Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-09-07
A NEW EDMOND DANTEs.


Serving Ten Years When Innocent
Spending His Time While I'm the Peni-
Tertiary In Educating Himself and
Preparing for Revenge upon His Per-
seeutors-A Strange But True story.
Three days ago, says an Erie { Pa. J
letter to the Philadelphia Times, we'll
dressed, finely-formed, selEpossessed
gentleman knocked at the door of the
humble cottage occupied By the Widow
Gates, who lives in the back country,
some twenty miles south of this city, and
inquired concerning the widows son,
who had left home some ten years ago.
In a short time the strangers identity
was revealed and the Widows long-lOst
son was in her arms. The name of the
gentleman is Charles Stafford. Ten years
ago he was a rough, uncultiYated back
woods lad. The whole of his life since
then had been passed, until Wednesday
last, in the penitentiary at Allegheny and
the story of the transition from a bOOrish
to refined condition discounts the fiction
which was the primary cause of the
change.
Last Wednesday Gov. Pattison signed
StaffOrd's pardon and liberated him after
serving ten of the fifteen years to which
shocked the whole of this part of the
State, the details of which it is I'M
necessary to relate here from the fact that
the fearful story has been told in the trial
reports and that the victim of the crime
is now young matrOn living in the
vicinity and mOrbidly sensitive on the
subject. Stafford. the ignorant, uncul-
tured woOd-cutter, was arrested and was
convicted upon strong circumstantial
evidence, The strongest link in the chain
of evidence was the fact when arrested
he wore the red vest which the victim Of
the crime noticed upon her masked assail-
ant in the woods. The lads assertion
that he had been induced to change vests
with man named McGahm, who said he
was going West, was uncOrrObO-ated and,
when number of other links were sup
piled by some witnesses named Rockwell
and Reeder Moore there was no doubt
In the minds of the jury and they con-
victed him IN less than ten minutes.
HIS INNOCENCE ESTABLISHED.
Four years ago the man named by
Stafford as the person who snapped vests
with him died in the charcoal woods of
Michigan, and before dying confessed to
the truth of the prisoners story. He
denied being the actual perpetratOr, but
said Stafford was as innocent as an
unborn babe. The confession was duly
attested and sent on here, but was con-
sidered too obscure by the authorities.
Two years later Reeder Moore, the wit
ness who gave the most damaging testi-
mony, committed suicide, and while in
the thTOes of death he confessed and eX-
Onerated Stafford. Public excitement
ensued and the community began to fear
that an innocent lad was languishing in
prison. Lawyers of eminence and citi-
zens of prominence profeTed their SER
wees, and by degrees a mass of evidence
was obtained that conclusively estab-
lished StatfOrds innocence. Through the
tedious process Of the State Pardon Board
his release was finally effected on Wednes-
day.
When he arrived at the penitentiarY
and reflected upon the fifteen years to be
passed there, Stafford says he almost
went mad. His ignorance he saw was
against him. The Judge who sentenced
him had adverted to his unintellectual con-
dition as being in harmony with the
british nature Of the crime, and he had
seen the approving mods of the jury. He
felt that he could never hope to help HIM
| self or prove his innocence without educa-
ton, and so he resolved to possess the
power which knowledge gives. Through
the kindness Of the officials he learned
how to read and write, and then he
launched into the study of mankind as
I
pers furnished TO the cOnYictS were de-
VOured by him with aVidity, and soon he
knew more of the world and its dOings
than thousands outside of his prison
walls. One day he procured a novel from
the pen Of Alexander Dumas-''The
Count of Monte ChristO''-and upon that
work of fiction his future life was shaped.
There was no learned able in the peni-
Tertiary to dig into his cell as in the case
of Edmund Dantpa bUt for pnl1 rom
pani0ns he once had minister who had
gone wrong and lawyer who had not
done right. From these he obtained much
useful information.
LIVING FOR REVENGE.
He lived now for revenge. Upon his
knees he swore by the Eternal God that
each of the wretches who had sworn
away his liberty should be made to suffer
as he was suffering for year, tear
for tear, grOan for grOan. BY the force ofhis
newly-acquired intelligence he reasoned
out theory which plainly indicated the
guilty party and laid bare the cunning
plot of the cOnspiratOrs. What was dark
to him when an ignorant lad was now
clear as daylight. The perspicuity of the
| letters he sent to his lawyers was re-
markable and materially aided them in
their search tor the facts. United States
| Detective Benson followed up the clues
mus luInlsneu anu succeeueu IN dTresIlnS
four of the alleged perJurers.
Stafford's plan for revenge is to make
the law his instrument in crushing them.
Some Of them have grown wealthy in the
meantime, one being rich banker, but
he proposes to devote the remainder of
his life to the purpose of establishing
their guilt. The wife of the man whom
he charges to be the actual perpetrator of
the crime has made damaging admissions,
which Stafford was engaged in copying
when the reporter found him. When he
| read of the death of the man in Michigan
and of the suicide of Reeder Moore he
says he cried with passion and rallied
against the king of terrors for robbing
him of his prey. The death of the Judge
who sentenced him was regarded by him
as the fulfillment of the curse which his
old mother hurled at the court after her
sons sentence was pronounced.