St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-07
RASCAL BORN AND BRED,
Kemmler's Career and the Crime
for Which He Was Electrocuted.

AUBURN, Aug. 6.-Kemmler was
man of low mental and moral quail
ties. The surroundings of his birth
and early life were very bad. His
father was butcher in Philadelphia,
where William, the murderer, was born
in 1860. The boy grew up in the sham
bles and in the market place. His par
ents sent him to school for a brief
period. and several times he saw the in-
side CT church and heard the service
there. These feeble influences consti-
tuted the only contact the boy and man
ever had with things pure and good.
Kemmler'S was a life that grew ranky.
On no side did it bear the impress or
polish of any training or efforts to en-
noblement. He was sample product
of conditions existing in all large cities.
He'worked i'm the slaughterhouse with
his father, then he became brickvard
worker, and finally he became huck-
ster on his own account. or his raS-
cally devices to cheat customers while
huckstering, Kemmler since his i'm
pris0bment has told with chuckles and
much gusto. In 1887 Kemmler married
a worthless woman named Ida Porter,
in Camded, NJ. Two days later he
found she had been previously married,
and he left her to live with Matilda
Ziegler. They moved to Buffalo, N. Y.
Kemmler frequently found his mistress
purloining money from his clothing,
and he suspected inidelity OH her part.
They quarreled, blows we're eXchanged;
Kemmler became a hopeless drunkard.
On the morning of March 90, 1889, all
Buffalo was shocked by the news of the
brutal butchery of woman at 526
South Division street. The woman
killed was "Tillie Ziegler," and the
murderer was the Philadelphia
butchers son, Kemmler. The murder
was the first that had been committed
in the state of New York after the law
to kill murdererS by electricity had be-
come operative. Kemmler was arrested,
and in the meantime the unfortunate
woman was removed to hospital. Her
face, arms and breast were covered with
blood and she was quite insenSble. A
casual examination resulted in the dis
covery of tWenty-siX distinct gashes on
the face and head and five bad wounds
on the right hand, arm and shoulder,
she having evidently tried to defend
herself from the savage attack of her
paramour. She fingered in a comatose
condition until the next day, when
death ensued before she had once re-
gained consciousness, and she was.
therefore, unable to make an ante-mOr-
TEN statement. The only eye witness
was the four-yearold daughter of the
victim, who said: Papa hit
mamma with the hatchet when
she was lying ON the floor"
The couple in Buffalo had lived under
the name of Hort. The victims father,
Philadelphia huckster named Trip
ner, came to Buffalo, and identified the
body of the dead woman as his child.
With him came Henry Kemmler, the
sister of the dead woman. The woman
was described by the Buffalo papers at
the time as prepossessing brunette of
about 135 pounds, and quite stylish
looking. After his arrest the murderer
refused to talk of the crime, and at one
time there were doubts as to his sanity.
He made no attempt to escape after the
assault. When pressed to give reason
for the deed he only said: Il wanted to
kill her, and the sooner hang for it the
better" Nearly $500 in cash was found
at his room. The eoroner's jury pro-
nounced Kemmler murderer, and
Immediately after the inquest
he was taken from the Jail
to the police court and arraigned ON
charge of murder in the first degree.
IC plOoeiCu ullIJt odSiHS IO uou lO
use for a lawyer. Judge Childs SEN
fenced him to die within the week be-
ginning June "a, 1889, by the applica-
tion of electricity as provided by the
code at Auburn state prison. Counselor
Hatch took exceptions to the sentence,
upon the ground that the punishment
was cruel and unusual and contrary to
the spirit of the constitution. Kemmler
reached Auburn Friday, May "a, at mid
night. A writ of habeas corpus was
served upon Warden Durston just be-
fore the fatal day arrived, and upon
June 25 an exhaustive argument was
heard by County Judge Day. The
whole argument was as to the con-
stitutionality of the law substituting
electricity for the gibbet, on the ground
of the former being cruel and unusual.
Judge Day dismissed the writ, and the
case was taken to the general term of
the supreme court at Rochester, where
the cOnstitutionality of the law was up
held. The last resort was the court of
appeals, and here, too, the decision was
adverse to Kemmler'S counsel. The
criminal was resentenced to die in the
week beginning April %, 1890. 1t is
likely Kemmler would have been cleo
tricized on April 80. but on the 10Th
United States writ of habeas corpus was
served ON the warden, and the case was
then carried to the United States SUI