Maria Magdalena "Mollie" Allwein married to Johannes - John Ohrendorff/Orndorff/Orendorff, Sr. Could this be Johannes' brother--- Lorenzo born abt. 1758??? Nancy ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ann Wilmer" <wilmer@dmv.com> To: <PALEBANO-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2005 4:00 PM Subject: [PALEBANO] Fw: Lorenzo O. > This article comes by way of Joe Nihen (morse73@ptd.net) who lives in > Lansford, Carbon Co., PA and had the original article translated by a > professor in Lebanon. If you have comments of questions, write to Joe. > > > -------------------------------- > From: Joe Nihen morse73@ptd.net > Re: Newspaper account of the murder of Lorentz Ohrendorf. > > A Professor of German at Lebanon Valley College translated it for me. A > copy follows: > > Lebanon, June 26, 1791 > > Dear Printers, > > You are requested to include the following terrible happening in your > newspaper: Wednesday night on the 22nd of this month about midnight, a > horrible murder was committed about two miles from the city of Lebanon, > Dauphin County, in the home of one Lorenz Ohrendorf. According to sworn > testimony, the circumstances are the following: the murderer had broken a > small window in the house and climbed in by the same and tied shut the door > to the living room (stube) in the ground floor in which Ohrendorf’s two > sisters were sleeping. Thereafter the murderer went upstairs. In a side > room the unfortunate Ohrendorf was fast asleep in his bed after having > worked hard the day before. Here the murderer delivered several mortal > blows to his head with a short-handled ax and then used a cutting instrument > to slash his throat through to the bone. Following this he went back > downstairs and after he had cut through the rope with which he had tied the > door shut, he went into the living room (stube), where the victim’s two > sisters had already hidden under the bed since they had heard the blows and > their brother choking on his own blood. When the murderer now entered the > room he had a lighted lantern in his hand which he used to look into the > bed. Finding it empty, however, he then looked under the bed where the > frightened women had hidden themselves. He ordered them to come out, which > they did. He then ordered them to lie on the bed, which they, however, did > not wish to do because they said he would murder them, too. But he replied > that he only wished to tie them to it. During this conversation, the > younger sister tried to escape through a window and the older grabbed the > sword which the murderer had hanging at his side and tried to get it away > from him. In the mean time, the younger sister did escape through the > window and ran to get help from a neighbor. The older sister and the > murderer meanwhile each had hold of the sword with both hands and she said > that they struggled back and forth over it for half an hour until she saw a > chance to escape and darted through the door to the stube. She ran to > another brother who lived about half a mile away to give the alarm. The > murderer, who now found himself alone and imagining that he had no time to > steal anything, took his sword and the now extinguished lantern and ran off > leaving behind the murder weapon and the rope with which he had intended to > tie the women. It is thought that the person who committed the murder is a > man who has worked in Lebanon as a butcher for many years, Matheus Weiß by > name, formerly a member of the corps of Hessian scouts which had come to > this country with the British soldiers. When he noticed that suspicion was > beginning to fall on him, he made his escape on the following Friday night. > He is about five feet six inches tall, has short, blond, curly hair and a > rather bald head and has one or two stiff fingers on the left hand that he > cannot close completely. He was wearing a light blue butcher’s coat. He > made his way to Wyoming and from there presumably to Niagra. A reward of 80 > Thalers has been posted for his capture and return. > > ----------------------------------------------------- > What a wonderfully gruesome tale! > > I have scans of the original, if you'd like them. > > > > > ==== PALEBANO Mailing List ==== > Always cite your sources when posting information! >