Shocking suicide.
--A married lady named
Francis Seymour, committed suicide lately in
Harrison county, Indiana, by shooting herself.
Her husband was near the house, attending to some business, and she took the gun down from the rack, cocked it, placed the muzzle against her abdomen, and pushed the trigger with the ramrod.
The contents of the gun passed through her body, the shot coming out at her back.
She lived about five hours afterward, and conversed rationally with her husband and friends.
She gave no reason for the act.
Execution and Confession of a Murderer.
The negro,
Toney Johnson, alias
Thomas Shaw, whose capture we have noticed, we understand was hung by the citizens of the
District Friday morning, at the
Dean Forest Bridge, on the
Ogechee Canal.
The following is his confession:
‘
"I was brought by
Henry Tucker from
Virginia when I was seventeen years of age; I am now about twenty-four years old. I was sold to
Dr. Briggs, in Troupville, Ga. and was sold by him to
B. L. Johnson.
I run away from
Mr. Johnson in December, 1860, carrying a boy with me to
Savannah; said boy has been returned to his owner, having been taken on the Savannah and Charleston Railroad, near the
Savannah river.
I was captured also that time, but made my escape afterwards, and returned to the city of
Savannah, and have been in the county of
Chatham ever since.
’
"On March the 4th I murdered
Mr. P. Brady, in the city of
Savannah, in
Yamacraw.
Mr. Brady saw me pass his house several times, and took me to be a runaway.
He invited me into his house, saying he would give me something to eat. I went to the door, and he arrested me, saying, ‘"You are my prisoner."’ I had a knife, and stabbed him in the left arm, also in his left shoulder, which killed him in ten minutes. I immediately left his house for the woods.
‘
"I killed
Mr. Samuel W. Williams on or about the 18th day of June, 1861. I was persuaded to do so by a negro man, named
Guy, belonging to
Mr. James J. Hines.
I saw
Guy on
Mr. Hines' place two or three times, and he persuaded me to kill
Mr. Williams, and I agreed to do so. I saw
Guy the same morning I killed
Mr. Williams--he told me to stand in the bushes close to the bridge, and that
Mr. Williams would cross the bridge.
Guy then went to the field.
After I had killed
Mr. Williams I went to the field and saw
Guy and told him I had killed
Mr. Williams.
I then asked Frank for a hoe to bury
Mr. Williams, telling him I had killed him; he told me I would find one under an old house.
I buried
Mr. Williams by myself, about 60 or 70 yards below the
Dean Forest Bridge.
He was shot on the opposite side of the canal — he was shot with a double-barrel gun, loaded with buckshot.
’
"I met Frank, a slave of
Mr. J. J. Hines, in the month of March, and told him if
Mr. Williams did not mind I would kill him. He replied, 'Well, if you will, we will take a big drink on it.'
"
Adam, a slave of
Mr. James J. Hines, now in jail for the murder of
Williams, is innocent.
"The hoe with which I buried
Mr. Williams is in the canal, about five feet from where the head of
Mr. Williams was; (the hoe was obtained in the spot mentioned) It was
Mr. Dotson's gun that I shot him with
Mr. Williams was shot about six o'clock in the morning about thirty steps from the bridge.--After I left
Mr. Williams I went to a camp of
Messrs. Bradly and
Giles' negroes, eight in number, near
Mr. Shaw's plantation, but soon left them and went to
McAlpin's, where I stayed until the 16th of this month, when I was arrested by
Constable Jones and others, and was shot by
Mr. Mitchell.
‘"I have committed various robberies in the county.
I robbed
Mr. Schneider, on the
Augusta road;
Mr. J. W. Wilson, on the canal;
Mr. Dotson, on
Cherokee Hill, of gunpowder and shot;
John H. Crawford's smoke-house, and from many others who I do not know."’
The above confession was read to
Toney, and he read it himself, and signed it under oath He was a very sensible negro, and could both read and write, and has been, in his own words, the most desperate boy in
Chatham county.
