St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-09-26
HIS MIND is EASY.
Jacob Brown Confesses a Crime
Committed Eight Years Ago.

Jacob Brown Confesses q Grim e
Committed Eight Years Ago.
Minneapolis has case of Murder
will out'' on Its hands. The man who
did the murder and who has it out now,
is Jacob Brown. Brown says that he
killed man in CentraIia, ILL.,, eight
years ago. That mans face has stood
between him and happiness all these
years. He says that since he has told it
he can sleep nights and eat without
feeling the bread rise to choke
him. But all that is gone now
His food now slips down like brIbe in
New York alderman'S pocket, and he
sleeps tighter than the brick front of a
mortgage loan office. His heart is happy
all the day. His confession brings Joy
to another man. James Gray is serving
a life sentence in the Illinois peniten-
tiary at Chester for the very same crime
that Brown has confessed to having
committed. Brown is in the Central
police station: The Centralia officers
have been notified of his arrest, and are
will go back without eXtradition papers.
This man Brown walked in upon
Supt. Henderson Thursday morning.
He told the superintendent he was a
murderer, and wanted to be locked up.
The superiutendent's keen insight into
human nature told him that Brown was
crazy, or had been drinking. However,
he decided to let Brown sleep in the
lookup, and then go out to the work
house for thirty days or so. He did
take the precautiCn to telegraph to Cen
tralia to ask about this man Brown, and
was requested by the officers down
there to hold the man. Yesterday Brown
was as cool as a chip off the North pole.
This condition was due partially to his
mental relief from having told his story
and partially to the coming of the cold
wave while his clothes were thin. He
was dressed as tramp. He looked 1T
in every lineament of his countenance.
But he was not bad-lOoklng tramp.
He is just an ordinary light-haired
tramp. Strangely enough he was led to
tell the story of his own crime by the
recital of another crime in the papers.
AS he tells it himself:
IL was reading the story of the Critic
poisoning case yesterday afternoon" be
said, land all at once was seized with
an uncomfortable desire to give myself
up and stand trial. do not know the
name of the man | killed. In Septem-
Der, 1888. | was tramping over the conn
lily Will party VI bWGlfc VI ulIe6u,
following up county fairs. We got into
Centralia one evening about dark, and
/ went down to hunt for a bunk in a
box car. ! found what l thought was
an empty car III the Illinois Central
yards and entered it. 1t was dark and
l stumbled over man, tramp. who
was in the car asleep. He woke up
angry, and getting to his feet, COM
menced fighting me. l saw that he was
a larger and heavier man than l was,
and desperate, so | picked up a coup
ling pin that was at my feet and struck
him with it. He fell and / fed. I
did not suppose l had killed him, and
in fact, did not know he was dead
until next morning. A tramp named
Gray entered the car in the night, and
to sleep. and laid down in pool of the
blood. Next morning he saw the dead
man, and saw that his left sleeve was
dyed with the blood. He tore off part
of the sleeve, threw it on the floor of the
car, and went away. As he left the car
an old colored woman saw him. /
stayed In Centralia several days. First
colored man was arrested and dis
charged. and then Gray. The testimony
OF the colored woman and the torn coat
sleeve made strong case, and he was
sent up for life"
II have wandered over the country
until now, and everywhere have been