Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 13 · column 1 of 8 · from the scan, no model involved
By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON Ripp«hanno<-li Vw. Suff Writer
“Nothing has ever occurred in the county creating so deep an interest.”
An anonymous member of the Rappahannock Bar wrote those words in 1859 to describe the trial of James H. Johnson. One hundred and twenty-three years later, that unidentified lawyer’s description still holds true. Nothing has happened in Rappahannock before or since to match the drama, suspense and horror of the story that unfolded at the March term of Circuit Court over a century ago.
It has all the elements of the sensational novels that soar to the top of today’s best seller lists: a handsome, philandering husband who married for wealth and not for love, an illicit affair that led to an unwanted pregnancy, a secret birth and Suspected infantcide, a brutal murder and a convicted killer who went to the gallows protesting his innocence.
“Never in my experience have 1 seen a chain of circumstantial evidence more complete, more consistent, or more conclusive of guilt,” said the judge in sentencing Johnson to die.
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