The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-04-16
A NARROW ESCAPE FROM HANGING

Il
zone of the most remarkable cases
| that has ever come to my notice" said
Judge Baldwin, Twas that of the two
| Boorns, who were convicted years ago in
| the Supreme Court of Vermont, in Ben
nington county, of the murder of Russell
| COlvin, 1t appears that COlvin, who was
a brother-in-law of the prisoners, was a
person of weak mind, and was consider
| ed burdcnsome to the family of the pris
oners, who were obliged to support him;
that at the time of his disappearance he
WAS in a distant field, where the prison
ers were at work; that violent quarrel
| had broken out between them, and that
one of them had struck him severe
| blow on the back of the head with a
club, which felled him to the ground.
Some suspicion arose at the time that he
was murdered, and these suspicious were
increased by Il hiding o, his hat in the
same field few months afterward.
These suspicious i'll process of time
subsidized, but later one of the neighbors,
having repeatedly dreamed of the muir
! der with great minuteness of circum-
| ces, both in regard TO the missing man s
| death and the cOncealment of his re-
| mains, the BOoTns were vehemently ac-
cused and generally believed to be guilty
of the murder. After close search the
| pocket knife of COlvin and button off
! his coat were found in an old open eel
lar in the same field in which he had
| been seen, and in hollow stump not
many rods from it were discovered nails
and number OF bones believed to be
those of man.
"Just prior to their trials friends OF
the BOOrns said that evidence against
them was too Enthusiastically plain for
them to longer hold out, and urged them
to make clean breast of the entire
matter, holding that if they did so they
would undoubtedly get their sentence
OF death committed to Imprisonment for
life
THE men were tried and sentenced to
be hanged. Their friends renewed their
request, detailing long story as to Just
how the murder had been committed.
The other confessed, but with great re-
luctance and doggedness, and would not
go into details.
n'rhe one who had made the full con-
fession had the sentence of death com
muted. while the sentence of the penalty
of the law was ordered carried out in the
case of the other.
"As the day of the execution APP
I pIOdtuttl lllt NOOllcu Ultll lnIut u ueC-
laratiOn that he and his brother had lied /;
lied outrageously, and for his pait he
wOulG not risk facing his Maker with so
awful lie upon his soul. The declara.
ton was received simply as an act of
supreme cowardice in the face of death,
and caused all but two or three of the
most intimate friends of the maker of it
TO turn against him, so plain to their
minds, and to the minds of the entire
community, was 1t that both men were
guilty beyond possible DOUBT.
The last n rise but one, for the
doomed man, WAS flooding his Vermont
rome, when who should appear at the
door but Russell Colvin-the man for
the murder of whom BoOrn was upon
the morrow to be executed
THE explanation of the whole mat
ter is simple" added Judge Baldwin.
The two Boorns had jumped upon
Colyin in the field and beaten him. He
had escaped from them, leaving his hat
behind him, and so overpOwered was he
with fear that he continued his flight UNI
til he found himself in New Jersey. At
the last moment he had heard that one
OF his prosecutors was about TO be hung
as his murderer, and although he had
suffered great brutality at his hands, Col
YIN Immediately FASTENED buck to save
the unlucky fellows neck. As for the
confessions whichtle Boorns made, par
ticularly the full aud very explicit one,
h y were made simply TO save their
n cks. &C mdhd Bee.