The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-25
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER s5, 1869.
THIN sCBOEppE MURDER TRIAL.


General Brewster to ''his Excellency Mai jor-
General John w. Geary' (Which is, blythe
way, a singular title for the Governor of
Pennsylvania), in reference to the famous
Schoeppe murder trial. 1t will be seen that,
notwithstanding the extraordinary exertions
made to create pretext for the pardon of the
prisoner, his friends have not, in the judg-
ment of the Attorney General, shown suffi-
cient cause for the exercise of Executive
clemenoy, and the death-warrant of DIR. Paul
Schoeppe has therefore been signel, the 22d
of December being the day fixed for his execu-
ton.
Those who have dispassionately read the
testimony and the proceedings of the trial
will have little cause to complain of this de-
cision. Two powerful influences were ar
rayed in behalf of the prisoner, and if the
proofs of his guilt had not been very strong,
they could have scarcely failed to rescue him
from his impending fate. 1t was natural and
honorable for the German societies to exert
themselves in his behalf. The feeling which
prompted them to spare no pains to secure
impartial Justice to a fellow-countrymen who
complained that he was the victim of local
prejudice was creditable, but now, having
discharged their full duty, they should neither
be surprised nor offended by the resolution
to let the law take its course. 1t would be as
absurd to seriously contend that DR.. Paul
Schoeppe is to be hung because he is a
German, as to allege that the character of the
hundreds of thousands of Industrious, intel
hgent, and patriotic German citizens of this
Commonwealth is impugned in the slightest
hx,f fha fon at in (tar
many has been found guilty of murder. Dr.
Schoeppe was zealously defended during the
trial in Carlisle by very able counsel. His
case was reargued before the Supreme Court
The Governor has since given a patient hear
ing to all that could be urged in his behalf,
after the best legal and medical talent had
been employed for months in devising pleas
for pardon. Rarely or never before have
such strenuous and continuous exertions been
made in this State on behalf of convicted
crimincl, and their failure can only be attri-
buted to the fact that it was beyond the
power of human ingenuity to explain away
the damning evidences of guilt.
The medical influences invoked were, in
themselves, q power of no small magnitude
The impression seems to have been generated
that the main question at issue was a scen-
tifc one about which the doctors, as usual,
disagreed, and that the safety of all physi-
clans was endangered by conviction, on in
sufficient evidence, of numbering by pre-
scription. Very delicate points were thus
raised and we can scarcely wonder at the zeal
displayed by some of the learned members of
this honorable profession in behalf of one of
their professional brethren.
But the business of the jury, the court and
the Governor was to decide whether Dr. Paul
Schoeppe was, beyond all reasonable doubt
guilty of the murder of Miss Maria Stennecke
and not to decide whether the best tests for
poison were or were not made by the chemist
who analysed the contents of the stomach of
the dead woman. An unusually strong prinsa
.focte case was made out. 1t was shown that
Dr. Schoeppe had himself purchased prussic
acid one of the most deadly of poisons, on
two occasions, short time previous to the
death of his victim. His peculiar relations
with the deceased furnished at once extraor-
dinary motives and unusual facilities for the
perpetration of his crime. There was direct
(but not uncontradicted) testimony that the
kind of poison he is known to have purchased
caused her death, and if it was used, as is
supposed by one of the medical witnesses, in
conjunction with morphine, one of the mo-
tives Of the alleged murderer was probably to
conceal the traces of his guilt by creating the
scientific puzzle or dispute which has added
such a peculiar complication to this case
The most essential medical question, after all,
was whether Miss Stennecke died natural
death, and the array of testimony on this
point, on the part of the Commonwealth, was
sufficient to satisfy any impartial jury that
she had been overdosed with noxious medi-
cines or poisons.
If Paul Schoeppe is indeed guilty, as all
the testimony seems to indicate his guilt is
of an especially infamous character To play
the part of q lover to an old woman, and
after perfecting arrangements to secure her
estate, to abuse the double confidence en-
joyed by him as a suitor and physician, by
administering deadly poison, betrays the
most execrable and desperate villainy. 1t
involves degree of cruel treachery scarcely
equalled by ''Macbeth's" murder of his Sleep
ing guest; and if we are to retain the system
of capital punishment, surely such men
should not be suffered to escape the gallows.
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