This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Jocelyn, Wright Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/3h.2ADE/2058 Message Board Post: from the Daily Ledger Standard New Albany, Indiana 12 Feb 1881 Hannah Jocelyn’s Death Her Paramour, Joseph Wright, Accused of Murdering Her The Physicians and Coroner Say Blood Poisoning Hannah Jocelyn was the daughter of the late Augustus Jocelyn, of this city. Some three years ago she left the city with a man named Joseph Wright, but to whom she was not married. This man Wright is a bad man and a thief. He is wanted at Louisville for stealing a skiff. He is well known to the police of this city as a “crooked rascal.” This morning marshal Carpenter received a letter from the chief of police at Evansville, making inquiries as to Wright’s antecedents, saying he had him in hoc and believed he had caused the death of his paramour, Hannah Jocelyn. Wright and Hannah Jocelyn lived wretchedly on a little boat that laid at the shore at the foot of Oak street, in Evansville. On the 24th day of January she gave premature birth to a child. Before her death she told persons who came to the boat that she was dying from the cruel treatment she had received from Wright. She also gave her name to these persons and her residence when at home at New Albany. These facts becoming public after her death, coroner Hermeling, of Evansville, examined into the case. The examination of several witnesses, among them being two doctors, developed the fact that the woman died from blood poisoning. One of the witnesses testified that the woman was not Wright’s wife, but Hannah Jocelyn, and that she had lived with Wright for three years without being married to him. The same witness said that Wright was cruel to her and about three weeks before her death, while their boat was lying at the mouth of Green river, he seized her by the hands and drew her over a small door, injuring her back so severely that she was confined to her bed for some days. This statement was substantiated by others, who said that the woman complained of her back up to the time of her death. The coroner thought seriously at one time of arresting Wright for having caused his paramour’s death, but on hearing the testimony of the doctors that she had died from blood poisoning, he returned a verdict to that effect. The chief of police of Evansville, however, thought there was enough in the case to justify him in arresting and holding Wright until he could hear from New Albany. Marshal Carpenter has taken such steps in the case as are necessary.