Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1872-06-10
ACOlOreI TiciibOrne.

Louisville has a puZz!ing Tichborne case
which promises to be Of great interest in court
circles. 1t is a most complicated instance Of
disputed idenity, and the evidence on both
sides in positive, direct and OF the most re-
spectacle character.
John Girton, colored man. shot and killed
his brother .in-law, Thomas Mason, also black.
in the city of Louisville. Chiffon got away
with the stains Of blood on him and could not
be traced Some years after Robert johnson
got into the workhollSe al Louisville. whence he
was transferred to the Jail at ''irton, aud is
awaiting trial for the murder of Mason. Now
johnson says he is not Girton, but Robert
White, of Indiana, and is trying to get out Of
jail on writ Of habeas corpus At the hear
ing of the case the evidence was very singular,
and many of the statements appear to be mex
plicable.
The prisoner says his name is Robert
White, born and raised in Indiana, and had
never been in Kentucky, consequent y ,s could
DIANA the United States assessor for his dis.
trct testified that he had known the prisoner
for thirty or thirty. FIVE years-al his life; that
in Salem He was also in Massachusetts, regi-
ment during the war. in General Gilmore $
brigade. Judge Cyrus i. Durham also
testified that the prisoner was Robert
White, of Salem, Indiana Other gentle
men corroborated these facts. Anna Mason,
sister to John Girton, said that the prisoner
was not her brother John Girton, who killed
her husband The Commonwealth on the
other hand, had quite number of respectable
witnesses, who swore that the prisoner was
John Girton, born in Marion county, Kentucky
whose sister married the murdered man that
he was slave, sold South five years before
the war; that he came to Louisville in COM
pany with Mason, who was in the army, and
that Girton continued to reside 10 Louis
Vile until the commission OF the crime. The
prisoner also introduced Il negro woman to
prove that be could not have committed the
murder because he had boarded with her for
several years previous, and at the time, and
that he had never been absent from her house
a single night The only theory of solution is
that the law has got hold of the right man,
and that even if the prisoner is Robert White,
of Salem, Ind, he was in the army, and while
there fell 10 with Mason, who, from Whites
resemblance to his brother-in. law, asked him
if he was not Girton, and the prisoner allowed
Mason to labor under the affirmative impress
sion that he remained with Mason until the
conclusion Of the war, came with him to Louis
vile, was introduced to his family and relatives
as John Girton, resided there and committed
the murder charged under that name. At last
accounts the Circuit court had not decided
upon the petition; in the meantime the Louis
vile lawyers are puzzing over the question OF
Identity The records OF the courts do not
contain more remarkable case.
4 WILL CASE. In the year 1871. DIR. Thco.
g. Talmage Of this city died. and shortly after,
ward lawyer named Phillip Burrows presented
an instrument for probate, purportlng, to be
the last will and testament OF DR.. Iallmage;
executed in $780, by which he was appointed
exccutor and named as residuary legatee in
the case of the death of the doctors infant
daughter before reaching the age Of twentyone
wears. The will also contained a power to sell
the property 10 his discretion. In 1855. finding
the child was likely to attain her majority Bur
rows, under the power given him in the WILL
DISPOSED of all the real estate and retired with
the proceeds to Italy, where he recently died:
Meantime the daughter grew up to wonanhood
and married Mr. james T.. Bolton OF tins city,
and in 1862 suits were commenced IN the Su-
perior Court for the recovery OF the property,
on the ground that the will was fraudulent and
void and that the purchase had been made by
parties 10 collision with Burrows After a
lapse of ten years one of these cases, which Is
made test case, has at length reached trial
before Justice Barbour and jury, and to day
the Jury returned verdict for plaintiff on oil
the issues submitted. The property Involved
is said to exceed half million of dollars. IN.
T. Standard.
Mr.. SEWARD, speaking Of the great walls OF
China, which he examined during his late visit
10 the East says The Chinese have been
for at least two or three thousand years a wall
making people, 1t would bankrupt New York
or Paris to build the walls of the city OF Pekln:
The great wall of China is the wall of the world
1t is forty feet high.