"The Chincoteague Tragedy" Part 5 - The End of News Coverage

 On Saturday, June 27, 1885, the local county newspaper, The Peninsula Enterprise, produced the local report of Jennie Hill's murder and Tom Freeman's suicide from Accomac (which was known as Drummondtown until 1892).  That article is in my first installation of this blog about  the Hill family tragedy.

   On that same Saturday, The Inquirer of Lancaster Pennsylvania, ran the article first printed on 22 June in The Atlanta Constitution, with a different headline, sub-headline, and their own final paragraph tacked on.

 This is the article that tells of how Timothy Hill found the boy "William T. Freeman" on Broadway in New York, and took him to the island 12 (which this paper changes to 10) years ago.  How Jennie and "Bill" grew up together, and Jennie was sent off to school, returning at the age of 18, etc.  The new headline for the Lancaster paper's front page was:  "A CRAZED LOVER"S CRIME.  -  A Former Street Gamin of New York Shooting His Benefactor's Daughter, Her Mother, and Then Himself. "  The new final paragraph, after stating all three deceased were buried Sunday, is:  "Nearly all of the 200 islanders that crowd Chincoteague's scant 7000 acres turned out to attend the funeral.  The murdered girl was clad for the grave in white satin, even to the slippers on her feet, and in her white gloved hands, clasped peacefully across her breast, was a simple fragrant bunch of white flowers."

   Thursday, July 2nd, saw The Ogden Daily of Ogden City, Utah repeat, almost verbatim, the same article from the Atlanta newspaper, with the main headline on page one reading, "A Crazed Lover's Crime" in all caps, but with the sub-head reading: "Triple Tragedy on Chincoteague Island, Maryland."  The body of the article was the same as the Atlanta newspaper.

The Timothy Hill gravestone reads:

In Memory of

Timothy Hill.

Born  Apr. 14, 1826.

Died  June 30, 1900.

Aged 74 yrs 3 mos

& 16 days.

Whilst in the tomb our father lies,

His spirit rest above

in realms of bliss it never dies,

But knows a Saviour's love.

   Saturday, July 11th, saw the beginning of the European reporting about the murder-suicide on Chincoteague.  It was eventually reported in two countries that make up the English Isle: England and Scotland.  Five newspapers printed various articles on the 11th.  The Derby Daily Telegraph of Derby, Derbyshire, England, printed, on page 3, column 1:

   "TRAGIC ENDING OF A LOVE SUIT.

A Franklin City (U.S.) dispatch says:  -  All Chincoteague Island is agog with excitement over the shooting of Mrs. Sarah Hill and Miss Jennie Hill, wife and daughter of Mr. Timothy Hill, by William T. Freeman, who then blew his own brains out.  Freeman was a New York newsboy, whom Mr. Hill adopted 10 r 12 years ago.  He became strongly attached to Miss Jennie Hill about a year ago, and made a proposal of marriage.  The girl rejected the proffer, as she did not consider Freeman her equal, although he had been her constant companion for several years during their youth.  She was remarkably pretty and seems to have been a great favorite all over the island.  On Thursday Freeman again proposed to her in the presence of her mother.  She refused his offer, and then the infuriated lover drew his pistol and commenced firing.  Each woman received two bullets in the head.  Mrs. Hill was first wounded, while grappling with the murderer, who held her at arm's length, and shot her squarely in the forehead.  When the son of Mr. Hill commenced to run to the scene Freeman turned the pistol on himself, and blew his brains out, his corpse falling across Miss Jennie's prostrate body.  The girl was highly educated, having graduated from a school in Baltimore about a year ago."

   The same day saw the above article printed in: The North-Eastern Daily Gazette of Middlesbrough, Cleveland, England; The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England; The Manchester Evening News of Manchester, Greater Manchester, England; and The Leeds Mercury of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.

   "The Tragic Ending Of A Love Suit" article was reprinted  between July 13th and 22nd in eight newspaper editions:  twice, on July 13 and 14, in The Courier and Argus of Dundee, Tayside, Scotland; in The Aberdeen Journal and General Advertiser for the North of Scotland of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland (a daily paper); in The Western Daily Press of Bristol, Avon, England; The Western Gazette of Yeovil, Somerset, England; The Aberdeen Weekly Journal and General Advertiser for the North of Scotland of Aberdeen, Scotland (the weekly newspaper); The East Kent Gazette of Sittingbourne, Kent, England; and The Taunton Courier of Taunton, Somerset, England.

    And then the news coverage, both factual and un-true, of the death of 13-year-old Emma Virginia "Jennie" Hill ended.  - Until it was reported midway in an article titled "Life on Chincoteague" in The New York Sun, written by John R. Spears.  It reads:

"...  During the summer of 1885 William Freeman, a young man of 25, was employed on the farm of Timothy Hill, formerly a Cape Cod man and probably the wealthiest man on the island.  Freeman fell in love with Jennie, the 13 year old daughter of his employer.  Jennie did not discourage his suit, but when the old folks learned of it, they shut off his sentiment harshly.  Freeman grieved over this day and night, but was not the sort of a fellow to carry his sweetheart into a flying bateau some windy night and sail for the mainland and a parson, as many a better man has done, but he grew desperate and finally went hunting Bill Bunting, of whom he was jealous, without cause.  Failing to find him, he went to the home of the girl next day, and found her there with her mother.  He carried a gun and a revolver and without parley opened fire.  Both women ran out of doors with Freeman after them firing as he ran.  The girl fell dead and the mother received two bullets in her body.

   At that a brother of the girl's came running from the neighbors.  Seeing him coming, Freeman put the revolver to his head and blew his life out with the last cartridge in the pistol.  The mother recovered.  ..."

    Once again, this article was poorly researched.  Jennie was 13, but Tom Freeman was 20, not 25.  Tom was born "William Thomas Freeman," but was known as Tom Freeman.   Jennie's grandfather was Timothy Hill, Sr., who was shipwrecked near Chincoteague.  Records claim he was a New Englander from Bangor, Maine, but in the 1850 Census he stated he was born in New York.  Timothy Hill, Sr. died in June of 1859; and it was at his behest that the Captain Timothy Hill House was built.  (In 1885, the small cabin was known as the summer kitchen, and it was there that Tom Freeman's body was examined and made ready for burial.)

   One earlier article claimed that when Tom was shooting both Jennie and her mother, he was holding a shotgun in his right hand.  I don't know if Tom was left- or right-handed; but most articles also say that he held Zipporah Hill "at arm's length" when he shot her in the forehead.  How could he hold a shotgun and a woman "at arm's length" with one hand and shoot a revolver with the other?  A lot of the articles state conflicting "facts" - probably because they were not facts...