TIME MACHINE ... June, 1879 (Part 3 of 5)

Please note: Due to its length the postings for this article which began on Sunday will continue during this week.

TK For PPE


(As published in the Warren Ledger, Warren, Pa.)

POCOMOKE'S TRAGEDY

Details of the most remarkable crime on record.

A Woman Who Wanted To Marry One Of Her Own Sex.


Baltimore, May 27.- The trial of Miss Lillie Duer on an indictment for fatally shooting her once intimate friend and associate, Miss Ella Hearn, is fixed for tomorrow, at Snow Hill, Worcester County, Md.

(PART 3)

.....(an earlier shooting incident) When asked why she (Miss Duer) shot the only reply was that if she (Miss Hearn) had not halted then the next shot would have been more effective than the previous ones.

From that time Miss Hearn began to be seriously alarmed when in company with her friend, and on one occasion it is related when she, with strange vehemence, asked Miss Hearn if she did love her and went so far as to actually propose that she should get married, she fled from the parlor, where they had been talking, and locked herself in her room. These little difficulties were gotten over finally, however, and the intimacy was renewed, but not so warmly as before. Miss Duer was constantly complaining that her "passionate love was not returned," and sighing over her "lost hope of bliss with her dearest friend when they would be always together." There was a young man of the town, who about this time began to pay marked attentions to Miss Hearn, about which Miss Duer remonstrated with her in the most passionate manner, telling her that she would shoot the man that took her friend from her. A Miss Foster was also a friend whom Miss Hearn was very fond of, and the two began to be very close friends. On the morning of the 4th of November Miss Foster and Miss Hearn had taken a walk together, and upon her return home she found a note from Miss Duer requesting her to call at her house, as she wished to see her urgently. Late in the afternoon she went with her little sister, and when the two met, Miss Duer asked Miss Hearn to take a walk with her the next day in the woods. With the fear of a possible repetition of the former shoot in her mind, she very decidedly refused. This appeared to arouse all the fire of jealousy of Miss Duer's nature, and she passionately, and upon her knees, begged that her request might be complied with, but in vain.

The next day at an early hour, Miss Duer called at Miss Hearn's house and was shown into the sitting- room where the latter was sitting with her mother. The conversation that occurred in the room was of a general nature, and nothing was said there of the walk. When Miss Duer was about to go Mrs. Hearn requested her daughter to accompany her to the door, and the two girls passed out in the passage. After a few moments had elapsed a shot was heard and Miss Hearn rushed back in the room with the blood streaming from a pistol shot to the mouth. She was immediately placed under medical treatment, when it was discovered that the ball had entered the mouth and lodged about an inch deep near the right upper jaw. Miss Duer had followed her in with a smoking pistol in her hand, but did not remain long. A young man named Clark was near the house and heard the shot, and when he appeared Miss Hearn was lying upon the sofa in the sitting-room, while Miss Duer in a frantic manner, was rushing about crying wildly: "I have shot her; oh my God, she will die." Miss Hearn lingered for a time between life and death, being at times delirious, and raving. She would hold up her right arm before her face in her moments of mental derangements, calling out nervously, "Lillie, don't shoot me; I will go with you and always love you." The arm had been bandaged on account of a severe burn, supposed to have been caused by the flash of powder when she was shot. Much has been said and written about what really occurred at time of shooting.

(To be continued)

Footnote: Lillie Duer was from Pocomoke, not Newark as the newspaper article had stated in error in a previous posting.