THE WEYAUWEGA CHRONICLE

January 17, 1885

 

MEAD MURDER CASE

 

            The people of Waupaca are greatly excited this week over the following:

            [Special Dispatch Milwaukee Sentinel]

            “Waupaca, Jan. 13. – New and important facts are coming to light in regard to the Mead Murder.  One week ago last Sunday, Thomas Welch, one of the witnesses in the Vandecar trial, was stabbed in a saloon row near Antigo.  He has been getting worse rapidly, and his physician told him he would not live.  He then, of his own accord, confessed that he was the man who shot and killed Mr. Mead on the 7^th of October, 1882.  It may be remembered that Welch testified at the Vandecar examination, and also at the time of the trial, that the latter proposed to him at Stevens Point, where they were both living at the time, to go down the line and tap a bank; that he concluded to, but a certain woman persuaded him not to go, and that he got so drunk before night that he could not have gone had he so desired.

            In his confession he says that all the evidence he gave at that time was true except that as to getting drunk and being persuaded not to go; that in fact he did go with Vandecar from Stevens Point to Waupaca, and that he shot Mead himself.”

            The following dispatch to The Milwaukee Wisconsin denies the above:

            “Antigo, Wis., Jan. 14 – The sensational story that Thomas Welch, suffering from a wound, had confessed to the murder of Banker Mead, at Waupaca, is utterly false.  Welch has made no confession, and there is no indication that he has a gory burden on his mind.”