Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-10-24
Capita, Punishment.
Capital Punishment.
ONE OF TIE MOST REMARKABLE CRIMINAL
CASES ON RECORD.

CASES ON RECORD.
| Apropos of the current discussion of the
abolition of capital punishment. Vermont
had in The last generation a case which
| may have some bearing on the matter,
| and which was in all respects most
remarkable one.-being, indeed. almost
| without parallel in the annals of crime
Eugene Clifford. more than forty years
| ago, murdered his wife and infant child
nv drowning them in q Fairfield pond
| He was a deserter from the British army
and had gone 10 Fairfield. little village
of franklin county. where he married
Mrs. Elizabeth Gilmore, a widow, who
owned 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 he would inherit the
farm and 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 morning, to
cross Fairfield pond with him IN log
canoe, and she accepted The invitation.
lakirg The child in her arms. In an hour
or two Clifford returned alone, and no flied
| the neghbors that his wife, while adjust
| ing the shawl around the child, had talen
| from the boat, and both had been drown.
ed The next day the bodies We're recov,
eied, but the shnwls which it was known
they had worp, and which were of consid
cradle value, could not he found This
su, ng hened the suspicion that CliffJrd
had murdered his vile and child, and an
intense excitement pervaded the neighbor
hood. On n given time The people came
| together from miles around and thorough
search was made OF eve.y foot of The
shore of the pond, but no trace Of the
missing shawls could be found. And now
cumes one of the exlraurdlnary facts Of
the case. On the night of that day, n
neighbor. one Mrs. Marvin dreamed that
she started out to look for the shawls
She dreamed that she crossed Il field in
| front of her house, climbed II fence across
which a large hemlock Tree had fallen,
| walked few yards on the tlunk of the
tree, and thence to n dense growth OF
underbrush near the shore of the pond !;
and there in shallow hole in the sand
and patty covered she found the shawls
dream TO her husband, but he thought
little of it. She, however persuaded II
neghbor 10 accompany her. and though
she had never before been over the
ground, she found everything precisely as
IN her dream, and discovered the sha
| in the exact place she had seen in her
vision.
With the evidence thus furnished, and
much other of damaging kind, Clifford,
| On trial, was convicted, and was sentenced
10 be hanged on The expiration of one
| year from his sentence, April 21, 1913, in
| the meantime TO be kept in SOLITARY
confinement in the state prison at Wind
sor. As the law then stood the governor 5
warrant wns pre- requisite for the execu
ton Of Il condeml ed prisoner, and the
then governor, from a conscientious mo
tive which appears somewhat strained,
refused to issue his warrant for Clitford's
execution and the next governor followed
his predecessors s example. In the mean
time, in his solitary CELL Clifford decaycd
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 justitiable, and
he endeavored 10 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 raving,
when he was SO noisy, abusive and violent
that it was found necessary TO chain him.
; Then he was seized with the notion that
he was unjustly detained, and this idea
would lead him into fits Of violence and
insane rage. Next succeeded a wish to
be hung; and the unhappy man conided
to the prison physician n letter to the
governor, in which he implored him to
order his execution. He then attempted
to starve himself to death, but the attempt
was prevented by the prison officials.
Finally. his mind gave way entirely, and
for many months he could not be per-
suaded to utter word, and at length,
| after confinement of almost precisely
four years. death came to his relief. And
an examination of his body showed the
same pathological condition as in wild
animals that die in their cages after long
confinement.
Such is the story of this most remarka-
BILE case-a story which does not rest on
mere tradition, but upon authentic docu-
ments in every detail.