The Massachusetts Spy, And Worcester County Advertiser

By the Jails.

MURDER OF MISS CUNNINGHAM.

BALTIMORE, NOV. 13.

The following notice of this horrid deed, with some particulars not heretofore stated, is now published, in the hope that it may yet contribute to the detection of a monster unfit to live.

On Monday, the 4th day of April last, Evelina Cunningham, a young woman, who lived near Charlestown, in Cecil county, Maryland, left her home to go to a relation's not far distant, taking with her the child of a relative, about four years old. She had to pass a short distance on the post-road leading from Havre-de-Grace to Elkton. About 11 o'clock in the day, she stopped at a house on that road, where she was invited to wait awhile, and told that the man of the house and his wife intended going the same way, and would walk with her. She replied that the child walked very slow; that she would therefore go on, and they might overtake her. These people were delayed, and did not leave the house until about 1 o'clock. While on their way, they observed a strange man come out of the wood, near where Miss Cunningham was afterwards found, carrying a bundle, and wearing a dark coloured surtout, who asked, as he passed them, "How far is it to the ferry?" (Havre-de-Grace ferry.) No uneasiness was entertained by the family which Miss Cunningham had left, it being supposed she was at the house she intended to visit. On the following Friday morning, the child, in an almost famished state, was discovered standing at a branch by a neighboring woman, who, knowing the child, asked it "Whom it came with?" It answered, "With aunty." "Where is your aunty?" The child, pointing to the woods, said "up there." "Why did not she come with you?" "Aunty is asleep," it answered "I could not wake her." Persons went immediately to make search, one of whom following the track which the child had made in going to and from the branch, was led directly to the lifeless body of Miss Cunningham. Of the horrible and blood-chilling spectacle which it exhibited we are permitted only to say, that on her body and neck were found eleven wounds, as from the stabbing of a knife; her hands were cut, as if from seizing the weapon; and the blood-vessels on one side of the neck were cut in two. From the extended position of her arms and hair, she appeared to have been dragged by the feet from the place where she was first wounded. She had worn black worsted stockings, which were pulled off and taken away: whether they were marked or not, is not known. She was found with one shoe on. The child said it had put on one of aunty's shoes, but could not get on the other. It could give no other information of the murder than that "a big ugly man cut aunty with a knife." The little sufferer had continued with the body from Monday till Friday, leaving it only to go to the branch to drink, but often crying and begging its "aunty" to awake and get up. The lower part of a shirt-sleeve, evidently torn off was found at the spot, and is still kept.

One John Conners, a native of Canada, and a shoemaker by trade, was arrested in Virginia on the 1st June, and has been lately tried in Maryland for the above murder. He was acquitted on full proof, that, at the time the crime was perpetrated, he was in Millersburg, Kentucky. This man's arrest quite'd inquiry as to others. On the day of the murder a stranger crossed the ferry at Havre-de-grace, who paid the ferryman a striped cotton jacket with sleeves, for his ferryage. This man had with him a bundle, and wore a dark coloured surtout, supposed to be of bottle green. A man in a similar dress, and also having a bundle, was overtaken on the road by a boy in a gig, and asked the boy to let him ride. On being refused, he got into the gig, and continued in it till they saw Miss Cunningham at some distance, and whom they would soon have met, when the man jumped out, and sat down on the side of the road.

On the previous Saturday night, two men, a woman, and a child, who said they had come from the Potomac Canal, lodged at a house in Cecil County, near the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. About 12 o'clock on Sunday, being a stormy, snowy day, they left the house for the canal. Early on Monday morning, one of the men returned, got his breakfast, and took from his bundle several articles of clothing, which he left, saying they belonged to the other man, who returned and took them the next day. The woman and child did not come back with them. The man who returned on Monday morning, soon left the house, to go back, as he said, to the Potomac Canal, and passed on the post road from Elkton towards Havre-de-Grace. He wore a dark coloured coat, and had with him a bundle.

On or about the 13th April, a man was arrested in Baltimore, who, on his examination before a magistrate, stated to the magistrate and a gentleman present, that he saw the young woman who was murdered in Cecil; that he was sitting in the wood, on the road side, when she passed by; that he remained in the neighbourhood till Friday, when she was found; that in passing along the road he was afraid, being a stranger, that he might be taken up, and asked a gentleman on the road to let him ride in his carriage, or remain in company with him, the latter of which he did; that he saw the funeral, and was sorry to think that so fine looking a young woman should have been so cruelly treated; and, finally, that he came from Havre-de-Grace to Baltimore by water.

This man, when arrested, had a dark surtout and a bundle with him. What is yet more strange, he told the magistrate and the other gentleman, that he came from Canada, and that his name was John Conners. The boy mentioned above, and another person being sent for, said he was not the man they had seen on the road. He was discharged, and asked the magistrate for a certificate to prevent his being taken up again, which was given him.

A reward of 200 has been offered by an executive proclamation for the detection of the destroyer of Miss C. Editors throughout the Union are respectfully requested to give publicity to the above. Any information or intelligence by letter or otherwise, transmitted to either of the Baltimore editors, will be gladly received and properly used to bring so foul an offender to justice.