Muhlenberg County Kentucky
News: W
The Murder of Elijah Whitney
25 March 1880
Greenville, March 25.- Elijah Whitney's body was found yesterday, the head almost cut off with a broad-ax. Allen Tooley being arrested confessed that he murdered Whitney in self-defense.
- Source: Cincinnati Daily Star [Cincinnati, OH], 25 Mar 1880.
26 March 1880
Allen Tooley, of Greenville, Ky., has confessed that he cut off the head of Elijah Whitney with a broad axe. No cause for the murder, which came to light on Wednesday, has been found.
- Source: Lancaster Daily Intelligencer [Lancaster, PA], 26 Mar 1880.
30 March 1880
The dead body of Elijah Whitney, who had been missing some time from Greenville, was found near that place last week in a sink hole covered with about 8 inches of dirt. The head had been nearly severed from the body with an axe. Bard Baugh and Allen Tooley were arrested on suspicion when Tooley made a full confession saying he killed him in self defense. Baugh confessed that he helped to conceal the body.
- Source: South Kentuckian [Hopkinsville, KY], 30 Mar 1880.
31 March 1880
More About the Murder in Muhlenberg
We find the following further particulars of the murder of Whitney, as furnished the Louisville Commercial, by a correspondent from Greenville, of the 24th inst.:
Our town was shocked yesterday by the report of one of the most damnable deeds that has ever disgraced the name of Muhlenberg county.
The facts are about these, as related by one of the parties: That on last firday, the 19th, Bar Baugh, a farmer living near the O.&N.R.R., in the upper end of the county, had Elijah Whitney and A.A. Tooley at work for him. Baugh, Tooley and Whitney were all at work hewing timber when there was a dispute got up between Tooley and Whitney over a note, and Tooley says Whitney struck at him, when he (Tooley) knocked Whitney down and struck him across the neck with his ax, almost severing his head from his body and cutting the neckbone in two. That being late Friday evening, they left Whitney lying there until Saturday morning. Baugh and Tooley, without letting anyone know about it, went out and took the body of Whitney and carried or dragged him to a ravine, some forty years away, and threw him in and covered the body with clods, leaves and brush so as to conceal it from view. They also buried Whitney's broadaxe with him. When Whitney's wife and friends became alarmed and instituted search for Whitney, Baugh and Tooley joined in and claimed to know nothing of his whereabouts, saying that the last they saw of him on Friday evening he had started home. The Coroner was summoned to hold an inquest over the body; Tooley and Baugh were arrested on suspicion, and at the inquest Tooley admitted to having killed Whitney. Baugh claims to have taken no part in the affray, but says that he helped Tooley bury the body.
The parties are now in jail here to await an examining trial, which is set for Friday, before Judge Tinsley, of the Greenville Police Court.
The correspondent of the Courier-Journal says: Nothing is known of the origin of the difficulty, but as Whitney has for years been intimate with a woman of bad character, who is Baugh's sister-in-law, and whom Tooley married about a month ago, the cause may be inferred. The murder was committed on Friday last. Tooley is but nineteen years old.
- Source: Hartford Herald [Hartford, KY], 31 Mar 1880
Updated April 5, 2024.