The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1876-07-15
Tho CAmpbeII Case.

| Clerk OF the Court, ana they havng received
such instructions from the Hon. President
Judge as were considered necessary, District
Attorney E. r. SIEwERs opened the case on the
| part Of the Commonwealth In his customary
lucid, yet comprehensive manner, viz:
MAY 1t please the Court aud Gentlemen Of the
| Jury, Alexander Campbell. the prisoner o. the
| bar stands inuicted here for the murder of J. Il.
| Jones Murder at the Common Law is deilned
| to lie, when person Of sound mind and disc Q.
| tOn, unlawfully klllcth any reasonable Crea
| ture i'm being ana under the kings peace with
| malice afOrethought either expressed or I'm.
piled. undtr the statute law OF Pennsy yania
| oil murder whcl shall he Derpetrated hy m ans
| OF poison, or by lying IN want or by any otler
| Kind Of wlful, ue lberate and premeditaied XIII
| ing or which shall be committed In the perpe-
| trntiOn OF. or attempt To perpetrte, any arson
| rape, robbery, or burglary. snail be deemed
| mur,ier OF the 1rsf degree. our statute luW nh9
| another important provision II any person
| shall become nn accessory before che TACT Ia any
| fe, uny. whether the same be n felony NO com
mon law or by virtue Of any act Of Assembly
| now enforced. or hei eafter to he enforced, MI
| such per SOUS may be Indicted, tried and convict
| ed and punished m all respects as II he were
Now, an accessory before the fact IL one who,
| though absent at the time OF the commission OF
| the Ieionv doth yet procure counsel. command
| or abet another to commit such felony. TIE
| meaning OF the word conn nnd" IL where
| person having control over another, as Tor ms
| lance IA master over n servant orders n tllnB 10
| lie done. TO constitute n mau accessory u is
| necessary that he SHOULD have been absent Mt
| the time wnen the lBlOuY was COlnHltteu. II ne
was either actually OF cOnstrucuvey present he
| IS as has been seen u principal. The accessory
| is liable Tor all that ensues upon The execution
OF the unlawful act commanded as l0r instance,
II A command B to beat g. and he beat G., and
he Ueat him that he dies A is accessory TO t1e
murder So II A command B to bum the house
OF G, ana IN doing so the house Of ID is also
burned. a Is accessory to the burnng OF DIS
house. Aud II the offence commanded be Effect
ed, ALTHOUGH by INHERENT means nom those
commanded as for instance II J. W. hire ]. :.
TO poison a, md instead OF poisoning HIM he
shoot him, j. W. Is nevertheless naDe as aCces-
sorry. II procurement is through an interme1i-
ate agent 10 iS not necessary that the accessory
should name the persOh TO be proc lred to do
the act The procurement need not he direct
1t Is sufficient If one or more persons become
the medium through whom The work Is done
1t my be either by direct means. as by hhe,
counsel CT COnmand or indirect by evinclng
an ex press liking. appreciation or assent 10 AN
others lelUnOus design.
Gentlemen of the Jury: Alexander Campbell,
although an accessory before the fact to tins
crime, vet under tine law stand, indicted mere
as principal In the murder of John z. Jones,
aud while from the evl1ence you prob
ably VIII find that he was not one OF the men
that fired the pistol that TOOK the life OF Jolu =.
Jones. yet II he aided 40 stted counselled com.
mJnded Or procured the men who actually did
the killing, II he advised them, IL he COunte-
nanced them, or II he approved or assented TO
their murdeInus uudei tHaings IN any way
whatsoever If the testimony shows that con
cusvey. then gentlemen Of the Jury, under
tle statute law Of this state he is a principal to
the murder, and he may be convicted Dy you
we have indicted him here yes, Of murder IN
the first degree.
There are great many cases of record ana
contained in the books of hOmcides veIY sml.
lar to thia one. that we now propose to develop
before YOU Men have been Tried anu convict.
ed who have been thousands OF miles away
fiom the actual scene OF the killing, where 1t
has been shown cOncuslvely to the jury that
they either procured or assisted in some way in
the murder or III the killing. some OF you may
perhaps remember that celebrated case lnwnlCh
the great Daniel Webster AS lar back as 1880 ut
Salen Massachusetts in the trla OF 1t made so
eoquent plea TO the jury, and succeeded with
ont pai tlcie of evidence, but circumstantiai.
IN cOnvcting The muIderers of C@ptain Joseph
White Captain White was an aged man of e.
tired habits and lived IN the nelghbOrhCol OF
Salem, Mass. lie was bachelor. possessed Of
n very large estate. He was some 81 years old,
with very few near relatives to claim his fOi.
tune. There were two young meh Nv the name
OF Knapp wnO naturally and eventually would
tail her 10 portion of his wealuh they Ue-
came convinced that he hth made Il VIII, and
discovered II the Will cOu d be DESTROYED that
they would become possessed OF u much larger
Rhare than they otherwise would. ihty cOun-
selled together, anu came to the conclusion ihaI
in order TO lnhe 1t the large amount 1t wOulu
become necessary Tor thea To destroy the ola
man swlll. They hired a man bY the name OF ROD
CrOwnings .ieli, Jr, anu offered anu re- ward
of a thousand do lars IT he would get tho will
amt destroy II, aud then put the olu man out OF
the way. CIO" "nlngshief consented and went
to wOrk. lie was aided and assisted Dy the
Knapps. He secreteu himself along tae rOud
JhaL the Old man was Obliged to pass TO reach
his home intending to dlK him there on the
way, but the Old man safely reac Ell nIS home.
Night came on and CrOwnngshcld slO.e aIound
b4 The rear of the mousse ana when ever, tning
was quite aud When the old man was asleep,
for ne had no one living in the house with hlm
out a servant who ike mSelf was aged ana
Gecrepit CrOwnIugslield passed steaithlly up
the heavy 0aken stars and mo tine roOIn where
Captain White was peacefully sleeping lie
approached the bedslue and with q biudeeOn he
stl uck hun pOweriui blow on tn head nj in.
mediately afterwards with IA dagger lie inflicted
thirteen stabs upon his body. The will mad
been destroyed the day before, and when the af.
falr became known IL caused terrible excite
"A IA llI IA
whole murder was shrOuded IN INV stery Crown
ingshied was arrested on suspicion. lie was
lncaTcerated in prison and tor long period be-
fore the trIa every meaus possible was adopted
to ascertain and ferret out the guilt, parties.
Far away IN one of the eastern SIatesin Maine,
there pned a convict III one OF the prisons. He
Dau been very intimate at the time with Tie
two CrOwnlngshiedS and one of them had Ie.
vealed to MIN just enough OF the conspiracy 10
let hlm know who was implicated in the terri.
bic murder. lie wrote letter to Que of the
Knapps-a hreatning letter aud by sOWe means
tnat letter became puDiC. 1t was discovered
III some way by the vigilance committee. IL
gave clue TO the guilty ones and the evidence
began to come ln-circumstantal evidence
came thick aLd FAST CrOwningshield, who had
been arrested on suspicion was then III prison
awaiting his trlpl and, finding out that the evi.
dence was fast Surrounding him, and evey day
becoming stronger, committed suicide in his
cell by hanging hInselt 10 one OF the IRON bars,
which frightened one oil the Knapp brothers,
who made his appearance before the vigilance
committee and offered to make a tull confession
OF the whole affair. lie did So and IN 1t he I'M.
pllCateu nlmSelf ana MS DrOuhef. They were
oOtl indicted at che next term OF court and the
gOvei nment promised JOsheph Knapp, lhe con.
Tossing brother fu immunity If he would come
upon the stand and TESTIFY. Wnen the case was
cal ed he made mis- appearance, but positively
refDsed TO relate the confession, and the case
went TO the jury as to the other brother. The
prisoner was ably defended end while there
was not any positive evidence against Francis
knapp. YET 1t was shown that about the time
the murder was committed no was in Blown
street at the rear OF Mr.. Whites garden, witnln
snort distance OF the house, and the Jury we're
satisfied that he was in that place To aid ana
a0et IN The murder although seemingly assist
ing only in The shghiest manner. TO convict
the prisoner II was necessary III that day lot
the government TO prove that he was present,
actually, OF CoustructlvelY, as an aluer or acct
ter IN the murder. Yet. under this slight cir
eumstanual evidence produced, the jury ren-
deaet verdict OF Ruilty IN the first degree,
The other brother, Joseph Knapp. was trh d af-
victed and hung, win George Crown ngslIeld
was tried subsequently and perfect dLtOt
proved and he Was acquitted
You remember perhaps some OF yOu-nOt a
great while ago In one OF he foreign countries
man by the name OF IhOmasen-ne had Inven-
ted an internal machine 1t moved by clock.
work and was 20 be placed upon a ship The OBJ
JeCt OF 1t was TO blow Lhe ship TO atoms when lt
reached mld-ocean, and thereby he ana his con-
federates we're 10 secure the value of the lnsur-
ance on the ship ana cargo. That vessel started,
pore ana dld not get under way But IL the ma.
chime had exploded 10r it was run by ciOcS-
WORK ana carefully calcu ated how far the Yes.
sci should go anu pass out OF the slgnt OF land
before the explosive dynamite should be ignlUed,
and II That machine had exploded III mlu-Ocean