Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-24

bonds?" He said: 81 do not.
The next day Detective Jack Cribs came
from Clarion county for the purpose of con.
veying him to the county Jail. He arrived
in Clarion about 9 o'clock on the night Of
July 90. On the next morning, when per.
mitted the freedom of the corridors of the
Jail, it was with feelings of wonder and as
tonishment that Miller viewed over the
three men who were jointly charged with
him in robbing John Connors. They seemed
like ordinary farm laborers or coal diggers,
and it required quite a stretch of inagina,
tion to believe that, unless inspired by
liquor or hunger, these men would have
sufficient courage to rob anyone.
Sure He Could Not Be Convicted.
An examination before the Justice of the
peace was giver in day or so, and Miller
was remanded to Jail to await the action of
the grand jury Perfectly sure of his inno-
cence, and not believing i. possible that he
could be convicted of the charge preferred
against him, he patiently waitedt he course
of events.
Between the 9th of July and the 9Th of
August Colonel w. d. Moore arrived from
Pittsburg and announced himself as having
been retained to defend Miller. When
questioned by Miller as to who had retained
him he absolutely refused to say one word
other than, 81 have been sent to defend you,
l know you are innocent, and if you make
no objections 1 will do my best to clear
you" --.-.
The grand jury indicted Miller, Harrop,
jackson and OFT and In few days after
wards the trial began. The first effort of
Miller lawyers on his behalf was to secure
severance or separate trial. This the
State refused to allow.
The broker Nelson's evidence against Mil
Ter, taken in connection with the evidence
against the other three men, completed q
chain of evidence that made it possible for
a jury to convict, because under the law of
Pennsylvania at that time the evidence
against one person, tried jointly under the
same Indictment with other persons, held
equally good against all the accused. As
the trial progressed, and fact after fact was
piled up which would seem to prove the
guilt of jackson, Harrop and OFT, Miller
anxiously inquired of his lawyers if it
wouldn't be better for him to tell the story
of the shooting in Cleveland, where he was
on the night of this robbery. To his horror
he found that another old English law,
adopted by the State in the early days of
Commonwealth, that if any man be charged
with greater offense than misdemeanor,
1t prohibited him from testifying in his own
behalf The law has since been repealed.
Moore Not Allowed 70 Testify.
Colonel Moore, in his desire to do Justice
to the man whom he knew to be innocent
and whom he saw would inevitably be con-
victed, asked that he might be allowed to
disassociate himself as counsel and tell the
story which he has since sworn to, but even
this was refused. The arrest, the journey to
Clarion county, the Indictment and the trial
of the men only occupied a period of q
days. Three days after trial Miller was
sentenced to seven years in the penitentiary
and conveyed there under guard to undergo
his sentence.
On Colonel Moore's return to Pittsburg
after the conviction of Miller, when he re-
ported the fact that Miller had been found
guilty and would in all probability be SEN
fenced to a long term of Imprisonment, the
men who employed him determined to make
one more effort to prevent the imprison-
ment of an innocent man. They went up to
Clarion county Jail, effected an entrance
through the cellar into the main
corridors of the Jail, intending
to secrete themselves in one of the
empty cells close to the main entrance, from
which they would have enticed Sheriff Coll
ner into the Jail, and after having over
powered him liberated Miller. They in
formed Miller of their intentions, and not
desiring to have ehimselfconnected in any way
with these people, and having formed
for the Sheriff and his family,
which continues to this day, he informed
him of the facts in the case and enabled him
to take such precaution as was necessary to
Illustrate their design and to save the life of
The big-hearted Sheriff
The Evidence at the Trial.
As for the evidence adduced, there is here
with given some of the words of the wit
nesses, and the substance of what the others
.old.
In an affidavit made by John Connors,
ST., at the August term of Court, 1881,
Clarion county, on the oath day of August,
1881, after relating the circumstances of the
how the robbers told them they
mad come to search for counterfeit money
md how they tied himself and his wife up
and robbed the safe, this is his exact lam
5uage on the witness stand: ~ cannot
IDENTIFY the man; they came there about
o'clock In the evening; their faces were
masked. holes for mouths and eyes, coats
Duttoned up; can't tell whether they had
hats or caps"
This was the entire and complete testi-
mony taken from the records of Clarion
county regarding John Connors' identified
lion of the men who took his money. w.
F. Morris, telegraph operator at Red
bank, saw two men come up the township
road and then onto the railroad toward Phil
ipsburg. This was 8 o'clock on the morn
ing of the oath. Redbank is two miles below
He said: 81 saw these men
in the afternoon. l was operating at the
,,,@ h.
ton from the furnace. These men were
strangers. True, this was point where
great many strangers came.
George 1 Whitney testified at the August
term of court in 1881 in Clarion county: 81
purchased some bonds from man named
South There were eight $3.50 Brady's Bend
Bridge Company bonds; there was one $500
Allegheny Valley per cent income bond,
md three $1,000 7-3O Allegheny Valley
Railroad bonds. sold these bonds to Fifth
National and
loot These Bonds From ID. NJ. South.
fT gave cashiers check. 1 soon found
,hese bonds had been stolen and that thev
we're Connor's bonds. 1 found the check
lad been paid to South. 1 went hunting
or South in his office, and went from his
,ffice to the Mayors office, where found
Miller, from whom they took 81, 800 and
;ome cents"
Rebecca Wallace, cousin of one of the
men, testified at the time of the trial: |
live in Armstrong county near Brady's |
Bend. On the morning of March "a there |
vas knock at my door and asked who |
vas there. The three defendants came in,
Jackson, Harrop and OFT. Harrop had a |
;alise, and Jake OFT asked me to get them |
ome ale. Jake OFT had 500 and $50 |
,ill. The next morning Jake OFT and |
William Jackson were standing at my well |
lrguing about a bill. OFT said it was $50 |
ill and jackson said it was $780,