CONFESSION
OF
JOHN EARLS,
WHO WAS EXECUTED AT WILLIAMSPORT, TUNICA, MAT 24, 1836
FOR THE MURDER OF HIS WIFE BY POISON
{Published for the benefit of his orphan children.}
Made the twenty-first day of May, A. D. 1836, in relation to the murder of his late wife, Catharine [Thomas] Earls
" I was born near Williamsport, in Loyalsock township, Lycoming county, and to the best of my knowledge I was thirty-four years of age upon the sixteenth day of March, 1836.
I was married to Ann Jackson, in the month of June 1820, at Harrisburg, by the Rev. Mr. Lochman — we lived together about two months, in Fishing creek valley, in Perry county, Pennsylvania; we then separated.
I was under a contract to marry my late wife, Catharine Earls, before my marriage with Ann Jackson, and the agreement was interrupted and broken, on account of the opposition of my mother and one of my sisters. 1 was married to Ann Jackson during this interruption of the agreement. The
marriage with her was made inconsiderately, and was consummated while I was attending a Fair at Harrishurg,
After I had separated from my first wife, I renewed my intimacy with Catharine Thomas, and married her in the spring of 1821. We moved to Milton, in Northumberland county, about harvest time of that year; we never lived happily together. I continued to live in Milton, for thirteen years.
In March 1834, I moved with my family to the Muncy dam. I always followed the business of a boat man, waterman and fisherman.
Shortly after I settled there, I became acquainted with a young woman of that neighborhood, named .Maria Moritz. This acquaintance grew into an improper intercourse between her and me — and I became passionately attached to her. On this account I began to meditate the destruction of my
late wife. We lived very unhappily together, on account of my intimacy with Maria Moritz. I had it in view for several months before her death, to get clear of the encumbrance of my marriage with her, by taking her life. With these wicked and murderous intentions I purchased white arsenic of Mr. Sheffley, of Lewisburg, in Union county, in the month of August 1835; 1 told him I wanted it to destroy rats. I put a small part of this arsenic in an apple ; by cutting the skin and putting it in the apple with a knife. My wife ate the apple, and soon became sick and vomited. She recovered shortly afterwards. She took it in the evening — and appeared to be well next day. I abandoned the design of taking her life in that way, and was alarmed at the reflection upon the subject.
Subsequently the design to do this cruel and wicked act was again considered and cherished by me. I bought another small quantity of" arsenic of John S. Carter, a druggist in Northumberland; I told Mr. Carter that I wanted to use it to destroy minks and muskrats, in my business as a fisherman. I purchased this also with an intention to give it to my wife. I put a small quantity of it in a tumbler of sweet cider, which had been recently brought home. This was two or three weeks before her confinement, in the evening; in about half an hour, perhaps longer, she became sick — she
vomited a good deal— she seemed well enough the next day. Some of the
arsenic 1 lost by carrying it in my pockets.
I continued to meditate the taking of the life of my poor Wife in order that I might indulge my attachment to Maria Moritz. Upon the day of the general election, in October 1835, 1 purchased white arsenic again of Bruner & Dawson in Muncy. I am not certain what I paid for it, but I rather think
it was 12 1/2 cents. I used some of this by putting it in a fish at the fish basket in the afternoon of the day in which my wife took the rest, as stated by my little son Samuel in his testimony upon my trial — his statement is correct. After I came home, my mother was preparing a supper for my
wife — she poured out a bowl full of chocolate for that purpose and placed it on the stove. I ate my supper with my children, and then while my mother was getting readv to take the supper up stairs to mv wife, I PUT THE ARSENIC INTO THE CHOCOLATE AS IT STOOD UPON THE
STOVE. I took the candle and lighted my mother up stairs with the supper so prepared by myself, to take the life of my unsuspecting wife. I sat upon a chair by her, at the foot of the bed on which she lay, while she ate the poisoned supper of chocolate. The statements of Miss Sechler and of my daughter Mary Ann, in their respective evidence upon my trial, are correct as nearly as I can recollect.
When my wife became sick, and began to vomit from the effect of the arsenic, which she had taken in the chocolate, mint tea was prepared for her by my daughter Mary Ann and myself; I PUT ARSENIC IN THE TEA ; it was so put in that my daughter did not know of it. My wife tasted it, and said it was bitter. Mv mother and I then made another cup of the same kind of tea for my wife ; I ALSO PUT ARSENIC IN THAT, but it was so done as that my mother did not know it. She tasted that
also, and said it was just like the other. The testimony of the witnesses, as to her sickness and death, is correct so far as I know the facts. I went for our neighbor, Mrs. Callahan, as quickly as I could, because I began to be alarmed at the consequences of the act I had done.
The mint tea, which Mrs. Sechler in her testimony stated was upset at the fire, and which she saw running towards her on the floor, VMS intentionally upset by me, but was so done as to have the appearance of accident ; she was right in her suspicions in relation to that matter.
I had kept myself partly intoxicated for some months before I committed this worst of all the bad act of my life, being infatuated by my attachment to Maria Moritz.
My poor old mother ha? been suspected to have been a party in this horrid and cruel murder. I here state, as a duty I owe to the world, to my mother, and to my Creator* that she was entirely innocent and ignorant of the act; 1 have stated that my mother advised me to drown my deceased wife. This she never did do ; I made the statement to my late counsel and other persons, hoping that suspicion might rest upon her, and that the public would consider me innocent. On one occasion my mother said to me if Catharine Was out of the way I might get Maria Moritz..
No human being was concerned with me in concocting, contriving, or executing this cruel deed ; and the only exciting motive that urged me to take the life of my wife, was the unhallowed and ill-fated attachment I had formed for Maria. Although frequent domestic quarrels arose between my wife and myself, yet those for nearly two years past were in consequence of the
attention which I devoted to Maria Moritz.
Before we removed from" Milton to Muncy dam, and after we removed there, my wife as occasionally intoxicated, which formed another source of our domestic unhappiness. I have, in some of our quarrels, struck my wife with my hand, and injuriously beaten her ; but I did not knock her down and draw her over the door of the stove rake, as testified to by Susan M'Callaster on my trial: she was mistaken in that statement.
My affection for Maria Moritz was far greater than for any other woman
I ever saw; when absent from her I was extremely miserable. This attachment, for many months previous to the death of my wife, disturbed all tranquility of mind, and drove me almost to madness; it tormented me by day, and made me sleepless at night.
It was the desire of enjoying the society of Maria Moritz, and of marrying her, that induced me thus wickedly and feloniously to take the life of my wife at the time I did ; and her confinement seemed to me to be the favored hour of destroying her witheut suspicion.
I often proposed to Maria that we should elope together from this country, and that I would then marry her ; but she refused to leave the neighborhood where she then resided, and I became satisfied I could not marry her so long as my wife was alive ; and while in this unfortunate state of mind, I
conceived the horrid idea of taking her life by poison" JOHN X EARLS.
At the sound of the 3'oclock bell that was to signal the sheriff to drop him he grabbed the post and had to be forced to let go. He was buried at the prison but disinterred the same day to be dissected.
The Sunbury Advocate ran a 4 page edition on March 5 1836, printing the trial testimony word for word.
