Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1878 — Terrible Tragedy in Virginia. [ARTICLE]

Terrible Tragedy in Virginia.

The community in the neighborhood of Tazewell Court House is in a great state of excitement over a remarkable and shocking tragedy that was enacted last night. In the woods, two miles from that place, is a small frame cottage occupied for a number of years by Mrs. Rebecca Baldwin, an old widow lady, who lived in a state of solitude. It was generally known that she possessed a little fortune in the shape of gold coin. The neighbors have often remarked that old Aunt Becky, as she was called, would some night be murdered for her money, and such has come to pass. This morning early, a friend dropped in to call, when a sickening sight met his eye. Mrs. Baldwin lay on the floor, weltering in blood. Life was almost gone, but she was still able to speak. In the same room on the floor lay two dead men who had been killed, and lying around were two bloody clubs, a bloody ax, and a bloody knife. The old lady was able, in broken sentences, to give the following statement: Yesterday at noon, three strange men, whom she supposed to be tramps, called and asked her to change $lO. She complied with the request, and in doing so she displayed a good deal of money. At night, about 9 o’clock, after she had retired, her door was broken in, and one of the same party that had been there during the day rushed in. She jumped out of her bed, and in her excitement threw a large bag of gold into the fire. The man stooped to jerk it out, and as he stooped Mrs. Baldwin, like a plucky heroine, seized an ax, which she always kept at the head of the bed, and let the robber have a blow on the back of tho head, and she did not stop until she had killed him. Then another man with a club ran in to the rescue of his comrade, and the old lady struck him in the head with the ax. They had quite a combat, but she succeeded in killing him, While she was administering the last blow, the third man, who, it is supposed, had been left outside as a guard, rushed in and stabbed her with a dirk, and, thinking she was dead, he fled. Mrs. Baldwin recognized all the robbers as the same tramps that had visited her to get the money changed. They had been lurking around the neighborhood several days. The old lady died this afternoon.— WythevUle ( Va.) Cor, Cincinnati Enquirer,