The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1876-11-29
A MILLIONAIRE MURDERER.
The Kind of Justice They Deal Out ia
Canada.
JUSTLY JUDGED.
A Canadian millionaire who BrufaIIy
Murdered His Young Wife While
Drunk Goes Up for Life.

Murdered His Young Wife while
Drunk Goes Up for Life
Especial Telegram TO the Chicago Times.l
PETERBoRo Ont, Nov. 22.-The spectacle
OF a millionaire leaving his rich possessions
behind him and, accompanied by the off,
GERS of the law, boarding the train for the
penitentiary there TO remain for the term of
his life, is one rarely seen; tbs even rarer
than hanging i'm New York or Chicago.
THIS morning James Ryan was taken from
Jail here, put on board of the early train by
the sheriff and his constables and conveyed
TO the provincial penitentiary at Kingston
He was found guilty of wife-murder at the
Petersboro', assizes on the 18th of October
last and sentenced TO death to-day. The ex-
ecutIye at Ottawa, however, heard the
prayer of almost the whole province
as expressed through a petition asking
for the merciful exercise OF the executive
power, and the sentence of the condemned
man was committed To imprisonment for
life. Ryan in personal and real estate il
worth, so ii is estimated, 81, 200, 600 Twenty
years ago when he was of age, his father.
Patrick Ryan, now a millionaire of ~ gave
nm nall million in gold with which to
start in business. James bought large tan
merry and by energy in business and the wise
profitable investment of his surplus capital
soon doubled HE fathers gift to him. Eight
years ago he married highly accomplished
young lady OF Montreal. the daughter OF a
wealthy French firm of clothiers there.
Everything he handled prospered, and he
was regarded as the coming Dives of the
to the panic which then prevailed
throughout this continent and Europe,
real estate was selling dirt cheap, he pur-
chased largely in Chicago, St. Louis New
York and elsewhere, and obtained an inter
est in some property in Birkenhead, the city
opposite Liverpool and the chief ship build
ing center in the north of England, which
brought him a handsome income He sold
out his Chicago property in 1869, just before
the great fire, and is said to have realized
heavily upon it.
In the early part of this year,
however, Mr.. Ryan, for some cause
that has never been thoroughly cleared
up, took to drinking. On the Sth of Nav
he had an attack OF delirium tremens. He
fed frsIn his house in the forenoon and took
refuge from his imaginary pursuers in his
tannery, hard by. Toward evening he sent
a workman for bottle of whisky, and hay
ing drank it felt nerved again, and returned
home. lie sat down in his parlOr and called
his young wife to him. She believing no
doubt that he wanted more whisky,
at first pretended she did not hear him, but
ultimately walked up TO him and put her
arm around his neck. Their two children,
one seven and the other five years old were
IN the room at the time. Suddenly Ryan, so
the elder child stated in evidence. rose from
his chair and struck his wife in the side
She staggered from the room into
the hall and down the steps, and
with piercing cry fell on the lawn outside
the front door. The servants heard her cry,
and rushed to her assistance, but she was dead,
stabbed through the heart. The town con-
stables were sent for and they arrested Ryan.
who sat motionleSs in his chair. On being
charged with the murder of his wife he wept
bitterly, but made no answer. A long, thin
bladed knife, tinged at the sharp point
with blood, found on the carpet
by his chair, and was recognized as a knife
used by the tanners for pairing peltries. The
prisoner was duly committed for trial at the
fall assizes, and a true bill having been found
against him by the grand jury, he was placed
in the dock before Mr.. Justice Gwynne on
December Is ult Ryan was defended by
three of the ablest niSi>pTius advocates at
the Canadian bar, viz: Hon. ]. H. Cameron,
Q. c., (who died On the 13tS inst. and was
buried on Friday lastl Hon. NJ.
Cameron, O. c., and Mr.. John Ar
mour, @. c., with Mr.. w. II. Scott O. C.,
of this town. The defeuse was temporary
insanity. in palmer words delirium tremens,
and when that failed the learned counsel
made an effort TO show that. the deceased
committed suicide in distraction at her hus-
bands drunkenness. The suicide theory
however, and the prisoner was found guilty
after a trial extending over eight
hours, and sentenced for execution to-day.
During the trial the crown counsel put the
delirium tremens plea in this light: 'In-
surance policies distinctly except delirium
tremens from deaths commonly known as
natural, and who dies therein or therefrom
is counted one guilty of felo dc sc, and the
privileges conferred upon him, or in other
words, on his family, are voided So it is
with the spirit of the English law.
Those who commit crime while laboring I'M
der delirium tremens are denied the immu-
nifty, if / may say 50, the Jaw accords to
other forms of insanity which are cOnsid-
cred natural" The jury recommended
Ryan to mercy, and this recommendation
being backed by petition by this town at
large, and by some of the most reputable
physicians in the country, Mr.. Blake, the
minister of justice, advised the
governor general TO commute the sentence
as already stated. BY the old English law
felon condemned TO death became ''attaint
by the crown" and his property, like his
body, was forfeited to the crown. But that
practice has been dropped mercifully
enough, and Ryans million and quarter is
invested with trustees, of whom his father
is one. for the benefit of the two children.