Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1879-05-17
An Innocent Han Righted at Last.

The case OF Charles feace, TIE GILL;
inal phenomenon, will long remain one
of the most famous in English criminal
annals, not alone because of the mans
daring, cleverness and success-charac-
teristics that have made him such q he
TO that already two London schOOl-boys
have narrowly escaped death by stran-
gulation while playing /" Peace'-but
as well for the fact that his confession
set at liberty an innocent man whom the
hapgman had measured and weighed
for the rope! Hereafter the name of
William Habron will take conspicu-
Gus place on the list of the innocent VIC
tins of the criminal law. He was a boy
of IS, one of three brothers, Irish labor
ers, in the employ of Mr.. Deakin, nur-
sery gardener at Whalley Range, near
Manchester, when on the I'd of August,
1876, q policeman named Cock received
revolver bullet under the ribs, and
died without positive statement as to
his assailsnt. The Habrons were-ac-
cording to the pOlice-all turbulent,
troublesome fellows, whom Cock had
arrested, or threatened to arrest, and
they had been heard to declare that
they would "do for" him; hence sus.
picion was directed to them, and they
were arrested the same evening. Some
percussion caps were found in Williams
pocket, and his boots fitted some foot
prints noticed near the scene of the
shooting This was the sum of the evil
dence against him, and ON it the
jury convicted him Of murder,
and he was sentenced to be hanged;
though, as was pointed out, peo-
pie in low life make just such threats
daily without intending at all to
carry them out literally. There was
not a particle of evidence to show Hab
ron had ever had pistol, and the boots
being machine made there we're doubt
less some scores of people in the vicin-
ity whose ot-prints would correspond
as precisely with those found near the
scene of murder His brother John was
acquitted and his brother Francis not
even indicted. The Judge was not sal
together satisfied" with the verdict,
and the Home Secretary, in considers
ton of the prisoners youth, recon-
mended a communication of the sentence
TO life Imprisonment. He all along
protested his innocence, but no official
seems to have considered the theory
that he was innocent worth working
upon, and when the prison doors closed
on him that was the last of the case till
Peace, on the eve of the execution, con-
fessed that he was the murderer of the
policeman. A gunsmith found that the
bullets with which Cock and Dyson
were killed were alike and of peculiar
construction; they fitted Peace's re-
volver, and the dealer, who, "to the
best of his belief, }" thought Habron had
bought cartridges of him in June, 1876,
had never had any such bullets in his
stock. The end of the investigation
was that Habron was given "pardon,"
the evidence on being looked at again
being found very slight. His old en-
ployer, who always asserted his belief
in the youths innocen ;e, has given him
his old place, and it is supposed the
Crown will make some compensation in
money for his imprisonment of nearly
three years.
At quarter past on the morning6f
March s, Habron, was awakened at
Portland Prison, but ere he had Joined
his gang was sent for to the Governors
room, weighed, dressed in other cloth
ing and told to accompany some other
prisoners about to be transferred to
Miilbank. Lest the shock should be too
great for his nerves he was handcuffed
on the cars and handcuffed he arrived
at Millbank, where he got perhaps an
inkling that something had happened
from an attendant saying, "Habron,
don't you know me? I'm very glad to
see you back" While the attendant had
gone for the Governor and Mr.. Deakin,
Habron narrowly escaped being march
ed off and set to picking oakum with his
transferred companions. "Then the
door opened and saw Mr.. Deakin and