PODCAST -- CRIME TRAVEL in TOLEDO, OHIO -- TIME POINTS OUT A GUILTY MAN (Ep 19)
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EP 19 TIME POINTS OUT A GUILTY MAN
A 37-YEAR COLD CASE MURDER
News Herald - Port Clinton, Ohio Friday, 16 APR 1875 - Page 1
Transcription:
TIME POINTS OUT A GUILTY MAN
Murder of John Hopfinger of Bay Township, in 1837
J. HOLCOMB THE GUILTY MAN
He holds the vile deed a secret for thirty-eight years and confesses on his death-bed at the age of eighty.
– Strong suspicion and arrest of other parties - they are acquitted but yet suspicioned.
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John Hopfinger, brother of Michael, Charley, and Jacob Hopfinger, of Bay Township, mysteriously disappeared in the year 1837. He was a single man and at the time of his disappearance was making his home with a farmer named THORNE. He lived in Bay Township, but had some horses and colts in Sandusky County, Ohio and went there to look after his property. The last heard of him he had stopped at Mr. Thorne’s from which place no trace of him could be found. Suspicion at once rested up THORNE and his sons, as it was thought they had committed the vile deed. They were arrested, tried and acquitted for want of evidence. That did not satisfy the public and Judge Lynch was threatened to be called in to decide. So strong was the belief that the Thornes had committed the murder, that ropes were placed around the necks of the younger members of the family to extort a confession. Twelve years ago old man Thorne died, but suspicion followed him to his grave. The murder still lay wrapped in silent mystery and no tangible traces of the vile wretch who committed it were seen, until two weeks ago, J. Holcomb, of Riley Township, Sandusky County, confessed on his death-bed that he committed the dark deed of which the Thorne family was accused.
Mr. Holcomb who had been sick for about a year with the dropsy; and, believing that a confession was necessary to his death, he made it. He said that it seemed as though he could not die in peace except he made a confession and the long mystery of the disappearance of John Hopfinger was made plain. No suspicion whatever had ever rested upon Holcomb, and he was the last man to be suspected of such a deed. He was a man worth considerable property, the father of a large and respected family extensively known by the early settlers of Sandusky county, and was eighty years old when he died. Thirty-eight years this man kept his own council and kept this vile murder from every one save HIM who rules the universe. Thirty-eight years a villain though suspicioned. Thirty-eight years a respected citizen but a vile murderer! Can human wickedness to farther?
The Fremont Weekly Journal | 23 Apr 1872, Friday, Page 8
Transcription:
A SERIOUS AND OUTRAGEOUS MISTAKE, INEXCUSABLE HASTE IN JOURNALISM
We know what it is to get track of an item and hunt it down. But many times when hunted down, it proves utterly worthless, and we have our labor for our pains. Nevertheless, we prefer such a result, to publishing idle, sensational rumors, involving the characters of individuals, rather than give them as they come to us clothes in the glaring colors of rumor.
Such was the case with us last week. But such does not appear to have been the case with the Port Clinton papers. The same report reached us which reached them, in regard to a reported confession of a murder committed 37 years ago. The character of the individual who was reported to have made the confession, was too well established in this community to entitle the report to any credence, and the more we sought for any reliable data, the more we could not find any. But we did meet with a flat denial that any such confession had been made. All there is of it so far as we have been able to trace the matter is, that some man who had been overcome with liquor, to such an extent that when he became sober her could not remember any thing he had said while under the influence of liquor, had told it to some one else, until it assumed the character that Mr. Holcomb, on his death bed had confessed to the murder of a man named Hopfinger, 37 years ago, and buried his body in the swamp. The Port Clinton papers accepting these rumors as facts, published them as truths, thus violently assailing the character of a man otherwise above reproach. A relative of the man murdered 37 years ago, and who lives in the neighborhood of Port Clinton, hearing of these rumors came into this neighborhood last week, to investigate them, but we learn that he returned home on Saturday without any information to verify the rumors.
While upon the subject we will add that 37 years ago there was a mysterious disappearance of a man named Hopfinger, under circumstances that indicated foul play, and a man named DANIEL THORN, with whom he was known to have stopped was arrested on suspicion of ensuing his disappearance. He was tried and acquitted, sufficient evidence not having been adduced to prove his guilt. Notwithstanding his acquittal, public opinion condemned him, and he came near being lynched. About then years ago Thorn died, but made no sign to indicate his connection with Hopfinger’s mysterious disappearance. The rumor started as to the reported confession of H. at once fixed upon him the murder of Hopfinger, and the wind carried it everywhere, but not everywhere did those hearing it stop to dissect it before giving it further publicity. But few men who have attained the age of Mr. H., have been as universally respected and admired for his many good qualities as Mr. Holcomb, and it seems a grievous wrong that such a rumor should become current, at a time when he is lying upon a bed of sickness which may terminate in death.
Since the above was written we hear that Mr. H. is recovering. He may make it lively for those Port Clinton boys.
FURTHER DENIAL.
The Sandusky Register, it appears repeats the story of the Port Clinton papers, and adds that it had sent a reporter who had confirmed the stories, but it further adds that since the confession Mr. Holcomb is recovering and now denies the story. We opine that the Register’s reporter only went so far as to confirm the fact that such stories were in circulation, but did not try to sift the truth of the same or reach their origin. Now the fact is, the story has been traced back to the individual from whom it was said to have started, and he has denied that he ever said so. Still further, the confession was said to have been made to REV. Dr. Bushnell, of this place, while the fact is Rev. Bushnell has never been at Mr. Holcomb’s residence either before or since the reported confession.
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Transcription:
MURDER WILL OUT.
Muscatine Weekly Journal 30 Apr 1875 (Fri) Page 1
Event happened in 1838
Toledo, Ohio - April 19 - A startling revelation comes from near the County of Ottawa. Thirty-Seven years ago John HOPFINGER, a well-to-do farmer living near the SENECA COUNTY line, turned up missing under these circumstances. He had a nephew, a middle-aged man then. The uncle boarded with a man named DANIEL THORN at the time of the disappearance, who was suspected of the murder, in consequence of which, although professing innocence, he was forced to leave the country. A newly-filled well was found on his farm, but nothing was found in it, and the matter was dropped. Meanwhile, Andrew, the nephew, has grown to be an old man 83 years old. On Saturday, he found himself on his death-bed. Calling his friends around him he confessed to his uncle’s murder, and sinking the body in the marsh. The affair creates great excitement in the locality.
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