The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1880-03-12
CIRCUMSTANTIAL PROOF.

CURIOUS CASES IN THE HISTORY OF CRIME.
Perhaps the Glfhculties in evidence, direct
and circumstantial, were never more strong.
ly shown than in the once celebrated case OF
the brothers Boorn convicted, in Vermont,
1919, Of the murder Of their brother-in-lav,
in 1912. 1t appeared in testimony that the
latter, half-witted fellow, and a burden to
the family, was last seen in a field with the
two men, and there had quarrel, in which
he had been struck on the head with a stake
and somehow had finally disappeared from
the locality. Seven years after, some bones
supposed to belong to the missing man, one
of his buttons and his knife were found near,
in an old cellar in the field, and the men were
arrested.
Upon their trial they both confessed to the
murder, and gave the details, and then i'm
mediately appealed to the Legislature to
commute their sentence to Imprisonment for
life. This mercy was only granted to one of
them, but the interest of certain gentlemen
being aroused by the case, careful search
was made and the missing man found in
New Jersey, brought back and recognized by
all his old companions, and the men were set
free. The explanation Of the singular con-
vice Of their friends, who, knowing that pub
lie opinion ran strongly against them, and
thinking it would hang them, advised them
to the confession in order that they might
get the lighter sentence Of perpetual impris-
onment.
1t was said that the French naturalist,
Cuvier, from a single fossil bone, could de-
scribe the structure and habits of extinct
races of animals. But bones neither lie nor
mistake, while witnesses do both, and no
court is infallible. The cases are numerous
on record to show that even the senses can
not be implicitly relied on, even when the
veTacity Of the witness is unquestionable.
In cases Of highway robbery q mans face
has been repeatedly sworn to from the
+ glimpse got from the light of q gun or pistol
/ fash, whereas accurate experiment shows
the thing to be impossible. In a case of theft,
a woman swore a certain gown was hers
( being asked by juryman to try it on, it was
found not TO fit at all and she confessed her
mistake. The fact was that the prisoner had
stolen the gown from aneighbor, though this
was found out only after the acquittal.-
/ Another woman, being robbed, swOre GER
tain black pocket-book, found on a man ar
rested for the crime, was hers, which would
/ have sent him to the gallows had not a coun-
/ tTyman found another black pocket-book
} while reaping, and fastening to the trial, the
same witness finding all, and her very money
/ safe, confessed she was mistaken, and the
accused went free. a signature to a certain
/ deed was sworn to by respectable and honest
. parties as Lord Eldon's, but Lord Eldon
/ came into court and swOre that he never at
/ tested a deed in his life. In a celebrated
/ Scotch trial for forgery, intricate and far
reaching, and which involved the title to one
/ of the best estates in the realm, half dozen
/ engravers swore that certain numerous let
/ ters were written by different persons, though
/ the prisoner afterward confessed he wrote
! them all. His conviction was partly insured
I by sharp lawyer noting that, in all the doc
uments, certain words were curiously mis-
| spelled, and, on the prisoner being required
in open court, to write these words, he miss
/ spelled them as they were written down ir
documents purporting to have been penned
by many different persons, living even in hall
! a dozen different generations. In murder
trial piece of rope found near the victim
was sworn to as the same kind of rope as 6
piece found in possession of the accused, a
bit Of testimony which would have hung hin
had not ropemaker examined and testified
that one piece was twisted to the right while
the other was twisted to the left. A half
dozen witnesses swore that they saw a Ger
tain person at certain hour of the clock
Being asked to say what time it was by
clock In the court room not one of them could
tell. This was a case Of downright lying Il
prove an alibi An eminent English lawye
swore positively to two men who, he said
robbed him in broad daylight. twas provec
that at the time of the robbery they were 81
far off as to make the thing impossible
Shortly after the true robbers were takel
with the stolen goods on them. The prose
cutor then confessed his mistake, and is salt
to have given money value to the mel
whom he came very near sending to the gal
lows. Besides, accused persons often behav
very strangely, even when limo cent. Som
run away, which in old times, was held s
sure proof Of guilt thatin England, in case
of felony and treason, flight carried forfeit
ure OF goods, whether innocent or guilty.
is now in proof that innocent persons, timi
or ignorant, or ill-advised, when accused q
crime often run away and do great man
other foolish things. Daniel Webster, in til
famous murder trial at Salem, spoke the fl
nous epigram. "Suicide is confession"
very fine sentence, but very poor law, sine
even innocent persons, falsely accused, hay
often died by their own hand to escaI
further misery. Sir Edward Coke tells of a