St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-10-19
VOLUME 47---NUMBER 24I2.

accepted the invitation, taking her
child in her arms. In an hour or two
Clifford returned alone, and notified
the neighbors that his wife, while ad-
iusting n 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 value,
could not he found. This strengthened
the suspicion that Clifford had muir
dered his wife and child, and an in
tense excitement pervaded the neigh
borhood. On given time the people
came together from miles around and
Il 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 eX-
traOrdinary facts of the case. On the
night of that day, 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 fence across which a
large hemlock tree had fallen, walked
Il few yards on the trunk of the tree,
and thence to a dense growth of under
brush near the shore of the pond and
there, in a shallow hole in the sand
and partially covered, she found the
shawls. In the morning Mrs Marvin
told her dream to her husband. but he
thought little of it. She, however,
persuaded a neighbOr to accompany
her, and though she had never before
been over the ground, she found every
thing precisely 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,
Clifford, on trial, was convicted. and
he was sentenced to he hanged on the
expiration of one year from his SEN
tence, April 2d, 1913. in the meantime
to be kept in solitary confinement in
the state prison at Windsor. As the
law then stood the governors warrant
was a prerequisite for the execution of
a condemned prisoner, and the then
governor, from a conscientious motive
which appears somewhat strained, re-
fused to issue his warrant for CliffiOrd's s
execution and the next governor fol-
lowed his predecessors example. In
the meantime, in his solitary cell, Cliff
ford decayed in body and mind,
and suffered both an intellectual and
physical death. For a few months,
while admitting his guilt, he claimed
that his act was .justiliable, and he en-
deavOred to get some influence from
abroad used in his behalf. At the end
of the time originally set for his eXecu-
ton he began to have spasms of insane
raving, when he was so noisy, abusive
and violent that it was found neces-
sary to chain him. Then he was seized
with the notion that he was unlawfully
and unjustly detained, and this idea
would lead him into fits of violence
and insane rage. Next succeeded wish
to he hung; and the unhappy man
contided to the prison physician a
letter to the governor, in which he inn
plOred 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 completely, and foI
many months he could not be persuad-
ed to utter word, and at length, after
a confinement of almost precisely foul
years, death came to his relief. And
an examination of his body showed the
same pathological condition as in wild
animals that die i'll their cages after
long confinement.
Such is the story of this most remark
able case-a story which does moi
rest upon mere tradition, but upon au,
thcntic documents in every detail.