Joe Nick Tebo. The Annapolis Murderer.

Year
1880
Month
9
Day
13
Article Title
Joe Nick Tebo. The Annapolis Murderer.
Page Number
3
Article Type
Language
Article Contents
A well to do farmer. The Supposed motive for the deed. (St. John News). Joseph N. Tebo, (name so pronounced and in his case generally spelled according to its English pronunciation,) is the son of the late Nicholas Tebo, or according to the French orthography Thebault. He was commonly called Joe Nick, or Joseph N. to distinguish him from two other Joseph’s N;s, living in the district. The old man was a native of Clare, but lived most of his life at Plympton, among English people, and married an English speaking woman of Lunenburg County, German extraction. Hence the young man, although there are many French interspersed among the English in the locality where he was brought up, grew up MORE OF AN ENGLISHMAN than a Frenchman, and I doubt if he can speak the French language. That he said in jail such words as “me no do the murder,” as some correspondent of a St. John paper imagined, is absurd. The old man had a sinister reputation, was looked upon as a rough old fellow, in short a “hard case,” and I believe once, when quite old, served a short term of imprisonment for the crime of perjury; but as Joe Nick, as he is familiarly called, grew up and settled in life he showed signs of honest industry and activity, early married an English wife and began bringing up an English family. A shrewd man in the common business of the country, fair in his dealings and affable and quite talkative, although of a rough exterior, and not very prepossessing appearance, he soon lived down HIS PATERNAL REPUTATION, and as his speculations in cattle raising and agricultural and lumbering operations increased he became known far and wide through the county and elsewhere, and except as to a little roughness and irascibility at times, which, however, was considered harmless, he was looked upon as a decent and by no means disagreeable person. Increasing his possessions by his thrift, he is supposed to be worth some five or six thousand dollars, some say more. Two or three years ago he bought a new farm and there removed into a more commodious and respectable dwelling in the North Range Settlement or Plympton, at the shore of St. Mary’s Bay, about thirteen miles from Digby by the back roads, and seven from Weymouth. In jail he conversed with the writer about the crime fluently and intelligently, in the ordinary English idiom and accent common to all English speaking men of his class everywhere, declaring his innocence and his ability to prove it. The victim was one of about eight illegitimate children of a poor, depraved, half-silly woman called MARY PURDY, bore the reputed name of Hill, and while her given name seems to have been Charlotte, she was scarcely known by any other name than Topsy, and I am informed the fast youths of the locality where she once lived teased her by calling her by the name of “Bungy.” Hence seems to have arisen in a mysterious way those errors first started that the remains were those of one Anne Bunkey, of Barton, in this county. No such person as Ann Bunkey, or any other Bunkey, lived in this county, much less did any supposed brother of that name examine her remains. She was herself half-witted, and when she grew up soon had two or three illegitimate children, who, like herself, became a town charge. Now the poor districts in this county are very much sub divided. Each little section supports its own poor, and in this particular one, there happened a year or two ago to be an unusual number of paupers, and many rate payers complained of the large expense of the Overseers of the poor went to, and several offers were made to take care of them all for a lump sum much less than they cost separately. The lowest and most desirable offer was made by “Joe Nick,” with whom a bargain was struck that he should for a yearly sum indemnify the section against all expenses incurred on behalf of the poor who were or should become chargeable to it. In Topsy, however, he found he had more than he had intended to bargain for. She would often run away, and being harboured as a pauper elsewhere and returned with charges, these charges would be deducted by the Overseers from Tebo’s pay. It is also said that when he undertook to make her work, which she well able to do, a row would sometimes occur, and she would tantalize him by THREATENING TO ACCUSE HIM of the paternity of a child, and such like. At other times however, all would go smoothly, as it seems to have done just previous to the tragedy. Neighbours well acquainted with these transactions I think, and I agree with them, that he was so exasperated at her conduct and the trouble she gave him, especially when she discovered she was again LIKELY TO BECOME A MOTHER, thereby adding to the expenses he was bound under his contract to meet, to be rid of her, being equal to a hundred dollars a year to him, that he resolved in an evil moment to put the wretched and useless creature out of the way; accomplishing it in a manner disclosing a FEROCITY, BRUTALITY AND INDIFFERENCE to the sanctity of human life which no one in the county deemed he possessed. On the morning of the day the deed was done it is said his wife came to the store and reported that “Topsy” had the proceeding night stolen some money and run away. She and his son admitted to the Constables that they concealed the horse and carriage. This was of course, done to protect him, and people here, are surprised at the action of the Annapolis Magistrates in not remanding them as accessories, before or at least after the fact. But for the timely finding of the remains no enquiry would ever have been made for the missing girl, who of course had no relatives or friends and the people of the vicinity would be slow to enquire for one who, if brought back alive, would all her life have continued a pecuniary burthen to them.