Los Angeles herald., 1890-09-20
DAMAGING EVIDENCE.
UNRELlABILITY OF ClRCUMSTANTIAL
TESTIMONY AT TIMES.

A Man Is Hanged Who Could Have Sent
His Hired Man to the Galiows Had He
Suspected the Latter Knew His Secret.
He Had the Confidence of Many Friends
A party of men who had been discussing
the abolition of the death penalty, and one
of the number had just told of an execu-
tion by hanging of which he had been a
witness, when John L. McDonough re-
marked:
81 have seen just one hanging in my life,
and issued the warrant for the arrest of
she man saw hanged. 1t was rather a re-
markable case, and it taught me always to
look upon purely circumstantial evidence
as not very good"
"How is that2 Let us hear the case"
said one of the party.
"Well, it was like this. It was in 1872;
was quite young then, and had just been
elected police justice in Dunkirk. One
morning German whom. knew came to
me, bringing with him Polander, and
said:
This man tells very strange story;
either he is crazy or else murder has been
committed in Jamestown
Naturally l was interested at once, and
questioned the German. The Pole could
not speak English, but he spoke dialect
of German, and had made his story intelli-
gible to the German. The Poles story, as
interpreted to me, was about like this:
He had been working for a man named
NARROW, well known brewer in James
town. who stood well in the community
Some days previous an acquaintance OF his
named Bachman had been stopping with
him at Marlow's house. MARROW and Bach
man had gone about town together consid-
erably and had become quite we'll acquaint-
ed, apparently, in so short a time. One
evening NARROW asked the Pole if Bach
man had any money about him. The Pole
replied that he thought he had. He
thought Marlow's question a queer one at
the time, but soon forget about it until
subsequent events recalled it to his mind
SUSPICIOUS ACTIONS.
'The next day the Pole was working
about Marlow's place as usual when Mar
low and Bachman came up from the vii
lage together. Bachman carried parcel.
When they reached the house they went
Into the cellar together, and remained
there long time. Then the Pole heard
what sounded to him like shot. Soon
afterward NARROW came out of the cellar
alone About that time some one drove up
with wagon to get a barrel of beer. In
stead of sending the Pole into the cellar
for it, as he usually did, NARROW went him
self to fetch it. When he reappeared with
it the Pole noticed spot of blood upon it
and another on Marlow's clothing. Then
he began to think that something awful
had been done. After the customer had
driven away with his beer NARROW ordered
the Pole to hitch up a team and drive to
ha Js ,f+ 1ooI 80
added to the Poles suspicious, for there
was no particular need of going for wood
at that time However, he went
"When he returned, one of the first
things he noticed was that there had been
a fire in the furnace under the brewing
kettle. The embers were still smolder-
ing There was another strange circum-
stance. No brewing had been DONE There
was a quantity of water in the kettle which
had become heated, but that was all The
Pole, who, though he could not speak in
English, could think and reason quite flu
emily in Polish began to put together all
that he had heard and seen that seemed to
him unaccountable or strange, at least, and
drew from it Il conclusion that was as yet
vague, but suggested something horrible.
THE HIRED MAN TELLS.
'"The next morning the Pole asked Mar
low to allow him to take day off. He
said it was holiday among his people and
he wanted to visit some of his acQuaint-
ances. NARROW gave his consent, and the
Pole started off. Instead of visiting his
friends he took the first train for Dunkirk
and sought for some one to tell his story to-
For long time he was unsuccessful as no
one could understand him. Finally he
found the German, who brought him to
me.
well, you may believe that the story
impressed me. 1t was told In straight
forward manner, and there was nothing
about the man to indicate mental derange-
ment Still l hesitated to issue warrant,
for NARROW, as l said, was citizen of good
standing, and it seemed impossible that he
could have committed such a crime. l
went to an old judge, to whom frequent
ly applied for advice, and laid the matter
before him. He listened with great inter-
est. Issue the warrant he said. I took
the necessary affidavits, filled out the war
rant and gave it to an officer, with instruc-
tions to go to jamestown with it, When
we reached the depot where the train was
ready and about to start we learned that
Marlow's brother-in-law, who lived in Dun
kirk, was already aboard. Evidently he
had got wind of what was going on, and
was going to warn NARROW. We had him
taken rom the train and detained while
the officer went on. To make sure, we tel
egraphed to the jamestown authorities to
arrest NARROW for murder. In short time
we received an answer in the form of a
question. DO you mean NARROW, the
brewerT said the dispatch. Yes, NARROW,
the brewer we replied.
PERFECT FAITH IN THE MURDERER
"When our officer reached jamestown
MARROW was under arrest nominally. The
whole affair was regarded as joke, how
ever Marlow's friends chaffed him and
he laughed loudest at their raillery. Our
officer presented his papers. The deputy
who had arrested NARROW looked them
over. Your papers are all right, but you're
all wrong; NARROW wouldn't hurt fly, he
said. Then our officer told his story. A
party started to examine the ashes in Mar
lows furnace In a few moments some
one had found kneecap. Bones of fingers
and other portions of human skeleton
were discovered. Then there was no more
chatting, and NARROW was under arrest in
earnest.
"On the trial the defence admitted the
killing, but said that it was done by Mar
lows wife, who struck Bachman on the
head with d hammer because he insulted
her mother while NARROW was away from
home. But after the killing had once been
admitted the jury took no stock in that
story, especially in view of the testimony