Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1854-03-09
FROM THE BALTIMORE sun.
THE GARDINER TRAGEDY.

| Gardiner convicted of fraud and forg ry at
| Washington, took poison and thus commitieu SUI
icide or not, is not yet positively deterniiieu, as
will be seen by the following testimony before Inc
jury of inquest. though the physicians generahy
| think he did There were tclegra, bic dispatches
received in this city Saturday which SAID tha'
efforts were made TO have DIR. GARDENERS brother
before the coroner, to compel him to produce me
letter written just previous to the formers d'alh'
| but he could not be found on Friday night or 'a-
turday morning. 1t will lie seen, however, that
he attended his brothers funeral in Washington
yesterday. The following is the result OF The IN
! quest so far
Inquest Over the Body CT George Gardiner,
aged SO yeaIs-Born in NJ Yclk, Resident III
Washington for years.
The following is the list of jurors on the in
| quest:
Thomas c. Magruder, Leonard Storm, Rich
| ard I. Mclean, Robert G. Stevens, VIM. Lord,
! Jonathan w. Baraclo, VIM. X. Plowman, Jere-
| miah Giddings, Almon Baldwin, Henry C. Bald
win, Wm. +. Bowie, Coroner Woodward presi-
ding.
Friday afternoon March, ;'.-Dr. l.. NJ. Cha-
pin deputy marshal, examined by Mr.. Key, L.
5. District Attorney, gave the following testimo-
| N.Y.
ing in the court of Mr.. Bradley's residence,
where was sent by the court to inform him and
Mr.. Bradley that the c1ur were waiting for them;
he afterwards came over to the court by himself
twenty minutes, believe, after it met. (eleven
o'cloek.) He remained in court till the jury
brought in the verdict of guilty. Immediately
afterwards he delivered into the custody of
the marshal, and |, us one Of the deputies, took
charge of him.
Mr. Bradley told me the deceased wished to go
over at once to escape the crowd, said yes;came
to the jail with him and one of the baillffr,
Mr.. Wilson; remark made until got out
of the Court. house, when | spoke of the unpeas-
ant duty; he said yes he spoke of the weather,
saying it was fine morning; don't recollect OF
any other conversation until got to the jail;
the deceased set down in the Office or guard room,
and went to writing; | don't know that he asked
for paper; after awhile he took some papers
from his pocket, and tore them up and threw
them in the fire; they seemed to be dingy pa
pcrs, rs if they had been in his pocket for long
tines Mr.. Smith, (the jailor) noticed it, and cali
ed my attention to it, they looked like papers
any one would have had long time in his pock-
ct he finished his letter, folded it up, and wrote
something on il; | took the writing on it to be
the superscription; deceased put it in his peck
ct the deceased said he would be ready to go
to his room lin the prison) he had
finished the letter; l said they were fixing his
rooms | supposed he was apologzing for detuin-
ing me.
Mr.. Birch came in he asked Mr.. Birch for a
was opened he asked for another glass of water;
| asked him if felt faint; he said that he would
be better in moment; after drinking some water
he said that he felt better | remarked to him
that the clothing that he had on was too good to
go into the cell with he said that it made diff
ference, that it was lmmateria to him what cloth
ing he wore in the prison i'll few minutes he
attempted to raise the glass he was then sitting
sideways on chair, with his arm over the back
| asked him if he felt faint; he said he did;
was not then looking particularly at him, and the
first thing that called my attention to him
noise of something falling; | then turned to-
wards him, and saw him falling; his head struck
the corner of the desk and then fell on the floor,
leaving the calves of his legs still on the chair
he was in commissions, and | raised him up he
became sensible, and seeing blood on my hands,
asked me if he had cut his head; | said he had
slightly; he saw drops of blood | called to one
of the guard to bring cot; | omitted TO say
that he seemed wcaried by the walk to the iail
he asked for brandy between the drinks of water;
| told him we had no brandy there, but we would
get some, though it would be with difficulty; re-
memberng that Lords grocery store was near by,
he pulled quarter out of his pocket, and handed
it TO me, saying that ought not to pay for it; he
was then sitting at the table, while the boy was
gone for brandy.
| ordered some one to bring in pallet on which
one of the guards sleep it was brought in, and
asked MN TO lie down, lie OBJECTED; thought at
the time that he did not want to give trouble; |
wanted to bathe his temples with hartshorn, and
remarked that it was too strong to hold to his
nose. He pulled out his handkerchief, and |
think that he asked me to pour some on it. | re-
moved him to his bed, and noticed that he was
nervous. | thought that he in epilcptic
fit. While sitting the side of the bed, he had
taken off his overcoat, and | asked him to take
off his frock cont to which he objected. l insis-
ted on his neck tie being taken off. He said that
he would take it off himself, and did SO. John
| Charles CHS brother,) came in about this time,
whilst he was seated on his bed. | think | said
| to him that it was like Il spasm. | understood
| him to say that the deceased had been subject to
! spasins before he had one i'll Mexico and hurt
himself. About this time he had third spasm
He and his brother convcrsed together in some
! foreign language, think Spanish. He gave his
! brother something and wrote down something
! They then spoke in English and mentioned some
street in New 1ork-Dnane street, think
thought that John Charles was writing as ANA
nucnss for the deceased. lsaw the manuscript
ON the table. Another paroxyism then came on
| took from his pocket q think from his vest or
coat poekeD what thought was the same letter
that | saw him write, and silk purse with mon
ey, in it, which gave to John Charles. Ny at
ten,ion was directed rather to the deceased than
to his brother. | then unbuttoned his shirt, col
| lar some brandy was brought in. when took
the bottle, and having poured some out, handed
it to him, but he declined taking it, When |
touched him with my hands or a towel he shrank
| thought it strange that he declined taking the
water, unless there a difficulty of swallowing
His brother took the brandy, and the deceased
smetit. | then went for the physician of the jail