No. 620.
Mr. Heap to Mr. Evarts.
Constantinople, August 9, 1880. (Received August 30.)
Sir: The minister of foreign affairs telegraphed to me on the 3d instant that three of the murderers of the American missionary and his servant had been arrested, and that they had made a complete admission of their crime (avœux eomplets), and that the police was in search of the fourth one.
This one has since been captured. As far as is known, three men only were concerned in the murder, and they have fully acknowledged their crime.
They were brought up for examination before the mutessarrif of Ismid on Thursday the 6th instant, and I instructed Mr. Gargiulo, the interpreter of the legation, to proceed to that place to watch the proceedings.
It appears from their depositions that Mr. Parsons, accompanied by an Armenian servant named Garabet, was returning from a journey into the interior, when towards nightfall on Wednesday, the 28th July, he stopped for a few minutes at an encampment of Yuruka or Turcomans. On leaving them he proceeded about a mile farther, and as it was growing dark and he was still some fifteen miles from Baghchijuk, the village where he lived, he decided to rest for the night under some trees near the road.
Soon after he left the Yuruk encampment, three young men, named Ali, Eyoub, and Soliman, were sent by the chief in search of some cattle that had strayed, and in passing near where Mr. Parsons was resting they stopped to light their cigarettes at his lire. After leaving him, the suggestion was made by Ali to kill them in their sleep for the money they might have about them. Ali was armed with a pistol and Soliman with a double-barreled gun. Eyoub and Soliman were unwilling, they assert, to commit murder, but Ali, who, although the youngest, seems to be the most hardened of the party, took Soliman’s gun from him, saying that if they feared to kill the ghiaours he did not.
After spending some time in this discussion they returned to the spot where they had left Mr. Parsons and his companion, and found them asleep. Creeping up to them, Ali presented the gun at Garabet’s breast and pulled the trigger; the cap exploded without igniting the [Page 985] charge. Garabet awoke and was rising, when Ali fired the second barrel, and the ball passing through his body, Garabet uttered a cry and fell dead.
The explosion and the cry aroused Mr. Parsons, who, sitting up, stared at the murderers. Ali snatched his pistol from his belt and fired it. Mr. Parsons having raised his arm instinctively in self-defense, the ball passed through it, his body, and his other arm on which he was resting, and he fell back without uttering a sound. The Yuruks then proceeded to strip the bodies and drag them under some bushes, where they left them.
The prolonged absence of Mr. Parsons caused anxiety at Baghchijuk, which was increased when an Armenian, who had gone to look for a horse he had lost, returned with those of the absent travelers, which he had found straying in the mountains. A party of Armenians was sent in search of Mr. Parsons on Saturday the 31st, and soon found the bodies, which were brought to Baghchijuk. Notice had been sent to the mutessarrif of Ismid, who at once sent a party of police to find the murderers. They went directly to the Yuruk encampment, but these people affected entire ignorance of the affair, and it was only when the officer in command of the police ordered his men to bring the whole tribe, men, women, and children, to Ismid, that they pointed out two of their young men, Cara-Veli-Oglon Ali and Eyoub as the murderers. These acknowledged at once that they were present at the killing of Mr. Parsons and Garabet, but declared that it was Soliman, their companion, who was absent, who had committed the deed. They were manacled and brought to Ismid, showing the utmost indifference and callousness, and relating freely to any one who questioned them all the details of the murder,, insisting, however, that it was Soliman, not they, who had committed it. Soliman was soon after found and arrested, and on being confronted with the other two, Ali acknowledged that he had killed Mr. Parsons, but denied the killing of Garabet, while both Soliman and Eyoub declared he had done it in the manner related above.
Both the mutessarrif and his police have acted with commendable promptness, energy, and judgment, and so far everything has been conducted in a satisfactory manner. I have taken occasion in a communication to the minister for foreign affairs to express my appreciation of their conduct.
Mr. Gargiulo was informed at Ismid that the prisoners were to be brought here for trial. They are Mohammedans, and I forsee that efforts will be made to save them from capital punishment. It is several years since a Mussulman has been executed for the crime of killing a Christian, not since the execution of the murderers of the French and German consuls at Salonica, I think. Veli Mehemet, who shot Colonel Kummeran, the military attaché of the Russian embassy, on the 29th of February last, is still unpunished, although the Department is aware of the strenuous efforts made by the collective diplomatic corps to obtain the execution of his sentence; nor has sentence been passed on the two Mohammedans for the murder of Christian Steward, of Robert College, in June last. I do not speak of the numerous assassinations of Christian rayahs by Mohammedans.
The Turkish tribunals are very lenient to Mohammedan murderers of Christians, and either acquit them, or, if the evidence is too patent to be ignored, sentence them to short terms of imprisonment. I cannot vouch for the fact, but it is the prevalent belief that even when sentenced to a number of years or to life imprisonment they are only kept a few weeks or months in confinement. Men are frequently arrested by [Page 986] the police for burglary, robbery, or murder, who had been sentenced a short time before for similar crimes to long terms of imprisonment.
In the case under consideration we must be prepared not only for every delay that the law allows, but, if sentence of death is passed, to meet determined opposition on the part of the highest authorities of the empire to the execution of the murderers. The killing of the “old ghiaour preacher and his ghiaour servant” is already spoken of as a “boyish freak.”
Mr. Parsons had resided in Turkey, principally in the district of Ismi, for thirty years; his age was between fifty-five and sixty. He was much beloved for his benevolence, kindliness of character, and activity in doing good. To show the sort of man he was, I will relate an incident that happened some years ago in one of his numerous journeys. Being stopped by some highwaymen and ordered to deliver his money, he told them that he had only books for sale. Finding that he had told the truth, the robbers were about leaving him, when he called them back and said to them that the books he had with him were good and holy, and if they would read them they would see how wicked and sinful their ways were. One of the robbers asked him the price of the book he held in his hand which was a Bible, and bought it.
Mr. Parsons leaves a widow and two children.
I have, &c.,
Chargé d’Affaires ad interim.