HYPNOTIC MYSTERY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 452, 6 March 1909, Page 4

HYPNOTIC MYSTERY.

CONFKSSION AND SUICIDK OF A CLKRGYM AN.

Nkw York, January 14

Afler eluding justice for four days tire Rev. John Haviland Carmichael committed suicide alter writing an extraordinary letter to the sheriff of Port Huron. In it he describes how he murdered Gideon Browning, a carpenter, in Rattlerna Church, Columbus, Michigan, Mr Carmichael, who was a man of unblemished character and beloved for his philantrophy, cut the body of his uneducated friend to pieces and tried to burn it in the church stove. The letter of confession is a remarkable human document. The minister, whose hobby was the writing of melo-dramatic stories, declares that Browning exerted an unceasing hypnotic influence over him. He ordered him to come to church at midnight, and meeting him there, exulted coarsely in the control he had, uncouth aud unlettered as he was, over the actions of a man of education.

“ Browning,” wrote the minister, “commanded me to raise ray hand. I could not help myself. I had to do exactly as he bade me. I was horrified at the discovery of my impoteucy and my helpless subjection to this rough man s wicked will. In frenzied despair I seized a hatchet and struck him There was a desperate struggle. I used the hatchet till he lay dead. I cannot tell how it happened. My eyes fell on a knife, and in mortal terror and fear I cut the body to pieces, placed it in the stove aud fled. Now lam tired of hiding. The minister before lie took his life wrote a second letter to his wife, accusing himself of the basest cowardice in not going immediately to the police to confess his crime, which, even at the moment of death, he was unable to explain to himself.