The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-12-08
, 'gRs FOR PARDON.
a Field Day the Maine State
Prison.
Ten Men in Striped Suits Before the
Governor and Council.
The chadbournes and Clinton Tell
Their Stories.
conroy and Cary Of Portland Put In
Their Pleas Also,
Especial to the Press. ]


Their Pleas AIso.-
Especial to the Press.l
RocKLAND, Dec. 7.-If you should ran
sack the churches of Maine it would be diff
ficult to find ten men who could make more
solemn protestations of innocence, or sup
port them with more plausible stories, than
did the ten convicts who appeared befoie the
Governor and Council to plead for pardon
today in the warden's room at the prison. 1t
was almost impossible to disbelieve some of
the stories, even though they came from
men whom twelve good men and Judge had
deemed worthy of prison. The event was
one of surprising interest to the convicts,
and most of them showed their feelings by
their nervousness and eagerness in telling
their stories. Some of the men had spent
years in the prison, and during the time, of
which they could give the measure to a day
had almost forgotten the ways and men Of
the outside world for which they longed so
passionately. But two or three of these
men have in their faces or manners the
signs that would indicate to an ordinary OBJ
server the records which lay behind The
rest were ordinary-looking men, who would
pass unnoticed in crowd. One sees dozens
- MOh CNCly udy III d City WuOm ne would
lear on dark night more than he would
these convicts. Yet the mildest-mannered
and softest-voiced man Of the lot told the
Governor and Council how he had followed
his man on dark night and dubbed him to
death for his money. This man was Joseph
D. Smith. and as he stood up in the warden's
Office before the small audience of officials,
nervously twirling his convict's car in his
hand and keeping an unsteady
eye, now on his audience and now on the
w md linz al
shame how, in the town of Charleston fif-
teen years ago, he killed and robbed man
named Joslin. He had intended to stun his
man, not kill him. But when the victim
arose from the first blow, he struck again
and again until he became murderer.
Smith didn't know exactly why he should be
pardoned, he said, except that the fifteen
years had seemed very long time, and the
prospect of the rest Of his life looked very
dismal He had trouble with his lungs, he
SAID had bled at one time pint from them.
But he looked in fair health, and declared
that II the Governor would pardon him he
could earn his living by working as a car
riage trimmer. Convict Smith ended with a
20 DOW and wlstful SMILE, to give place to
Thomas Conroy, who halls from Portland.
Conroy, who declared that he was too
sick to live, looked more defiant than i'll.
His words came out in low tones suggestive
Of growl,, although he seemed to be doing
il, ms pest TO be gracious. Conroy's chief ar
enough; and that his sentence was
excessive in the first place. He was
sentenced in 1884 to eight years for
compound larceny and assault The as
sault consisted in throwing pepper into the
turkeys eyes and breaking out of Portland
jail In Boston, while they were trying to
arrest him, he stabbed a Massachusetts
officer. The State of Massachusetts wants
him for this, and the officials there have sent
the cheering message that if Conroy is par
doned out they will have an officer ready to
welcome him when he steps out of Thomas
ton. Conroy was told this, but thought
nevertheless that he would rather take his
chances In Massachusetts than Thomaston.
time out in Thomaston. Consumption is
what ails him, and he has raised good deal
OF blood and phlegm, he says When asked
to initiate his lungs he didn't succeed very
well, and declared that his consumption was
wasting him away. When some one sug-
gested that he be weighed, Conroy hastened
to tell OF some other sad symptoms, and
didn't seem anxious to be put on the scales.
But the warden had him weighed. When
ne came in 1884 he tipped the scales at 154;
now ne weighs l47. This didn't seem to inn
press any one as very good showing of |
emaclatloR for consumptive. Conroy
hates the newspapers, and complained TO
the Governor that they had even gone so far
as to criticise the color of his hair which is
very black and covers very ugly looking
head and mug.
A sister, who lives in Portland, pleads for
Conroy. He says that his family are honest.
and have always borne a good name When
the Governor asked him if he had ever been
IN prison before he answered with tone
very. much Ikea sneer, Two years in Cana
da; for malicious mischief; broke looking
glass in a bar room." As boy he was ar
rested for petty larceny; he denies that he
was guilty of the compound larceny for
which he was put in Portland jail II par
0Onp6 he yynnld n yhar l.o
could support himself at his trade he is a
barber.
The next man differed as much from Con-
roy as it is possible for two men to differ.
age. and grief, although his hair and whiskers
had not changed TO any appreciable extent
from the original black. This old man was
Benjamin Chadbourne, and his lot has been
one of grief If not of crime. he was SEN
teneed to life term in 1883, for alleged, and
as it seems apparently proven, completely in
one OF the worst and most mysterious crimes
ever committed in Piscataquis county. Alvin
Watson of Parkman was found dead in his
own house, his body mangled, with many
cuts, almost any one of which would have
been sufficient to have killed him. Near him.
and soaked in his blood, was found a vest,
the property Of a deaf and dumb boy. That
deaf and dumb boy was this old man Chad
bourne's son. Suspicion was directed against
the old man and his other son, Benjamin w.
Chadbourne, who previously had had quar-
rel with Watson. Stains of blood, which
Professor Carmichael declared to be human
blood, found on Benjamin W. Chadbourne's
overalls and the. little understood signs of
the deaf and dumb boy combined to convict
both Benjamin Chadbourne, and his son
Benjamin W., of murder in the first degree
and send them to Thomaston for life. The
friends of the c0nvicts, feeling that if the
deaf mute could only talk, mystery could
be cleared up that would show the Chad
bournes to be innocent, sent the boy to Hart
ford to be educated. The drowning of this
boy on the grounds of the school has only
added mystery to the case.
Benjamin Chadbourne is now 62 years old,
and he spoke to the Governor and Council
today with an earnestness that corroborated
his declared premonition that this would be
his last chance to regain his freedom and re-
move the stain from his character. He
knew nothing, he said, of the crime except
what all the neighbors knew. But he gave
some reasons for suspecting a man who has
never been charged with the crime. That
man, he said, is Nicholas Smith, of Har-
mony.
One of the Council asked the old man If
his wife did not commit suicide after the
trial, and inquired why she did it. Chad
bourne Strengthened up and answered: ''My
wife was very preud-spirited woman. /
mortgaged everything | had ON earth to de-
fend myself and my son. She was left with
nothing but poverty and disgrace. 1t broke
her proud spirit. She was Ham. If you
know anything about the Ham family in this
State, you know what pride is" Here the
old man broke down, and pulling a red ban
danna from the orange-colored side of his
convict suit, he sobbed aloud over his own
griefs rather than over the pride of the Ham
family. He then continued, in a broken
voice: Your Honor, am man 62 years
old next Monday. never was known to be
drunk but once in thirty years. / am not
member OF church, nor do want to be. l
followed the Methodist class for twenty
years, and when | moved to another town /
went with the Free viii Baptsts. | believe
in the crucifxion of Christ, and that he
came to save sinners, and net those already
saved"
After the old man went out. his son. Ben
lamln w. Chadbourne, was brought in. He
is 80 years old, of medium height, and not
wicked looking man at all. He looked his
MS hearers In the eye, and labored with evil
dent anxiety to convince the Governor that
he innnnnnf -. l.. ..nlA hot