HORRIBLE MURDERS IN CALIFORNIA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 56, 8 March 1870, Page 3

HORRIBLE MURDERS IN CALIFORNIA.

A tragedy, which equals in horror that ■which took place four years ago within a few miles of our town, has lately been perpetrated at San Joaquin, in California. The, butchery (says the Stockton Republican, of December 11), took place at the house of Frank Medina, an Italian, who a has for some years past kept a store at the point above. named. During the early part of Thursday evening, persons passing the hoir.e heard considerable noise and confusion within, but presumed it was a drunken row, and. no attempt was made to enter. Later in the night all became quiet, and no fears seems to have been entertained that a horrible crime had been committed. No one being astir about the house next morning, the suspicions of the residents in the neighborhood were aroused, and a search immediately began, to discover, if possible, what had become of Medina and his clerk, both of whom were known to have been on the premises the evening before. A few minutes search sufficed, for in the gulch, about 400 yards in the rear of the store, were found the bodies of five men piled up iu a heap. . They were the remains of Frank Medina, the owner of the store ? the clerk, two Mexicans, and a coloured man. It is said that they had all been gagged, andhad -their hands tied behind them. Medina, his clerk, and the two Mexicans had been shot through the head, and the colored man's throat was cut from ear to ear. There can be no reason assigned for this wholesale murder except of robbery. Medina was robbed at the same place some years ago, and compelled by the robbers to promise not to take steps for their arrest, and it is more than probable he has met his death at the hands of some, at least, of the same band who robbed him at tbat time. He has been engaged in trading at the scene "of his death for several years, and was known to have saved a considerable sum of money. .