The Enquirer

LEESBURG, (Va.) March 26.

MURDER WILL OUT

There are perhaps few instances on record in which this proverb is more fully and remarkably verified than in the one about to be communicated. Near twenty five years ago a horrid murder was committed in the vicinity of Leesburg, on the body of a Joseph Hoge, a young man of about 19 years of age, who was found in the night with his throat cut from ear to ear; the verdict of the jury of inquest was murder by some person unknown. Some circumstances induced a suspicion that his mother was the perpetrator of this inhuman, shocking deed: she was the person who first gave the alarm by awaking Mr. W--n, (there being only three persons in the house) by exclaiming, Joe is bleeding to death- Her short gown was found with the mark of a bloody hand, appearing as if she had drawn her right hand contaminated with the blood of her own child under the left arm to wipe away the guilty stain. It is stated, on indubitable authority, that this Betty Hoge, on whom suspicion thus rested, died a few weeks since in this county, after having confessed that she had suffocated her husband with a featherbed, & that she had murdered her own son by cutting his throat.- The manner of her confession was no less extraordinary than the matter. To those about her she appeared to die, and they were proceeding to lay her out, when she revived, and said she would not die, until she had communicated something that lay heavy on her mind, and requested all present except one, to leave the room. That person, through fear, objected to be left alone with her, two others stayed and heard her make, in substance, the above awful confession. She lived afterwards about twenty four hours-. For many years she had lived suspected and feared; she is now gone with accumulated guilt, and her memory will be execrated.