The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1885-01-25
TIE OCEAN COUNTY MURDER
Triai-Who the Prisoners Are and
What They Look Gossip.


Some Points About Notable murder
What They Look like Gossip.
Special Correspondence Of the TArrLER.)
TOMS RIVER, Jan. 24.-The State of
New Jersey has probably never seen such
spectacle as that which has been present
ed at the Court House in this village every
day this week since Monday. A woman
on trial with her three children on charge
of having assisted her paramour to murder
her husband, and the paramour himselfat
the Bar Of Justice with her.
If the trial should result in their convic-
ton, the unprecedented spectacle of a pro-
cession of five persons marching to the
gallows for one crime would spread the
name of this little town from one end of the
the civilized globe to the other. 1t is not
for m to PREJUDICE the case. For their
own sakes hope they are all innocent;
but the State is weaving, a terrible net work
of circumstantial evidence about them
from which escape seems impossible. Out
side influences may affect the result. l
would not say that an acquittal can be
brought about only through the agency of
means that implies dishonesty 10 the jury
box; but outside Influences are already at
work. Rockwell has been active here po-
litically. and some of the men in the jury
box were accepted by his counsel for the
one and only reason that they are known to
be his political allies and dependents. He
will probably endeavor to hood-wink the
jury into the belief that the prosecution is
political, as the supposed motive of the
murder was political, and some of the
jurors may allow their partisanship to run
away with their judgment to the extent
of making their verdict political. That
may prevent conviction, even if their
guilt is proven beyond all manner of
doubt. The country folk down here, who
know Rockwell and the men on the jury,
and their relations to one another and to
the politics and society of the county, look
upon the twelve men and shake their
heads, as they remark that
ssThat jury II never agree"
The prominence of man like Rock
well in the community is a fair
guage of the social grade Of the people that
live in this sand barren. He is not a
nabob, nor mighty political ruler as some
of the newspaper reports might lead one to
infer, He is plain, unyarnished farmer,
whose prudent outstanding of his resources
has left him in possession of little more
money than his neighbors. He has never
risen above the level of County Consta-
BILE. His brother is said to have some
business relations with ex-senator Fred
eric A. Potts, the millionaire coal opera
tor, who tried to beat Ludlow for the Gov
may have given his demeanor a little more
polish than distinguishes his country con-
stituency, but he is man of no education
nor Of any natural ability. He is of me-
dunn height, but slim of build. He has
long, narrow face. It seems the
longer for the neatly trimmed iron
grey beard that he carefully a6-
justs over his coat 'front.' He has an I'M
attractive grey eye beneath which there
are unusual blubbers now, showing anxiety
and loss of sleep. His nose is short and
stubby, and turned up enough at the end
20 show the broad nostrils. His fsh-hesh
hued face has q sanctimonious expression
about it, and he looks for all the world like
canting hypocrite. His hair grows in rea-
sonable profusion on the sides of his head,
but well oiled skeins Of it are laid in care
full streaks across the top to hide the bald
ness there. He dresses neatly in black.
He is a widower, whose two daughters
have kept house for him for many years.
One of them is his warm partisan. The
other, common rumor says, believes him to
be guilty Of the crime for which the State
asks his life.
The Wainwrights are the natural growths
of the pine barrens. They are without
social standing or any other kind Of stand
ing. They are chore workers, who lived on
odd jobs they gruobed from their neigh
bors. Wainwright, the victim Of the
tragedy, moved grass here and there for
pittance day, and spent the biggest part
of his time at night in the tavern, ex-
changing the gossip of the town and squirt
ing tobacco juice. He drank pretty freely,
and often delayed starting for his cabin,
two miles out of town, till one or two
o'clock in the morning The mother, on
the dav of the murder, was a house servant
in the Magnolia Hotel. Her complexion is
dark aud sallow, and she is short and
stumpy of build. Her hair, gathered in
coil at the back, is black, but her hazel eyes
are faded and her features coarse. When she
talks it is with the peculiar provincialism
of information and phrasealogy that prevails
in no less marked a degree among Jersey
back-woodsmen than among the Yankee
farmers. She comes into court with
little old-fashioned fat-brimmed black
straw hat on her head and rusty black
shawl around her shoulders 1t is said
that Rockwells intimacy with her has ex-
tended over many years, and suspicion is
pretty strong that he has debauched the
daughter as well. Emma has large syes
and large features. Her nose is long and
prominent rather Roman in its STYLE
When she was first arrested she had a
fresh color that became her, but confne-
ment has robbed her cheeks of their
bloom. Frizzes cover her forehead, and
she wears little velvet bonnet that looks
like skull cap. Her brothers are rail
road laborers when want forces them to
work. Charles, the younger, is rather a
delicate-looking boy, who takes particular
pains to plaster his hair down on his fore
head. George, the elder, is q tough-look-
ing chap-a stalwart. His short, thick
neck seems to have been made for moose.
de is less careful about bis personal APP
pearance than is his brother Charles.
Ofthe whole family of seven that lived
in their little cabin on the hill, but one,
the 13-year old boy, is at home. He was
allowed home by the Court to look after
the sick COW and the dogs that were SO
hungry when he got back, that they ate
grape skins with voracious eagerness
Since then his married sister, who lived at
Asbury Park, has removed with her family
into the cabin, to keep an eye to the place.
No Scene mt the Academy.