Morning journal and courier., 1880-05-14
The Execution of Hoyt.

fngly.-.Sketch of the Crime.
 Edwin Hoyt yesterday morning at Brldge- port paid the penalty for the crime or the murder of his father committed on Sunoay: June 23, 1878, in the town of Sherman. " was the first spectacle of the kind that falE- field county has witnessed in great many years. The murder was committed in farm
 house occupied by Vandeberg Joyce, the mur- :.
 derer's brother-in-law. The murderer was ! 36 years old and the victim was 7S. George Hoyt, the father, was an industrious farmer, and owned snug little farm of the value Of $4, ,O00 or $5, 900. The mother was con scientious Methodist. The boy Edwin guar | relied with his father frequently, and grew
 morose and suilen toward his father, who he
 thought had been partial to his other children l in money matters and unjust to him. Ills | brothers and sisters prospered and Edwin took
 to drink. He displayed terrible fits Of anger at times and once riddled his wife's back and | arms with buckshot At last with the feeling that he had been unjustly dealth with about property matters and maddened at the thought he planned the murder of his aged sire. He obtained knife, whetted it, told his wife
 as he pulled of his old boots that he never would need them more, and then started for | his brother-in-law's house. Arriving at Joyce's house after 2:30 p. m., he sat down in a chair on the stoop. The family were at dinner The meal ended, the old gentleman got 8 chew of tobacco from his son-in- law, and seated himself in an old-fashioned the chair by kitchen door out of Edwin's sight. The latter complained of a cramp in his wrist, and Joyce's brother went out on the stoop to rub it. 'Tm all right" said Edwin. Nothing ails me. can work, or can die. But two
 or three have got to die first, and pretty quick, too" His words and manner scared Stephen, and he went into the kitchen and got on the other side of the table. Joyce poured out cup of tea, carried it to the door, and offered it to
 the sullen man who refused it. Joyce went
 back to the table and was setting down the cup, when he heard his brother cry, ''He's killing the old man."
 Edwin drew the knife from his bosom, crspt stealthily around the door post, threw his left arm around his fathers neck, and was trying to thrust the knife into his heart. The point of the blade was turned of by button. The son had out the father to the bone of the left arm, whem Joyce jumped nearly ten feet and landed on the murderer's back. The poor old man toppled from the chair, crying, "Oh, dear" He dropped upon his side at the foot of stairway. The son fell on hiSknees over him with Joyce on his back. In an instant the grasped his right wrist. Quick as thought the murderer shifted the knife to his left hand and drove it into his fathers neck. Joyce called upon his son for help. There was 8 severe struggle. Joyce dragged the murderer out upon the stoop and there clenched him by the wrists, while his son, boy of sixteen, be- gan to pull his fingers one by one, from the handle of the knife. Tho murderer at last said, 'I give up" and the weapon was se- cured. Stephen Joyce, the brother, aided them, and the parricide was bound, hand and foot, and left lying upon his side on the DOT tico. All this time the old man was weltering in his blood. He died within five minutes The jugular vein was severed, and Joyce re- membered that Edwin in freaks of passion had often pointed to his neck, saying, 1T know where to strike when I want to kill any body"
 For man who was pas sing his last night on earth, Hoyt's demeanor on Wednesday night was a marvel The decision of the Superior Court, with the adverse decision of the Supreme Court of Errors, did not seem to depress his spirits in the least. He chatted pleasantly with Jailer Wells on his ride back from the court room, and on reaching the prison found Rev. Dr. Maxoy and Mayor Morgan, of Bridgeport, awaiting him. Im- mediately after his return he received the rite of baptism from Rev. MT. Maxcy. Att o'clock he asked for his supper, and it was sent to him from Jailer Wells private table. Hoyt ate heartily and with apparent relish. He chatted pleasantly with his keepers during the evening" and not until l o'clock yesterday morning did he express desire to sleep. He then lay down upon his couch and asked that he be awakened at o'clock. At that hour he was aroused by his keepers, and when he awoke was in the same cheerful and loqua- cious vein as when he retired. ''I think have caught cold" was one of his first re- marks; ''that was because I didn't put the coverlet over me for fear of getting lint on my coat" He smoked and chatted until half f-past 7, J quire what he would have for breakfast. He replied that he was not very hungry, but would take cup of coffee and some bread and butter MT. Wells told him he could have anything he wished. Hoyt, however, said he only wanted the coffee and the bread and butter. These were brought to him, and he made of them light but an apparently satisfactory breakfast. Immediately after wards he commenced writing, in which occu- patton he busted himself for two or three hours.
 About nine o'clock he was visited in his cell by his counsel, W. F. Taylor of Danbury and ex-Judge Blydenburgh of New Haven. They asked him if he had any last word he wished to say-any different statement to make from that he had already made. They promised that his communication would be received under the pledge of secrecy and urged him to free his mind, if he felt so in- clined. Hoyt repeated his oft repeated utter ances-that he had no knowledge of what he was doing when he committed the crime for which he was to suffer. He seemed fully aware at this time that death was not far distant. His manner was subdued, yet his utterances were not uncertain in their tone. He made an earnest request that there might be post mortem examination made-''to show that what have said all along was true, and that Iwas suffering from disease" He said that he was prepared to meet his fate, but it was unjust and he did not deserve it. Speaking of his son George, he said, 'I named that boy after my father, George, and that don't look like malice, does it'? MT. Taylor opposed the post-mortem, and said he didn't think it nec- essary, but Hoyt insisted on it, to satisfy his friends, he said, and asked particularly that his kidney be examined to see if it was not affected.
 Before his lawyers left Hoyt requested that MT. Taylor make out his will. They attorney did so. All he had-an interest in some Western land that came to him as grant from the Government for service in the war, he willed to his boy, George, yet in his teens. The interest in his fathers property, which it is claimed led to the terrible crime,- the condemned man had long ago assigned to his lawyers in part payment for their services in his defense When the will was duly drawn, signed and attested, his lawyers left him, and Hoyt was once more alone with the watching officers of the law.
 Before nine o'clock in the morning the of flee of the jail was alive with @ buzzing