Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-02-07
4 Strange Case.

Among the causes ceie5Tts of the time,
which may be fairly recorded under the head
ing of stranger than fiction" is 1.-The Brooks
case. mentioned in a London letter AS likely
to lead 10 the release of two respectable men
who have served two years Imprisonment out
of ten Il, which they were condemned on \
charge Of assault and mutilation. The pris-
oners. Johnson and Cloves, are to be released.
and the Government is considering the Yues-
ton OF awarding them compensation for the
misery they have undergone. As the $40, 900
of estrested bail in the Morewood affair goes
to the Crown. it would be n good thing to hand
it over to the victims Of the insane Brooks.
The story briefly told is this: Some two
years ago Isaac Brooks. farmer Of Stat.
fordshire, was assaulted and cruelty mutilated
lie charged two ncighbors, Johnson and
Cloves, with the crime. They were tried and
found guilty. The mutilation was of so saw
age kind that the Judge sentenced the prison.
ers to 10 years penal servitude. A fortnight
since Brooks died. On his death-bed, with
some formality, he dictated and signed a con-
fession that johnson and Cloves are perfectly
innocent; that they never touched him. Be
fore he could be cross-examined he died.
Medical inquiries have since been made into
the CT aracter and habits of Brooks, and the
result is the conviction that the. man was
afflicted with an insane mania of self.
mutilation. The investigation has brought
to light the fact that Brooks was always man
of eccentric habits. and that year
ago he was taken to a local hospital. suffering
from a second attack and injury, which he in
sisted on ''hushing up" declining to say who
had assaulted him. This, it is now contended,
ought to have excited the friends of the pris-
oners sufficiently to have induced them to in
stitute inquiries in their interest, though il is
questionable whether anything could have
been done for them, seeing that the prosecu-
tors evidence and identification of them was
accepted by the jury and indorsed by the
Judge. 1t is an element in the case, as show
ing how Brooks may have desired to injure
Cloves by charging him with assault that
some years ago his sister lived with Cloves
'outside the bonds Of matrimony." But he
had no grudge against johnson, and the idea
that any man would cut and wound himself
for the purpose of charging others with the
offense never appears to have occurred to any
one connected with the affair until now.
1t seems, however, there is no case without
parallel. A clergyman writes to the papers
to sag that he recently officiated Mt the dc ath-
bed of man who had served many wears of
imprisonment for granddaughter. lie had had
a quarrel with his brother, who struck him.
A fight ensued, in which he got the better of
his assailant, who after the scuffie was found
to be fatally stabbed, and who charged his
brother with killing him. and the result was
a sentence of some years imprisonment. On
the trial the prisoner pleaded that the dead
man had stabbed himself, the theory being
that finding his brother had the hest of the
encounter. he stabbed (snly intending to do
himself a slight injury in order to get his
brother into trouble. The Judge and jury
did not believe this. but the prisoner on his
death-bed quite recently repeated the story
to the clergyman, and with his last breath
declared that it was true. The minister ex-
presses his.own belief in the statement, which
suggests rival case of injustice for compari-
son with the mutilation of Isask Brooks.