Bibb County GaArchives News.....Woolfolk / Weston family murdered near Macon, Ga August 1887 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Candace (Teal) Gravelle http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00023.html#0005680 October 12, 2006, 12:38 am "The Jacksonville Republican" August 1887 Jacksonville, Calhoun Co., Alabama NEWSPAPER Issue of Saturday, AUGUST 13, 1887 GEORGIA STATE News HORRIBLE TRAGEDY; A Whole Family Butchered in their Beds Macon, Ga., Aug. 6th Information has just been received of a most horrible tragedy occurring last night, about twelve miles from here, this county. Reports say Captain Richard Woolfolk, a well known farmer, his wife, four children and Mrs. Weston, an aunt of Mrs. Woolfolk, were found murdered in the house this morning, having been knocked in the head and their throats cut. Tom G. Woolfolk, son of Capt. Woolfolk by his first wife, is suspected of the crime and was arrested. The deputy sheriff and coroner went out to the scene of the murders. Owing to the distance from the city all particulars cannot be had just now. Late and further details from the scene of the Woolfolk tragedy developed the fact that there were nine victims instead of seven as first reported. Capt. and Mrs. R.F. Woolfolk, their six children, ranging in ages from eighteen months to twenty years, and Mrs. Weston, an aunt of Mrs. Woolfolk, aged eighty years. The coroner's jury found a verdict of murder against Thomas G. Woolfolk, son of the Captain's first wife, who was sleeping in the house. His statement was that sometime before daybreak, he was aroused by groans and the sound of blows preceding from his parents' room. His half brother Richard ran into the room which adjoins his and thinking that a murder was being committed, he (Thomas) jumped from a window in his night clothes and ran to the house of a negro three or four hundred yards distant to get them to arouse the neighborhood. He says that he was afraid to return fearing that he himself would be murdered, but went back after half an hour. No help had arrived and he went in to see if the family had been murdered. He found them all dead. He stepped in a pool of blood in passing and left foot prints on the floor. He found his stepmother laying so that her head was on the floor and her body on the bed. He then changed his clothing. By this time a crowd had arrived and soon after he was taken into custody. The evidence before the jury was circumstantial throughout. The crowd continued to grow in size and indications pointed strongly to lynching. Sheriff Wescott told the jury to withold their verdict until he could get the prisoner away, and then making all the arrangements, slipped Woolfolk out of the house in a hurry, and drove away so rapidly that the crowd had hardly time to realize the departure. The prisoner was brought to Macon and safely lodged in jail, where he talked of the crime cooly but made no admissions. His motive is said to be a desire to gain possesion of his father's property for himself and his two sisters, children of the first wife. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/bibb/newspapers/woolfolk1848gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 3.4 Kb