People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1893 — HANGED. [ARTICLE]

HANGED.

Execution of A. J. Hudspeth at Harrison, Ark., for the Murder of a Man Whose Body Was Never Found. LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Dec. 31.—A. J. Hudspeth was executed at Harrison, Ark., Friday for the murder of George Watkins in 1887. Hudspeth was hanged for the murder of a man whose body was never found. The murderer worked for Watkins on a farm in Marion county. One morning in the spring of 1887 Hudspeth and Watkins went to town. Since that morning Watkins has never been seen. Hudspeth was arrested on suspicion of murder. Mrs. Watkins was afterwards incarcerated charged with being an accessory to the taking off of her husband. She was taken fatally ill, but before dying confessed that Hudspeth killed her husband to get him out of the way so he could marry her. Hudspeth was sentenced to be hanged. The case has been appealed and retried, two respites have been granted, and the fate of execution changed three times, but all efforts to save the murderer failed. Traces of blood in the wagon and a bloody hatchet found in the wagon bed were the only evidences of foul play other than the strange disappearance of Watkins, aside from the wife’s testimony.