the centre of the common, who showed him a
bludgeon and dagger, with which the murder was to be committed. Knapp
asked him if he meant to do it that night; Crowninshield said he thought
not, he did not feel like it; Knapp then went to Wenham. Knapp
ascertained on Sunday, the 4th of April, that Mr. White had gone to take
tea with a relative in Chestnut Street. Crowninshield intended to dirk
him on his way home in the evening, but Mr. White returned before dark.
It was next arranged for the night of the 6th, and Knapp was on some
pretext to prevail on Mrs. Beckford to visit her daughters at Wenham,
and to spend the night there. He said that, all preparations being thus
complete, Crowninshield and Frank met about ten o'clock in the evening
of the 6th, in Brown Street, which passes the rear of the garden of Mr.
White, and stood some time in a spot from which they could observe the
movements in the house, and perceive when Mr. White and his two servants
retired to bed. Crowninshield requested Frank to go home; he did so, but
soon returned to the same spot. Crowninshield, in the mean time, had
started and passed round through Newbury Street and Essex Street to the
front of the house, entered the postern gate, passed to the rear of the
house, placed a plank against the house, climbed to the window, opened
it, entered the house alone, passed up the staircase, opened the door of
the sleeping-chamber, approached the bedside, gave Mr. White a heavy and
mortal blow on the head with a bludgeon, and then with a dirk gave him
many stabs in his body. Crowninshield said, that, after he had "done for
the old man," he put his fingers on his pulse to make certain he was
dead. He then retired from the house, hurried back through Brown Street,
where he met Frank, waiting to learn the event. Crowninshield ran down
Howard Street, a solitary place, and hid the club under the steps of a
meeting-house. He then went home to Danvers.

Joseph confessed further that the account of the Wenham robbery, on the
27th of April, was a sheer fabrication. After the murder Crowninshield
went to Wenham in company with Frank to call for the one thousand
dollars. He was not able to pay the whole, but gave him one hundred
five-franc pieces. Crowninshield related to him the particulars of the
murder, told him where the club was hid, and said he was sorry Joseph
had not got the right will, for if he had known there was another, he
would have got it. Joseph sent Fran