Anonymous

“ He begged of Paine to allow but three days to settle up his affairs and leave the country, swearing in the most solemn manner, and calling upon his God to witness that if he would grant him this request he would immediately leave off his dishonest course of living, and forever after become an honest man. All this he said in such an earnest manner, that Paine, seeing that it would be the utter ruin of Smith’s whole family, as well as himself, at length yielded to his request, after the most solemn assurance that Smith would do as he swore. ”

“ In giving to the public an abridgement of the life of this atrocious woman, we hope that our readers, either moral or immoral, will not be in need of such a lesson or example as that already detailed, but it may be truly looked upon as the most astonishing circumstance of the age in the midst of civilization and morality. We deem it unnecessary to give an account of the trial, as no doubt a greater portion of our readers throughout the United States have already seen it in the columns of the weekly journals. ”

“ I rejoice that I feel within the fullest assurance that I shall enjoy a far more desirable state of existence. I feel as calm to day and my mind as clear as when you last saw me at the school-house, endeavouring to exhort my fellow men to seek an interest in that Savior, that I have found so precious to me, during my soul-trying afflictions. ”

“ After the poison which she had taken began to operate, she raved like a maniac, tearing the clothes from her body in handsful, attempting to lay hold of and bite every thing within her reach, and cursing God and the hour that gave her birth. ”

“ I am not the first innocent victim that has wrongfully been hurried from this to another world, through the prejudice of public opinion. I am only one among the many that have been thrown from existence on a charge of guess work and false supposition, and the falsehood that always attends supposition, where prejudice dethrones and becomes the master of the government. There is not much trouble in gaining victory against the innocent, however falsely charged. ”

“ After perusing it, he will pause and reflect, “Poor human nature! how weak and corrupt thou art, if not checked in the morning of thy existence.” The father of this wicked woman was the victim of disobedience to kind but arbitrary parents, and this narrative is a solemn warning against intolerance, which together with the vice of intemperance, has sent more victims to the dungeon, the scaffold, and an untimely grave, than any other calamity that has ever afflicted our race. ”

“ The above named Griffin was executed for murder, at Cambridge, Maryland, on the 14th of June last, and when brought upon the scaffold, he declared, as he stood in the last moments of his earthly existence, and on the brink of eternity, expecting in a few moments to meet his God in judgment, that he was innocent of the crime, for which he was about to die, but still acknowledged that he was guilty of other murders of the most awful and blackest shade. ”

“ In eighteen hundred and forty, with my own hands I killed Isac Smith of Baltimore, on his way home. About two months afterwards, I was accessory to the murder of a slave trader from Wilmington, Del. on his way to Norfolk, Va. We robbed him of four thousand dollars and a gold watch. Soon afterwards I killed a negro boy twelve years old, whom I owned as mistress. Last of all, we murdered Morse, the Quaker, after he had boarded three days at the house. I am guilty of ten murders with my own hands, and accessory to a great many others. I can confess no more. ”

“ Although born in a free country where slavery is abhorred, she soon imbibed a taste for the traffic in slaves, as our readers may easily perceive that her location was in a slave State where morality is not very exalted, as such a course could not possibly have been carried on in a free State so long, without meeting the eye of detection. ”

“ O, may not such think they are innocent to take the life that God has given and forbid others to take it away—though we may flee to that law that was given to the Jews, which was bounded, inside the land of Canaan, imposed on no other people but the Jews, and those that dwelt in their land, and still we fail to support a case of conjecture, Deut. ii, viii, &c. Then, when we assent to take human life in a manner forbidden in this law even, do we consent that the law is not good, and which God gave? Certainly we do—and refuse to give it place in our hearts. ”

“ Besides, being a young and fascinating widow, just in the flower of life, it was nothing remarkable to see gentlemen of various ranks frequenting her house some under the pretence of paying addresses to her, besides its being a tavern, as taverns in the southern countries differ in regularity from those of the northern or free States. ”

“ My Dear Daughter Elizabeth;—I can no longer be your FATHER nor provide for your wants in childhood, nor protect you from surrounding dangers therefore I have given you to your father and mother Hoit; they will be kind parents to you and you must be a good and dutiful child to them; always be obedient and good; love them, and improve your mind daily—and read the Bible with great care, you will there learn that God has said he will be a father to the fatherless ”

“ He was executed at Kingston, some time late in the year eighteen hundred and thirty-five. Thus ended the unhappy career of both father and son—the father setting the example.
After this news, she became, if possible more cruel and barbarous than before. She now seemed to take no delight whatever in anything but acts of the most blood-thirsty and inhuman nature; nothing now satisfied her murderous disposition but the death of some innocent, and to her unoffending victim; but her career of guilt was nearly run ”

“ But the jury found a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree, and she received sentence. They have not as yet made any public confession, but have acknowledged much of the guilt of which they are charged and from which we select considerable of the above atrocious crimes committed, and the mode of executing their plans. But while in prison awaiting the day of execution, three days after receiving sentence, she obtained a quantity of poison by some private correspondent, yet unknown, which she took to avoid the exposure of a public execution. She died a most terrible and awful death. ”

“ While things were going on in this style, it so happened that an old acquaintance whose name was Alexander Paine moved from Montreal and settled in the neighborhood in which Smith resided, and as they had formerly been on intimate terms, the acquaintance was soon renewed, though not much to the satisfaction of Smith, as he knew Paine to be a man of very sober, honest habits, and not likely to be easily persuaded to forsake the path of virtue, and it was on this ground, and the fear of detection and exposure, that Smith dreaded again becoming on intimate terms with an old acquaintance ”

“ However she managed so as to make her house a house of entertainment for persons travelling for pleasure, or those who were spending the summer months in that delightful region, away from the more unwholesome air of a crowded and pent up city, and in this manner, as may be supposed, they formed many new acquaintances, and by keeping up appearances pretty high, and teaching her daughters well the art of deception, she soon succeeded in marrying them all to persons of considerable respectability. ”

“ After the death of her husband she became one of the most abandoned and notorious of women, giving loose to every species of licentiousness and extravagance, and there was no crime too great, no deed too cruel for her to engage in, to accomplish any object of her design, after engaging personally in acts of the most outrageous butcheries and robbery. ”

“ May God be with you, and comfort you all the time, and sanctify this afflicting dispensation to the spiritual good of your brothers and sisters, and finally may all dwell together at last at Christ’s right hand. ”

“ They had clung to hope, even hoping against hope—for the spectacle of the execution of a fellow being among them, was a thing so unusual, that it could scarcely be realized, especially when that fellow being was one with whom they had enjoyed many years of intimacy.—The fatal hour at length arrived. ”

“ She here set up a low tavern, as she knew she would then have a much greater chance of carrying on her unlawful and wicked practices here. She made use of a great variety of artifices to induce slave dealers and others, who she thought would be likely to have any quantity of money with them, to put up with her, and she was considered by some to be a very hospitable woman; seldom charging her visitors anything. ”

“ He then secretly married a woman, who, by her intrigue and artfulness, had succeeded in drawing his affections towards her, and was also very remarkable for the influence she exercised over the minds of men as will be seen by referring to circumstances which occurred subsequently; for by her great artfulness she succeeded in marrying her daughters, four in number, to persons of respectability, although they were every one of them prostitutes of the most common character. ”

“ In this manner I roved about, and finally went to Philadelphia. Here I fell in with a young man whose name was Hunt, a low gambling sort of a fellow. We agreed to join companionship and share equally in whatever we could make. We then kept a good look out. Whenever we discovered a man intoxicated after dark, or any we thought it possible to make so, we enticed him in to some dark alley, or other secret hiding place, and robbed him of what money, watches, or other valuables he happened to have with him. ”

“ A horse stolen by one of the gang was conveyed by night to the next station, the thief returning immediately to prevent suspicion. In this way the business was managed until the horse was out of the reach of pursuit. They had regular stations where the horses that were stolen were kept until they had collected a sufficient number, when they were taken in small droves to New York, Philadelphia, and other large places, and disposed of. The route on which James was stationed, was between Kingston and Toronto, near Coburg, where he had been engaged for some time. ”

“ We then robbed him of four hundred dollars. Seeing an account of the murder, two days after, in the papers, and that the Mayor had offered a thousand dollars reward, I feared my companion might turn State’s evidence, and I should suffer; I determined to leave for New Orlines, or some southern city, as I had plenty of money, but I only reached Baltimore, when I was induced to stop. I then dressed up pretty fine, intending to play the gentleman. I here became acquainted with a very pretty young lady, whose name was Eliza Morton, whose father was a respectable merchant of that city. ”

“ Ann’s cruelty and atrocity at this time reached to a mature age, for she was enveloped in innocent blood, and it seems almost impossible that such crimes could possibly be committed by one of such tender looking countenance as she possessed even at the bar.
Such a course continued quite smoothly for four years. On one occasion, an intended victim had a child about eighteen months old, sometimes subject to fits. In these fits the child would scream in a most horrible manner. It happened to have one of these fits while in Ann Walters’ house. ”

“ She was arrested, but evaded the law by a settlement. She has also been charged with poisoning her son, who, she says, died of the measles.
The circumstances of her husband’s death are yet fresh in the memory of our readers. He was found dead in the morning, when the neighbors were called, with bruises upon him, which afforded sufficient evidence of her guilt in the mind of the Court. She acknowledges a quarrel between them, but charges the blame upon him, and avers that she did not intend to murder him, but did so in defending herself from his assault. ”

“ These things looked strange; suspicions spread around the neighborhood, until some persons came into the store, who said they talked with Mr. Morse, in Walters’ tavern, a few days after his going there, when some remarked the idle, sauntering fellows that were perpetually hovering about there, having no business, and many other circumstances were alluded to, until suspicion became so strong in the minds of the people, that they finally resolved to make a private search, but not until Mr. ”

“ However, she so managed matters as to make her house a kind of head quarters for slave dealers, who generally had plenty of money, she soon got round her a gang of ruffians who were perfectly obedient to her will and ready to do the most bloody acts whenever she commanded. ”

“ Changed “condemed to die” to “condemned to die”. Changed “who judgeth righteously, Thank God” to “who judgeth righteously. Thank God” Changed “girl, In tears” to “girl. In tears”.
Page 29: Changed “May 22 1849” to “May 22, 1849”. 5 lines that were printed upside down were transcribed right-side up. Changed “yon will soon come” to “you will soon come”. Changed “until we meet in heaven” to “until we meet in heaven.”
Page 30: Changed “about a year after marrige” to “about a year after marriage”. Changed “suspicions ware aroused” to “suspicions were aroused”. ”