HAD HER HUSBAND KILLED.
The Brutality of a New York Policeman, Who Kills an Old Man.
The Crimes a Southern Woman Is Charged with by a Negro Murderer.
RALEIGH, N.C., Sept. 29—Last Thursday night the store of A.D. Owens, at Creswall, Martin county, was entered by burglars. Owens’ dwelling adjoined the store. He heard a noise and stepped to the door. As he did so he saw two burglars, one of whom raised a gun and fired. Forty buckshot entered the stomach of Owens, who in a few minutes was corpse. Since that time the authorities have been on the track of the burglars and murderers. Monday night Sheriff Sprewill arrived at Plymouth with the wife of the murdered man and two negroes. Another negro, James Davenport, alias James Ambrose, was shot and killed.
One of the negroes confessed some days ago that Mrs. Owens had hired them to kill her husband. She wished them to drown him, and prepared water in a barrel for that purpose. She gave him medicine to put him in a sound sleep, and the three negroes actually stood by his bedside ready to commit the crime. Their courage failed them. Finally Ambrose some nights afterward entered the store, and when Owens appeared shot him. Ambrose was pursued, and on making a desperate attempt to kill the members of the Sheriff’s posse was shot through the heart. Miss Owens and the other two negroes are now in jail at Plymouth to await trial.
Culled from the Thursday, September 30, 1886 issue of the Carlisle Weekly Herald (PA).
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And I’m sure you want to know what happened to dear Mrs. Owens? Here’s a follow-up from the January 31, 1887 issue of The Times Herald:
TERRIBLE STORY OF CRIME.
CLOSE OF THE OWENS MURDER TRIAL AT WASHINGTON, N.C.
The Death Sentence Passed Upon One of the Culprits and the Other Two Sentenced for Life—How Owens Was Murdered—A Depraved Woman’s Murderous Design.
WASHINGTON, N.C., Jan. 31—The Owens murder trial, which abounded in startling revelations, has resulted in the sending of Mrs. Owens and Rev. Isaac Jones to the penitentiary for life and a death sentence against Stark Simpson. Simpson has taken an appeal to the supreme court.
The history of the terrible affair is as follows: A.D. Owens, a white man, was a merchant at Cresswell, Washington county. His wife was a woman with whom in early life he had contracted a liaison, and whom he married later, in defiance of the ridicule of friends and the entreaties of his relatives. He was, therefore, cast off, and though a man of respectable family was cut off from all social intercourse. Mrs. Owens had several children born before wedlock, and one of them, a daughter 20 years of age, was suspected of intimacy with a negro named James Ambrose. The latter was a desperado and outlaw, and was the man who some time since set fire to the jail at Harrell, while a prisoner therein, and so made his escape. Owens, angry at the girl’s love for Ambrose, locked her up. Her mother took her part, not objecting to her intimacy with Ambrose. This led to a quarrel, and finally to Owens’ death. The quarrel occurred last September, and Mrs. Owens, her daughter and Ambrose at once began to plan to kill Owens.
They admitted to their confidence Isaac Jones and Stark Simpson. All agreed that the wife should poison her husband. She gave him poison, but in too great quantities, and he was only made sick. The failure of the plan enraged Mrs. Owens. She conferred again with Jones, who was looked up to by all the conspirators. Jones advised her to give her husband an opiate, and said that when he was under its influence at night she should give him the signal. They would enter the house, take Owens from the bed, and drown him in a barrel of hot water. Mrs. Owens heated the water and administered the opiate. She gave the signal and her negro allies entered. Owens was partially stupefied, and all the party stood by his bedside. Jones declared that it was unsafe to make the attempt to end his life in that way. Mrs. Owens, furious at the repeated failures, urged them to shoot him. Jones concurred in her idea, and said that as enough were present to do the deed he would go to his church. It was agreed that the negroes should return later in the night and make a noise as if breaking into Owens’ store, which adjoined the house. The plan was carried out. Mrs. Owens roused her husband, telling him burglars were attempting to enter. Owens declined to go out. She urged him to do so. Finally he went into the yard, and clapped his hands together to frighten the burglars. In an instant the report of a gun was heard, and Owens fell, pierced by many buckshot. In half an hour he died. The community was soon in a state of the wildest excitement, and Ambrose was at once suspected. Two men, Bosnight and Spruill, volunteered to capture him. Entering his cabin, they found him. He cried out:
“If you want me for shooting at Owens, you are after the wrong man.”
With these words he sprang at Spruill, threw him to the floor, and, drawing a revolver, attempted to shoot him.
Bosnight seized his revolver, but Ambrose drawing another again attempted to shoot Spruill. Bosnight then fired at him, blowing off the top of his skull. Concealed in Ambrose’s house was Stark Simpson, who was arrested. He confessed the deed, and revealed the awful crime above stated. He said that Ambrose Shot Owens, and also that Mrs. Owens had promised each of them $20 and a pair of shoes for killing her husband.
To verify Simpsons’ statement they took him to Mrs. Owens’ door. She came out when Simpson called, and Bosnight and Spruill, who were concealed, heard her acknowledge her obligation for killing Owens. She told Simpson to call in the morning and get his money. The men entered and arrested her. The people were furious, and came near lynching her and her two accomplices, but they were safely jailed. Later they moved the case from Washington to Beaufort county. Upon the witness-stand Simpson testified in his own behalf, and retold all the horrible story, and his statement caused a profound sensation.
