1. "Hatchet murder in 1893"
Posted by harry on Sep-12th-02 at 11:24 AM

Manitoba Free Press, June 24, 1893

BRUTAL MANSLAUGHTER

A Crime Committed in Indiana That Suggests The
Famous Borden Murder ­ No Clue to the Perpetrator.

New York, June 23. ­ A Times special from Indianapolis, Ind., says:  A crime committed yesterday morning at Brightwood, a suburb of Indianapolis, suggests the famous Borden murder.  At 9 o'clock yesterday morning Wm. Kline, night officer at the Brightwood shops, went to his home, gave his wife his month's wages and went to bed.  At 10:30 o'clock his wife says she heard him moaning and opening the door she saw a horrifying spectacle.  The floor, bed and wall was red with blood.  Lying beyond the bed was her husband, his head horribly mutilated and his brains oozing out.  On the table was a bloody hatchet.  There was nothing to indicate who had used it.  A front door and a front window to the room in which he lay were closed.  A back door was opened an it led through the kitchen to the back yard.  Mrs. Kline says that a short time after her husband went to bed she left the premises for a few minutes and the assault must have been committed during her absence.  There are no indications in any other room of any one's entrance.  Nothing in Kline's room was taken.  In the absence of tangible clues the neighbors think Kline had an enemy.  They recall that he said a few days ago that he had been robbed by an unknown person of $30 and that he then declared he would have the life of the man who had wronged him or would lose his own life in the attempt.  Nothing has developed as yet as to who the unknown enemy is.  Last evening Kline was in a comatose condition with no hopes of recovery.  He has three children.

Ohmigawd!  He survived the hatchet-job to his head, for even just a short while?!  And this time they did find the weapon! 

I wonder if the wife did it. Left the house for a few minutes and that just happened to be when the murder occurred. Hmmm.

That's what caught my eye too.  Although it's probably not so unusual, a kitchen door that leads to the back yard.  What, no barn?

Nothing stolen either.  Just where was Lizzie that day?

Was Mrs. Kline a "very enthusiastic angler," such that she would be looking for sinkers in the barn?

And was she wearing a navy blue Bengaline silk dress by any chance?