New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-03-03
4 SOUTHERN MURDER CASE.

4 dispatch dated March l stated that
Governor HicEnery to-day signed the death
warrants ordering the execution OF Patrick
~Ford and John Murphy on Friday, March
10Th" This marks the close of singular his
tory of crime, and of a protractcd, stubborn but
finally successful endeayOr to got that crime
punished The murder for which these men
are to die was of Southern type. Judge
Thomas Ford, a prominent New-Orleans poll
tician and former Recorder of that city, had a
feud with Captain A. H. Murphy, another poll
tician. One day while the latter was superin-
tending some municipal street work, he was
attacked by several men who opened iusillade
upon him. He tried to get away after empty
ing his pistol, but other assassns joined the
first ones and he was shot down IN the street.
The crime was brutal, audaciOus, committed in
broad day, in the public street, and an innocent
spectator was struck by one Of the flying bullets.
The people of Newt Orleans were used to street
encounters" but this was so unmistakable an
assassination that general feeling of indigna-
ton was reused, and the prosecution of the
criminals was demanded.
The.assassins had apprehended'no serious trial.
They had relied upon Judge FOrd's influt nco
TO clear them in the formal inquiry which alone
they rcckoned upon. Public opinion. however,
was too strong for the atrOcity 10 be flushed
ND, and though the cOnsprators employed
every device conceivable to evadc the law,
packing the jury, procuring suborned evidence,
and lighting desperately and unscrupuOusly
ey cry inch. Though. they caused the failure of
one trial and thought they had escaped, the
determination of the public to have justice
done was in the end too powerful for any trick
cry 10 overcome, and n verdict of guilty was
rendered against Pat Ford and John Murphy,
while Judge Ford received a sentence OF
twenty years in the penitentiary. Pat Ford
confessed that he killed Murphy. Subsequently
his brother, the Judge, made a confession in
which he claimed that he committed the
murder, though it was generally believed that
nc was some distance from the scene of the
crime mt the time. Whether or not he con-
fessed the truth, his statement came too late to
save his brother. He himself went to the peni-
Tertiary, and Patrick Ford will go to the gall
| lows next week.
1t is to be hoped that this unrelentng pur-
suit of influential and wealthy criminals marks
turning point III the Southern way OF re-
gardiug homicides arising out OF personal an
tagonisms, but it will not do to make hasty as
snmptions on this head. There are several in
dications that the popular feeling against the
assassins of Cap" Murphy WAS augmented by
the anger and thirst for vengeance of his fac
tional following, which was large. The cow
ardly character of the murder-a crowd against
one-also Influenced the public mind greatly. {
is probably not safe to conclude that If Judge
Ford had invited street duel with soap"
Murphy and had Killed him in it, there would
have been any general Indignation or demand
for the legal punishment of the survivor
Nevertheless, the revolt from assassination by q
crowd may be considered not unhealthy symp-
tom. inasmuch as even as bad cases as that fol
which Ford and Murphy are to hang have in
the past occurred "down South without en-
failing any fresh business upon the courts. II
New Orleans, after hanging some of the -wors