The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-12-11


SrREEr.-sc me clue has at length been obtained
to the mystery of the late horrible and daring
murder OF tie poor widow lady in Twelfth
street, in the arrest of the carpenter whose
presence around the dwelling of the victim
had for some tine previous to the tragedy Gre
ated some alarm in the mind of the deceased
and suspicion on the part of her friends. He
was captured Oh IN emigrant train on the Erie
Railroad, while cndeavoring to escape.
Nothing in the criminal record Of this city
heretofore has eq,alied in boldness this terri
BILE murder. The Burdell murder, desperate
as were all its features, was perpetrated under
the shadow of night, and was surrounded by
circumstances which invested it with all the
secrecy and stealthiness which usually charac-
terize premeditated homicide; but this crime
was committed in open day, in the very midst
of busy and stirring community, within
short distance Of our great fashionable high
way, Fifth avenue and in house occupied by
numerous tenants, all awake andmoving about
in the ordinary avocations of the day.
What can we argue from these facts but that
there is absolutely no protection for human
life in this metropolis; that We have no police
equal to the duty of preserving our citizens
from the hand of the assassin; that, whether by
day or by night no one is safe alone, even in
his or her own domicile? 1t is evident that if
people can be brutality murdered at their
breakfast tables, in broad daylight, in the midst
of populous neighborhood, and the assassin
can walk into our dwelling openly-do his
work of murder, rife the property at his lei
sure, and depart unseen and unheard, save by
his unhappy victim-no mans life is safe
for an hour, and that it is imminently danger
GUS for any one to venture out at night alone
and unarmed.
Was there no patrolman in Twelfth
street on Friday morning when this miu-
derer entered the store of the deceased
took her life, and coolly ransacked the pre-
misses, helping himself to whatever was valu-
able therein? If there was, how does it happen
that the presence of a character of SO suspicious
an appearance as this man il described to be
could have escaped his notice? And if there was
not, how are the police authorities going to
answer for the negligence
1t is remarkable that in this case as in so
many other instances of grave crimes, of vio-
lcnce and bloodshed the perpetrator is mere
youth-one of that class the most dangerous
and desperate which infest the city, whose
early careers Of crime are unchecked by pro-
per administration of justice in our criminal
courts. And to this deficiency in our courts Of
law is attributable much Of the existing crime
in the city. The administration of criminal
law has been SO VIGOROUSLY lax that it has
emboldened the marauder. II has become so
easy to escape the consequences Of crime that
the law has no longer any terrors for the evil
doer And lest the infliction of punishment
was not difficult enough before, the last Legis-
lature passed an act rendering the penalty of
murder in the first degree impossible to be i'm
posed. That honest and pious body of legis-
lators, while they were plundering this city of
its rights and franchises through the medium
Of gridiron railroads and other nefarious mea-
sures. as kind Of salve to their consciences,
enacted law to prevent the efusion Of human
blood upon the scafYold. We have seen the
effects of that enactment in the vast increase of
bold and desperate murders in this city for the
past wear of which this last one is terrible
example.
1t is to be hoped that the Legislature
which assemblies in January will see the
necessity Of repeating the law of last session,
which practically abolishes capital punish
ment We have had victims enough to its mis-
chievous tendency; and, whatever may be
said In favor Of the abolition OF the death pc
a. A. r.. -.
for ii in the city of New York.