Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1881-06-01


Southern States recently confessed
that she committed murder for which
two colored men. tried and convicted
on circumstantial evidence, had been
hung some years before. That was
but one of hundreds of cases in which
circumstantial evidence has been DEEM
ed sufficient proof of guilt for the met
ing out of punishment, even unto the
death penalty, only to discover in after
years tnat the evidence was fal-e.
Another illustration showing what
care ought to be exercised in regard to
this sort OF evidence, though the cir
cumstantial chain seem complete, was
furnished lately. TIE body of woman
was found in the woods near Gutten-
ber a suburb of Jersey City. Tie ev-
idence were plain that she had been
murdered, and that the murderer had
purposely disfgured the countenarce
beyond recognition. A hat, with
large white feather, and cloak were
found hid near by. That was all the
basis there was to work upon in invcs-
tigation of this mysterious crime.
Whenth news had been spread abroad,
a German citizen of West Hoboken an
nounced that his daughter bad disap-
peared from home some time before,
and the description of the body led him
to think it was the missing daughter.
She had been enticed away by man
of family who also lived in West Ho-
boken. This news created great eX-
element, which was intensified when
the father had seen the body. His
daughter had a stiff and bent finger,
and that mark was found. Height fig
ure and hair corresponded with his de=-
cription. The cape was recognized,
but not the hat. A shoe brought from
home mated in shape with those on the
murdered woman and more convinc-
ing still, the father recognized some
hair switches as made for the girl from
her mothers hair. The indentiication
appeared coG,plete, and the daughters
betrayer was ordered to be taken into
custody on suspicion of being the muir
derer. At this iuncture, when it was
considered certain that the clew had
been found, the betrayer's lawyer step
ped in and snapped the chain of circum-
stances by proving the whereabouts of
the missing daughter, and taking the
father to her presence. The police then
followed another clew, which led them
to what is undoubtedly the true story
of the crime Our purpose is not with
that. 1t is simply to point out how
conclusive seemed to be a set of cir
cumstances which yet proved utterly
false. If the missing daughter had not
been produced as she was, if through
any accident of circumstance or real ig-
norance other whereabouts the abductor
had been unable to tell her whereabouts,
the suspicious against hin would prob
ably have been sufficiently strong to
satisfy the authorities, and the search
for other indentity might reasonably
have been abandoned, with what i'll re-
suits to man wholly Innocent IN this
matter cannot easily he foreseen. The
moral is that circumstantial evidence
cannot safely be accepted without the
utmost searching into its character and
completeness, and the exhaustion of
every means to test the circumstances
and their reliability 1t is always
dangerous to accept probability as proof.
The law is good one in every relation
in life, to hold man innocent until he
is proven guilty