Bad Blood

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
It all started in January 1861, in Putnam County, Indiana in the small town of Groveland. Tilghman Hanna, 20, and his wife Lydia, 18, were murdered in their beds. None could understand who would want to kill the young couple. 

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The murder of the Hanna family in 1861 shocked the small town of Groveland, Indiana

After the discovery of the horrific crime, police theorized the perpetrator raised the window of a room in the house to gain entry.

He crushed Tilghman Hanna's head with an ax, and then sunk the blade into the forehead of his wife. Their child which was in the room was uninjured.

The murder weapon was found in the room full of gore.

Nothing in the house was vandalized, and no valuables were missing, leading authorities to believe that robbery was not the motive. The perpetrator after killing the couple walked out the front door.

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Indiana State Prison at Jeffersonville c.1871

A memorandum book lying on a table in the bedroom had several indecent sentences which the murderer had written across one of the pages. One of them was "I have done the deed -- now god damn you ketch me if you ken."

Suspicions were raised against Goodlow H. Evans known as Harper Evans, age 20, who lived in the community.

The motive for the murder was that Lydia Hanna had once been a sweetheart of Harper Evans. He lost her and brooded over the disappointment until he thirsted for revenge.

Harper Evans was arrested, and the writing in the memo book proved to be his. Eventually he was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for life. He tried to commit suicide within hours of being sentenced. Evans used a knife that was smuggled into him, and succeeded in entirely severing the jugular vein in his neck. He passed out from loss of blood, but was saved, and transported to the prison at Jeffersonville to serve his sentence. Close to the end of the Civil War, he escaped and was never recaptured. ​

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Greencastle, Indiana c.pre-1900

Thirty years passed, and the next Evans to make the papers was Harper's brother, Noah. On a summer day in 1891, he rode to Erastus Richard Adams' home. Erastus better known as Dick to the people of Greencastle, Indiana was sitting on his porch, recovering from a gunshot wound, inflicted by the same Noah Evans.

The origin of the bad blood between the men started with Evan's wife. She was an "opium eater" as they referred to it in the newspapers, and Adams who had the same problem, said he'd been cured by a doctor at a sanitarium in Waveland, Montgomery county.

In one version Mrs. Evans stayed at the Adams' home while she received treatment, in another version when she went to the sanitarium, Adams was also being tended there and he seduced her with a promise of morphine, where upon he raped her.

Once she returned home, Mrs. Evans wrote letters to Adams demanding "pecuniary reparation", making it understood that he would pay with his life if he refused her. Dick Adams then when onto boast about the event when he was drunk, and it was not long before Noah Evans heard about it. When he questioned his wife, she told him that while under the effect of the morphine, Adams raped her.

In April 1891, Adams was shot through a window while lying in bed; his wife and child next to him. Two bullets hit his arm and shoulder, but he recovered, and strangely did not bring police to Evan's doorstep, even though he declared that he knew who shot him.

It didn't help that Evans terrorized the community to make sure none spoke against him to the authorities.

Five weeks went by until Noah Evans made good on his threat. He rode with his wife in a light road cart up to the front of Adams' house. He handed the reins to his wife, stepped from the cart, walked up to where Adams sat on the porch, pulled his revolver and poured seven bullets in him. "Then he calmly climbed into his cart again, and shaking his smoking weapon, with curses and threats warned the assembling crowd from following him", since he planned to get an attorney and turn himself in.

Many believed that Evans had reacted the way he did, since this was a second wife, and much younger than him.

Dick Adams was formerly a saloon-keeper at Roachdale and "like his slayer, was generally recognized as a dangerous man." Evans was a farmer, but the newspapers recalled that his brother Harper had slain the Hanna family 30 years before.

Sheriff Vestal gathered a posse and set out to pursue Noah Evans, trailing him to the station at Wheaton. It was supposed that he turned north into Montgomery county, where one of his cousins who lived in Lebanon was an attorney. True to his word Evans turned himself into authorities in Greencastle on June 5.

At the end of July, Sarah Adams disappeared, and the Evans' family reputation being what it was, fear was rampant they had done away with her, but then word reached the town she went to see friends in Illinois of her own accord. Perhaps she thought it wiser she just go to another state, since Evans had been indicted for murder, and she could be called as a witness to the incident.

On October 18, 1891 the jury brought in a verdict of guilty with a life sentence to be served at the same prison in Jeffersonville where his brother had escaped from. 

In 1892, Frank (Fred) Evans his grandson, who was an orphan was sentenced to the juvenile reformatory. He was charged with burglary after he broke into a store in Groveland.

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Frank Evans, grandson of Noah Evans ended up in a reformatory

On May 24, 1893 Judge Christian Samuel Wesner was shot and killed in the Danville court room by James Coley Brown after making the argument of his life in a case against Brown.

Brown, president of the Lebanon Gas Company, claimed it  was an act of self defense after Wesner produced a knife. The problem between the men arose due to a suit against the Lebanon Gas Company for damages.

Many commented that Wesner suffered from the same curse that afflicted other men of his family who had come to a bad end.

Wesner was the attorney Noah Evans went to see after killing Dick Adams. He was a cousin of the Evans brothers. He assisted in the selection of the jury but withdrew before the testimony was taken, and took no part in the defense of Noah Evans.

At this time Evans was still serving his life sentence in the Jeffersonville penitentiary. 

​In November, 1893, Brown was acquitted of the murder of Samuel Wesner.

Wesner's son also had a wild streak, and he was called a "peace breaker". Known as "Tance", he was under several indictments for unlawful acts. He had attempted to cut the throat of his father-in-law Jim Livingston. He was reported to have shot at William Beckthal a saloon keeper of Lebanon. It was thought that through the influence of his father, none of the indictments against young Wesner had been pushed.

Ironically Christian Samuel Wesner Jr. practiced law, but he was an alcoholic who became very violent when he drank.

Fourteen months after Wesner Sr. was shot, his son also met a gruesome end at the hands of his father-in-law James Livingston. The trouble started 3 years before when Wesner married and proved to be a very jealous husband. This led to many quarrels.

Shortly after the marriage Mr. Livingston tried to interfere when Wesner was berating his daughter. The belligerent son-in-law cut him about the face, but his intent was far deadlier which was to slice his throat. There had been other quarrels that followed.

The day before his death Wesner arrived drunk at his home and drove his wife, mother and sister from the house. They took refuge at a neighbor's property, and in the morning they sent for the deputy who prepared warrants for Wesner's arrest. The women were afraid to sign it, since Wesner was very abusive and had often threatened their lives.

The next day Wesner went looking for the women and ended his search at his father-in-law's home. He confronted Mr. Livingston and said he would not leave without his wife. His wife was indeed hiding in her father's house. Livingston reached behind the door and brought out a double-barrel shotgun and shot his son-in-law in the chest.

On October 31, 1894, James Livingston went to trial and was acquitted of the murder of Christian Samuel Wesner, Jr. based on self defense.

Wesner's widow Eva, went on to marry two more times, and died in 1965 at the age of 90.

​​The last mention of Noah Evans was in 1897, where he was still serving his life term, and after this he fades from history along with his grandson Fred. His brother Harper Evans evaded capture, however there were rumors that he was seen skulking around the farmhouse where he had killed his one-time sweetheart Lydia Hanna, but this was never verified.

What was it about the Evans-Weisner bloodline that drove the men to such violent acts that led to death or imprisonment? Was it a genetic pre-disposition or something much more ephemeral like the curse of bad blood?

Dark crimes still loomed on the horizon for Greencastle, Indiana when the headless body of Pearl Bryan was discovered on February 2, 1896.

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