People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 September 1893 — WORK OF FIENDS. [ARTICLE]

WORK OF FIENDS.

I Unknown Ken Harder an Indiana Farmer, Hl» Aged Mother, Hi* Wife and Two of HU Children—A Third Child Fata Ur Injured—Bobbery Their Object Blood, hound* Placed Upon Their Trail. Washington, Ind., Sept. 20.—A farmer came galloping into Washington Tuesday to announce that six murders, all in one family, had been committed early that morning in Harrison township, Daviess county. This section of the county has been long notorious for its disrespect of all law. It is 9 miles from this city. The tragedies had occurred at the farm residence of Denson W rat ten. A neighbor had called at the house to inquire after the condition of Mr. Wratten, who had been in bed with a violent case of typhoid fever. He saw the side door open leading into the farmer’s sitting-room. In the middle of the floor, with the blood still oozing from several deep gashes in her head, lay the body of Mr. Wratten’s aged mother. There was evidence that she had engaged in a terrible struggle with her assassins. The walls were bespattered with blood and several pools were on the floor. Both hands of the old lady were nearly \ severed at the wrists. She had held on to her leather sack containing several : hundred dollars of pension money until her clutch had to be broken with blows I from the robbers’ weapons. This money j is supposed to furnish a motive for the crime.

Near the body of old Mrs. Wratten was the lifeless form of her daughter-in-law, who had apparently stood by the side of the elder woman and fought the murderers until she received the fatal blow that cleft her forehead, splitting the skull to the crown of the head. A sharp hatchet or ax had been used, and there were several deep gashes in the shoulders and arms of the younger woman. Two little children were found in a corner of the next room behind the bed with their heads chopped. One, a girl of 15 years, was not dead, but unconscious. A 3-year-old baby was found in its crib. The entire family had been butchered. On the floor beside the bed was the body of the typhoid patient with his throat cut and head nearly severed. Two of his fingers were cut nearly off, showing that even in his weakness the sick man had attempted to combat with his assailants. The murders were probably committed with a hatchet, and entrance was made through a window on the porch, which entered the room of the grandmother. Inspection of the premises showed the footprints of three men in the barnyard and it is believed a party of tramps did the work. The murder was probably committed early in the night, for when an examination was made by physicians they stated that, from the discoloration ot the skin, the blows must have been made ten or twelve hours before. Various theories have been advanced, and the most probable one is that the perpetrators were after money which the old lady was supposed to have, as she had been receiving a widow’s pension for many years, and was thought i to have from SI,OOO to 53,000 secreted j around the house. The contents of the drawers were turned out on the floor and the whole house seemed to have been ransacked, but in their hurry they overlooked $33 sewed in the dress of the younger Mrs. Wratten and $7.00 in the bureau of the room which the older Mrs. Wratten occupied. While the coroner went to the house to take evidence the neighbors for miles around gathered and with several scores from the city formed a hunting party and started to scour the country for the murderers. Word was sent to Seymour for the bloodhounds used there in tracking thieves. They arrived Tuesday afternoon and were taken to the house in the country and set on the track of the robbers.