People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1894 — FOUR KILLED. [ARTICLE]

FOUR KILLED.

Terrible Tragedy Enacted in a New Jersey Home. Two Burglars Murder a Mother and Hei Babe—Both Brutes Killed by the Husband After a Most Desperate Struggle. MET A BLOODY FATE. New Brunswick, N. J., March B. Wednesday night two negroes named Henry Baker and William Thompson entered the residence of Moore Baker at Franklin Park, 6 miles w'est of this place, for the purpose of robbery. Upon being discovered by Mrs. Baker, who was up with a sick child, the robbers killed both her and the child. Mr. Baker then shot one of the negroes dead and killed the other with an ax. Mr. Baker was reported to have had a large sum of money in the house. The burglars effected an entrance to the house about midnight through the cellar door in the rear and went through the kitchen up the rear stairs to the Becond floor.

Mr. Bilker, liis wife and child slept In the front room. Mrs Baker was up attending to the child, and hearing footsteps on the stairs she opened the -’oor and saw Thompson, who cameo an ax in his hand. He rushed at her with an oath and buried the blade in her skull, scattering the woman’s brains over the walls of the room. Thompson then ran to the bed and struck the baby with the ax, killing it instantly. Mr. Baker was horror-stricken at the sight of Thompson’s crime, and with a cry of frenzy leaped at the slayer of his wife and babe. The black butcher ; turned with uplifted ax from his bloody work, and aimed a blow at Baker, but his aim was bad and the I point of the ax buried itself in the floor. Then followed an unequal battle between the two, the second negro appearing confident of his confederate’ssuccess or dazed at the spectacle before | him and not interfering. Baker, crazed with the horror of the crimes he had 1 been unable to prevent, attacked the negro Thompson with the ferocity of a tiger. He tried to secure the ax, but Thompson was too quick, and they both laid hold of it at the same instant. Both strained for the pos-’ session of the weapon and in their fury they rolled and tumbled about in the j rivers of blood that ran from the body of the murdered wife and that of the baby, which had fallen to the floor. The contest was about equal for a time. The hands of ’both men were lacerated into shreds by the sharp point of the ax Finally Baker tripped his opponent, and as the negro fell the ax struck Baker in the face. The

blood from the wound almost blinded Baker, but he brushed it aside ,and, raising the ax, brought it down upon the head of the negro, who was attempting to rise. The blow was a true one, for the keen blade of the weapon crashed into the head of the negro almost at the center of the crown and tore the skull asunder down to the bridge of the nose. Thompson dropped like a shot, his blood mingling with that of his victims. D Wrenching the ax from the head of the negro brute Baker made a dash for the other negro, who had started to run away. Baker followed him in close pursuit, leaving a trail of blood behind. As the negro reached the rear door of the kitchen, in seeking to escape, Baker caught up a shotgun from a rack, and, pausing an instant in the doorway, took deliberate aim at the fugitive and fired both barrels. As he recoiled from the shock of the gun he saw the negro spring into the air and then fall face downward. llow Baker managed to return to thd room where the murders and retribution occurred he does not remember, but his neighbors, who were aroused by the report of the gun, found him clinging to the chair when they rushed over to learn the cause of the disturbance. Baker could not add anything to the story told by the horrible scene they gazed upon. Some of his neighbors took him to his room and dressed his wounds, which may yet prove fatal, while others made an examination of the bodies in the front room. All three, mother, child and murdex*er, were dead, their bodies frightfully mangled and indistinguishable in color by reason of the deep dye that covered every part of them. The body of the negro, Henry Baker, was found in the spot where the bullets from Moore Baker’s gun had overtaken him. The burglar was not dead, and the neighbors were unanimously in favor of lynching him, but before they could carry out their plans he died. The coroner took charge of the bodies and held an inquest. The jury found that the negroes had killed Mrs. Baker and her child Gertrude, and returned a! verdict of justifiable homicide in the case of the killing of the negroes by Baker.