Gypsy Heart
Gold Member
If this much was found in the house I wonder what could be found detecting the property?
Lancaster Inquirer
Saturday, Feb. 6, 1909
Foul Murder Down in Martic Hills Stirs all People.
Aged Alfred Hallman Shot Dead in the Presence of Two Neighbors
Three Masked men, All Drunk
Came to Rob, They were Scared at Their Own Deed and Ran Away Without Booty.
WERE ARRESTED INSIDE OF TWO DAYS
Two Notorious Toughs, with Young Farm Laborer and a Well Known Hotel Keeper Are in Jail Now to Await a Hearing - The First Three Have Confessed and Will have Trial Very Shortly.
Locked up in jail, all three having confessed their share in the horrible crime of the murder of aged Alfred Hallman of Pequea township and the attempted murder of his neighbor, John Kreider, on Sunday evening, are three young men; and at the April term of court, it is extremely probably, a jury will decide upon the measure of each one's guilt and the penalty for his share in the crime. A fourth man is also in confinement, charged with being an accessory but denying that he had naught to do with it.
The three men are Walter Aston, who is to have done the shooting, 43 years old and married; his cousin, Benjamin Aston, 24 years old, and Paul Fornwalt, only 19. The Astons live in the neighborhood and are of bad reputation; Furnwalt's parents live in Lebanon county and he is employed by Mr. Altman, the tenant of the Steinman farm, in the same neighborhood. All were drunk, they say, at the time of the attempt at robbery which ended in murder. The Astons are suspected of being implicated in the burning of barns in and around Pequea township. The fourth man is Jacob Hinsey, hotelkeeper at Marticville.
Fornwalt was arrested on Tuesday morning about 36 hours after the shooting occurred. The arrest was made through a statement of Amos Beach, the first suspect arrested. He gave the officers clues that led to the arrest of Fornwalt. Walter Aston heard that Fornwalt was arrested and he called at the stationhouse to have a talk with him. He also was arrested and locked up,. Beach, innocent of this offense but frequently in other sorts of trouble, was released after he had told the story which brought such direct results. Forwalt told his story almost as soon as he was caught ; Walter Aston , after some denials, gave in when informed that Fornwalt had confessed; and Benjamin Aston, arrested last, confessed soon after he was landed in the station house in this city.
THE AWFUL DEED
How Alfred Hallman Came to Death Without a Minute's Warning.
This murder and attempted robbery now so fortunately cleared up through the arrest of Beach, to whom one of the principals had talked, was one of the most cruel, yet one of the most amateurish bungling and inexcusable crimes ever committed in Lancaster county. The three men who had set out to get old man Hallman's thousands, knowing, as all their neighbors did, that he had hoarded all his savings and made no bank deposits since the failure of the City Trust Company some years ago, went to the home on Sunday evening. Mr. Hallman was 68 years old, his wife is 73. Their small, weather-beaten, unpainted house, on a 6 acre tract, stands squarely up to the fence-line on a lonely road from York Furnace to Run Valley, about six miles from Millersville. The deceived tramps and others who cupidity might be aroused, the front and side windows, in view from the road, were tightly boarded up. The only entrance to the tumble-down, roughly-boarded cabin is from the rear, the approach to the door being through a chicken yard and between a wagon-shed, a woodshed and pig sty. Inside are two rooms, sparse of furniture, bare of floor and filled with a little old farm wreckage, including a dilapidated wood-stove.
Everywhere in two townships neighbors and acquaintances of the old pair knew that the cabin was a mine of hidden riches. Farmers were in the habit of coming to Hallman to borrow money, $50. to $100. at a time. When they came the old man, in their presence, would search books, cupboards, old pitchers and tin cans until he got together the required sum.
Lately Mrs. Hallman has been failing rapidly, being confined to her bed most of the time. On Sunday evening Mrs. Angeline Cramer, herself 49 years old, went to the cabin to sit up with the invalid John Kreider, another neighbor, called to talk religion with old Mr. Hallman, who a month ago, professed religion for the first time in his life and joined the Mennonites. Kreider had his hand on the old man's shoulder and was prayfully conversing with him while Mrs. Cramer looked on.
Suddenly a tall man pushed open the door and quickly walked into the room. Another shorter man was just behind, at the doorsill. Both wore white masks.
Evidently, the tall man was terribly taken aback at what he saw. Possibly knowing that Mrs. Hallman an was sick in the bedroom, he had expected to find Hallman, who is decrepit as well as old, alone in the sitting room.
Anyway, the masked robber stopped short, threw forward the hand he had held behind his back and began firing. The first shot struck Mr. Hallman and went through his neck, killing him almost instantly. The second bullet missed Mrs. Cramer's head only a few inches and buried itself in the wall. The third shot struck Kreider as he was running across the floor, penetrating his shoulder to the one and then dodging upward and lodging in the muscles of the neck, where the doctors have not been able to find it.
While shooting rapidly, the tall masked man, apparently in a frenzy of fright himself, shouted:
"Your money or your life."
But by this time Mrs. Cramer and Kreider had escaped into the sick room and slammed the door. The robbers, finding themselves alone, tumbled helter-skelter out of the shanty and fled.
"I was so scared I hardly knew what I did, " said Mrs. Cramer, "but I jumped at the first shot, ran into the bedroom, slammed the door after me, and then crawled under the bed. I cried out to Mrs. Hallman in bed. "They want money, They're after money:"
"She yelled, "get that kettle; give them that.: I knew where the kettle was on the bureau even in the dark, and I was about to rush out with it to the thieves when Mr. Kreider hammered open the door and tumbled into the room. We were frantic and tried to get out through the bedroom window, but it was tightly fastened. Finally, we heard no noise in the sitting room and ventured out together. The masked men were not in sight; they had run away.
"Then Mr. Kreider and I rushed over the road, over the fences and across the field to my house. I fell down four times getting across the field, I was so scared. When we got in the light in our house Mr. Kreider discovered, for the first time, that he was covered with blood and had been wounded.
The would-be robbers ran away no richer for their terrible crime, but the money was right where they had expected to find it. Out of the old house, next day, the relatives took two telescopes willed with money. These valises were so heavy that one man could scarcely carry them along the road. The small coins alone filled a peck measure. The dates on the coins ran back to 1824. The hoard was counted when deposited in a Lancaster bank, the total being $1987, and $300 more was found later.
With surprising ingenuity the two old persons, had hidden away the money in every sock and corner of the shanty. Bills were laid between the leaves of the Bible and all other books. Other banknotes were wrapped in papers, and these like packages tined in bundles. Every dish, drawer, glass and crock produced wealth.
More than $80. in coin was hidden in a clock with wooden works, and yet the old timepiece managed to keep ticking off the hours and the days, the weeks and the years of the hoarding.
The county commissioners promptly offered a regard of $500 for the apprehension of the criminals.
QUICKLY CAUGHT
Police Made Very Short Work of Landing the Criminals
In less than 48hours after the commission of the crime, its authors were in the hands of police.
The men under arrest are "Tot" Aston, 24 years old, of "Horse Hollow" near Marticville, Ben Aston, "Tot's" cousin, who has lived on the Pequea near the "old burnt mill," and Paul Fornwalt, a German farm laborer, who has been working on the Steinman place, east of Marticville.
While the police deserve the greatest credit, the quick solution of the mystery of the murder was due to another blunder of the young greenhorn robber, who began shooting in the Hallman house before he thought of demanding money.
"Tot" Aston, whose real name is Walter, is a son of Amos Aston, the trusted night watchman at the plant of the Standard Iron Mining and Furnace Company, on the Pequea near Marticville. This is the mine that under another name was used by Alfred Segal in the manipulations that led to the suicide of Frank K. Hipple, in Philadelphia.
Young Aston ran home after the murder, arriving soon after church was over, so that the suspicions of his parents were allayed. The family is respectable: the mother, a Christian woman; the father a worthy citizen'; their home a comfortable one.
But all day Monday, "Tot" Aston was terrible excised and worried He did not know that his shooting in the Hallman shanty had caused the death of old Mr. Hallman until the backer came along the road at 11 o'clock in the morning and told he news. Then the amateur highwayman got into such a feverish condition of mind that even strangers he met along the road noticed his nervousness and trepidation.. It was this that gave the police a first "tip:.
Monday night it was rumored around Marticville that Fred Fornwalt had been arrested and taken to Lancaster as a "suspect". This was all a mistake. Formwalt had not been arrested. All that had happened was a visit paid to Fornwalt by a constable and a policeman from Lancaster.
Somebody had told of "Tot" Aston's strange actions, and later the police had learned that Sunday evening "Tot" Aston and Paul Formwalt had been seen walking along a country road together. This led the owners of the law to quiz Fornwalt, who gave evasive answers, and to some extent strengthened their suspicions.
But, believing that Fornwalt actually had been taken into custody, "Tot" Aston said to his father:
"It is an outrage for these constables to arrest Paul. I know myself that his is innocent, for I was with him Sunday afternoon. He and I went over to see Ben Aston together, and were there all the time, I was playing the fiddle. Then Paul and I came over here together and got here by 8:20. Did you ever hear of such an outrage ? I just think I'll go to town and get him out of jail by telling the police this."
Both the father and mother of young Aston readily fell in with the plan, which they then considered a very wise one.
"Perhaps you'll have to bail him out," said the elder Aston, "so I think you had better take some money along and see a lawyer. Have the attorney help you out."
Money is not exactly easy in the Aston house, but so great was the sympathy of "Tot's" father for young Fornwalt wrongly accused, that $14. was given over to the son when he started for town.
"Tot Aston went in on the trolley car and acted queerly, entering by the door opposite the one used by the rest of the passengers and holding his head down on his hands. Even the conductor noticed the boy's odd conduct and later reported it - not knowing that Aston was then in a cell - as rather "suspicious."
Arriving in Lancaster, "Tot" went to the office of Attorney Malone, who sent his associate, Mr. Burkholder, to the police station with him, the object being to get young Fornwait released.
"Tot" Aston spoke first to Lieutenant Erisman, who knew that a chap named Aston was "wanted".
"Did you say your name is Aston ? " "Yes," admitted "Tot".
"Are you the Aston boy that lives in Horse Hallow ?"
"That's the one," he answered, trembling.
"Very well: come with me."
Sergeant Frinid led the way down stairs to the cell room, opened a door, and quickly, lest he should have a fight on his hands, shoved Aston into the little, barred room and locked the door.
"What are you doing ?" demanded "Tot".
"Oh, you'll find out, " said the police sergeant, smiling.
Suddenly "Tot" realized that his ruse had failed. Tears overflowed his eyes and trickled down his face in little rivulets. But he chocked back the sobs, and with infinite effort put on a brave face. But the sergeant had been watching, and immediately leaped to the conclusion that he had locked up the right person.
No sooner had the sergeant returned to his desk than he was called over the telephone by Chief of Police Walter G. Bushong, who, with Patrolman John A. Huber was in Marticville working on the murder case.
"If that Aston boy comes to Lancaster, " telephoned the chief, " you can get all the men on the force, if you have to, and catch him. We have just learned more about him, and he's the fellow we want."
"All right, chief, we've got him, " said the sergeant, merrily.
So great was the excitement at the other end of the wire that it sounded like ten men talking at once.
"Good, good, you hold him there, hold sure, I'll be right there. I want to congratulate you fellows, " the delighted chief of police telephoned.
What was more to the purpose, the chief telephoned that Paul Fornwalt, who was known to have been with "Tot" Aston Sunday night - the night of the murder - was on his way to Lancaster with a load of hay from the Steinman farm, where he works.
So the men who might have been out after young Aston, but for the amateur robber's error, were rushed out of the station to find Fornwalt. In fifteen minutes he was dragged off the top of the load of hay at a livery stable in Lancaster where he was at work pitching the hay into a mow.
Formal was worse frightened even than was "Tot" Aston. Immediately upon his arrest he said to the patrolman who took him in custody:
"Yes, I was at that Hallman house, but honest, I didn't any of the shooting. I am telling the truth, I am."
Half an hour afterwards Formal had signed his statement of the circumstances of the murder, answering questions that shaped up the story substantially as follows:
I came to this county from near Palmyra last September, and was engaged at farm labor several miles from the scene of the murder. About a week before the murder, Walter and Ben Aston met me along the road, and asked whether I wouldn't like to help pull of job to get some money. I agreed but was not appraised of the fact of how it was to be done.
The arrangement was to meet at the home of Ben Aston on Sunday evening. I left my place work early on Sunday evening and went to Ben Aston's home, and was later joined by Walter Aston, who played the fiddle for a while, after which we proceeded to the Hallman house to pull off the job.
The Astons provided the masks, which were handkerchiefs, and they wore white masks, while I wore a dark one. I knew we were going to rob the place, and when I inquired how it was to be done, Walter said, "leave that to me."
I didn't know that the Astons were armed, and we drew near the place we put on the masks. Walter Aston took out his revolver and Ben Aston coupled together a shotgun which he had concealed under his coat. Walter proceeded to the door, revolver in hand, and opened the door. I followed, Ben being behind me.
When Walter opened the door and had only a got a few feet inside, without a word he started shooting. I had one foot in the doorway, when I became frightened, and, Walter, came rushing back. I scarcely know what happened, except that we ran across fields and roads to a point where Ben left us to go to his home, and Walter and I proceeded on toward Walter's home.
On parting Walter gave me the revolver and told me to keep it and hide it, and said that if he had killed anybody down at that place, and I said a word about he would kill me.
I took the revolver to the place where I was employed and hid it and have told the police where they can find it.
After getting this confession, the police make a quick trip to Marticville and found Ben Aston, who was at work in an icehouse. They then went to the stable on the Steinman place and recovered the revolver used in the murder. It was hidden just where Fornwalt said he had put it. This weapon was given to Formal to hid by "Tot" Aston at the covered bridge, near "Horse Hollow"
The third man arrested, Ben Aston, is regarded as the ringleader in the murder plot. This member of the trio of amateur robbers is a cousin of "Tot's" who lives in a cabin three miles from the Hallman farm, near what is locally known as "the old burnt mill."
Ben Aston's arrest was really the news of the day, for the whole country had supposed the murder was a "two-man job." But young Formal told of the third man who stood outside the house as "lookout," this being Ben Aston. The third man was not seen by any of the persons in the dilapidated old house or by any one along the road.
When the older Aston was arrested and taken to his home he made a great show of bravado, but later he confessed. It was then that his wife, with her 6-year old boy clasped to her arms and tears pouring down her face, told police that she herself burned the three handkerchief masks used by the men. Soon after he was brought to the station house he made a confession; and an hour or two later, when Walter Aston (the man who did the shooting) was told that the others had admitted, trembling in every truth and white as death, he finally admitted that he was lying when he denied that he was one of the party that was at the Hallman house on Sunday night.
For years Ben Aston has been a neighborhood terror. In his youth he drank very hard and was dissolute. Several years ago he married and settled down into a ne'er-do well. With his wife he took her first child, now 16 years old, a boy, who gores under the name of Charlie Morrison. The father, Will Morrison, fled the locality before the child was born, rather than marry and accept the obligations of a parent, and since then he never has been heard from.
In his detailed confession Ben Aston said Walter Aston and Fornwalt came to his house early Sunday evening, and all drank whiskey. At 8 o'clock they started for Hallman's. There Walter did the shooting. All ran away afterwards, and he was so drunk he doesn't know how he got home, nor does he remember taking the masks along.
A FOURTH MAN IMPLICATED
Walter Aston's Confession Pulls Jacob Hinsey into the Business
Walter Aston, making a full confession on Wednesday, implicated Jacob Hinsey, the Marticville hotel keeper, who, he says, planned the robbery of the old farmer, and also implicates Hinsey and Amos Beach, the first suspect arrested, in the holdup, shooting and robbing of John Huber, an aged resident of the same neighborhood.
The story of Walter Aston, told under oath, was that a few Sundays ago he and Paul Fornwalt were at Ben Aston's house. Ben told him where there was a lot of money, and said it would be a "cinch" to get it. Ben mentioned Hallman's house as the place, , and said there was a big lot of money there, and it was secreted between the leaves of the Bible and in out-of-the-way places.
An agreement was then made between Formal, Ben Aston and himself to rob the house, and arrangements were made. The fixed different dates but something prevented until last Sunday night. The three of them told Jacob Hinsey, the hotel keeper, of their plans, and he knew when it was to be done, and was to share in the plunder, so Aston said. On the Friday before the murder Aston went to Hinsey's hotel and borrowed his revolver, and Hinsey knew why the revolver was borrowed. On Sunday morning Aston was in the company of Amos Beach, and in the afternoon he was at Hinsey's hotel. Hinsey asked him about the job, referring to the intended robbery of Hallman, and said it was a favorable night for an affair of that kind, as it was clear and windy, and no one would hear them. Hinsey asked him if he wanted some whiskey, and he answered "Yes." Hinsey gave him a pint and a bottle of beer. The three then met at Ben Aston's, drank the pint of whisky and sent to Hinsey's for more, which was drank.
At 7 o'clock the three started for Hallman's home, intending only to rob the old man. He had Hiney's revolver, Ben had a gun and Fornwalt was not armed. He and Ben put on masks made by Ben and Fornwalt tied a handkerchief over his face.
His story from that point agrees with Formats, that he did the shooting, with Fornwalt right behind him and Ben on guard on the outside with his shotgun.
He said the shooting was not intended, but when he saw the two visitors in the house he lost his head, and "unconsciously" sot. The three will probably save the county the expense of a trial and allow the cot to fix the degree of murder.
Hinsey was arrested on Wednesday. He recently lost heavily in gambling in this city, and his wife brought suit against some of the men to whom he lost. He denies he was an accomplice, and declares the revolver was stolen from him. Aston in his confession said Hinsey stayed at home on the night of the Huber robbery so that in case they were caught he could prove he was home playing cards.
The Huber outrage was perpetrated last fall, but the victims kept quiet about it fearing their buildings would be burned if they made it public.
October 13th was the date. The Hubers live near Byerland. Everybody knew that they distrusted banks and hid money about the home. About $2000 was concealed on the place when the attack was made. Next day it was deposited in a Lancaster safety deposit box.
Amos, 57 years old, Susan, 63, and Mary, 71, brother and sisters, were talking together in a washhouse when a long and a short man, both masked, marched in, stood by the wall and aimed revolvers at the Hubers.
Instantly, fright seized both the attacking force and those attacked. The man and the two women screamed and made for different doors. The robbers struck out wildly and the revolvers, but the women got away and commenced screaming outside. Then the thieves ran cross lots not stopping to search for money.
In the morning the three Hubers were in bed with bandages all over their heads.
According to Aston's story Amos Huber grappled with Beach and Walter Aston knocked the old man down with his revolver, the blow breaking the weapon. One of the sisters was roughly used, but the other escaped, and it was this that cause the gang to beat a hasty retreat. John Huber, another brother, was upstairs at the time, sick.
DID BEECH Kill NELSON!
The First Suspect Arrested is Accused of Another Murder
The latest development in connection with the arrest of the Astons, Formal and Hinsey for the Hallman murder and of Amos Beech for the Huber affair is the implication of Beech in another murder.
A probe has been started into the death of John C. Nelson, whose body was found along the Port Deposit railroad, near Cully's run, December 10, 1904. The officials have it is understood, acquired a confession or statement to that effect that Amos Beech told Hissed he had killed Nelson.
Nelson's body was badly mutilated when found by a track worker and is rumored at that time that he had met with foul play and his body was afterwards thrown on the railroad tracks to cover up the murder. Nelson, when seen a few hours before the dead body was found on the railroad tracks, had a large sum of money on his person and it was believed by many that this had been the motive that actuated someone to commit the murder. No direct evidence of murder could be secured and the verdict of the jury was that Nelson met death by being struck by a train.
HALLMAN BURIED
The funeral of Alfred Hallman was held, on Thursday morning at the home of Benjamin Hallman, the murdered man's son, who resides on the farm adjoining. The house was crowded with relatives and friends of the family and on the outside was a large crowd.
After the short services at the house the body was taken to the Pequea Dunkard church, a large concourse of relatives, friends and neighbors following. The services were held in the church at 10 o'clock and the officiating ministers were Revs. Amos Hess, Jacob Thomas and Noah Hess. The church was filled to its capacity while on the outside was a crowd equally as large as that inside. The pall-bearers were Jacob Harnish, Martin Hess, Henry Redcay and Amos Hess,
Lancaster Inquirer
Saturday, Feb. 6, 1909
Foul Murder Down in Martic Hills Stirs all People.
Aged Alfred Hallman Shot Dead in the Presence of Two Neighbors
Three Masked men, All Drunk
Came to Rob, They were Scared at Their Own Deed and Ran Away Without Booty.
WERE ARRESTED INSIDE OF TWO DAYS
Two Notorious Toughs, with Young Farm Laborer and a Well Known Hotel Keeper Are in Jail Now to Await a Hearing - The First Three Have Confessed and Will have Trial Very Shortly.
Locked up in jail, all three having confessed their share in the horrible crime of the murder of aged Alfred Hallman of Pequea township and the attempted murder of his neighbor, John Kreider, on Sunday evening, are three young men; and at the April term of court, it is extremely probably, a jury will decide upon the measure of each one's guilt and the penalty for his share in the crime. A fourth man is also in confinement, charged with being an accessory but denying that he had naught to do with it.
The three men are Walter Aston, who is to have done the shooting, 43 years old and married; his cousin, Benjamin Aston, 24 years old, and Paul Fornwalt, only 19. The Astons live in the neighborhood and are of bad reputation; Furnwalt's parents live in Lebanon county and he is employed by Mr. Altman, the tenant of the Steinman farm, in the same neighborhood. All were drunk, they say, at the time of the attempt at robbery which ended in murder. The Astons are suspected of being implicated in the burning of barns in and around Pequea township. The fourth man is Jacob Hinsey, hotelkeeper at Marticville.
Fornwalt was arrested on Tuesday morning about 36 hours after the shooting occurred. The arrest was made through a statement of Amos Beach, the first suspect arrested. He gave the officers clues that led to the arrest of Fornwalt. Walter Aston heard that Fornwalt was arrested and he called at the stationhouse to have a talk with him. He also was arrested and locked up,. Beach, innocent of this offense but frequently in other sorts of trouble, was released after he had told the story which brought such direct results. Forwalt told his story almost as soon as he was caught ; Walter Aston , after some denials, gave in when informed that Fornwalt had confessed; and Benjamin Aston, arrested last, confessed soon after he was landed in the station house in this city.
THE AWFUL DEED
How Alfred Hallman Came to Death Without a Minute's Warning.
This murder and attempted robbery now so fortunately cleared up through the arrest of Beach, to whom one of the principals had talked, was one of the most cruel, yet one of the most amateurish bungling and inexcusable crimes ever committed in Lancaster county. The three men who had set out to get old man Hallman's thousands, knowing, as all their neighbors did, that he had hoarded all his savings and made no bank deposits since the failure of the City Trust Company some years ago, went to the home on Sunday evening. Mr. Hallman was 68 years old, his wife is 73. Their small, weather-beaten, unpainted house, on a 6 acre tract, stands squarely up to the fence-line on a lonely road from York Furnace to Run Valley, about six miles from Millersville. The deceived tramps and others who cupidity might be aroused, the front and side windows, in view from the road, were tightly boarded up. The only entrance to the tumble-down, roughly-boarded cabin is from the rear, the approach to the door being through a chicken yard and between a wagon-shed, a woodshed and pig sty. Inside are two rooms, sparse of furniture, bare of floor and filled with a little old farm wreckage, including a dilapidated wood-stove.
Everywhere in two townships neighbors and acquaintances of the old pair knew that the cabin was a mine of hidden riches. Farmers were in the habit of coming to Hallman to borrow money, $50. to $100. at a time. When they came the old man, in their presence, would search books, cupboards, old pitchers and tin cans until he got together the required sum.
Lately Mrs. Hallman has been failing rapidly, being confined to her bed most of the time. On Sunday evening Mrs. Angeline Cramer, herself 49 years old, went to the cabin to sit up with the invalid John Kreider, another neighbor, called to talk religion with old Mr. Hallman, who a month ago, professed religion for the first time in his life and joined the Mennonites. Kreider had his hand on the old man's shoulder and was prayfully conversing with him while Mrs. Cramer looked on.
Suddenly a tall man pushed open the door and quickly walked into the room. Another shorter man was just behind, at the doorsill. Both wore white masks.
Evidently, the tall man was terribly taken aback at what he saw. Possibly knowing that Mrs. Hallman an was sick in the bedroom, he had expected to find Hallman, who is decrepit as well as old, alone in the sitting room.
Anyway, the masked robber stopped short, threw forward the hand he had held behind his back and began firing. The first shot struck Mr. Hallman and went through his neck, killing him almost instantly. The second bullet missed Mrs. Cramer's head only a few inches and buried itself in the wall. The third shot struck Kreider as he was running across the floor, penetrating his shoulder to the one and then dodging upward and lodging in the muscles of the neck, where the doctors have not been able to find it.
While shooting rapidly, the tall masked man, apparently in a frenzy of fright himself, shouted:
"Your money or your life."
But by this time Mrs. Cramer and Kreider had escaped into the sick room and slammed the door. The robbers, finding themselves alone, tumbled helter-skelter out of the shanty and fled.
"I was so scared I hardly knew what I did, " said Mrs. Cramer, "but I jumped at the first shot, ran into the bedroom, slammed the door after me, and then crawled under the bed. I cried out to Mrs. Hallman in bed. "They want money, They're after money:"
"She yelled, "get that kettle; give them that.: I knew where the kettle was on the bureau even in the dark, and I was about to rush out with it to the thieves when Mr. Kreider hammered open the door and tumbled into the room. We were frantic and tried to get out through the bedroom window, but it was tightly fastened. Finally, we heard no noise in the sitting room and ventured out together. The masked men were not in sight; they had run away.
"Then Mr. Kreider and I rushed over the road, over the fences and across the field to my house. I fell down four times getting across the field, I was so scared. When we got in the light in our house Mr. Kreider discovered, for the first time, that he was covered with blood and had been wounded.
The would-be robbers ran away no richer for their terrible crime, but the money was right where they had expected to find it. Out of the old house, next day, the relatives took two telescopes willed with money. These valises were so heavy that one man could scarcely carry them along the road. The small coins alone filled a peck measure. The dates on the coins ran back to 1824. The hoard was counted when deposited in a Lancaster bank, the total being $1987, and $300 more was found later.
With surprising ingenuity the two old persons, had hidden away the money in every sock and corner of the shanty. Bills were laid between the leaves of the Bible and all other books. Other banknotes were wrapped in papers, and these like packages tined in bundles. Every dish, drawer, glass and crock produced wealth.
More than $80. in coin was hidden in a clock with wooden works, and yet the old timepiece managed to keep ticking off the hours and the days, the weeks and the years of the hoarding.
The county commissioners promptly offered a regard of $500 for the apprehension of the criminals.
QUICKLY CAUGHT
Police Made Very Short Work of Landing the Criminals
In less than 48hours after the commission of the crime, its authors were in the hands of police.
The men under arrest are "Tot" Aston, 24 years old, of "Horse Hollow" near Marticville, Ben Aston, "Tot's" cousin, who has lived on the Pequea near the "old burnt mill," and Paul Fornwalt, a German farm laborer, who has been working on the Steinman place, east of Marticville.
While the police deserve the greatest credit, the quick solution of the mystery of the murder was due to another blunder of the young greenhorn robber, who began shooting in the Hallman house before he thought of demanding money.
"Tot" Aston, whose real name is Walter, is a son of Amos Aston, the trusted night watchman at the plant of the Standard Iron Mining and Furnace Company, on the Pequea near Marticville. This is the mine that under another name was used by Alfred Segal in the manipulations that led to the suicide of Frank K. Hipple, in Philadelphia.
Young Aston ran home after the murder, arriving soon after church was over, so that the suspicions of his parents were allayed. The family is respectable: the mother, a Christian woman; the father a worthy citizen'; their home a comfortable one.
But all day Monday, "Tot" Aston was terrible excised and worried He did not know that his shooting in the Hallman shanty had caused the death of old Mr. Hallman until the backer came along the road at 11 o'clock in the morning and told he news. Then the amateur highwayman got into such a feverish condition of mind that even strangers he met along the road noticed his nervousness and trepidation.. It was this that gave the police a first "tip:.
Monday night it was rumored around Marticville that Fred Fornwalt had been arrested and taken to Lancaster as a "suspect". This was all a mistake. Formwalt had not been arrested. All that had happened was a visit paid to Fornwalt by a constable and a policeman from Lancaster.
Somebody had told of "Tot" Aston's strange actions, and later the police had learned that Sunday evening "Tot" Aston and Paul Formwalt had been seen walking along a country road together. This led the owners of the law to quiz Fornwalt, who gave evasive answers, and to some extent strengthened their suspicions.
But, believing that Fornwalt actually had been taken into custody, "Tot" Aston said to his father:
"It is an outrage for these constables to arrest Paul. I know myself that his is innocent, for I was with him Sunday afternoon. He and I went over to see Ben Aston together, and were there all the time, I was playing the fiddle. Then Paul and I came over here together and got here by 8:20. Did you ever hear of such an outrage ? I just think I'll go to town and get him out of jail by telling the police this."
Both the father and mother of young Aston readily fell in with the plan, which they then considered a very wise one.
"Perhaps you'll have to bail him out," said the elder Aston, "so I think you had better take some money along and see a lawyer. Have the attorney help you out."
Money is not exactly easy in the Aston house, but so great was the sympathy of "Tot's" father for young Fornwalt wrongly accused, that $14. was given over to the son when he started for town.
"Tot Aston went in on the trolley car and acted queerly, entering by the door opposite the one used by the rest of the passengers and holding his head down on his hands. Even the conductor noticed the boy's odd conduct and later reported it - not knowing that Aston was then in a cell - as rather "suspicious."
Arriving in Lancaster, "Tot" went to the office of Attorney Malone, who sent his associate, Mr. Burkholder, to the police station with him, the object being to get young Fornwait released.
"Tot" Aston spoke first to Lieutenant Erisman, who knew that a chap named Aston was "wanted".
"Did you say your name is Aston ? " "Yes," admitted "Tot".
"Are you the Aston boy that lives in Horse Hallow ?"
"That's the one," he answered, trembling.
"Very well: come with me."
Sergeant Frinid led the way down stairs to the cell room, opened a door, and quickly, lest he should have a fight on his hands, shoved Aston into the little, barred room and locked the door.
"What are you doing ?" demanded "Tot".
"Oh, you'll find out, " said the police sergeant, smiling.
Suddenly "Tot" realized that his ruse had failed. Tears overflowed his eyes and trickled down his face in little rivulets. But he chocked back the sobs, and with infinite effort put on a brave face. But the sergeant had been watching, and immediately leaped to the conclusion that he had locked up the right person.
No sooner had the sergeant returned to his desk than he was called over the telephone by Chief of Police Walter G. Bushong, who, with Patrolman John A. Huber was in Marticville working on the murder case.
"If that Aston boy comes to Lancaster, " telephoned the chief, " you can get all the men on the force, if you have to, and catch him. We have just learned more about him, and he's the fellow we want."
"All right, chief, we've got him, " said the sergeant, merrily.
So great was the excitement at the other end of the wire that it sounded like ten men talking at once.
"Good, good, you hold him there, hold sure, I'll be right there. I want to congratulate you fellows, " the delighted chief of police telephoned.
What was more to the purpose, the chief telephoned that Paul Fornwalt, who was known to have been with "Tot" Aston Sunday night - the night of the murder - was on his way to Lancaster with a load of hay from the Steinman farm, where he works.
So the men who might have been out after young Aston, but for the amateur robber's error, were rushed out of the station to find Fornwalt. In fifteen minutes he was dragged off the top of the load of hay at a livery stable in Lancaster where he was at work pitching the hay into a mow.
Formal was worse frightened even than was "Tot" Aston. Immediately upon his arrest he said to the patrolman who took him in custody:
"Yes, I was at that Hallman house, but honest, I didn't any of the shooting. I am telling the truth, I am."
Half an hour afterwards Formal had signed his statement of the circumstances of the murder, answering questions that shaped up the story substantially as follows:
I came to this county from near Palmyra last September, and was engaged at farm labor several miles from the scene of the murder. About a week before the murder, Walter and Ben Aston met me along the road, and asked whether I wouldn't like to help pull of job to get some money. I agreed but was not appraised of the fact of how it was to be done.
The arrangement was to meet at the home of Ben Aston on Sunday evening. I left my place work early on Sunday evening and went to Ben Aston's home, and was later joined by Walter Aston, who played the fiddle for a while, after which we proceeded to the Hallman house to pull off the job.
The Astons provided the masks, which were handkerchiefs, and they wore white masks, while I wore a dark one. I knew we were going to rob the place, and when I inquired how it was to be done, Walter said, "leave that to me."
I didn't know that the Astons were armed, and we drew near the place we put on the masks. Walter Aston took out his revolver and Ben Aston coupled together a shotgun which he had concealed under his coat. Walter proceeded to the door, revolver in hand, and opened the door. I followed, Ben being behind me.
When Walter opened the door and had only a got a few feet inside, without a word he started shooting. I had one foot in the doorway, when I became frightened, and, Walter, came rushing back. I scarcely know what happened, except that we ran across fields and roads to a point where Ben left us to go to his home, and Walter and I proceeded on toward Walter's home.
On parting Walter gave me the revolver and told me to keep it and hide it, and said that if he had killed anybody down at that place, and I said a word about he would kill me.
I took the revolver to the place where I was employed and hid it and have told the police where they can find it.
After getting this confession, the police make a quick trip to Marticville and found Ben Aston, who was at work in an icehouse. They then went to the stable on the Steinman place and recovered the revolver used in the murder. It was hidden just where Fornwalt said he had put it. This weapon was given to Formal to hid by "Tot" Aston at the covered bridge, near "Horse Hollow"
The third man arrested, Ben Aston, is regarded as the ringleader in the murder plot. This member of the trio of amateur robbers is a cousin of "Tot's" who lives in a cabin three miles from the Hallman farm, near what is locally known as "the old burnt mill."
Ben Aston's arrest was really the news of the day, for the whole country had supposed the murder was a "two-man job." But young Formal told of the third man who stood outside the house as "lookout," this being Ben Aston. The third man was not seen by any of the persons in the dilapidated old house or by any one along the road.
When the older Aston was arrested and taken to his home he made a great show of bravado, but later he confessed. It was then that his wife, with her 6-year old boy clasped to her arms and tears pouring down her face, told police that she herself burned the three handkerchief masks used by the men. Soon after he was brought to the station house he made a confession; and an hour or two later, when Walter Aston (the man who did the shooting) was told that the others had admitted, trembling in every truth and white as death, he finally admitted that he was lying when he denied that he was one of the party that was at the Hallman house on Sunday night.
For years Ben Aston has been a neighborhood terror. In his youth he drank very hard and was dissolute. Several years ago he married and settled down into a ne'er-do well. With his wife he took her first child, now 16 years old, a boy, who gores under the name of Charlie Morrison. The father, Will Morrison, fled the locality before the child was born, rather than marry and accept the obligations of a parent, and since then he never has been heard from.
In his detailed confession Ben Aston said Walter Aston and Fornwalt came to his house early Sunday evening, and all drank whiskey. At 8 o'clock they started for Hallman's. There Walter did the shooting. All ran away afterwards, and he was so drunk he doesn't know how he got home, nor does he remember taking the masks along.
A FOURTH MAN IMPLICATED
Walter Aston's Confession Pulls Jacob Hinsey into the Business
Walter Aston, making a full confession on Wednesday, implicated Jacob Hinsey, the Marticville hotel keeper, who, he says, planned the robbery of the old farmer, and also implicates Hinsey and Amos Beach, the first suspect arrested, in the holdup, shooting and robbing of John Huber, an aged resident of the same neighborhood.
The story of Walter Aston, told under oath, was that a few Sundays ago he and Paul Fornwalt were at Ben Aston's house. Ben told him where there was a lot of money, and said it would be a "cinch" to get it. Ben mentioned Hallman's house as the place, , and said there was a big lot of money there, and it was secreted between the leaves of the Bible and in out-of-the-way places.
An agreement was then made between Formal, Ben Aston and himself to rob the house, and arrangements were made. The fixed different dates but something prevented until last Sunday night. The three of them told Jacob Hinsey, the hotel keeper, of their plans, and he knew when it was to be done, and was to share in the plunder, so Aston said. On the Friday before the murder Aston went to Hinsey's hotel and borrowed his revolver, and Hinsey knew why the revolver was borrowed. On Sunday morning Aston was in the company of Amos Beach, and in the afternoon he was at Hinsey's hotel. Hinsey asked him about the job, referring to the intended robbery of Hallman, and said it was a favorable night for an affair of that kind, as it was clear and windy, and no one would hear them. Hinsey asked him if he wanted some whiskey, and he answered "Yes." Hinsey gave him a pint and a bottle of beer. The three then met at Ben Aston's, drank the pint of whisky and sent to Hinsey's for more, which was drank.
At 7 o'clock the three started for Hallman's home, intending only to rob the old man. He had Hiney's revolver, Ben had a gun and Fornwalt was not armed. He and Ben put on masks made by Ben and Fornwalt tied a handkerchief over his face.
His story from that point agrees with Formats, that he did the shooting, with Fornwalt right behind him and Ben on guard on the outside with his shotgun.
He said the shooting was not intended, but when he saw the two visitors in the house he lost his head, and "unconsciously" sot. The three will probably save the county the expense of a trial and allow the cot to fix the degree of murder.
Hinsey was arrested on Wednesday. He recently lost heavily in gambling in this city, and his wife brought suit against some of the men to whom he lost. He denies he was an accomplice, and declares the revolver was stolen from him. Aston in his confession said Hinsey stayed at home on the night of the Huber robbery so that in case they were caught he could prove he was home playing cards.
The Huber outrage was perpetrated last fall, but the victims kept quiet about it fearing their buildings would be burned if they made it public.
October 13th was the date. The Hubers live near Byerland. Everybody knew that they distrusted banks and hid money about the home. About $2000 was concealed on the place when the attack was made. Next day it was deposited in a Lancaster safety deposit box.
Amos, 57 years old, Susan, 63, and Mary, 71, brother and sisters, were talking together in a washhouse when a long and a short man, both masked, marched in, stood by the wall and aimed revolvers at the Hubers.
Instantly, fright seized both the attacking force and those attacked. The man and the two women screamed and made for different doors. The robbers struck out wildly and the revolvers, but the women got away and commenced screaming outside. Then the thieves ran cross lots not stopping to search for money.
In the morning the three Hubers were in bed with bandages all over their heads.
According to Aston's story Amos Huber grappled with Beach and Walter Aston knocked the old man down with his revolver, the blow breaking the weapon. One of the sisters was roughly used, but the other escaped, and it was this that cause the gang to beat a hasty retreat. John Huber, another brother, was upstairs at the time, sick.
DID BEECH Kill NELSON!
The First Suspect Arrested is Accused of Another Murder
The latest development in connection with the arrest of the Astons, Formal and Hinsey for the Hallman murder and of Amos Beech for the Huber affair is the implication of Beech in another murder.
A probe has been started into the death of John C. Nelson, whose body was found along the Port Deposit railroad, near Cully's run, December 10, 1904. The officials have it is understood, acquired a confession or statement to that effect that Amos Beech told Hissed he had killed Nelson.
Nelson's body was badly mutilated when found by a track worker and is rumored at that time that he had met with foul play and his body was afterwards thrown on the railroad tracks to cover up the murder. Nelson, when seen a few hours before the dead body was found on the railroad tracks, had a large sum of money on his person and it was believed by many that this had been the motive that actuated someone to commit the murder. No direct evidence of murder could be secured and the verdict of the jury was that Nelson met death by being struck by a train.
HALLMAN BURIED
The funeral of Alfred Hallman was held, on Thursday morning at the home of Benjamin Hallman, the murdered man's son, who resides on the farm adjoining. The house was crowded with relatives and friends of the family and on the outside was a large crowd.
After the short services at the house the body was taken to the Pequea Dunkard church, a large concourse of relatives, friends and neighbors following. The services were held in the church at 10 o'clock and the officiating ministers were Revs. Amos Hess, Jacob Thomas and Noah Hess. The church was filled to its capacity while on the outside was a crowd equally as large as that inside. The pall-bearers were Jacob Harnish, Martin Hess, Henry Redcay and Amos Hess,
