The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer

SHOCKING TRAGEDY NEAR
CINCINNATI.

Horrible Murder and Suicide.
The Ghastly and Sickening Details.

Cincinnati, Dec. 27.

A terrible family quarrel took place
at Westwood village, about five miles
from this city, in Green township, last
evening, which resulted in the fatal
wounding of the wife and the self-destruction of the father. The particulars are as follows:

Cordelia Wilder, wife of John R.
Wilder, is known in this city, Chicago
and St. Louis as a woman whose business has been for years to furnish
houses of prostitution, she taking
mortgages on property for money
advanced at enormous rates of interest.
During her frequent absences from
home the husband looks after the family, consisting of some 10 or 12 children.

Her legal adviser, Nicholas Byrd, a
young lawyer of this city, about a year
ago began to pay attentions to the oldest daughter of Wilder's, being encouraged therein by the mother, the
father objected, and at one time cowhided Byrd on Fourth street, the affair at the time created a good deal of talk.

About three months since Byrd and
the daughter were married, and a quarrel yesterday grew out of this matter.
During its progress something was
said which enraged Wilder, who attacked his wife with a hatchet, striking her on the head and cutting her
nose nearly off. He stabbed her with
a sharp instrument inflicting wounds
in the neck and shoulders, which
were pronounced fatal by the surgeon. The children ran to alarm
the neighbors, but when help arrived
it was found that Wilder had taken
refuge in an adjoining room, and barred the door. He gave notice that he
was armed, and would kill any one
who attempted to enter the room.

While the neighbors were debating
how to effect an entrance, they heard
the report of the gun, and bursting
open the door, they beheld the most
appalling and sickening sight. Wilder
had taken advantage of the hesitation
of the people outside, to load both barrels of the shot gun with heavy shot,
remove the barrels from the stock, and
placing the butt end in the grate, he so
adjusted a string on the triggers so
that both loads would be fired at once;
so terrible was the force that the top of
his head from below the right eye diagonally across his forehead was blown
completely off, and thrown some feet
distance into an open trunk, back to
which the man staggered and fell, with
his neck just across the edge. The ceiling walls were bespattered with brains
and blood, presenting a most sickening sight on opening the door of the room.

Wilder had written an explanation
of the tragedy, attributing all the difficulties between him and his wife to his
son-in-law, Byrd. On his person were
found a newspaper giving an account
of a cow-hiding scrape, a correspondence between himself and Byrd on the
proposed marriage and a letter from
the mother to the daughter advising
her to marry Byrd. He also addressed
a few lines to his children, stating that
he had come to the conclusion that they
had better be orphans than live with
such parents as they had, and said he
did not intend previously to kill his
wife. On the bed in the room were
found a bowie knife, razor and a strong
cord, and in another place a shot gun,
musket and pistol, showing that he
had contemplated suicide.

The children evidently sympathized
with their mother, for when the neighbors attempted to prevent the escape of
Wilder by the back way, they expressed a good deal of feeling against
their father. A ramrod becoming fastened in a musket in the hands of some
person in the crowd, one said, "Damn
the ramrod; shoot it through him if he
attempts to escape." The latest account from the scene of the tragedy reports Mrs. Wilder still alive, but her death is momentarily expected.