MURDER AND ROBBERY
source date: 1891
availability: public-domain

MURDER AND ROBBERY On the evening of the 28th ult., Mr. Frank Sperling, a prominent merchant of Magdalena, was brutally murdered. He had discharged a Mexican whom he had caught stealing. When Mr. Sperling was discovered he was laying out- side the railing of his desk, with his throat cut from ear to ear, in fact his head nearly cut off, the back part of his head crushed in by a heavy blow ; a knife-cut in the mouth and three of his teeth laying by his dead body. He had evidently been caught by the wrist and had a student’s lamp in his hand, as the flesh on his wrist was torn off in his evident struggle to get away. The lamp was broken and water had been thrown on it to put it out. The store was robbed and his watch taken. From the store, tracks were followed to the Mexican’s house, where boots and clothing covered with blood were found, The Mexicans were arrested and are now in the hands of the officers.