1893 axe murder case

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Wed May 05, 2004 8:17 pm

This URL covers an 1893 murder case of a family of 6 by axe or "corn knife".

http://wrattenmurders.bravepages.com/

Apparently a corn knife is a machete as in this ad:

http://www.cumminstools.com/browse.cfm/4,263.html

Ah, these mild mannered Victorians!

Audrey · Post by **Audrey** » Wed May 05, 2004 8:27 pm

Teenagers in Iowa use corn knives to "rogue" the corn. This means cutting the volunteer corn which grows amongst the crop. They call them rogues. It is a lucrative job for the kids. They get to work on their sun tans while earning $9.00 + an hour!

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Thu May 06, 2004 4:25 pm

Wow Harry! That's quite a story!
I got a bit lost when McCafferty entered the story, tho.

It says they exhumed 2 bodies and checked the weapons against the wounds. So it sounds like 2 weapons and it also sounds like 2 murderers, tho McCafferty was not tried.

I noticed that, in this account, they covered the bodies in lime prior to burial and were put into their caskets then for a funeral or wake.
I've never heard of this. Do we think that was to break down the bodies while still unburied or does lime preserve a bit (say 24 hours) before breaking down the body?
Maybe the *fact* is in dispute?
Anybody heard of this?
We had been trying to figure out how the Borden bodies were *preserved* from Thursday, the 4th, until The 17th Of August!

Nancie · Post by **Nancie** » Thu May 06, 2004 7:27 pm

I use lime to neutralize my garden, I remember
the waste water treatment plant used lime also,
maybe it was used to presearve the bodies? We must have a scientist on here?
I can't find the thread where everyone was talking
about "the gallery" where is that?

Susan · Post by **Susan** » Thu May 06, 2004 9:37 pm

Kat, I did a search and the only other thing I could find out about the use of quicklime, besides breaking down the body, was that it was believed to help control the smell of decomposing corpses.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Thu May 06, 2004 10:56 pm

Thanks Susan.
These bodies were buried pretty quickly compared to the Bordens. Ice had been mentioned before- maybe lime was used- and we never figured out what took so darn long!
If that was my parents lying unburied for almost 2 weeks, I'd be freaking out.
I think the girls did not know right away that the Bordens wre not buried , but held. But I also think that couldn't be kept a secret very long.

Haulover · Post by **Haulover** » Fri May 07, 2004 3:00 pm

i had the idea that the bodies were very decomposed -- for ex, that the brain matter was all liquid. (this had to be some very disgusting work.)

anyway, having done it at one time myself, i'd like to know EXACTLY what the undertaker did/did not do. but he didn't seem to have much to say -- they didn't seem too interested in him.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Fri May 07, 2004 9:02 pm

Yes you're right about the brain and those heads were taken the 11th!
So those bodies remained headless in storage until the 17th.
EEwww that's awful, in August yet.

Since being at Oak Grove and seeing the waiting rooms from inside the cemetery, I am now imagining this for the first time.
I mean, we talked about the bodies and ice etc., but I didn't picture them without heads for 6 days!
The undertaker had an opinion on the wounds and the weapon, didn't he?
I agree that I don't think they paid him too much attention.

Robert Harry · Post by **Robert Harry** » Fri May 07, 2004 9:10 pm

EEww is right, Kat. BTW (I still haven't told of my latest trip to the house, but will in the next day or two), it is said that underneath the carpet in the Morse guestroom, the boards have black stains on them which are believed to be Abby's blood. Sounds logical to me. I've often wondered about that report of her brain matter having oozed out and liquified...eeww!! Did it do it right away, or does this mean this happened as her body lay in wait for the autopsy. Also, this Wratten case is terribly ghastly and gruesome. I just can't get the image of that ole grandma trying to defend herself out of my mind...or of that daughter who awakened for an instant and felt horror. What a horrible crime.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Sat May 08, 2004 10:43 am

There is a photograph of the Guest Room with the piece of carpet removed as one we had not seen before, held by the FRHS.
Stefani is negotiating to get the view and other exterior views not seen, for The Hatchet soon.
The FRHS is being very helpful and gracious.

Gramma · Post by **Gramma** » Sat May 08, 2004 11:28 am

The FRHS is often very helpful and gracious.
Thank you, Michael and Dennis, for being such a wonderful source on all things Fall River and caring so much about preserving history as accurately as possible.

Gramma