Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-07-02


housein Bennington county. There
was no known proof that the Boorns
were guilty, and yet everybody be-
lieyed it. A button and jack-knife
were found, which Mrs. G. believed
to have belonged to Russell; dreams,
thrice repeated, were had by old wo-
men and kitchen girls, and ten thou
sand stories were in circulation.
Five years after Colvin was miss
ing, Stephen Boorn removed to Den
mark, n. Y, while Jessie remained
at home. After the former had left,
some bones were accidentally found
in the decayed trunk of tree near
his house, and though all surgeons
said to the contrary, it was univer-
sally believed that they were part of
a human skeleton. OF course, then,
they must be Colyin's bones. Jesse
was arrested, Stephen brought back
from Denmark, and both were held
for examination. Although all the
testimony when sifted was found to
be worthless, yet the two brothers
were remanded back to jail, and Jes-
sc was worked upon to mako him
turn States evidence. The jailor tor
mented him with suggestions, which
his wife followed up with womanly
adroitness. Neighbors help. Beset
with preaching and prayers, tracts,
and sermons, religious conversation
and pious directions-told that there
was no doubt in any ones mind but
that Stephen committed the murder,
urged to make a clean breast of it
and thus save both body and soul,
what wonder that the man confess
ed, OF was alleged to have confessed,
that Stephen Boorn did murder Rus
sci Colvin?
On September 8, 1919, the grand
jury found a bill of indictment
against Stephen and jesse Boorn for
the murder of Russell COlvin. VIM.
Farnsworth testified that Stephen
confessed that he did it, and that
Jessie helped him; that they hid the
body in the bushes, then buried it,
and then scraped the few remains
and hid them in a stump. Upon this
unsupported evidence the jury re-
turned a verdict of guilty sgainst
both prisoners, and they were SEN
fenced to be hung on January 28,
1920.
And now the men came to their
senses. They asserted their inno-
cence. They said they had confess
ed as their last hope. Some compass
sion began to be felt for them. They
might, after all, be innocent. A pc
tition for their pardon was present
ed to the Legislature. But it avail
ed only to obtain communication of
Jesie's sentence to imprisonment for
life. No more. Stephen was to be
hanged.
Let the reader now turn to anoth-
or chapter of this strange history.
| In April, 1918, there lived in Do
Yer Monmouth county, N. j., Mr..
James Polhamus. During that
month a wayfarer, begging food,
stopped at his door. Being handy,
good natured, quiet and obedient,
homeless and weak of intellect, too,
was allowed to stay. He said that
his name was Russell Colvin, and that
he came from Manchester, Vt.
| Not far from Dover lies the little
town of Shrewsbury, then a quiet
hamlet, now invaded by the cot
tages and villas of Long Branch
pleasure-seekers, Here lived Taber
Chadwick, brother-in:law to Mr..
| Polhamus, and an inmate with the
family. -Aeeidently reading the
| New York EUening Post, he met,
not the notice of the Rutland Her
aid, but with an account of the Rus
sell Colvin, alleged to have been muir
dered was the very man then living
with Mr.. Polhamus, he wrote let
ter to the EUe7eipsg Post, which was
published December 9, 1919.
Upon the arrival of this paper at
Manchester it excited but little at
tentiOn. The letter was believed to
be forgery or q fraud. Had not
the best people in the town long be-
lieved the Boorns to be guilty? Had
not one, perhaps both of them, made
| full confession? The bones of the
murdered mama button off his coat,
his iaek-nife-had they not all been
found? Had not an upright Judge
made some solemn charge that the
evidence was conclusive, and an in
telligent jury found them guilty,
and the Legislature sanctioned their
findings 2 There was no doubt of
their guilt, none whatever, and
therefore the benefit of o doubt had
not been given by the jury, Chief
Justice, or Court Of Appeals.
Mr.. Chadwick's letter was, new
/ ertheless, taken to Stephens cell
and read aloud. The news was so
overwhelming that nature could
scarcely survive the shock. The
poor fellow dropped in fainting
fit, to the floor, and had to be re-
covered by dashes of cold water.
Intelligence came next day from
Mr.. Whelply, formerly 8 resident
from Manchester, that he himself
| had been to New jersey and seen
Russell Colvin. The members of
the jury which had convicted the
Boorns, however, hesitated to accept
anything short of the mans pres
ence and Judge Chase, who had
sentenced them, pointed to Stephen
Boorn's confession.
The third day came another let
ter. Il have Russell Colvin with me,
wrote Mr.. Whelply. q personally
know Russell Colvin,' sworo John
Rempton, 'he now stands before
me- 1T is the same Russell Colvin
that married Ann Boorn, of Manch-
ester, VT, made affidavit Mrs. Jones,
of Brooklyn. But it would not an
swer. Pride of opinion is stubborn.
Doubt OF opinion dies hard. Man
chester Intelligence, not to say pie
ty. was on trial, and it bohooved all |
food residents to hold out against |
conviction to the last.
However Colvin, or Colvin's |
double, was on his way. As he pass
cd through Poughkeepsie the streets
were tlTonged to see him. His sto-