Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1883 — LACONIA’S HORROR. [ARTICLE]

LACONIA’S HORROR.

A Butchery Outdoing In Horror the Michigan Tragedy in a New Hampshire Village. Four Persona Terribly Mangled with a Hatchet, Three Being Killed. A quadruple murder of the moat atrocious description occurred the other day in the village of Laconia, N. H. The victims were James Buddy, a carpenter, 40 years old, bis little son, Lawrence, and a female visitor. The victims were either beheaded or mutilated in an unexampled manuer, and the house was set on Are. Mrs. Buddy escaped from the building in a dying condition and will not survive. Dispatches from Laconia furnish the following particulars of'the dreadful deed: The Ruddy family occupied a little cottage on the outskirts of the town. It was about 4 o’clock when a woman’s piercing sereams startled the quiet neighborhood. Mr. O. L. Andrews was first to reach the house. As he ran to the building.a woman, wounded and bleeding, plunged through a window and fell upon the ground at his feet. It was Mrs. Ruddy. “I;am ull cut to pieces! For God’s sake, take me somewhdre!” she piteously cried. Mr. Andrews carried her to the nearest house, and, returning, found smoke pouring from the windows. The firemen and police were quickly called, and other neighbors came to t‘,e rescue. Breaking into the dwelling they found one of the most frightful scenes on record. Two beds were blazing in adjoining rooms, the small of kerosene telling plainly enough the cause of the fierce flames. The fire was soon extinguished, and then it was seen that human bodies mutilated and 'charred occupied the beds. The bodies of Mr. Ruddy and his infant son lay in one room, and in the next was the body of a woman. Mr. Buddy lay upon his back. His head had been partially severed by a terrible blow, evidently from an ax. Upon his body were other horrible wounds. The boy, only a year old, had been beheaded by two blows of the same weapon. The body in the next room was that of Mrs. Ford, Salmon’s former landlady. It was also frightfully mutilated. An attempt had bdbn made to pack the, remains in a trunk which stood near .by. To facilitate this fiendish disposition ’of the body, the legs had been, chopped off at the knees. The head and body were so badly burned that the original injuries could" scarcely bo determined. Further search revealed in the corner of the room a broad-ax, which belonged, to the murdered man. It was covered with blood and hair, and told its own story. Mis. Buddy was at once. visited. She was unconscious, and for some time it was impossible to obtain any clew to the horror, but by great effort the physicians succeeded in restoring the dying woman so that she was able to speak a few words at a time. In the course of a few hours a statement was obtained, which apparently fastena the crime on Salmon. She said that that he came to the hopse with a trunk. Saturday afternoon, and asked to stop over night. The Buddys, knowing him somewhat, made no objection, especially since he said that his wife was out of town. He brought a pail with him. After the evening had been passed in ordinary conversation, the trunk was carried up into the back room, Salmon saying that be would explain about it in the morning, and then they retired. Salmon at his own request occupying the back room, and the Ruddys the front room. About midnight Salmon was heard walking about, and Mr. Ruddy went to his room. As he did not return, the wife got up and looked in. Both men were sitting on the bed talking, and there was an ax there. Later she heard them go into the kitchen. A little while- after, hearing something fall, she ran to the kitchen and saw her husband just drawing his last breath. Salmon attacked her with the ax, cutting off her left hand at the first blow, and then burying the helve in her shoulder, felling her to the floor. Just then the little boy cried out, and the murderer rushed in to quiet him. Said the mother: “I heard the blow which fell on him.” Mrs. Ruddy lay still on the floor, feigning death, while Salmon poured oil which he had brought with him over her and the others. As soon as he Ignited it he fled from the house. She then made her escape. Investigation develops the fact that Mrs. Ford had been killed at her own house, packed in the trunk, and taken over to the Ruddy bouse, and lends to the be? lief that Salmon endeavored to get Ruddy's help in disposing of it, and when refused killed him in order to prevent his secret becoming known. Salmon, who is 38 years old and a cook by trade, was arrested in Plymouth during the afternoon. He told a story which, if Mrs. Buddy bad died, might have cleared him, but he had blood-stains on his clothing, and appeared very nervous. He is safe in jail. James Ford was also arrested on suspicion of complicity in his wife’s murder, but popular feeling acquits him.