Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1866-10-20


II arrest you, John Blanchard, for the
murder of Charles Smith, stage driver"
If he should have struck me should not
have been more surprised. tried to rea-
son with him, but although very civil, he
was equally firm, and the result was l spent
the remainder of the night in the county
Jail, which building was situated in l.,
that Dcing the shire town. The examiEa-
tion the next morning elctated the follow
ing facts:
When the Sheriff searched my person he
was surprised to find no wallet or memo
randum book. Sending to my assistant, he
obtained the door keys, but the safe keys
could not be found, and my clerk declared
that always carried them with me. Upon
entering they found that the letters were all
gone, the money drawer empty and few
stamps, which the clerk informed them we
always left out of the safe at night, missing,
and no trace could be found of the safe keys.
Supposing that had disposed of them in
order that the trace of my guilt, which it
was taken for granted had concealed In
the safe, could not be discovered, they
brought q locksmith, and after much labor
forced the lock. This labor served only to
show them that the safe had been complete
ly rifed, and the sum of three thousand
dollars, which had beer in it the night be-
fore, was gone.
found that the causes which led to sus-
picions being fastened upon me were the
three following:
First, the revolver with which the decd
was committed had upon the butt silver
plate, on which was engraved my name
The clerk took an oath that the weapon was
mine, and that l always kept it in the office
When they produced it could not doubt
for moment that it belonged to me-
Second, that the bag was unlocked and not
cut open, showing that it must have been
done by some one having In his possession
United States mail key. Third that had
not been at home during the evening, and
when summoned at the post office | delayed
so long in making my appearance.
To combat these facts I argued that the
state of the Office proved conclusively that
it had been robbed; and that without doubt
the keys and the revolver had been
taken at that time. Also, that no trace of
any of the stolen articles was found about
me, my house, or my office; and that further,
if l had desired, to rob the mail, | might
have waited until it had arrived at the office,
and thus saved myself the crime of murder.
Against the third statement | told the rea-
son of my remaining in the Office so late,
and brought forward witnesses to prove
that often did so on Wednesday evenings,
In order that the mail might be delayed as
little as possible. Further that the reason
of my remaining so long in the office was
that could not open the door, and brought
forward the fact that the keys were missing,
to sustain my allegation.
Although these arguments were by no
means fully satisfactory to tho C who took
the ground that was guilty, still they were
so far that was released on bail of five
thousand dollars which readily obtained.
BY consent of the Post-ofiice Department,
turned the affairs of the Office over to my
assistant. l was thus left free to pursue
! every means to prove my innocence, which
l felt could only be done by discovering the
guilty party.
accordingly placed the best detectives
at work, with orders to communicate to me
the first suspicion that they entertained, for
| found it was anything but comfortable to
be looked upon:as a murderer, although
knew that l was innocent.
Thus three weeks passed without any
thing of interest occurring, and at the end
| of that time could endure the suspense no
longer Therefore wrote to an old friend
! of mine, who was then on the detective
Z
set about the search
A week passed without bringing more to
! light, and causing us to despond, for We
feared the murderer had so covered his
track that it would be impossible tol oldiscover
him. We had been at work two days in
the city of c., and being about to leave
l entered the hotel office to settle. Having
no small bills, there was considerable change
handed back, and among it ten dollar
bill, which had beer torn in two. AS
turned it carefully over / found that the
parts had been fastened together with the
margin of couple of postage stamps, which
had printed upon it mo. 15-Plate," but
the "No." and the "Plate" had been crossed
out, and substituted in their place was
I"Mar." and 1884" making it read "Mar
10, 1864" which was the day before the
robbery and murder. This may seem a,
common enough, but to me it was ray o.
light and hope; for the change was in my
own hand writing. | also remembered per
fectly well making the change also, that
had placed my initials on the underside an(
that the bill must have been in the safe a
the time of the robbery. Calling my frient
we went into side room and there care
fully removed the paper. On the other sid
was discovered, as l expected, the letter
u. b." much blurred from wetting, but still
legible. My friend agreed with me that i
was very important discovery, and in OF
Ger to press it forward We called in tn
landlord and questioned him.
lie remembered having received the bill
that morning, and had rather questione'
taking it on account of the tear. On 5ein
asked to describe the man he said:
'As near as / can recollect, he was abou
five feet ten inches in height, and quit
stout in proportion. He was dressed er
tirely in black. The only peculiar mar
that ] noticed was deep scar runnin
across his face, and his left eye was gon
, the place being supplied by piece {
black silk, which he showed very plainl
, when he winked."
, think must have started very pc
ceptibly when heard this description, ft
. recognized the man Immediately as rul
, ner for the firm Of Bagley & Nelson, of Bo
, ton, who had been in town for week pr
9 vious to the murder, and had left the san
Q morning. His own name was James Burr
ham. ;, .. ...-..r.f
AS we could learn nothing more from Il
landlord, save that he ordered the hackms
a to drive to the Boston depot, we dismisse
I him and held consultation. We boi
: agreed it was best to go immediately
I Boston, see Bagiey 4 Nelson, and, it poss
e BILE, learn of Burnham's whereabouts,
4 Carrying out this plan we learned from 4
: firm the following facts
n n. u