The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1872-02-10
CERCUMsEANTEAA EvEDEavE
TWO REMARKABLE INSTANCES OF MISTAKEN
IDENTITY.

TWO REMARKABLE INSTA NCES OF MISTAKEN I
IDENTITY.
At the present time, when several exciting
criminal CAGES are agitating the popular
mind in this country. and the lOgua- tend
ency is toward sentiment calculated to
prejudice the deliberations Of legal Justice in
the interests Of mere mob~passi1n, there
should be wholesome moral use in citation
from late English papers Of two notable IL
lustrations Of the strange mistakes TO which
the most confident of witnessing is liab'e /
and of the conse quent cruel error into which /
courts may be led by any precipitous aGiG- F!
dcation even from that most positive form
of testimony. The Pal hal G2zeEe recalls
the Eliza Baker case.'' as it was called, in
which the following were the suggestive facts:
Miss Baker. come,y young woman Of the
UPper~seIvant class. having been discharged
from the service Of Mr.. Peter Wood. lice! ssd
victualier. Of Bermondscy New Road. be
cause Mrs Wood had become Jealous Of her,
was supposed to have committed suicide by
a leap into the Thames. The body rccov~
cred from the river by the police, and de
scriptiou published, Mr. Wood was attract
ed to the work house whittier the dead form
had been conveyed. aud there, with signs Of
strong emotion. positively ident. fed it as
that of the poor girl whom his w!fe's evil
/ The parents Of the girl aud other relatives
/ also recognized the corpse in the same iden-
! tty without hesitation and the corOner's
| jury were about to find a verdict severely
| censuring the Woods when there entered
unto them n new witness " no completely
overturned all the preceding evidence. No
/ relative of Miss Bakers, but ouly an &C
! quaintauce, this persona dTayman in the
! well known brewery of WLilbread & Co -
/ eXCItcdly assured coroner and witness that
Eliza Baker had not committed sUicda s. all,
/ inasmuch as he could swear that he had seen
and conversed with her in the street on that
! very day. Such talk sounded like the Wild
est Of insanity with the unchanged body of
! the dead girl still before the parents. friends
/ and recent employers, who had positively
/ identified it yet. after brief absence from
/ the incredulous court, the drayman brought
/ the living F. "a herself before The rIrv, wit b
/ the effect of causing her father and mother
/ to faint and Mr.. Wood 10 fall down iu a ft
| What the identity Of the corpse really had
/ been i'm life was never revealed, and it re-
mained only for the amazed Jury to render 3
verdict Of one more unfortunate found
/ drowned" Il may be urged that death pro
/ duces certain changes Of feature and CONS
! pexion in some degree calculated to confuse
Identification but as many mistakes ofitcn-
/ titv have been committed against the living.
Excmplifying an error Of the Iatter de-
scTiptjon, another English irurnal gives the
( points of a curious case only inst now egdei
About the year 1855 a respectable young
. married man named Kerry Of the village Of
, Kirk Langley. few miles from Derby, was
appointed to a small clerkShjp in India. His
wife being an invalid al the time, be decided
! to leave her with her relatives until he
should have prepared their new home for her
reception hut even while he was on his way
across the ocean the poor lady died, and his
first English mail after landing brought him
news of the sad event. Remaining in India
for number Of years, he returned only re-
Gently to his native village. where. with the
accumulated earnings of bis foreign cerkship
he purchased small estate known as Star
ling Cottage, which is his present residence
1t was not long after his return 10 Kirk
Langley, when a Mrs. Rucktuck, of Liver
pooI, saw him there and Indignantly ilcnti-
fed him as the man who had married 6
neighbor of hers a few years before. Mr.
Kerry pronounced his accuser insane. ant
curtly denied that he mad married a second
wife yet. upon being summoned from Liver
pool. the woman alleged to have been wed
ded bv him positively identified him as hcl
runaway husband. The affair reached pint
with full personal description Of poor Kerry
and in a few days still another woman, {
Mrs, Spass, appeared "a Langley to claim
matrimonial lord in the bewildered Eas
Indian. As though these suficed not. still
other women. to the number of four. fastened
to the village in search of husbands who had
married and deserted them and all unhesi,
tatingIv recognized and Identified Mr. Kerry
as 'the man" Great domestic uproar and
popular excitement were the result Of this
grotesque and scandaloUs complication al
six of the clamorous deserted wives seemed
wholly honest in their unanimous positive
assertion and yet. by the Guly certified afIi
davits of his former employers and associates
in India the perseCuted victim Of q miSta ken
identity is at last able to Coufouud his half
a-dozen aCcusers with convincing proof that
in all the times Of his alleged marriages 10
them he was living honorably in a clerkship
/ thousands Of miles away. "Aud In that
day. quotes a scriptural friend near by,
| 'behold seven women shall lay hold of one
man. saving: We will eat of our own
meat and be clothed with our own clothes,
only let us be called by thy name'" The
six would -be-mesdames. Kerry, and the de
tective, Mrs Rucktuck. have withdrawn
their accusations and frankly confess that
the case must, Of course. be one of mistaken
identity although, but FIR the vindCation
from India. popular wrath and judicial pro
cess might have consigned the most innocent
of widowers to transportation for Wholesale
bigamy. IF. thsn. The most credible and
positive of eye witnessing, 10 less than most
conclusive" crcumstantial evidence, may be
wholly and egregious!y mistaken. how
palpabIe is it that the law carnot bs too de
| liberate. methodical. and even Technically
temporizipg in dealing with criminal cases
in which either public sentjmegkDr private
revenge would urge it TO a spFea whereby
the gallows or the prison justly ending a
/ guilty life to-day might as nnjustly punish
the innocent tomorrow Social StudjeS," "
| World.
SOME editorial fiend in human form, who
writes for the Indianapolis journal, was al
lowed to perpetrate the following outrage on