THE SCYTHE AND THE HATCHET
By Eric Stedman / 6" x 9" Paperback Book
228 Pages / SECOND EDITION
Under cover of darkness on Sunday, September 24, 1893, in Holland, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, someone entered the old stone farmhouse of Samuel and Leanah Rightly and brutally beat them both to death with a hatchet, then set their bed on fire in the attempt to destroy the evidence of the crime. A fragment of a plug of tobacco found outside incriminated worker Wallace Burt, who had been hired to mow the lawn but paid only 75 cents instead of the dollar he'd been promised.
Did he kill the old couple in cold blood, or was there more to the story? Discover the true story about this remarkable crime and the killer's desperate and unprecedented wish for redemption in this first book ever to tell the tale of the dwelling that was for years called "The Murder House" in Holland, Pennsylvania.
Updated with new information about the solution to the Rightly mystery, and the murder of Susannah Wynkoop at the nearby Vredens Hof mansion in Holland, Pennsylvania on August 26, 1776 (Now the site of Council Rock High School South).
Greetings, true crime & mystery fans -- I thought some of you might be interested in reading a new book I have worked on for about 6 years called THE SCYTHE AND THE HATCHET.
It's the previously untold story of a double hatchet murder that took place in the rather quiet town of Holland, Pennsylvania in 1893.
The house it happened in dated back to the mid-1700s and the victims were an old couple in their 80s, Samuel and Leanah Rightly, killed in the middle of the night in August by an unknown assailant who searched their house, possibly looking for money, then dumped the contents of an oil lamp on their bed and set their bodies on fire.
At first their nephew Bartley, who had recently been thrown out of the house along with his wife and family, was suspected of the crime, but he seemed to have an alibi so suspicions focused on Wallace Burt, a working man who had been hired to mow the lawn of the cemetery next to the house a month or so earlier. He was part Native American and part Black and had come up to Pennsylvania from the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma, which had just opened to settlement at that time.
It was said that Mr. Rightly treated him unfairly when the cemetery work was done, and docked him a quarter of his promised $1.00 in pay and that Burt was still angry about that and some thought perhaps that is why he murdered the old folks.
Burt was finally tracked down hiding out in a deep woods with only a blanket and coat and hat and some tobacco to his name. A piece of that same chewing tobacco tied him possibly to the scene of the crime, but the evidence was entirely circumstantial. Was "The Indian," as he was called, guilty or not guilty? Only a trial would be able decide that.
But there was actually more to the story and that's all told in this book, which includes a summary of all the trial testimony, an analysis of all the existing records of the case and a surprising solution to the mystery which has never been revealed before.
You can see photos related to the case and read some of the original testimony here at www.vanishingshadows.com
A friend of mine used to live in the house and didn't know the story of what happened there and I suggested the story ought to be told so we thoroughly researched everything and came up with the information that's in the book, which has appeared nowhere else before.
What happened in the case actually got more interesting after Burt was to be tried for the murders -- as he bonded with the minister who held services at the prison and who had a strong anti-capital punishment position. Somehow Reverend George Hunt of the Doylestown Presbyterian Church was put on the jury and held out for a verdict of "not guilty." And the verdict was held up due to a juror's illness. What happened after that you can find out in the book if you would like to. A presentation will be made in Doylestown, Pa. at the Mercer Museum on June 22 about true crime in Bucks County which will include a discussion of the case. Testimony from Anna Stattler, who found the old couple murdered can also be read here, if you'd like to read about the discovery of the crime.
Photos of the house and grounds are here and in the book as well as the Wynkoop Mansion which existed on the next property over, where lived Revolutionary war patriot Henry Wynkoop, in charge of munitions for George Washington, and his wife Susannah who was cruelly murdered by Hessians who showed up at the mansion looking for him one night when he was not home. It is said her body was disposed of in the Rightlys' well and that is actually she and not the ghosts of the Rightlys that haunts the property.
The book can be obtained from Amazon and other sites but to order directly from the distributor, click the book cover for the link on this page.
—Eric Stedman