The Tipton Advertiser

A SINGULAR MURDER.—The Alta California, of the 16th ult., devotes nearly three columns to a murder which was committed about that date in the vicinity of San Francisco.

It appears that a person living in the suburbs, while returning home by moonlight noticed a place where the ground had been freshly turned up, as if dogs had been disturbing the earth in search of something underneath. An examination disclosed the body of a well dressed young man, whose skull had been broken, and whose face was bruised by blows and disfigured by decomposition to an extent that made immediate recognition impossible.

Dr. Henry, a local physician, however, successfully resorted to the experiment which was applied in a similar case in London, a few years ago, by the distinguished Dr. Richardson. The body was stripped and placed in a water-tight shell; water was then let in, and a pound of hydrochloric acid, with twenty pounds of common acid, was added. After an immersion of three hours the corpse was taken out and sponged off with clean water. A bucket of water, previously charged with chlorine gas, was next thrown over the head and face; after which a flow of pure chlorine gas was passed over the face, and the features became so bleached that they were recognizable as those of Charles T. Hill.

The deceased is described as a peculiarly fine looking man, a native of New York and a graduate of Amherst College. Two or three years ago he killed an Italian in a saloon in New York, but under such extenuating circumstances that he was admitted to bail in the sum of sixteen thousand dollars. His mother being a lady of considerable means, paid the bond; and Hill entered the Army of the Potomac, in which he served as Sutler or Quartermaster for a while, and then went to St. Louis. Here, says the account before us, "he entered the store of his uncle, an extensive hide and leather merchant, as a clerk. Some months after he went into the restaurant business, but sold out after brief experience and went to California.

Hill's vanity in dress, and his habit of sporting paste jewels, which were believed to be brilliants of considerable value, tempted one Thomas Byrnes to murder him. The latter accomplished the deed by persuading his victim to take a buggy ride to the suburbs of San Francisco. Byrnes was suspected and arrested, from the circumstance of his offering the paste jewels and demanding a large price for them."