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602 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

the boya were gunning in the woods and coaxed him to go
with him, and as he walked from the house in front of him,
he shot him in the back. He returned and told little Eliza-
beth (17) te come with him and gather some strawberries
and when they got down to the field he stunned her with a
stone and then atrangled her. He went back to the farm and
watched for the wife, Rosanna, who was making bread in the
Kitchen, to come to the door; when she did he fired and
wounded her in the arm; he ran into the house after her
and asked her who shot her. She said she did not know; so
he induced her to lie down on a bed when he stunned her with
an axe and then eut her throat. He now searched the house
tor money, finding only seven or eight dollars. He observed
the eldest son, John (21), coming home and shot him as he
approached the house, dragging the body inside and hiding it
under a bed, after taking al! the money on his person—about
$10, He now lay in wait for the husband, intending, if he
succeeded in killing him, to collect all the bodies in the house
and burn them, house and all.

After this extraordinary confession the criminal was again
hanged, and this time until he was dead.

THE TRIAL!

In the Court of Oyer and Terminer for Huntingdon County,
Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, August, 1840.

Hon. Tuomas Burwswe,? } Judges.

Hon. Josepn Apams,?
August 12,

The prisoner had been previously indicted for the murder

in Cromwell Township, Huntingdon County, of Rosanna,

1Biblography. * “Trial of Robert McConaghy, together with his
confession and execution, who murdered his six relatives, the
mother, sister and four brothers of his own wife, on Saturday,
‘May 30, 1840, in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania; to which is
added the judge’s charge and sentence, and an address to the reader,
Philadelphia, 1840.”

*Bornswe, Tromas. (1782-1851.) Judge. Born near Newton
Stewart, Connty Tyrone, Ireland; immigrated with his father’s

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