Austin, Tex., September 29.
About one or two o'clock yesterday morning, Mr. Dunham living in North
Austin, heard a noise in his servants' cabin, back of
his residence, as if some one had jumped through the window, followed by a
woman screaming. Orange Washington and Gracie
Vance, living with Washington as his wife, and two mulatto girls, Lucinda
Boddy and Sofy Gibson occupied the cabin. Coming
out with a gun Mr. Dunham found Lucinda scuffling with a man at the gate
and he might have shot him, had the girl not caught
Mr. Dunham in her agony and fright in such a way as to unintentionally
prevent his shooting. This resulted in the man's
escaping, though a number of shots were fired at him by others. Washington
was found senseless and soon died. The two girls
were, as one of them says, knocked senseless with a sandbag. She thinks
from his voice, as he ordered her to keep quiet, that
Doc Woods was the man. Gracie Vance was found to have been dragged through
the window, thrown over the fence and dragged some
distance from the cabin, where evidence of a severe struggle indicated
that she had probably been outraged and then beaten to
death with a rock which was found near by smeared with blood. A watch was
found on her person with the chain tied around her
arm. A horse was also found saddled and tied to a tree near the scene of
the tragedy. These facts may lead to the identity of
the murderer should Woods be the wrong man. His brother, Doug. Woods, has
been arrested on suspicion of being an accessory,
if not principal, in the murder; also Beverly Overton, another negro who
owns the horse, but claims it was stolen from him.
The police claim the watch had been stolen also. If so, it may have been
tied to the arm as a device to fasten suspicion on
the owner, Doc Woods was afterwards arrested and identified by Lucinda
Boddy as the criminal.
