Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-12-16
lessons From CIuverius.s Trial.


NORFOLK, VA, Dec 14.-Admtting the
guilt OF the prisoner, We find many things
connected with the course of our Metropoli.
tan and provincial papers, as we'll as other
journals, most heartily to be- deprecated.
lst They have uniformly, from the first
spoken of CIuyerius as ''the murderer of
Fanny Lillian Madison" And vet, the
learned coroner and his intelligent assist.
ants could discover no evidence whatever
hat she had ever been murdered at all.
ID. They say, Everybody knows the
difficulty OF handling o dead body. And if
she had been killed by chloroform in the
nearest house, it would have required two
or three men to convey her to the reservoir
! and throw her in." And yet they affirm
| hist Cluverius inflicted blow which
stunned her, and while in an insensibe
| state, as relaxed as tho she were dead, he
raised and threw her over the pailings into
The water-a feat which net less than"two or
three men could accomplish"
3rd They say "She cried for mercy so
loudly while Cluverius was numbering her,
that she was heard many hundred yards
OIL" And yet, they affirm, "she was knock ed
senseless by one fell blow, and while 10
this state was thrown into the water"
t. They say, Though iasansible when
| thrown into the water, she struggled to ex
tr!cate herself, as was evincsd by the mud
and leaves she held in her clenched hand"
being ignorant of the fact that general re
| taxation follows dissolution, and had she.
| clutched the mud in her living struggles
her hands, relaxed in death, would have
| surely discharged it in the water. AND
that, with her hands resting on the mud
when Tho o.ju
/ would have embraced whatever they could
grasp. The distinguished DR.. Alfred Tay-
| Tor says: Never pronounce positive opin.
ion in favor of homicidal drowning from
violence on the person of the deceased, I'm.
less the violence on the body wero so stu
ted that it could not possibly have been
SSH inflicted, or Of more or less speedily
mortal character, or could not likely have
had an accidental origin"
5. They say, "The finding of the watch
key near the reservoir and its identified.
ton by the jeweler as tho one he repaired
for Clurerlus, was the strongest link in the
| chain Of evidence leading to his conviction. u
| forgetting that the jeweler would not swea-
he ever saw the key before it was produced
in court, and hence his pretended identiti
cation was after the conrictioA; forgetting
that number of highly respectable wit.
nesses testified they had never seen Cluve.
RUS with such key, and that the maid
testified she saw that key on Lilian's man.
| I'll, etc.
&. They said, "The old gray bearded man,
In n rough country attire, called to see and
| ccnversed with Miss Madison in the parlor,n
etc. They said yesterday. that "the old
man had been found and arrested, and that
he went with Miss Madison to the parlor,
and there saw CIuverius" To-day they
say, The man IS u Richmond mechanic.
iess than forty years of aye, with black hair:
| that he Went with Miss M. to the parlor
doer, conversed with her, but saw and knew
nothing of Cluverlus." Yesterday they
SAID, 1t Is almost certain that Cluverius
has confessed his crimo to DR.. Hatcher
10 day they say, Or. Hatcher has never
made auy such ntimation to any one. and
hopes that something may occur before the
day oil execution to exculpate the prisoner.
and that Cuverius still proclaims his limo.
Cepce."
Assuming that Ciuverius was guilty. thew
have invariably proclaimed him murder.
Or, ard whatever circumstance which would
oe Uncovered, and whatever utterance
which could be gathered. by wiomsocrcr
mute, calculated to strengthen that coniect.
ure, had been heralded to the world as a"yos.
pei TRUTH" while all the circumstances. tes.
tlmony and facts which have been gathered
10 his favor, are ignored or denounced as false.
They said that nobody in Richmond had
any ground to hope that Gov. Lee will in.
terlere with the sentence of the court" while
the writer has not seen and conyersed with
one intelligent man in fifty, whether law
yer. doctor, minister or layman, outside Of
Richmond, who does not deeply deplore the
course of the Governor, and who did not.
hope and believe hisaction would have been
different
SO violent, vindietive ard revenpeful has
been the public prosecution of the prisoner
IN some quarters, that your correspondent
Is convinced if Fanny Lillian Madison her.
SELF should arise from her grave aud swear
bDy the Eternal that her cousin. Thomas
Judson Cluverius, had never murdered her
that these people would declare She had
been bribed, or intimidated, or had lost her
reason, and adduce it as "the strongest link
in the chain of evidence" to fix conviction
ON the prisoner. HANOVER