men, that Catharine went off with the determination to see Just- ice Bushey, satisfied that there was something wrong, but first called at the house of Mrs. Gittinger, who was, however, absent ; Mrs. Gittinger's little daughter only was there, and to her Catha - rine imparted her suspicions, said she was going to Justice Bush- ey's, and would have Horn's house searched forthwith. On that day the little girl stated this conversation to her mother; and, gentlemen, I shall show you that at that time, Horn himself was at Gittinger's, in an adjoining room, with some neighbors who . had come to visit a sick person ; that the statement of the little girl to her mother was distinctly overheard in that room, and im- mediately thereafter Horn got up from his chair and left the house, I shall show you that at that time he had on his usual Sunday dress, and that he was seen soon afterwards, in the evening. in his ordinary working clothes, although there. was no apparent cause for the change. On the following day, Monday, he fled-and with so much precipitancy of flight, that he had left his store, con" taining $400 or $500 worth of goods, without a single person to take
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care of it; and deserted his farm, and indeed so precipitately ab- sconded that the doors of the house had been left unfastened, and his shoes left out upon the floor, he was next seen in the office of the ('lerk of Baltimore County Court, on Monday, where he got out a deed of his property, and next heard of in Philadelphia, where, according to his own statement, he arrived on the follow- ing ( Tuesday ) morning. Thus, on the slightest intimation that active measures would be taken to discover the whereabout of the deceased, overheard in the conversation of the child with her mother, we find this man -a man of thrift, and careful in his business -a man of even miserly habits, tous hurrying away from his home, leaving all his property exposed. I shall further show to you, gentlemen, that when the prisoner was arrested in Phila- delphia, he admitted that he was from Baltimore county, and that his name was Horn; that when passing along the street, in cus- tody of the officer, he was asked his trade, and he replied 'a shoe- maker,' his real business being that of a tailor; he was seen to throw something away soon afterwards, which was picked up by another officer, and proved to be a tailor's thimble, the latter say- ing : 'Did you see him throw this thimble away ?' the prisoner offering no denial; at the officer's house to which he was first taken, he threw away a pair of scissors ; he also assured the offi- cers he had no deed, but when further search was proposed, he either produced, or there were found upon him, two deeds, one conveying the property from another party to himself, and the other drawn in Philadelphia, conveying it from himself to John Storech, the German who has since committed suicide.
"I shall further show you, gentlemen, that by what may be regarded as remarkable interposition of Providence, on the morn- ing following the Sunday on which he had fled, some young men, while shooting in the neighborhood, came on Hoin's place, and crossing a small gutter or gully in the orchard, their attention wa.+ attracted by a hole newly dug in it, and close by a circular place, a little sunk, into which they thrust a stick, and soon found it re- sisted by a substance of a nature which cause I it to rebound ; that without further examination these young mien went to a person named Poist, whom they informed that they had discovered some- thing strange in the gulley, and they thought it was probably Malinda Horn. Accompanied by Poist, they returned to the spot. dug up the earth, and there found the body -- no gentlemen, not
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the body-but the headless, limbless, mutilated trunk, sewed up in a coffee-bag.
"In this remote place, they also found a spade near by, standing against a tree, which a witness identified by a particular mark as belonging to the prisoner. On the coffee-bag was seen the name of Adam Horn, and it will be identified by Mr. Caughy, a mer- chant of this city, as one in which he sold a quantity of coffee to Horn, nine or ten months before. In this connection we shall prove to have been found Horn's spade, and Horn's coffee-bag, but it does not stop here ; they went to the house to pursue their in- vestigations, and there in a back room up stairs, they found another bag containing the legs and arms of a human being, corresponding with the trunk ; thus in the very house occupied by the prisoner and his wife, were found these mangled remains; contained too, in a bag soiled with a quantity of mud, exactly resembling that in the hole of the gully from which they are supposed to have been taken ; mud upon the several limbs also corresponding with it; the clothes of the prisoner also found scattered about the house, soiled in the same way, and his shoes even when found, wet and moist, and muddy, in every particular indicating the recent visit of the wearer to that place : still further, by way of tracing him to the very grave of these mutilated remains, his footprint, exactly corresponding with the shoe, is discovered by the gully. But, un- fortunately for the prisoner, we do not stop here; I shall produce evidence to convince you beyond all doubt that this body and these limbs so discovered were the body and limbs of Malinda Horn. I shall show you that there was no other woman missing from that place and neighborhood, and I need not say to you that a woman is not like a piece of furniture that can be destroyed with- out the knowledge of persons out of the household. I shall prove to you, gentlemen, that the body and limbs were the size of those of the deceased ; that they were large, she being .. ! hoz - woman ; that Malinda Horn at the time of her disappearance wis known to be pregnant : that the body discovered proved to be in this state ; that a small portion of the hair sticking to the back of the neck was of the color of the hair of the deceased ; that a peculiarity in the form of the deceased was the width of her breasts apart ; that the same peculiarity was perceptible in the body that has been found ; that the deceased was seen daily in household duties by her acquaintances, barefoot, and I shall produce testimony to prove
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