Miscellaneous, Nineveh Junction Murder, 1910

Nineveh Junction Murder

H.A. Bushnell, D. & H. Agent, The Victim

Bainbridge Republican, Oct. 6, 1910

 

Early Saturday morning it was announced about this village that H.A. Bushnell, the well known D.&H. agent at Nineveh Junction [Broome Co., NY] had been brutally murdered during the previous night and his body left by the side of the D.&H. tracks where it had been found about 5 o'clock.  Later intelligence came that Bennett Beach, one of the best known D.&H. engineers and nearly a life-long resident of Oneonta [Otsego Co., NY], a man enjoying excellent repute locally, had been held charged with being implicated in the crime.

 

The facts, so far as they can be gleaned are, that Mr. Bushnell remained at the station Friday evening until after the departure of trains 6 and 8 on the Susquehanna division of the road and then left, saying that he would go home.  This was about 8:45 o'clock, his usual leaving hour, and his hours were as regular as the trains.  This was the last seen of the man alive, so far as has been disclosed by others than his assailants.  At about 5 o'clock Saturday morning his lifeless body was found in a heap in the water ditch at the side of the south bound track, between the two water tanks west of the station, the indications being that he had been thrown there from the bank about the tanks.  There were cuts upon the back of the head and traces of finger marks upon the neck of the dead man.  The body was removed to his home and messages, summoning Sheriff Walworth and District Attorney Hill of Norwich, and Coroner Frank Preston of Greene, sent.

 

Standing side by side on the highway that crosses the D.&H. tracks just north of the station and above the crossing are the homes of Mr. Bushnell and of Charles St. John, the latter a retired engineer, whose daughter is the wife of Bushnell, although  many years younger than he.  At the St. John home Beach had a room and boarded.  Officer Abel had been in Nineveh but a short time when he discovered that the personal belongings of Bushnell, at least those upon his person, were not molested, which disposed of the robbery theory.  Hints of bitter feelings existing between Bushnell and Beach resulted in disclosures involving Beach with the name of Mrs. Bushnell.  Inquiry at the St. John home lead to the revelation that Beach had returned from work and, after changing his clothes, had gone out and returned home between 9:30 and 10 o'clock.  During the night he was heard to make several visits to the bath room and his movements, as heard by other occupants of the house, indicated that he slept but little, if any, and that about 3 o'clock, he went to the D.&H. station and requested that another engineer be sent to Nineveh to relieve him, as he was ill and could not work on Saturday.

 

The room of Beach was visited, and it is said that a pair of shoes, similar to those that Beach wore the previous night, bore evidence of having been washed with water and were still moist.  A dirt cap and blouse bearing spots, not unlike blood stains, were found deposited at the bottom of the trunk of Beach beneath clean clothing.

 

After daybreak Saturday search revealed that a fierce struggle had ensued between Bushnell and his assailant, some distance from the spot where the body was found and within 200 feet of the Bushnell home.  The torn collar and tie of Bushnell was found in the dust and dirt and several articles from his pockets were scattered about, including a pocketbook, from which the money had not been taken.  There were three distinct places where a struggle was indicated and as many pools of blood left on the ground.  A broken beer bottle nearby indicated that the blows upon the head of Bushnell were inflicted with it.  The clothing of Bushnell was dirt begrimed and he had evidently fought pluckily against his assailant or assailants.  His gold watch was still in his pocket and nothing was missing of his effects usually carried in his pockets. 

 

The arrival of the sheriff and coroner shortly after 11 o'clock brought further disclosure.  With them was brought a blood hound who, upon scenting the footsteps about the scene of the struggle started off toward the knoll from which the body is supposed to have been thrown down the bank toward the track, then he lead back on the bluff to a small wooden building and thence he dove straight to the St. Johns home and tugged to free himself from the leash.  Coroner Preston at once had an autopsy under way and soon after made an examination of the chest and body of Beach, which, it is said, revealed that one side bore evidences of numerous bruises.  The examination of the body of Bushnell satisfied the physician that the man died from strangulation caused by fingers pressed upon the throat.  The blows upon the head would not have caused death.  Coroner Preston, later in the day, decided that Bushnell died from strangulation and directed that Beach be held charged with complicity in the crime.

 

When Officer Abel first informed Beach that he would be detained at the scene of the crime, a search of Beach was made and a loaded revolver was found upon him, with which he said, according to the statements made, he intended to kill himself.  About noon, after it became apparent that the eyes of the officers were all pointing toward Beach, he took a dose of strychnine, which he is said to have had loose in his pocket when apprehended.  He had previously been complaining of illness due to a dose of chloral he said he had taken.  The physician were for the time being compelled to abandon the post mortem and devote their energies to saving the life of Beach.

 

While no copy of a confession that Beach is said to have been made can be secured, it is reliably stated that Chief Rothrock of the D.&H. force, who, with Supt. White, Auditor Brown and other officials of the company hurried to Nineveh aboard the Saratoga on learning of the crime, secured a confession of the crime during the time that Beach was suffering from the effect of the poison and expected to die.  According to those who talked with Chief Rothrock., Beach admitted that he met Bushnell shortly after he (Beach) left his boarding  house Friday evening and that Bushnell called him vile names and opened a quarrel.  According to the story, Bushnell had a beer bottle in his hand and threatened to hit Beach with it.  Then Beach took the bottle from him and then choked him until he was subdued and fell.  It is understood that he did not think that Bushnell was dead at the time, and denies having thrown the body down the embankment toward the tracks.  Beach in his confession, denies, according to the story of Rothrock, any intimacy with Mrs. Bushnell and exonerates her from any connection whatever with the crime.

 

At 6 o'clock Saturday evening Beach's condition having improved, he was taken by auto, in custody of the Chenango county sheriff, to Norwich and placed in the county jail.  It is alleged that he admitted much the same story to the sheriff that he is said to have made to Officer Rothrock, alleging that he acted in self defense.

 

There is an unconfirmed rumor that Bushnell  had requested the D.&H. officials to request Beach to take another run, alleging that he was attempting to break up his home, and that Beach had declared that he would get even with Bushnell for this charge, if he had to "knock his block off."  A plausible theory is that Bushnell encountered Beach close to his home and when he remonstrated and, possibly, insisted that he (Beach) keep away from that home a fight ensued and, anger getting the best of Beach, he strangled the man to an extend he little premeditated with a fatal outcome.

 

Horace O. Bushnell, best known as "Hod" Bushnell, was nearly 60 years of age and had been an agent for the company about 30 years.  He was clerk for his brother, P.K. Bushnell, when the latter left the agency at Nineveh to go with the National Express company, with which company he is now superintendent at Albany, the dead brother was made agent.  He has been twice married, he leaving two daughters and a son by the first wife.  The second wife is about 35 years of age.  She has no children.

 

Bennett Beach is about 50 years of age and has been a life-long resident of Oneonta, having been for 28 years employed by the D.&H. company as engineer.  Two years or more ago he removed to Binghamton and, for several months past, has been running the pusher engine from Nineveh, his wife residing most of the time in Binghamton.