Morgan, Creasey, Bedford Co. VA
Sweetwater Enterprise, (Monroe Co. TN) November 18, 1869:
"A Black Fiend---A lady from Bedford County gives us the subjoined particulars of one of the most atrocious and horrible crimes we have ever been called upon to record. It appears that Mr. Henry Creasey, living in the Meadows of Goose Creek, in Bedford County, some short time since had the misfortune to lose his wife, who died leaving an infant child. The infant was placed under the care of Mr. John Morgan, its grandfather, and was nursed by a colored girl, aged about fifteen years. Two or three days since Mrs. Morgan had occasion to scold this girl for some delinquency, at which she showed marked signs of anger and resentment. The next day Mrs. Morgan visited a neighbor’s house, a short distance off, leaving the child with the nurse. During her absence the fiendish and brutal nurse, to gratify her anger against Mrs. Morgan, deliberately threw the child into the fire, and let it remain there until both of its legs were burned off above the ankle, causing its death. When Mrs. Morgan returned, in a few hours, she was horrified to see the innocent little babe burned almost to a crisp, its distorted features indicating the terrible agonies it had endured. The nurse, who still remained at the house, was at once taxed with the deed, but denied it bitterly, stating that the child’s legs had been eaten off by a dog, while she left for a few moments. This was wholly disproved by the plain marks of the fire, and the brute, being threatened with severe punishment, finally confessed that she committed the horrible deed in the manner above stated, and assigned as her reason for it her dissatisfaction with Mrs. Morgan. She was then conveyed to Liberty and committed to jail for trial. She should have been promptly hung from the limb of the first convenient tree."---Lynchburg Virginia News.