The Daily Dispatch: July 31, 1863., [Electronic resource]

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Foul murder.

--On Wednesday last several persons living in an alley between 17th and 18th and Main and Cary streets, noticed that a shanty occupied by a free negro named James Hudson had not been opened for a day or two, and that he had not during that time been seen passing about. Learning that threats of violence had been made against him, and fearing that he had been foully dealt by his door was forced, when there laid his body still in death. Coroner Sanxay was immediately sent for, a jury were summoned, and an examination of the corpse revealed the fact that the poor negro had been literally butchered. His skull, near the top of the head, was found to have been crashed in, and from the gashes and contusions on his scalp, it was certain that he had been murdered. On inquiry in the neighborhood, it was ascertained that a free negroes called Mary Susan Hill had threatened to take the life of the deceased. The Coroner thereupon took an officer, repaired to that woman's house, and took her into custody. Finding with her George Powders, a free negro, the Coroner also arrested him, and then sent for and locked up Harris Hill. The jury rendered a verdict that the deceased came to his death by violence. The parties accrued of the murder were before the Mayor yesterday, but owing to the absence of witnesses, their examination was continued until to-day.