FULL TEXT: Grand Rapids, Mich., July 9. – Mrs. Levi Pierce,
over 60 years of age, was found lifeless in her home, two and one-half miles
southwest of Berlin, yesterday. She had been strangled to death. Last night
George Keesbro, her 19-year-old grandson, was taken to the county jail at Grand
Haven, in the belief that he was concerned in the tragedy. To-day May Pierce,
the 13-year-old daughter of the murdered woman, was also taken into custody and
conveyed to jail.
Yesterday Levi Pierce went to work on the farm of a
neighbor, leaving the daughter and grandson, who had been living with the
family, at home with Mrs. Pierce. About 10 o'clock the daughter. May, ran
across the fields to her father and told him to come home at once, as she
feared that her mother was dead. Pierce, accompanied by the neighbor and his
wife, hurried to the house and found the unfortunate woman lying lifeless on
the kitchen floor. The grandson had vanished. There were many evidences of a
struggle for life in the room, though the floor had been freshly mopped and a
hasty attempt made to restore the surroundings to their normal condition.
Mrs. Pierce was lying near the kitchen stove. There was a
large, deep gash in her chin, penetrating to the bone, and several teeth had
been knocked out. Her neck was swollen and blackened on either side, showing
beyond question that she had been choked to death. So visible had been the
pressure of the hand that strangled her that blood had settled in clots on the
inside of the throat. The fragments of a broken bottle were strewn on the floor
and it may have been with this as a weapon that the gash in the chin was
inflicted. The body was still limp and warm when found and a doctor was sent
for in the hope that possibly life was not extinct. Before his arrival, however,
the body had stiffened in the rigor of death, and there is no doubt that life
had departed before the husband reached home.
The missing George Keesbro had struck off across the fields
and turned up in Berlin before noon. He went to the post office and after
transacting some trifling business there, started for home on the highway. On
the way he met the doctor, who was returning from the Pierce home and who
informed him that his grandmother was dead. He was taken into custody soon
after.
The local officers sent for the Ottawa county sheriff and
prosecuting attorney and an inquest was held. May Pierce testified that some
time after her father and she and George went out to drive the cows to pasture,
and on her return found her mother living in the kitchen, apparently dead. The
grandson's testimony was substantially the same in the main, but their
statements conflicted in details, though both stuck stoutly to their stories. The
theory that Mrs. Pierce was murdered by tramps, which would be the natural sequence
of the statements made by the daughter and grandson, was rejected by the
officers. No tramps had been seen in the vicinity and the freshly-mopped floor
and other attempts to cover up the disarray in the kitchen effectually
disproved of this supposition in the officers' minds. They preferred to work on
the theory that the grandson and daughter became involved in a quarrel with
Mrs. Pierce over some trifling matter until, in a fit of ungovernable rage, the
old woman was knocked down and then choked to death. The coroner's jury
rendered a verdict of death from strangulation and the arrests followed.
[“Was Choked To Death Mrs. Levi Pierce Murdered Ix Ottawa
County. Her Daughter And Grandson Arrested On Suspicion. They Claim That The
Deed Was Done My Tramps. The Surroundings, However, Go to Disprove Their Story.”
The Detroit Free Press (Mi,), Jul. 10, 1895, p. 1]
***
FULL TEXT: Grand Haven, Mich., Sept. 6. – May Pierce, the 13
year old girl was found guilty of manslaughter this morning. The child is
accused of being an accomplice of George Chesborough, aged 18, in the murder of
her mother on July 8 Chesborough was convicted and is now serving a life sentence.
[“Thirteen Year Old Murderess.” Lawrence Daily Journal
(Ks.), Sep. 6, 1895, p. 1]
***
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