FIRST - Person legally hanged in Belmont County, Ohio
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Mr. 0
N 40° 06.266 W 081° 10.482
17T E 485110 N 4439362
This is a small plaque marking where Louiza Fox's body was found. She was murdered by Thomas Carr, who, as a result, was the first person legally hanged in Belmont County, Ohio.
Waymark Code: WM1WBX
Location: Ohio, United States
Date Posted: 07/19/2007
Views: 120
The marker is a little difficult to find, since it's on one of the many winding dirt roads in the Egypt Valley Wildlife area in eastern Ohio.
This plaque marks were Louiza Catherine Fox's body was found after her murder in January of 1869.
Louiza Fox and Thomas Carr were engaged to be married. Fox's family was concerned about the engagement since she was only 13 years old, and he was much older than her. They were also concerned because of the stories they had heard about Carr's violent mood swings, and they decided to put a stop to the engagement. Carr became upset when he heard of these plans and hid behind a fence awaiting Louiza to pass by. When she arrived she was accompanied by her younger brother. Carr sent her brother away so he could "talk to" Louiza. At that point he slit her throat, stabbed her multiple times, and threw her body into a ditch. The younger brother saw the entire event and ran to his family.
A search party was put together the next morning, and they found Carr badly wounded. He had attempted to kill himself by shooting himself and slitting his throat. The search party bandaged him up, and took him before the judge.
5 days later he was sentenced to death by hanging. It was reported that Carr laughed at his sentence and seemed to not care about his fate. In March of 1870, Carr admitted to killing Louiza, and at least fourteen others. He also claimed to have attempted, but failed, to kill 5 other people. Many people felt he was making all that up since he was well known to exaggerate. On March 24, 1870, he became the first person legally hanged in Belmont County, Ohio.
Louiza Fox is buried at Salem Cemetery, near where she was killed.
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