The Daily Dispatch: June 6, 1861., [Electronic resource]

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Double murder.

--The Wilmington (N. C.) Journal learns that on last Friday evening the body of James Steele, a fisherman, we believe, was found in or near the Northeast Branch of the Cape Fear River, about half a mile above the site of Hilton Bridge, and on the far side of the river from town. His head exhibited such evidence of injuries, apparently inflicted by an axe, as to leave no doubt of his having come to his death by violence.

On Saturday, Coroner Jones, with a jury of inquest, was engaged in the investigation of the case. Some three men, of rather doubtful character, who were the last persons seen with the deceased, and who were to have gone with him or joined him in his fishing, were arrested on suspicion.

A free negro named Clem Maner, or Manor, who started at the same time with Steele, but in a separate boat, was also missed at the same time, and his body has been found but a short distance from where Steele's was found. An axe, evidently that with which this double murder was committed, was found in the marsh, not far from the place where the bodies had been discovered.

It seems that both Steele and Clem Manor had some little money with them when they went out. The three men are still under arrest. The Coroner's Jury came to the conclusion that the deceased, Steele, came to his death from the effects of wounds inflicted on his head, but they could not identify the party inflicting them. The verdict in Clem's case will probably be the same.