Shocking suicide.
--A married lady named Francis Seymour, committed suicide lately in Harrison county, Indiana, by shooting herself. Her husband was near the house, attending to some business, and she took the gun down from the rack, cocked it, placed the muzzle against her abdomen, and pushed the trigger with the ramrod. The contents of the gun passed through her body, the shot coming out at her back. She lived about five hours afterward, and conversed rationally with her husband and friends. She gave no reason for the act.Execution and Confession of a Murderer.
The negro, Toney Johnson, alias Thomas Shaw, whose capture we have noticed, we understand was hung by the citizens of the District Friday morning, at the Dean Forest Bridge, on the Ogechee Canal. The following is his confession:
‘ "I was brought by Henry Tucker from Virginia when I was seventeen years of age; I am now about twenty-four years old. I was sold to Dr. Briggs, in Troupville, Ga. and was sold by him to B. L. Johnson. I run away from Mr. Johnson in December, 1860, carrying a boy with me to Savannah; said boy has been returned to his owner, having been taken on the Savannah and Charleston Railroad, near the Savannah river. I was captured also that time, but made my escape afterwards, and returned to the city of Savannah, and have been in the county of Chatham ever since.
’ "On March the 4th I murdered Mr. P. Brady, in the city of Savannah, in Yamacraw. Mr. Brady saw me pass his house several times, and took me to be a runaway. He invited me into his house, saying he would give me something to eat. I went to the door, and he arrested me, saying, ‘"You are my prisoner."’ I had a knife, and stabbed him in the left arm, also in his left shoulder, which killed him in ten minutes. I immediately left his house for the woods.
‘ "I killed Mr. Samuel W. Williams on or about the 18th day of June, 1861. I was persuaded to do so by a negro man, named Guy, belonging to Mr. James J. Hines. I saw Guy on Mr. Hines' place two or three times, and he persuaded me to kill Mr. Williams, and I agreed to do so. I saw Guy the same morning I killed Mr. Williams--he told me to stand in the bushes close to the bridge, and that Mr. Williams would cross the bridge. Guy then went to the field. After I had killed Mr. Williams I went to the field and saw Guy and told him I had killed Mr. Williams. I then asked Frank for a hoe to bury Mr. Williams, telling him I had killed him; he told me I would find one under an old house. I buried Mr. Williams by myself, about 60 or 70 yards below the Dean Forest Bridge. He was shot on the opposite side of the canal — he was shot with a double-barrel gun, loaded with buckshot.
’ "I met Frank, a slave of Mr. J. J. Hines, in the month of March, and told him if Mr. Williams did not mind I would kill him. He replied, 'Well, if you will, we will take a big drink on it.'
"Adam, a slave of Mr. James J. Hines, now in jail for the murder of Williams, is innocent.
"The hoe with which I buried Mr. Williams is in the canal, about five feet from where the head of Mr. Williams was; (the hoe was obtained in the spot mentioned) It was Mr. Dotson's gun that I shot him with Mr. Williams was shot about six o'clock in the morning about thirty steps from the bridge.--After I left Mr. Williams I went to a camp of Messrs. Bradly and Giles' negroes, eight in number, near Mr. Shaw's plantation, but soon left them and went to McAlpin's, where I stayed until the 16th of this month, when I was arrested by Constable Jones and others, and was shot by Mr. Mitchell.
‘"I have committed various robberies in the county. I robbed Mr. Schneider, on the Augusta road; Mr. J. W. Wilson, on the canal; Mr. Dotson, on Cherokee Hill, of gunpowder and shot; John H. Crawford's smoke-house, and from many others who I do not know."’
The above confession was read to Toney, and he read it himself, and signed it under oath He was a very sensible negro, and could both read and write, and has been, in his own words, the most desperate boy in Chatham county.
