New Hampshire Statesman

Awful Tragedy in Wilmington, Mass. A correspondent of the Boston Daily Mail gives the following particulars of a cold-blooded murder which was committed in Wilmington on the 11th inst. The annals of crime furnish nothing more shocking.

Yesterday morning, between the hours of 9 and 10 o'clock, the bodies of Mrs. H. D. Pearson and her twin daughters, 4 years old, were found horribly mangled and lifeless in the house they occupied at Wilmington, about half a mile from the Andover line.

The neighbors were in on the evening previous, and discovered nothing unusual, only that Mrs. P. was quite cheerful, and in remarkably good spirits. The fact that the curtains remained down at so late an hour in the morning, excited the apprehension of the people in the immediate vicinity, and led to the discovery of the bloody scene.

The children were found in the bed, and their mother lying beside it, all having on only their nightly apparel. From the manner in which the gashes, stabs and cuts were inflicted upon the neck, stomach, hands, and other parts of the body of the ill-fated woman, there can be scarcely a doubt that she came to her tragical death by the hands of another person, as yet unknown. This supposition seems to be strengthened by the fact that the back door and one of the windows was found to be unfastened.

A difficulty has existed between Mr. and Mrs. Pearson for a considerable time past, and negotiations were going on for a divorce. He had not lived with her of late, but had been employed in some gentleman's family in Boston, as a servant. Report says that he left his place in the city the day before the murder, and has not since been seen.

The murdered mother is said to have been remarkably affectionate to her children, and sustained an irreproachable character among the entire community with whom she resided. A coroner's inquest was held on the body, the result of which investigation was a verdict that the three persons deceased were wilfully murdered by some person or persons unknown.

The Mail adds the following additional particulars in relation to the murder:

The scene of the murder, as it has been represented to us, presented evidence of a terrible death struggle on the part of the hapless mother, and a most diabolical attempt on the part of the murderer to fasten suspicion upon this one of his victims as the author of the bloody work. One hand of the victim, cold and stiffened in death, grasped a large quantity of hair torn from the assassin's head; and in the other was placed the bloody knife with which the horrid tragedy was perpetrated! The first was real—the struggle of a mother to protect her offspring and her own life from the midnight murderer was terribly apparent in the position of the body, the disorder of the room, and the expression of desperation and horror which death failed to eradicate from the countenance of the murdered woman. The second was as visible a mockery and deception for on unclasping the rigid fingers of the corpse from the knife, the palm of the hand grasping it was found cut and mangled in the most shocking manner. In her struggles she had evidently seized the blade repeatedly to ward from her throat and the throats of her ill-fated children. It was truly a fearful tragedy.

From the Boston Courier, of Monday.

Commitment of Pearson. Daniel H. Pearson charged with the murder of his wife and two children at Wilmington, was examined at Reading, on Friday, before Alfred A. Prescott. The evidence of the prisoner's guilt is circumstantial, but strong.—Several witnesses testified to having seen him in Wilmington on Tuesday night, and also on Wednesday morning. Another witness testified that he had examined several foot prints from the house in which the murder was committed, to the railroad depot, and they corresponded with boots worn by Pearson. The Coroner, Mr. Holden, testified to having seen scratches on the prisoner's face, and blood on his shirt sleeves. The father of the accused said that he saw the murdered mother and her babes on Tuesday evening, at a late hour, and that they were in good health and spirits. The prisoner, before his arrest, told several persons that he had been to New-York and Providence, and in the latter city had had a fight, which was the cause of the scratches upon his face and the blood upon his clothes. No evidence was adduced to substantiate these stories, and he was committed for trial at Cambridge, at the next term of the Court of Common Pleas.

The bodies of Mrs. Pearson and her children were placed in one coffin, and interred at Wilmington, on Friday.