Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1875-05-08
THE TICKET OF LEAVE.
The New Bill Passed by the New YOr
Legislature and its Eject.

The Ticket of Leave bill passed by
the New York Legislature creates no lit
tie interest among the prisoners. A sec
ton of the bill provides that each con-
vict now or hereafter confined in any of
the State prisons or penitentiaries of
New York State under sentence for the
term of the natural life of such convict,
who shall have been in all respects ODE 3.
dent to the rules and regulations of
such prison for the term of fifteen years,
etc., shall at the expiration of
such term of uniform good conduct
and obedience be released from impris-
onment during probationary period of
ten years, if the governor shall, in his
discretion, so direct; and at the end Of
such period of ten years said convict
shall, if so released, be fully pardoned
by the governor, with the restoration of
the rights of citizenship, provided that
during the said probationary period of
ten years said convict shall not have been
convicted of any crime in any court of
competent jurisdiction.
In the Sing Sing prison there are two
males and three females whom the pro
visions of the bill would reach at pres
ent. Within two years several others
would come under it, One of the males
is Francis Tarbox, better known as
"Nigger Frank, a colored man, nearly
ninety years Of age, and who, on account
of his being by far the oldest and longest
inhabitant of the prison, is regarded
with almost filial veneration by most of
his fellow convicts. For an aggravated
case of burglary in the first degree he
was sentenced for life.
The other male convict whose freedom
would be secured by the bill is DIR. Low
enbergh, who was convicted i'll New York
of murder in the first degree and SEN
fenced to be executed; but, in accord
ance with the then existing statute,
which required that a condemned MUIR
derer should be imprisoned for twelve
months before the death sentence be car
ried out, the doomed man was lodged in
his present quarters. This law, requir-
ing imprisonment before hanging, was
repealed during the year following that
in which Lowenbergh was incarcerated,
leaving, besides himself, Jefferts and two
others in the hands of the authorities.
Jefferts was subsequently killed by afel
low convict, and the other two alluded
to have since died, leaving LowenbergI
the only convict in the State who was
imprisoned by the terms of this obsolete
statute. ....
In the female prison there are three
convicts undergoing life sentences,
which the provisions of the bill would
also reach. These are Mary Fisht alias
"Polly Frisch," for the murder of hel
husband, by poisoning; negro woman,
named Brooks, and white woman an
swering to the same cOgnomen, both OF
whom are also serving out life terms fol-
the highest crime known to thelaw. The
first mentioned female has been impris
oned about seventeen years. Another
female convict (who during her some.
what mysterious existence both before
and after her conviction has been the OBJ
iect of not little sympathy, Henrietts
Robinson, familiarly known as the
"veiled murderess," )" and who is at pres
ent an inmate of the State asylum for in
sane convicts at Auburn, will also be by
the bill entitled to the liberty for which
she has sighed in vain during the past
twenty years.