The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1886-06-27
FOUR GREAT TRIALS.
A VETERlN'Sn 6 0SSIP ABOUT N0T4-
BILE CASES IN THE COURT HOUSE.

Why is il that the Court House is nc
more the scene of the great legal displays
that, for weeks in times past, have stirred
the feelings of the community to the bot
tom-most depth One doesn't have to &c
back very far into the ages to bring to
memory pictures of trials as exciting as
any that any Court in the country ever lis
tened to. call to mind, now, four or five
that, in dramatic excitement, match any
thing the field of fiction can produce. The
trial Of Jia Coughlin for bigamy is the first
to occur TO me. He was contractor, whose
business in Hobeken nettea him hand
some income every year. he was sport,
given to Attendance upon races. and a
masher, who never missed an evening pic
mic. One of these evening gatherings
brought to Otto Cottage. many years ago,
a stately blonde, beautiful in feature,
peach-like in complexion, with wealth of
golden hair, who attracted him. II was not
MANY weeks before he had established her
as the mistress of his luxurious home. A
marriage certificate showing the wedding
OF Willisia Stevens to James Coughlin hung
canspicuously upon their bedroom wall,
and they were happy, till one morning he
borrowed the diamond ring she wore upon
her le t hand, kissed her good-by, and in
the evening became the husband of beau
tiful little French girl. The woman scorned
BECAME q devil Of hate, and before ne had
started on his honeymoon trip, she had
him in the custody of the law for trial on
charge of bigamy. He pleaded in his own
defense that the fair Wilisia had been but
his mistress; that the certificate on the
wall had been prepared to cover the sin of
their relations; and that he had a
legal right to desert her for lawful wife.
When the minister swore that he had mar
ried the couple the accused husband as
serted that some one had personated him
at the ceremony, and brought Ike Crispell,
then Jehu in Cranes employ, to swear
that at the hour at which the wedding had
occurred he was being driven on drunken
spree to some place IN the northern section
OF the county. Crispell swore from his
memorandum book. and as an examination
of the book showed that the entry had
been made to answer the purposes of the
trial, the jury refused to believe him, and
found Coughlin guilty. The convict hus.
band hoped that the court would leniently
excuse his crime with fine, and APP
preached the Court House prepared to pay
tip that the Court had selected the State
Prison as the place for his punishment; and
he fed. For months track of him was lost,
but it was afterward said that he had taken
his little French bride to Canada, and had
started out to make new future in that
FL Dorado for all disconsolate Americans.
Another trial that excited a more than
passing interest among the people was
that in which old Sisson sought TO take
from hundreds of little property owners
on the Heights their humble homesteads,
because of discovered flaw in 0 deed
almost a century old. A large tract of
Hudson City, lying near the Court House,
had originally been part of one farm. A
search of the records revealed the fact that
in the books OF register the deed by which
he conveyed that part of his estate failed to
contain the words trans itting an inherit
ance. 1t was so-and-so to so-and-so, with
out the usual expression, ssand to the
heirs and assigns of the purchaser.
Without these words, it was claimed, the
deed gave the party of the second part,
and the hundreds of property owners who
had acquired through him, only his life
estate in the tract. Old Sissson hunted
the country over for the only living child
of the original owner, and from her
bought for the mere bagatelle of ST. 200,
all her right, title and interest in the estate.
The next step was to eject those living
upon the tract, then thick settlement, and
worth nearly half million of dollars It
was mean suit, and Sisson was man of
such marked meanness of disposition that
1t was stamped on his face. He was, in
deed, so mach ashamed Of his face, and SO
afraid that it would turn the Jury against
him, that he sought some one else to offici-
ate as the plaintiff. s'Dominie" Rice, who
had been his wife's pastor, and who had
acquired 81 900 of her money by her will,
was approached by the mean faced sutton,
but he Indignantly refused to act as a cats
paw, and. Sisson had to go to the jury in
the name of his brother. Ben was nopret-
tier than Charles, and it took the jury just
three hours to decide that he should not
be allowed to turn the people of the Hill
out of their homes.
The reference to Dominic Rice brings to
mind another memorable treat in which he
figured even more conspicuously. 1t is of
SO recent a date that your readers will guess
in moment that have the great Smith
murder trial in mind. 1t may be safely
said that no local excitement ever matched
that in dramatic points. Mrs. Smith who
was accused with the young 'Cove" Ben
nett of having killed her husband at their
home in the Lafayette section, was model
for SCULPTOR violet eyed, rosy checked,
faxen- haired beauty, little understood if
anything, but shapely withaI. Their trial
was series of surprises from the time of
their arrest through the scenes attending
their conviction and sentence to death, up
to the close of the later trial that set them
free. The case of the State rested upou a
letter that had been swung by string
from window opening from the corridor
in which Bennett was confined to window
opening into the corridor where his lovely
paramour was prisoner. The State had
imprisoned a half crazed woman on a
charge of numbering her own child-and
she had submitted to it--in order that she
might act as a spy in the Jail upon the &C.
cused pair; and it was she who found this
letter, that, read in the light of known