Daily Kennebec Journal

HORRIBLE MURDER.
A Night Drug Clerk Found with his Skull Crushed and his Throat Cut from Ear to Ear—No Clue to the Murderer.
NEW YORK, May 31.
Richard Hands, night clerk at Cramford's drug store, 120 Hudson street, was murdered last night by unknown parties. When the day clerk came on duty this morning he found Hands seated in a chair in a little back room where he slept. His skull was crushed in and his throat cut from ear to ear. His bed had not been occupied, indicating that the deed was perpetrated early in the night. A pestle with blood and hair adhering to it was found near by and is believed to have been the weapon first used. There was no evidence of a struggle and it is thought the blows on the head were dealt from behind and the throat cut after the clerk struck the chair. As yet the police have no clue to the murderer. Hands was unusually popular and was not known to have an enemy. His domestic relations were of the happiest. He lived with his wife and two children, opposite the building in which was the drug store. Saturday about 11 o'clock, his wife took his lunch to him as usual and left him in good spirits. She was preparing his breakfast this morning when the tidings of his terrible death came home to her. With a cry of anguish she fell fainting to the floor and it was feared for some time that she would not survive the shock.