Freestone County, Texas
Obituaries



Dallas Morning News
July 12, 1888
Page: 1

A Ghastly Sight

One Prisoner Beats Another's Brains Out with a Piece of Iron

  FAIRFIELD, Tex., July 9 - Yesterday morning about daylight a white boy by the
name of Will Overstreet killed a negro boy named John Peyton.  Both boys were
prisoners in the county jail and were the only prisoners in the jail.  The
killing was down wihtha piece of stove iron, about twelve inches square and
one-half inch thick.  The negro's brains were beaten out and his face cut to 
pieces, and from the position of the dead body and the statements of the boy
the fatal blow must have been struck while the deceased was asleep and carried
on until the face was terribly mutilated.
  The only grounds of extenuation urged by the boy were that the negro had 
cursed him and tried to drink out of his cup the day before.  An inquest was 
held over the body and the verdict was in accordance with these facts.
  The defendant was remanded to jail, and the deceased interred in the potter's
field.  The defendant was in jail in default of bail on the charge of burglary
and the deceased on a misdemeanor.
  Many people viewed the dead body, and all pronounced it to be one of the 
ghastliest sights they had ever seen.