The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-09-03
PRACTICE.
The Old Declaration Of Independence.
PROTECTION AND REVENUE.
A MopERN moNrE cR1sTo.
Remarkable Case of Punished Innocenct
The Victim Living Only for Revenge.

The Victim Living Only for Revenge.
Erie (Pa) Special
Three days ago welldressed, finely formed,
self-possessed 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
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 gentle
man is Charles Stafford. Ten years ago he was
rough, uncultured backwoods lad. His life
since then has been passed, until Wednesday
last, In the penitentiarY at Allegheny, and the
story of the transition from q boerish to re-
fined condition discounts the fiction which was
the primary cause of the change. Last Wednes-
day Governor Pattison signed Staford's pardon
and liberated him, after serving ten of the
fifteen years to which he had been sentenced
for crime that had shocked this part of the
State The victim of the crime is now a young
matron, living in the vicinity, and morbidly
sensitive on the subject. Stafford, the ignorant,
uncultured wood-cutter, was arrested and was
convicted upon strong circumstantial evidence.
The strongest link in the chain was the fact
that when arrested he wore the red vest which
the victim of the crime noticed upon her masked
assailant in the woods. The lads assertion that
he had been induced to swap vests with man
named McGahm, who said he was going West,
was uncorroborated and when number of
other links were supplied by some witnesses
named Rockwell and one Reeder Moore, there
was no doubt in the minds of the jury, and they
convicted him in less than ten minutes
-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 dy-
ing confessed to the truth of the prisoners story
He denied being the actual perpetrator, but said
Stafford was rs innocent an unborn babe.
The confession was duly attested and sent on
here, but was considered too obscure by the au-
thorities. Two years later Reeder Moore, the
witness who gave the most damaging testimony,
committed suicide, and while in the, Jhroesi of
death he confessed and exonerated Stafford.
The community began to fear that an innocent
lad was languishng in prison. Lawyers of emi-
nence and citizens of prominence proffered their
services, and by degrees mass of evidence was
obtained that conclusively established Staffords
innocence. Through the tedious process Of the
State Pardon Board his release was finally eff
fected on Wednesday,
Being interviewed by your correspondents he
stated that when he arrived at the penit6htiary
and reflected upon the fifteen years to be passed
there he almost went mad. His ignorance he
saw, was against him. The judge who sentenced
him had adverted to his unintellectual condition
as being in harmony with the british nature of
the crime, and he had seen the approving mods
of the jury. He felt thathe could never hope to
help himself or prove his innocence without edu
cation 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 reflected in the daily press. The newspapers
furnished to the convicts were devoured by him
with avidity, and soon he knew more of the
world and its doings than thousands outside his
prison walls. One day he procured Dumas's
Count of Monte Cristo,n and upon that work of
fiction his future life was shaped -
Stafford, after reading this book, was more
than ever determined to acquire that knowledge
which gives power. There was no learned able
in the penitentiary to dig into his cell, but for
cell companions he once had a minister who had
gone wrong and lawyer who had not done
right. From these he obtained much useful in
formation. 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.
By the force of his 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 perspcuity of the letters he sent to his law
yers was remarkable, and materially aided them
in their search for the facts. United States De
tective Benson followed up the clews thus fur
nished, and succeeded in arresting four of the
alleged perjurers.
Staford's plan for revenge is to make the law
his instrument in crushing them. Some of them
have grown wealthyin the mean time one being
rich banker, but he proposes to devote the re-
mainder Of his life to the purpose of establish !
ing their guilt The wife Of the man whom he 1
charges with being the actual psrpetrator Of the
crime has made damaging admissions which 4
Stafford was engaged in copying when the 10 |
porter found him, When he read of the death |
Of the man in Michigan and the suicide Of |
Reeder Moore, he says he cried with passion and |
rallied against the King of Terrors for robbing 4
him Of his prey. The death Of the Judge who |
sentenced him was regarded by him as the full |
hllment of the curse which his old mother |
hurled at the court after her sons sentence was |
pronounced. Taken altogether it is one of the i
most remarkable Of kindred cases.