Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-11-09

A CONFESSION IN TEE POWERS CASE.

The detectives in charge of the investi-
cation report that one of the men arrested
on suspicion Of having murdered DR.. Pow
ers, IN San Bernardino county, in Septem-
Der last has made full confession. The
details are withheld by the officers, but we
are assured that the revelations are COM
plete and fix the guilt where it belongs.
There are now under arrest sixteen men
and one woman charged with being par
Elephants in the crime. The story of the
murder has been told in our columns, and
the public has been informed from day to
day of the arrests and the activity of the
officers in ferreting out the truth Young
Alexander, one of the prisoners, has now
confessed that he had share in the kill
ing and that certain others were parties to
the conspiracy to do away with Powers.
There is always degree of suspicion to
be attached to a confession by one of many
persons charged with crime The law
books are full of instances Of confessions
being made by alleged confederates in
crime for the sole purpose of escaping ex-
IRENE punishment 1t is also true that
men not infrequently confess to crime, who
have become possessed with the idea of
their own guilt, when, in fact, they had
nothing to do with the crime. Such was
the case of John Perry, in what is known
as the Campden Wonder" and he and his
brother were hanged for a supposed
murder, that, in fact, was never COM
mltted. So, too, in the Calais case,
man confessed to murder
and was executed, and thereafter it was
shown that he was wholly innocent. In
New Jersey two brothers confessed to
homicide with which they were charged,
in the hope thereby to gain executive
clemency, but neither OF them was guilty.
and 1t was proved soon after the confession
that no murder had been committed. Isa-
bell Gowdie, as far back as 200 years ago,
consumed four days in confessing to crimes
she committed as witch" and on the
strength of her confessing she suffered
death at the stake. A man named Ma
honey, in this State, confessed in full de-
tail to remarkable burglary in Sonoma
county, and implicated several citizens,
who were in consequence sent to San Quen-
tin for varying terms of years. Yet it was
thereafter shown that Mahoney concocted
the whole story, and made it fit so nicely
to the facts of the burglary, that convic-
ton was inevitable. The case of Samuel
Wall IS a striking one. A young girl dis
appeared. Her body was found in canal.
Wall came forward and told completely
reasonable and circumstantial story of his
seeing one Clare kill the girl But Clare
proved beyond all question that he was
miles away from the place of the
murder at the time, if it was a
murder at all. Yet it is certain
that Wall firmly believed the story he
told. Self-inculpative evidence is very
common, when it is certain that it is I'M
true. Men and women, in cases where
great and mysterious crimes agitate COM
munity, not infrequently become i'm
pressed, from long dwelling on the subject,
with the belief of their own concernment
in the matter in criminal way, and so
confess to crimes of which they are limo
cent. The anxiety TO save ones self is a
strong actuating influence to lead
one of many prisoners charged with crime
to turn States evidence. And in all such
cases the oonfeSsing party does his best TO
make out a strong case against the others
There are hundreds of cases in the law
books that are so tragic in their history as
to cause the thinking to demand, in all
cases of confession, strong confederation.
1t has become Il settled principle, indeed,
that the Courts will not convict upon bare
confession alone. In the Powers case.
however, there is reason 20 believe that the
story of Alexander, whatever it may be in
detail, will be sustained in the main by
circumstances and undeniable facts, fixing
the guilt of some of the men charged with
that horribly brutal murder. Alexander's
father, it seems, knew that Powers was in
danger knew that his Alexander's son.
was party to the conspiracy to Kill
Powers, and he 50 told the detectives
when threatened with arrest, and asking to
be allowed to talk with his son, induced
him to make the confession referred to, on
the promise of immunity from punishment
for the younger man. There probably are
other corroborating facts to substantiate the