THE TERRIBLE MURDER AT CLOVERDALE Indianapolis Sentinel December 1874-January 1875 AN INTERESTING ACCOUNTY OF THE AFFAIR BY A SENTINEL REPORTER- WHICH TELLS THE WHOLE STORY Yesterday's Sentinel contained a telegram giving the general facts in regard to the murder of his wife by George Martin, a well-to-do farmer of Putnam County, living fourteen miles from Greencastle. Yesterday the inquest was helf, and the following additional facts learned. Riley Staunton, at whose house the tragedy occurred testified as follows: We were all conversing in the room and Martin got into a tension with his wife and made some charges against her which she denied. He asked her to give him the child and he would give her $100, but she refused to give the child up. He then offered her $500 if she would go to Greencastle and get a divorce and he would pay all expenses. To this she made no answer, Martin then offered me five dollars if I would take his wife to Greencastle but she refused to go. He gave her some minutes to consider the propositions. On her again refusing, he drew his pistol and putting it within a foot of her head, fired and she died instantly. This occurred about 9 o'clock Sunday night. I then jumped up and attempted to catch him when he drew a knife and cut through my vest and two shirts just scratching the skin and also cut me badly on the hands and then ran out the door.. Naomi Staunton, wife of Riley Staunton, corroborated his testimony in all respects, and added the following: When Martin said he wanted a divorce, he wife said, "If you want to go, go." He told her he was tired of her and wouldn't live another day or night and she should get no more of his money. He then asked her if she had been a dutiful wife and mother, and she said she had. He drew a pistol and asked her to admit that she had not been faithful, and she said; "I'll die first". Mrs. Staunton then followed to the same affect as the testimony of her husband. Dr. R.C. Dunnington, of Cloverdale, who made the examination of the corpse said: The ball from the pistol entered the left parietal bone and ranged diagonally to the base of the skull and lodged in the right occipetal bone. No marks of violence on the head beside the wound which I should judge to have been made by a number 22 cartridge. A wound of that kind would cause instant death. The examination was made on Tuesday, December 1. It was also shown in evidence that when Martin left Staunton's he went to Tom Morgan's, about two and a half miles distant, where he arrived between 10 and 11 o'clock. He told Morgan that he had shot his wife, but did not know whether he had killed her, and would give him five dollars to say nothing about it. He would also give Morgan ten dollars if he would find out if his wife was dead and meet him at a certain church near by and tell him, Martin from here went to Mr. Flanigan's and stayed all night. He reached Cloverdale Monday morning and bought a quart of whisky,on which he got drunk and went to Mike Cohn's, where he was arrested at 7:30 am by John Brothers, constable of the township, who kept him in the upper story of the Central House. In an interview with Martin at the jail, he told the reporter the main facts of his life. He was born in Morgan county, Kentucky, July 15, 1837. In 1861, he went into the army as a volunteer in the Twenty-second Kentucky infantry from which he was discharged on the 25th day of November 1865. He then came to Putnam County, Indiana and shortly afterward he married a Miss Bradstreet, a young lady of excellent family and considerable property. She died April 11, 1872, leaving a girl baby with his brother-in-law. After her death, he hired a widow woman, Mrs. Capps, who had several children to keep house for him. He soon afterwards became engaged to an old maid, Elizabeth Rule, but got tired of her and induced Mrs. Capps to give him her daughter, Nancy, aged 14, for his wife and married her on the 9th of March, 1873. He says they got along very nicely with the exception of a few troubles with his mother-in-law. When asked concerning the death of his wife he played the insanity dodge and said she was at home and he wanted to go to her as he didn't like to have her stay all alone at night. When asked why he was in jail with handcuffson, he came close to the grating in the door and whispered: "I'll tell you the truth about it. I am in here because I killed Jim Akers when we were playing cards at Jim's house last night. He struck me first and I shot him in self-defense. I shot him with a revolver and don't know whether he is dead or not." He talked very sensibly upon every subject but the death of his wife, but the moment that was touched he played the insane game. Persons who are acquainted with the murderer and his late wife say that for some time he treated his wife very well, but since the birth of a child about seven months ago, he has become estranged and endeavored to get rid of her by cruelty and abuse of all kinds. Soon after the marriage, Elizabeth Rule, to whom he had been previously engaged, sued him for breach of promise and the suit was compromised by his paying her $500. About three weeks ago, he decided to remove to Mattoon, Illinois and sold his farm, but his wife would not sign the deed until compelled to do so by cruel beatings. They shipped their goods to that point and started on a trip through Kentucky and Illinois, visiting relatives in the former state and finally coming around to Mattoon. Not finding their goods there they came back to Cloverdale to see what had become of them and during their visit there stopped with Mr. Staunton at who house the murder occurred. When he shot his wife she was sitting in a chair with their child sleeping in her arms, and death was so sudden that she did not move, but sat upright in her chair with the blood trickling over her face and the babe still sleeping in her arms. She did not fall, but sat bolt upright in her chair, until taken from it by her friends and laid upon a bed. Martin has been a drinking man all his life, but since the death of his first wife has been drinking to excess. He has always borne the reputation of a rake and soon tires of any one person. He has a brother in Missouri and another in Kentucky besides there he has a mother and several sisters living on the old home farm in Kentucky.While his character was always bad, hers was good. She was known as an affectionate wife and mother, and everyone spoke well of her. The excitement in the town of Cloverdale and the city of Greencastle was very great and it was feared that he would be lynched by the indignant people. The coroner's jury after hearing all the evidence yesterday morning rendering the following verdict: That the deceased, Nancy A. Martin, came to her death by murder in the first degree, by a shot from a pistol in the hands of George N. Martin." The place where the murder was committed is about two miles east of Cloverdale, which place is about two miles south of Greencastle. The corpse of the murdered woman will be interred today. (Debbie's Note: This wife was Nancy A. Capps and she would have been somewhere between the age of 15 and 16 at this time.) Submitted by Kathy Bargerhuff