A Strange Way To Torture

Laurel is a small town in Sussex County, in south-western Delaware, about two hours and fifteen minutes from both Washington and Philadelphia. It was incorporated in 1883 and grew wealthy on the sweet potato boom that ran through southern Delaware from the early 1900s to the 1940s; at one point it had eleven general stores, seven grocery stores, clothing shops, drug stores, carriage factories and butcher shops for only about 2,500 people. Its motto is 'great things come naturally'. By 1977 it was a quiet place where a group of people could gather in an empty corner lot called Lookout Mountain to drink in the morning.

John M. Horseman was sixty-seven that year. He was a house painter who still worked, a heavy drinker for most of his life who had liver trouble by his sixties, and a man who had been on the wagon since the start of 1977. He and his wife Flossy had been together for years. They had a son, John W. Horseman, a daughter, Patricia, and a stepson, Jack, from Flossy's first marriage, along with fifteen grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren. His son Lewis, a minister of music at the Christian Life Church in Baltimore who also directed the Maranatha Choir and ran his own beauty shop, had been shot to death on the evening of 27 November 1976 a few feet from his car in Baltimore. He died at the city hospital of a single wound to the chest, with his wallet still in his pocket. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed He said he had hit himself on the head with a dumbbell, wandered off in a daze, got into Horseman's car and fired because he thought the man was reaching for a weapon. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it John Horseman started drinking heavily again after his son's death, then stopped at the beginning of 1977.

On the morning of 6 August 1977 Horseman left his home in Laurel in his pickup truck with a camper shell on the back, telling Flossy he would be back in fifteen minutes. this part of the story is covered for now The group had already been drinking. When the liquor ran low Horseman offered to drive them to a store in Delmar, where they bought cigarettes, two six-packs of beer, orange juice and a bottle of vodka.

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Horseman ran his hand up and down her leg. this part of the story is covered for now Once she was out, he went round to the driver's side, told Horseman to move over and, when Horseman refused, punched him twice in the side of the head. He drove the truck through a field into the woods, where everyone got out. Horseman, bleeding, begged them not to hurt him and said he would give them anything. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed The group discussed hanging him, then decided to tie him to the tree instead. They made him kneel with his back against the trunk, tied his ankles behind the tree with a belt, tied his wrists in front of him with another belt, pulled his elbows back and looped a shirt through them around the tree. They gagged him with a handkerchief and socks and blindfolded him with another shirt, tying his head to the trunk. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now Those three took a bus to Philadelphia. details of the account remain covered until revealed

Flossy Horseman reported her husband missing the next day. On 8 August his truck was found in the parking lot of the Purdue chicken processing plant in Salisbury, with nothing in it to explain where he was. On 16 September 1977 land surveyors working in woods west of Laurel, just off Sussex 504, found a body leaning against a tree, about ninety per cent decomposed, tied to the trunk. The lower torso was still in a pair of trousers and the upper torso in a shirt, about thirteen feet from a maple tree six inches in diameter, with a belt and clothing nearby. The dirt at the base of the tree was dark and greasy from putrefaction. A dental plate inscribed 'J. Horseman' identified him. Dr Judith Tobin, the deputy state medical examiner, could not establish a cause of death because of the state of the remains. She thought the gag might have suffocated him, and the seepage into the ground convinced her he died at the tree.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed Brought to Delaware, he signed a statement incriminating himself and a consent to search his property for Horseman's Timex watch, which was recovered on 22 September 1977. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it The Delaware Supreme Court had just struck down two aggravating circumstances in the state's capital statute, including that the victim was elderly and defenceless. this part of the story is covered for now The women received life, which in Delaware at that time meant possible release in under fifteen years.

In April 1981 their lawyers argued that the death had been a bizarre accident rather than murder, and that the withheld dirt and bark samples might have shown Horseman did not die at the tree. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now