AN ATROCIOUS CRIME. A Young Man Strangles His Mistress.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 67, 13 September 1884, Page 5

AN ATROCIOUS CRIME. A Young Man Strangles His Mistress.

Frank Ernest Hutchinqs, a man of about 28 years of age, is now in prison at San Francisco charged with murdering Nettie Hutchings, who lived with him and had borne him a child. She had formerly been married to a Mr Sims, by whom she had two children. Hutchings thus tells the story of his crime :—" On the night I committed the murder, Nettie was walkly westwardly along Howard street, and I followed her. When I overtook her she said, ' Well, i what do you want V The two elder children were with her, and I told her that I wanted to effect a reconciliation. She said, 'Go on and do your talking ; I will listen to what you have to say.' 1 asked her to return to her room, as I did not want to create a sensation on the street. When we reached the house she told tho children to play on the sidewalk. I told her to bring them up to the room, but she refused. When we entered her room she bolted the door, and sat down on a rocking-chair which was near the bed. I sat on the edge of the bed, and we commenced talking over our affairs. In a short time we were wrangling. I accused her of squandering my money, and she told me that I was a drunkard. I then charged her with being unfaithful to me, and said that she had been living with other men. She angrily arose from tho chair, and standing in front of me, insultingly replied : ' I shall go with whoever I please ; I shall sleep with whoever 1 please, and when and whero I please.'

CHOKED TO DEATH. "In an instant the angry blood was surging through my veins. I sprang from the bed, and grabbed her by the throat with both my hands. They encircled her neck, and my thumbs met on the Adam's apple. I choked her as hard as I could, and told her that I was going to kill her. She managed to raise her right arm, and caught hold of my left hand. Tho nails on her fingers scratched the flesh on my left hand, and she gradually managed to loosen the deadly grasp I had on her fair neck. She sprang away from me, and tried to reach the window facing on Tehama-street. She uttered one startling cry of 'Murder,'and once more I had her caught by the throat. We .struggled, and the rocking-chair was knocked over, and wo both fell to the floor. I tightened my grasp on her neck, and was firm in my intention ot killing her. I knelt by her side and held her like in a vice until her eyes began to almost bolt out of her head. Her tonguo protruded from her mouth, and she writhed and struggled to free herself. She could not do so, and I held her until I was satisfied that she was dead. I took one glance at her, and then left tho room. I walked clown stairs and out into tho street. There is a saloon a few doors below the house, and I walked in there and took a drink of whisky. I threw a dollar piece down on the counter, and then saw that it was 7 o'clock by a clock behind the bar. I said to the bar-tender, 'It is 7 o'clock,' and he replied, 'Yes, it is 7 o'clock.' I then said, ' Don't forget that I took a drink here at that time and gave you a dollar piece and received change.' I don't know why I made the remark, but I made it, nevertheless

MAKING A SURE JOB. " I again returned to the Brown House, and entered the room in which Nettie was lying. There she was, lying on the floor as I had left her. Her eye& were half closed, and her lips were covered with froth. After I had arranged her clothing, which had been rumpled in the struggle, I knelt down by her side I took a pillow from the bed and placed it under her head. I then took my handkerchief from my pocket and wiped away the foam that had gathered on her lips. My hand touched her cheek. It was still warm, and her body writhed a little. I knew then that she was not dead, and I wanted to make a s>ure job of it. I tied tho handkerchief around her throat in asquaie knot and drew it tight, for I am an old sailor and know how to make a good knot. Her legs moved and her arms extended as the handkerchief tightened around her neck. I straightened out her limbs and clothing, and wetting the corner of a towel, placed it over her face. I was then satisfied that she was dead, or that if ,she was not she was beyond all hopes of recovery. I left the room, locked the door, and once more reached the street. I went to the Central Pacific Hotel and met Tom McDonough, the night clerk. I tcld him that I had killed a woman, and was going to give myself up. As I was leaving the house I met the day-clerk, Mr Webster, and bade him good-bye. An officer was passing the house. I told him of the affair, and he took me to the southern station while he would investigate the matter. When he came back aud told me that she was dead, I said, ' Thank God' and the rest of the matter published in the papers today. I identified my handkerchief when they showed it to me. This story has not appeared in print yet, and I want the whole truth to be known.''

MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE. The murderer was promptly tried, when he pleaded guilty, and the jury, after a few minutes' deliberation, returned a verdict of murder in the first degree, without the recommendation to mercy that was needed to save the thug's neck. The jury was out but six minutes, just long enough to cast one ballot. None of the jurors had the slightest doubt of the prisoner's sanity. When the verdict was announced, Hutchings smiled, as if the result pleased him. The Court fixed Aug. 2nd as the time for sentence, although defendant's attorney asserted that he could not be sentenced within 30 days. Judge Wilson held that the prisoner could be legally sentenced the day following his conviction, but could not be hanged within 30 days.