The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-07-12
these detectives he was taken back to ST.

these detectives he was taken back to st.
l. uis
1t was many months before the trial oc-
CURED, Meantime the Jail was besieged by
men, women and children anxious to obtain
sight of tho little murderer. Those who
saw him found him an insignificant httle
man with pa sion for rolling cigarettes,
and not so far burdened with pride as to re-
fuse any small gift of money with which TO
obtain tobacco and the other Injuries of
life. The crush to see Maxwell was finally
50 great that admittance was refused to all
except those who had important business
with him
When the great Maxwell case came to
trial there was general surprise in legal
circles at the plea brought in by the muir
derer's attorneys. They acknowledged that
Preller had come to his death at Maxwelrs
hands They acknowled that Maxwell or
Brooks was sane at the time But they
pleaded that
THE KILLING WAS ACCIDENTAL,
that Brooks had dabbed IN surgery, was
endeavorlng TO perform an operation on
Prelier, and that i'll giving him chloroform
prior to the operation he gave him an over
dose Before the trial, while talking with
well-known newspaper reporter, Brooks
had asked what su gical operation would
leave no outward mark, and the reporter,
WIZ 4o'i NttANcNA WIN sui gums pll bilc btlD-
ject, suggested the one on which Brooks
defense was based. Brooks afterward de-
MED all knowledge Of the conversation, but
it was undoubtedly on the reporters sug-
gestion that his plea was framed
During the trial Brooks manner was i'm
pudent. The same reporter was sitting be-
side him during the trial when a witness
testified that there were finger marks on
Prellers throat.
why, Maxwell" he said, II did not
know you choBed him, too"
Didn't you, me boy" said Brooks
why, you haven't read all the testimony"
And then he called attention to two women
in the audience on whom he thought he
had made an impression, and referred to
them as daisies"
Brooks, alias Maxwell, was convicted of
murder in the first degree His lawyers
had communicated with his father, the old
schoolmaster of Hyde, and he furnished the
money to take the case to the state supreme
court. The feature of the case ON which
the defense chiefly depended for a new trial
was the extraordinary conduct of the
states attorney, who bod introduced at the
trial a spy named Dingfelder He had been
imprisoned on false charge and put IN the
cell adjoining that of Brooks, and who
testified tnat Brooks had made confession
Of the crime to him. This conduct was
severely condemned by one of the
supreme judges, but the other judges
voted to sustain the decision of the
lower court. Finally, in August last, the
execution having been set for Aug. %, one
of Brooks attorneys sought out Justice
Miller of the United States supreme court
who was taking his vacation at Block
Island, and from him obtained a writ of
error. The application was made to Jus
tice Miller because he is known to be op-
posed to capital punishment This delayed
the execution until the supreme court could
meet and pass upon the case. A few months
ago the supreme court dismissed the writ of
error, and later denied a rehearing in the
case. This knocked Brooks last legal leg
from under him. The only hope
that the picturesque little chloroformer
has left now lies in executive Glenn
ency. His father, the HYDE school
master, has been in st. Louis using his
Masonic influence to obtain the signatures
to petition for Communication of sentence
by the governor of Missouri. Recently n
stay of execution was asked on the ground
that his mother is on her way to America
and wishes to see her son before he dies, but
the governor denied it. Tomorrow, July
ID, is the date set for the hanging. 1t is
not thought likely that Gov. Moorehouse
will interfere with the execution of the SEN
tence, and it is altogether probable that the
gallows will make tail-pece to one of the
most CHASTITY and celebrated bits of criminal
history in the nineteenth century.