Jasper Banner, Volume 2, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1855 — Piqua Poisoning Case—Love & Arsenic. [ARTICLE]

Piqua Poisoning Case—Love & Arsenic.

The following letter and extracts from the confession of Mrs. Ragan, accused of poisoning her husband at Piqua recently, reyeal a degree of depravity which for the credit of the community has been rarely equaled. The Dayton Empire says: We published, a short time since, a short account of the sickness and sudden death of Mr. Ragan at Piqua, Ohio. Before his death he informed his attending physician that he was poisoned, but did not, if we are correctly informed, direct suspicion upon any bne. A post mortum examination of the deceased rendered it certain that he had been the victim of poison. Circumstances existed which hadthe effect of fastening suspicion ujfon the wife of the deceased. Some time since—in December last —it was ascertained beyond much doubt, that-Mrs. R. wrote a letter to a man by the name of Jdowrey, residing in Colesville, Ohio, (and who was formerly a .lover of the lady,) in which a proposition was made to dispatch her husband by administering poison to him. The letter, by mistake, was taken out of the post-office by a gentleman named Murray, the address being similar to his own. The extraordinary character jof the letter caused much speculation in a selactliircleTat the thne, and the assistant Post Master at Troy made a correct copy of it.— The next link in the chain was the fast that Mrs, ft. purchased poison at a drug store in-Piqua, a eliert before the death of her husband.— These suspicious circumstances were considered sufficient to warrant an investigation of the affair, which re-, suited in her being bound over to the charge of murder. The following is the letter of the murdress to her paramour, in which ihe proposes the crime to him; Piqua, December sth, 1854. Dear Jimmey—Once again am I seated to write a few lines to you.— laaid I would not...write any more, but you know I can’t refrain from it, and as I have been living in a perfect Hell, if you will allow the expression, it is hard and nevertheless true, and I Uve been to.rmented.day and night since I came home. He saw me kiss you and that was enough. Oh how 1 had to suffer for it. I did not think he saw me, but h£ ..was watching me. lam so near beside myself l hardly know what I afritdoing.— He shys 1 shall notgo home arty more, and he says he will not get me any Rofo. clothes, and then ! cgn’t as muchjps 1 have. Now I can’t stand this any longer, and I appeal to you for help. 1 have thought of another plahj l aifi going to make one more proposition to you, and if you will do it 1 will grant you the request wfo have so long asked of me, as Sfbn Wvou do what I want you to do, or before, if you will only do as I want jou. Nowit is this, you make a proposition to him to go to look at wme new Conntry-fo Oregon or waye Mm jfatfae means you teM him yon wOl Mm th/ means iif he Wfll go for company ; then I will persuade lum to go. and then you M fioMack or on the cars, and then you can tak4 yoor two hors- i Op part bfthewnyon the cars, j sad ftteti take the horses and go the ’

Irest of the way—that is till you get a good ways from here, and you can procure your poison and administer it in his oysters and he will never know the difference you can eat your oysters on the road or you can give them at some farm house they will never know the difference, and you can pretend to take it hard to think you have to turn back. When you can accomplish what I have told you, then you can telegraph to me that he is dead, I will telj the Templars and have them make up thirty dollars and send you to bear his expenses. If you will come up as soon as you get this I will tell you all about it, and then I will grant you the request. Come up right away, I can tell you better. Now Dear do come; you know I love you—you are well aivare df it. I will write no more till I see you. Come up right away. My ink is pale. Yours in life or death. From yours,or one that loves you. He is now on trial at Piqua with a fair chance of getting hung. The woman was examined at the trial, and the following extracts from her testimony we find in the Dayton Gazette of yesterday. Mrs. Ragan.—l did notseeMowrey again until July last when I went to London. He again declared his affection and said he would make one more plan for me, that was to elope with me. I told him it would not do. He said he thought we could do it and then we would live'together; at last he said I will come up and give your old man a dose of arsenic and that will streach him cold. After I came home I wrote, him a letter and he came up and again asked me to elope, but I would not, he then asked me to give my husband a dose of arsenic in his victuals, and he told me how I could do it; that I would give it to him at supper, and then he would go out and be brought home dead andl they would not know the difference; he coaxed and urged me very hard to do it. My husband found he was there, and got jelous of me and said he could not come again. He came up again in December last and made a request. My husband saw him returning on the bridge and he was mad about it; he took me by the shoulders and shook me; I felt bad and sick and set down and wrote the letter of which you have a copy. He came up in January and told me he had apt got the letter; I told him what- was in it; he told me to give my husband arsenic. After this Miss Ceril visited me and was going to Colesville, and I told her to ask Mowrey to come up; he came and told me he had been studying out how many grains of arsenic it would take to kill a man; he told me I could give it in in and I went to the dentists with her. I soon after went to Colesville, and before I returned I got five cents worth of arsenic at the drug store in Tippecanoe; I went from the drug store to Morrisons & Sides, and Mowrey was in the store at the time, and he came up to me and asked me if I had consented to put my old man out of the way; I came home and gave my hutband the arsenic the next Thursday night in his coffee. ** * I want the guilty to suffer, and the innocent to go clear; I did not mention our intimacy to any one; we had an attachment when I was to young to marry jlfeltthat our present intimacy was wrong, and I told him so; 1 did not enjoy religion much last winter; the first time I proposed to Mowrey to take him away, was by the letter you have; he had proposed it to me before, when he was up here, and my husband was at home about the time I wrote the letter; he said 1 could give him ffrsnic in coffee or victuals, and he will go to town and be brought back dead, and no one will know the difference; Ragan was a Baptist, and lam a Methodist—l formerly enjoyed religion, but I haver been in company a good deal, and it led my mind away. x ♦ * * * I got arsenic at the drug store on Friday, and name home on Saturday, gave it to him the next Thursday, it was at dark. I told Dr. Brownell he took ithimtolf; ! repented the. act, and wanted to save hiiaw I have known nothing at all since his death till dajrficfora yesterday; I fold Dr. Bronwell not to say anything of it to Ragan ; I gave him only part of what I had; he came home at half past ten ill the evening sank; 1 <ave him no more until Monday morning. When I found he was ou tof danger, I thought , - . . j .. ■' ■ ■ • .

it all over, and concluded 1 would give it fb him again, and 1 knew Mowrey was urging me to it. If.it was not for this same James Mowrey, I would not be in the fix I am; his words set heavily on my mind; I was wrought up to the highest pitch; that was the last I gave him. « • • * R. C. Davis was in the room on Monday when I gave him the last dose of poison; I gave it in chicken broth, I sent for this last by Mrs. Kelly’s son; I had previously sent a little girl for it with a note signed with a fictitious name—Mrs. Sanders, but she could not get it. I told Mrs. Kelly I wanted it for rats; I gave him no powder in a glass but in a spoon when James Templar was in; it was the one the Doctor left. Mrs. Ragan is thus described by the reporter of the trial for the Daton Daily Gazette: • This morning Mrs. Ragan the widow of Arthur Ragan, who Was present, although under arrest as the principal in his murder, consented to be sworn. She came into Court at 8 o’clock, leaning on the arm of her father.. She is a lady of about twen-ty-two years, possessing a graceful figure, and intelligent countenance, indicating much firmness and energy. She is quite attractive in her appearance and manner, with bright blue eyes, brown hair and fair complection. She was scarcely at all discomposed, but seemed determined to, make a full and clear statement of the whole affair. -—— Insatiate West. —Gov. Slade, on the 31st of March, departed from Hartford with four hundred ladies for the West, who design becoming teachers! This is the way in which our Western friends manage to have their young ideas taught to shoot. The East educates, the West employs-. . But it is hardly fair that the young farmers who have voluntarily left the East and civilization behind them, should now be cheered and encouraged by the sight of the twenty score of school-mistresses. Or at any rate, granting that they are entitled to such privileges, we should like to know, why they cannot come East and court the girls, instead of obliging the girls most ungallantly to go West, and—and—-be courted. For marriage is the object of the extensive emigration of the sex. Let no one suppose otherwise. Not twenty of those four hundred young women under Gov. Slade, will be in the en» jpyment of a blessed singleness four years from this date. And if the West continues to absorb them as rapidly, what gloomy, prospects for our 'Eastern bachelors!— Cleveland. Plain Dealer. A Horrible Deed.—We have just learned the particulars of one of the most horrible tragedies which has ever startled the citizens of rfny communityandwestopthe.preaato give them to our readers. It appears that a gentleman by the name of A. Steer, had been paying his addresses to a young grass widow, the mother of two interesting children, and rumor has it that they were engaged to be married. The husband who resided in the neighborhood, hearing of this anticipated marriage, became possessed with the ragings of jealousy, Rrid immediately set about ing plans with which to frustrate it. He enlisted the assistance of another person, apd the two first endeavored to persuade Mr. Steer to drink with them; but failing in this, they became enraged, and one of them, a Mr. ‘Butcher, seized an axe and dealt him several blows, fracturing the skull and killing him instantly. After the murder, they endeavored to dispose of the body by cutting it to pieces and packing it in a barrel. This horrible heed was perpetrated about four miles north of this place. As yet no arrests have been made.- Cambridge News. ri r’There arp now seven organized territorial governments, a larger number than has ever before existed atthe same time during our political existance. Minnesota, New Mexfccrj Utah. Oregon, Washington, Kansas and Nebraska. •» « oC7*There are exceptions to every rale bnt therafe isnev--changed. As your income i»4a your expenMwe,WrwiU the amount of your debt be to your cash inh and, and your consequent ability to meet them. Six thousand pounds of unleavened bread ▼ere add to the Jew* at Chioafo during th e Feast ofUte Paasorer.