The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-04-27

W. ~ WV 80 "''
committed"
Come, come, Jack Capon," they
replied, "you can't fool anybody by
pleading ignorance. What did you
do with your cap?'
He looked about the room.
"Some one must have taken it
away.p he said at last.
"You left it near the corpse of the
murdered man."
"Was it found there Great God I,
great God =
He buried his face in his hands
and began to cry.
Then he followed the men who al
so took old Sim Brooks along. will
ingly, to the Ohio tavern, where the
Coroner had meanwhile arrived. The
Sheriff appeared soon ;taerward with
some men who were carrying the
CORY, frozen corpse q the victim.
/ Jack Capon was condgeted TO the
corpse. AZ be caught si isht Of it he
rccoiled in horror.
Its Mr.. Sammis, he gasped out,
"Posr Sammis, who has murder
cd him ?" "You were last seen in
his company" said the Sheriff /;
"your cap was found near the corpse,
your clothes are all blood stained !;
who but YOU can be the murderer ?"
II am innocent y cried Capon,
desperately, Il got tight at Brooks
don't knoW how | got this blood
on nv clothes, and how my cap got
near the corpse. Ihave even for
gotten that ! was with this poor
gentleman"
The Coroner impanEeled a jury,
and, in the first place, took them TO
the spot in the woods where the
murder had been committed. Jack
Capon, who had been, meanwhile,
heavily ironed, was also conveyed
thither. The footprints near the
spot where the corpse o. the murder
ed man had laid, where not very
distinct, but they seemed to cores
pond exactly with the soles of Ga
pon's shoes.
Returning to the 90 tavern, the
Coroner swore Sim brooks, who by
this time had become perfectly So
her and who stated that 'last night,
about half-past ten o'clock, Jack Ca
pon had come to his cabin and ask
ed him If he had any whisky. lie
had given him half a dozen drinks,
whereupon Capon wanted still more.
Capon had then showed him a ten
dollar gold piece, and had asked
him if he knew where any whisky
could be bought. He had answered
if he would go TO Mike Perry's he
might get some. There Capon had
gone, and returned with his shirt
and front part Of his coatall bloody.
Brooks added that he had asked Ca
pom how he had got that blood on
him. Capon was SO drunk that he
could not give a very Ineligible &C
count of what had happened to
him, but he said something about
having had fall and hurt him
self.
Upon hearing this evidence the
prisoner exclaimed
"Yes, yes, that's true | do re-
member it now. | made a short cut
through the woods to Nike Perry s
house, where | got the whisky, and
returned by pretty near the same
route, when I stumbled over some
thing and fell.".
The jury rendered q verdict against
him and he was committed for trial
His pockets were then examined
and the ten dollar gold piece, which
Sim Brooks had mentioned, was
found.
Capon said that Sammis, who had
taken an interest in him, had given
it to him. This was considered q
very flimsy falsehood, and every
body was convinced that Jack Ca
pom was guilty.
A messenger, with the news OF
Sammis' death was dispatched to
Pittsburgh, where it created a pro-
found sensation. 1t turned out that
the murdered man had nearly s20,-
1000 in large bank bills on his person.
Sammis' brother Mark, a wholesale
grocer, and a very energetic man,
accompanied the messenger back to
Steubenvillc, and engaged special
counsel to assist in the prosecution
of Capon. The latter was tried and
convicted, but he was not sentenced
to death, but to imprisonment at
hard labor for life.
The prisoner was overwhelmed
with grief because of his conviction.
He never tired of protesting his in
noeence, and his eyes were constant
ly red and swollen from weeping.
He was taken to the Penitentiary
at Columbus, where he was at first
harshly treated /; but his amiable
disposition was not long in making
so agreeable an impression upon the
keepers that many privileges were
granted to him. These he never
abused on the contrary, he proved
an efficient assistant to the prison
authorities ON more than one occa-
sion, that they wondered how this
good naturea man could have been
capable Of committing so heinous a
crime.
Five years passed by when an
event occurred which proved be-
yond a doubt that Capon after all
was an entirely innocent man. A
cotton broker named Wilson, at Sa-
vannah, Ga, had long been on bad
terms with his wife. Finally, he
charged her with adultery and sued
for divorce. The wife thereupon
accused him of numbering man
on the 10th of November, 1871. on
the day after leaving Pittsburgh, Pa,
and of having robbed his victim of
$4,000 in $500 and $1,000 bank
bills.
She said she had to wash on the
next day, when he had unexpectedly
returned to Pittsburgh, her husbands
shirt, which had been blood stained,
and she charged him with having
killed somebody. He had confessed
to her what he had done, and they
had left Pittsburgh. few days later,
and gone South.