The Portland daily press., 1873-11-17
The Gordon Trial.

To the Editor of the Press:
There has been a large crowd in attendance
at the Gordon trial, as any day previous the
| galleries have been crowded with ladies, from
whom an occasional remark of sympathy for
the prisoner is heard but the general express
sion is of condemnation. Gordon is brought to
and froIu the court and Jail handcuffed to one
of the deputy sherffs and guarded by others.
AS he was leaving the hall last night he asked
the sheriff to close the door behind them, and
shut off the crowd. He evidently has fears of
personal violence. Some of the murdered wo-
mans relatives are reported to have said that
he shall not leave the court room alive if he
should fail to be convicted.
The forenoon was occupied with the testimo-
ny of Sheriff Norton detailing the manner in
which the letter signed Chas. w. Green. was
found. He found it in the Jail near the prison
er's cell, Aug. Goth. A number of letters were
presented known to be Gordon's handwriting.
for comparison.
Five experts were introduced to prove the
similarity of the handwriting in all the letters,
and they all testified that in their opinion the
writing in the letter signed Charles w. Greene
was done by the same person who wrote other
letters, acknowledged to be John 7. Gordons
writing. The letter is as follows:
YARMOUTH, June "a, 1873.
| Mr. John 7. Gordon
/ see by the papers that you are arrested and
lodged in the Belfast Jail for the murder of the
went down on the boat from Bangor to Belfast
| on the I'd day of June last. asked you some
| thing about your fathers turning you off, and
| taking your brother to carry on the farm after
| he had been away at work. Jpitied you, for L
| thought you were not used well, and L had an
interest for myself in my mind, l thought per-
haps if you got possession of the property that
| l might get present out of you, so made up my
mind to poison the whole family if ever went
! to Thorndike, and that would throw the prop
| erty into your hands, WE'LL after going on the
island and loafng round until the 18th day of
| June, got back to Thorndike. and laid in your
| fathers barn Sunday, and the dog barked at
me. L gave him some meat with poison on it,
and he did not trouble me again. saw your
| brother and the hired man, suppose, two or
| three times during the day. Well, l made up
| my mind to get into the house that night, rob
your brother, then put poison into the teakettle
| and leave. So, in the night l took an axe
| found the door not fastened, lit candle, found
something to eat. Then Iput on frock
found, went to your brothers room, and while
getting his money he woke up. l struck him
with the axe, when his wife woke up, and shar-
ed the fate of him, l had to stop the noise of
money, set the bed on fire, went into another
room, and while there heard somebody come
down stairs and | got out of the house, and
that was ALL l hid under the shed till night,
before | could get away, there was so many hol-
lerng sire" in every direction. John, all
can do is to confess the truth, for did the
murder, and you didn't know anything about
it, or have any hand in it. done it myself
half drunk. 1 am sorry for it. thought you
was in Boston all the time. but it seems you
were not So will write and confess that 1
done the murder, and send it to you by friend
of mine that is going through there in two or
three months, and will take care of myself
where the officers cannot find me- don't see
how they came to take you for the murder,
when you didn't know anything about it.
Good-by John. Show this to your lawyer.
Good-by forever.
From yonr unhappy friend,
CHARLES W. GREENE
The afternoon was occupied in identifying the
articles of clothing worn by the prisoner at the
time of his arrest, and which are said to show
faint spots of blood. The testimony of John
T., given before the coroner's jury, at the in
quest, was put in and proved.
Judge Appleton ruled finally that the anony-
nous letters retained by Miss Edwards, were