Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 April 1881 — The Maine Demon. [ARTICLE]

The Maine Demon.

The Augusta (Me.) Journal has the following about the wretch who recently shocked the country by chopping his mother in pieces without provocation: . Charles Merrill, the self-confessed murderer, who is now awaiting final sentence in the county jail, is apparently an exampie of total depravity. He seems to be a stranger to remorse, and is insensible to any distinction between right and wrong. Since his incarceration in the jail, evidence is accumulating which goes to show his moral rottenness. On the night of the 17th of June last two large bams, belonging to Oliver Hammon of China, a neighbor of the Merrills, was burned to the ground. Mr. Hammon says that young Merrill has confessed that he was the incendiary. It seems that Mr. Hammon had a flue calf which Charles wished to purchase, but the owner refused to part with the animal, so this young monster took this method to get even, probably hoping that in the confusion ne could steal the calf w ithout being detected. After Charles was turned out of d< ors by his mother in September, he went to live with a relative named Hammer Merrill, to whom he told this story. Mr. Merrill says he did not dare to reveal the secret till Charles was behind the iron bars. Charles also related to his relatives, with considerable gusto, his numberless other misdeeds, and tried to induce Mr. Merrill to become his accomplice in crime. On one occasion he said: “Hammer, Nat Jones has a nice flock of sheep; now if we set his barn afire we can get hold of some of them without getting caught.” These are but a few of the escapades of the young desperado. In this connection, it may be interesting to relate that the hand of the murdered woman, with one or two fingers chopped off, was found in the road between the scene of the tragedy and the village of Wick’s Mills. It was partially covered with snow, and had probably jolted out of the load of potatoes which he was driving to ’market. The unhappy father of the mur. derer, who was in the woods at the time the atrocious act was committed, is nearly insane with grief.