The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-10-26
The Punishment OF q Vermont Muir.
derer.

derer.
Apropos of the current discussion OF
the abolition of capital punishment,
Vermont had in the last generation a
case which may have some bearings on
this matter, and which was in all re-
spects most remarkable one-beine,
indeed, almost without a parallel in
the annals of crime. Eugene Clifford.
more than forty years ago, murdered
his wife and child by drowning them in
Fairfield pond. He was deserter from
the British army, and had gone to Fair
field. little village of Franklin County,
where he married Mrs. Elizabeth Gil
more, widow, who owned a small
farm. After few years of married
life, he became infatuated with another
woman, whom he thought he could
marry were his wife out of the way.
He also thought that he would inherit
the farm and the other property if he
survived his wife and child. So, led on
by the tremendous forces of avarice and
lust, he laid his plans to murder them.
He invited his wife one Sunday morn
ing to cross Fairfield pond with him in
a log canoe, and she accepted the invita-
ton, taking the child in her arms. In
an hour or two Clifford returned alone,
and notified the neighborS that his
wife, while adjusting shawl around
the child. had fallen from the boat, and
both had been drowned. The next day
the bodies were recovered, but the
shawls, which it was known they had
worn, and which were of considerable
x,al,a n1rll hn fp,,nl Thtc
strengthened the suspicion that Clifford
had murdered his wife and child, and
an intense excitement pervaded the
neighborhood. On given day the
! people came together from miles
around, and a thorough search was
made of every foot of the shore of the
pond, but no trace of the missing
shawls could he found. And now comes
one of the extraordinary facts of the
case. On the night of that day neigh.
Dor, one Mrs. Marvin. dreamed that
she started out to look for the shawls.
She dreamed that she crossed field in
| front of her house, climbed fence
across which large hemlock tree had
fallen, walked a few yards on The trunk
| of the tree, and thence to q dense
SioWtH vi uSH. ut'ttl tut SiloiC VI
the pond, and there, in shallow hole
in the sand, and partially covered, she
found the shawls. Mrs. Marvin told her
dream to her husband. but he thought
little of it. She. however, persuaded q
neighbor 10 accompany her, and,
though she had never before been over
the ground, she found everything pre-.
cisely as in her dream, and discovered
the shawls in the exact place she had
seen in her vision.
With the evidence thus furnished, and
much other of a damaging kind. Cliff
ford, on trial, was convicted, and he
was sentenced to be hanged on the ex-
piration of one year from his sentence,
April 81, 1S4S. in the meantime to be
kept in solitary confinement in the State
Prison at Windsor. As the law then
stood. the Governor warrant was a
prerequisite for the execution of con-
demned prisoner, and the then Govern
| or, from a conscientious motive which
appears, somewhat strained, refused to
issue his warrant for Clifford S, execu-
ton; and the next Governor followed
his predecessors example. In the
meantime, in his solitary cell, Clifford
decayed in body and mind, and suffered
both an intellectual and physical death.
For few months, while admitting his
guilt, he claimed that his act was jrtsti-l
fable, and he endeavored to get some
influence from abroad used in his behalf.
AT the end OF the time originally
set for his execution, he began to
have spasms of insane faving, when
| no al, on1 violent
that it was found necessary to chain
him. Then he was seized with the no.
ton thathe was unlawfully and unjust
ly detained, and this Idea would lead
him into fits of violence and insane rage.
Next succeeded wish TO be hung; and
the unhappy man confided to the prison
physician a letter to the Governor, in
which he implored him to order his ex-
ecution. He then attempted 10 istarve
himself to death, but the attempt was
prevented by the prison officials. Final
ly his mind gave way completely, and
for many months he could not be per-,
suaded to utter a word, and at length.
after e. confinement of almost precisely
four years, death came 10 his relief
And an examination of his body showed
the same pathological condition as in
wild animals that die in their cages aft
er long confinement.
Such is the theory of this most re-
markable Casa story which does not
rest upon mere tradition, but upon au-
thentic documents in every DETAIL
Darlington (Vt.) Cor. Boston Advertiser.
"A workingman's Sunday Rest Asso.
OK 3