DOUBLE MURDER IN' CANADA.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 118, 7 May 1880, Page 1 (Supplement)

DOUBLE MURDER IN' CANADA.

Great excitcmnt has been caused along the Niagara frontier on both sides of the line (says the ‘ Toronto Globe’ of December 2(1), by the indictment ami arrest of a man and woman, named respectively Hugh M‘Gregor Wilson and Adeline Hotchkiss, for the murder of the husband and son of the woman—the former 12 and the latter 10 years a o-o. The parties were secretly indicted last Saturday by the grand j ury of Niagara County, N.Y., and were arrested the same day at Detroit. The indictment against the man is for murder in the first degree, and that against the woman for being au accessory after the fact. The facts of this singular case are said to be as follows : —ln December 1867, George 0. Hotchkiss fell ill and died. He had been married some years to hfs wife, a handsome brunette, and they lived at Youngstown, N. Y. The ancestors of Hotchkiss were the first settlers at the village of Lewiston, hard by, and they long held property extending along the Niagara River, opposite to Queenston. Wilson, being a doctor, attended Hotchkiss during his illness. When Hotchkiss died after three weeks of a crony, Wilson said his disease was acute gastritis. During this time, and before and afterwards, intimate relations existed between Adeline Hotchkiss and Dr. Wilson, the latter of whom is well known on the Canadian side of the river. Suspicions were felt and expressed when Hotchkiss died all was not right, but nothing was done, and the suspected persons soon after removed to Buffalo. At Buffalo a son of the Hotchkisses named Holly was at this time attending a commercial college. He had a short time before become heir to some 40,000d01., which was left him by an uncle. Mrs. Hotchkiss had some money of her own. She took up her residence in Buffalo, and Dr. Y ilson was her freejuent visitor. On the ISfch of January, 1569, the hoy Holly, being then about 20 years of age, became suddenly and violently ill. After about three weeks, having made a will in favour of his mother, he died. Not long after Mrs. Hotchkiss returned to Youngstown, and thence went to Lockport. Dr. Wilson then established himself in practice at Lockport, but about four years ago tlie pair, having been the object of some social censure in the meantime, suddenly disappeared. _ Six months ago there were rumours of investigation. Doubts and surmises, long smothered, took a definite and practical shape. Certain friends of the dead father and son, who are persons of means of means and influence, took the matter actively in hand. The body of George C. Hotchkiss, which had mouldered more than eleven years iii the grave, was exhumed. An elaborate analysis was made of the remains by Dr. Simeon T. Clark and Dr. A. Walter Tron, and they produced arsenic therefrom sufficient to cause death. Tha physicians testified that in their belief Hotchkiss was killed by arsenic. Then other facts came out. It was proved that for some time before he died no one was permitted to see the elder Hotchkiss, not' even his most intimate friends. After this, Dr. Lewis, of Buffalo, testified that Holly, the son, had expired in spasms precisely such as are produced by strychnine. Other evidence was also brought forward against the accused, and hence liavo sprung the indictment and arrest.

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