Belle Coates
Submitted by Herman R "Buck" Seibert Jr. March 26, 2012
THE TERRIBLE CRIMES OF A KENTUCKY FARMER
Cincinnati Enquirer, September 8, 1890, page 1
Murder and Arson! His house burned over his head and a girl fatally wounded by his hand! The author of these crimes in demonical glee while the flames play around his own guilty head.
These were the terrible deeds that caused the arrest of C F Wakefield, a farmer of Campbell County, Kentucky and his incarceration in the Newport Jail yesterday. Wakefield lives on the Licking River opposite Demossville. Residing with him was his niece, Belle Coates, a beautiful young girl of 17 years. Yesterday's frightful events seem to have been caused by the uncle's mad jealousy of a young man whom the girl had been keeping company. His infatuation led him to burn the house.
TO SHOOT THE GIRL
And to attempt an awful suicide in the flames which he had engendered. Shortly after 7 o'clock yesterday morning Miss Coates saw her lover, Grant Vandever on the road and went out to speak to him. The two sat down upon an old sled, engaged in conversation, when the girl saw dense volumes of smoke pouring from the eaves of the house. With a cry for help the young lady ran to the house, intent on rescuing her own possessions, which were on the second floor, but on reaching her room she found her uncle standing with a shotgun pointed directly at her. His eyes gleamed with demonical joy, while his lips were contorted in a fiendish grin. Without a word, he shot her as she stood.
And the girl, mortally wounded, fell and rolled to the bottom of the stairway. Two shots were fired by Wakefield, the one taking effect in Miss Coates head, the other in the right breast. Vandever and others ran to the scene, and carrying the girl out to the greensward, they returned for the murderous incendiary, who fought with devilish ferocity as he was dragged from the flames.
F R Moore and Wm F Wilson, an attorney, brought Wakefield to the Newport jail where he was locked up on charges of arson and of shooting with intent to kill. Here he was seen by an Enquirer reporter, and gave a very rational account of the tragedy of which he had been the cause. "I am a farmer and a very honorable man," he said. "Three weeks ago I was baptized in the Licking River, according to the Baptist faith."
"MY NIECE LIVED WITH ME
And was indiscreet with one Vandever, whom I advised her to have nothing to do with, but to no effect. People thought I sanctioned their actions. This morning I saw them together. Then I resolved to burn the house and myself with it, to set fire to some broom corn stored in the attic, when my niece came upstairs and I shot her."
The father of young Vandever, owned the house in which Wakefield lived, which with its contents, was entirely destroyed. It is thought that Wakefield was laboring under a fit of temporary insanity, as his niece is a very estimable young lady. while he himself enjoyed a good reputation. He was badly burned about the face and hands before he was rescued. His demeanor in Jail is that of a crazy man.
The physician who is attending Miss Coates has no hope of her recovery.