GenMassachusetts-L Archives

Archiver > GenMassachusetts > 2002-03 > 1015529074


From:
Subject: [GM-L] Maria L. Crue Murdered, 1880 at Groton - Boston Herald Story Part 6
Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2002 14:24:34 EST


Subject: Maria L. Crue Murdered, 1880 at Groton - Boston Herald Story Part
6
Source: Boston Herald

Examination of the plan will show that this house sets back from the road and
is approachable
by two paths or roads. The path or road toward the Crue house was never
used. As the
stranger was said to have gone toward the Crue house, Mr. Reed took occasion
to examine the
ground in that direction. He found large foot tracks. They were very cleary
defined as
they had frozen shortly after being made and had not thawed at all. The
imprints of the
pegs in the shoes, which had been swollen and drawn out of snow water, were
so clearly to
be seen that the number of pegs could be counted. Mr. Reed made a calcine
plaster cast of
several of these footracks which were perfect.

He next met Henry Hewins, who lived on the road above Mr. Woods' house, who
stated that he
was sent to Mrs. Crue by his mother to borrow a yeast cake on the afternoon
of the murder.
He went to Mrs. Crue's house at 2:30 o'clock or thereabouts. Hewins said
that he saw a man
there who had been talking to Mrs. Crue about buying her place. He conversed
with him.
Hewins described this man, and it appeared that it was the same man who had
called at the
Bradleys and other places. He remained at the Crue's house about 15 minutes
and when he
left the stranger was still there. The next person who had knowledge of the
case was one
Jennie H. E. Carr, about whom and whose testimony considerable has been said.
She stated
that she called at the Crue house to see the murdered woman at about 8:10
o'clock and found
the doors fastened and all the curtains down. She looked into the keyhole of
the side door
she stated, and saw the key in the door on the inside. She knocked and heard
a noise in-
side the house, which sounded like the moving of chairs. She rattled the
door and knocked
again, and heard a sound which resembled the drawing of a bag of meal across
the floor. A
strange man then came to the door and held his hands behind him. He just put
his head out.
She asked if Mrs. Crue was at home. He said, "No, she has gone uptown."

She gave a description of this man which was the same as the descriptions
previously given.
Having ascertained these facts, Mr. Reed became anxious to find this
mysterious stranger.
Sometime the next day, Tuesday, he saw in the Herald a little item referring
to a robbery
which had been committed in a boarding house in Cambridge by a boarder, who
had stolen two
valises of clothing and had left behind him a black slouch hat and a pair of
shoes. He
immediately telegraphed to the chief of police in Boston requesting him to
obtain the hat
and shoes that the boarder had left behind him. Detective Jones of Cambridge
came to Ayer
with the hat and pair of shoes on the next train. As soon as the peddle
protectors were
shown to the astute old detective, he said that he would give $200 to know
the name of the
man to whom they belonged. They were compared with the plaster casts which
had been taken
of the footprints found near the Bradley house, and they were found to be the
shoes which
made the tracks. The number of wooden pegs in the soles were the same, the
heels were worn
off in exactly the same way and the fastenings were buckled in the same way
as described
by several of the people seen. Mr. Reed felt satisfied that "Providence" had
provided
a missing link, and steps were immediately taken to ascertain the identity of
this missing
boarder. Mrs. Johanna Hughes, at whose house in Cambridgeport the missing
boarder had
stopped was seen. She said his name was Stearns Kendall Abbott, and this was
the manner
in which that person's name was first connected with the murder of Mrs. Crue.
She said
this man left her house on the 15th day of January about 9:30 o'clock. He
did not come
back until Monday morning, the 19th. When he first came in, she noticed that
he had his
moustache shaved off and his chin shaved. He said he had been to Pawtucket
looking for
work. She said something about women and he remarked that he had had enough
of women.

Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth

To be continued Part 7.

This thread: