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Troy Daily Times July 24, 1860 |
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Troy Daily Times July 24, 1860 |
DIED
- In this city, July 23d, Esther A., wife of Edward CHAPIN, aged 27 years, 11 months and 13 days. Friends are respectfully invited to attend her funeral tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon, at 2 o'clock at 176 Congress street.
- In this city, July 23d, Walter, son of P. and S. THALLMER, aged 10 months and 14 days. Friends are invited to attend the funeral on Wednesday, at 4 o'clock P.M., from 23 Third street.
TERRIBLE MURDER IN SCHAGHTICOKE. A Bride of a Week Murdered by her Husband--He Charges her with an Unnatural Crime and Rips open her Bowels--Arrest of the Murderer.
We have the particulars of one of the most inhuman and deliberate murders, which occurred last night in the town of Schaghticoke, in this county, which it has ever been our province to record. The affair is almost too horrible for belief; and it is difficult to conceive that the wretched man who is the guilty author of the deed could have been sane at the time of the commission of the act, although previous to the occurrence no one ever suspected him of a tendency to mental derangement, much less of actual insanity. We have never heard or read of a case similar to this; and in its horrid details it
far surpasses anything in the annals of crime.--The awful details of the affair, almost too shocking to relate are as follows: A man named Thomas WHALEN, an Irish farm-laborer, aged about 50 years, resided near Stillwater Bridge in the town of Schaghticoke. He had lived with an Irish servant girl named Catherine CASSERLY, aged some 30 years, since April last up to two or three weeks ago, the two cohabiting as man and wife. The cause of their separation, it seems, was a charge by WHALEN that the woman had been guilty of sodomy--a false and wicked accusation, which nothing but beastly jealousy
could have suggested. But a reconciliation followed, and as an atonement for the wrong done the poor woman, a marriage was proposed, and the ceremonies were commemorated on Thursday evening of last week. But for some unexplained reason the parties did not assume the relations of man and wife until last evening, when WHALEN went to stay with his wife at Peter WETSIL's, where she was employed and where the murder was perpetrated. The two retired to their room, and about 1 o'clock this morning the family were aroused by screams and cries of murder by WHALEN's wife. It appears that the brute of a husband--a devil incarnate he must be--again quarreled with the woman, charging her with the unnatural crime, which she denied, he insisting and declaring that she was guilty. Finally in his demoniac rage, he obtained a knife and deliberately ripped open the woman's bowels! On going to the room the family beheld a most shocking and terrible sight. The bed was saturated with blood, the woman was in the most awful agony, the blood pouring from her body in a stream, and WHALEN, with his hands and arms dripping with his wife's blood still manifesting his devil rage that had
wreaked the vengeance of unfounded jealousy in the butchery of his innocent wife! Physicians were sent for, and pronounced the injuries fatal. The prisoner was soon arrested by officer BUTTON. He was taken before Justice
BUTTS at an early hour this morning, and fully committed. He is now in our jail. Coroners BURTON and MADDEN have been sent for to hold an inquest. We learn that WHALEN has been an industrious, sober man, but he must be a
person of terrible and murderous passions. At our last advices the woman was not expected to live through the day. WHALEN's right hand was covered with the blood of his wife on his arrival at the jail here. He talked about the affair as though he should be justified in the act. He says he was married by the Roman Catholic Priest at Schaghticoke, and last night was the first time he had slept with his wife since the ceremony had been performed. He says he married her against his will; that she followed him from place to place, and it was only by her strenuous importunities that he consented to be united to her. WHALEN was a widower, having two children by his first wife. The unfortunate woman is said to have been quite interesting in appearance. P.S. We learn this afternoon that the woman is dead.
