633 Sheet – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:

THE TRIAL OF ROBERT MCCONAGHY FOR THE MURDER OF ROSANNA BROWN AND HER FIVE CHILDREN: JOHN, ELIZABETH, GEORGE, JACOB, AND DAVID, HUNTINGDON, PENNSYLVANIA, 1840.

THE NARRATIVE

When Farmer John Brown of Cromwell Township, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, left home to do a week's plowing some distance away, he said goodbye to his wife, Rosanna, and his five children. All the family lived with him except two married daughters, one of whom was the wife of Robert McConaghy. On Saturday afternoon, when he returned, he was surprised to see the handle of the front door missing. Looking towards the barn, he saw the flames of two shots, one of which slightly wounded him. As the man who had fired at him fled from the barn to the woods, he recognized his son-in-law, McConaghy. He found the door handle in the barn and, gaining entrance to his house, discovered the dead bodies of his wife and his eldest son. The alarm was given, and a search instituted by the neighbors revealed the corpses of the other four children at different places on the farm.

McConaghy was arrested, tried, and sentenced to be hanged. As the drop fell, he protested his innocence, but the rope broke. While the executioner was obtaining a new one, McConaghy made a full confession. He said that he did not like Brown and had made up his mind to murder the family and obtain the money he knew was in the home. Going over to Brown's farm that morning, he met George (16) first; he struck him with a flail and then choked him. Then he took little David (10) into the woods and choked him to death. He went back to the house and told Jacob (14) that...