The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-04-26


such circumstances, and there began
to be widespread anxiety least an inno-
cent man was going to be deprived of his
life. Palmer was sent back to Stafford
SHIRE to be executed. and In front of Stat
ford Jail the largest concourse of specta-
tors ever assembled in England on a like
occasion witnessed his last moments
Not less than $4,000 people stood around
his scatold. The procession OF death had
reached the platform of the scatIold. aud
still Palmer had not confessed. But at
the last moment he turned to the chaplain
and admitted that he had not only
poisoned Cook, but had also poisoned his
wife and brother in the same manner. If
he had had two minutes more of the
hardihood and bravado which had char
acterized him all through the trial and up
to the very brink OF eternity. William
Palmer would have Joined the other
specters that threw their shadows across
the annals OF the courts and make Us all
tremble at the possibility of doing wrong
that can never be righted on the strength
of merely circumstantial evidence.
A Famous New York Case.
1t is curious in all this talk about the
Carlyle W. Harris case no one should
have recalled the famous case of Stevens,
the New York wife-poisoner. whose trial
before Judge Roosevelt in 1859, lasting
seventeen days, was one of the greatest
sensations OF the dav and was full of ro-
mantle interest. Stevens was apparently
an honest and thrifty mechanic, and
member of the church. He was en-
ployed in a carriage factory on Twenty
seventh-st., near Fourth.ave. On the
same street, within sight of his workshop,
was his little home, small apartments in
which he, his wife. bis wife's niece and
one child, a girl ten years OF age.
lived together. The most remarkable
thing abOutthe case was that the poisoning
of Mrs. Stevens was not suspected
by any one at the time of her death, and
but tor the fatuOus conduct OF her husband
never have been discovered at all As 1t
WAS, she had lain in her grave several
months before suspicion fell upon him.
The circumstances of the case present the
terrible suggestion that poison may have
been used with fatal effects in scores OF
cases OF which no mention has ever been
made. Mrs. Stevens became i'll and her
niece, very young woman of excellent
character, undertook the task OF nursing
her. The husband affected great concern
for the recovery of his wife, and pretended
to be so fearful lest her sickness should
take fatal turn that he insisted upon
giving her the medicine prescribed by the
doctor with his own hands. Under this
pretext OF devotion he caused the sick
woman's niece to sgnalhim with handker-
chiefs from the window OF his apartments
when the time had come for the medicine
to be Administered. On seeing this signal
Stevens would loave his work in the car
rage shop and 90 to his wife's bedside,
and with many expressions OF endeaTment
prepare her medicine himself and see that
she took il. At the end of three weeks
the woman died and was buried, the hus-
band displaying the greatest grief. The
niece who had nuTsed the dead woman
was now made the object of the husbands
affections. But she was already under en-
gagement TO be married TO a young man
who lived in another part of the city, and
che declined Stevens attentions. Still he
persisted, and, finding her obstinate. he
fooIishly determined to persecute her,
and thereby laid the train which, in its
final explosion, threw him into the arms of
the law. He found out the young man
to whom his late wife niece was en-
gagged to be married and sent
him a series of anonymous letters
designed TO blacken the character of his
sweetheart The dead wOman's niece, be-
ing shown these anonymous letters, iden-
tilted them as in Stevens handwriting,
and strenuously denied the truth of their
assertions. Her lover, however, was per-
suaded to cast her OFT and alter that
Stevens still pursued her with the most
malignant ISLANDERS. Under this long and
bitter persecution the young woman at
last sought the aid of a brother who lived
in Ireland, and 70 whom che wrote, re-
counting the circumstances of her aunts
death and urging him to come out here
and help her in her troubles. The brother
in Ireland, on receipt OF this letter, started
for New York, and. on arriving in this
citv and learning the full details of his
sisters shameful treatment by Stevens,
he became so incensed that he deter
mined to exact satisfaction from Stevens
at sight. For this purpose he armed him
self with q revolver and went in quest of
the man who had 80 outrageOusly treated
his sister He found him on the streets,
shot at him and missed his mark. Even
at this point, if Stevens had been wise,
there was vet time for him to have avoided
detection and punishment as q murderer.
But he brought the young man into court
before Judge Welsh, who was about to
commit him for a feloniOus assault upon
Stevens, when the former asked leave TO
make statement. Judge Welsh told him
to say what he desired to the court, and he
thereupOn related the story of his sisters
wrongs, and incidentally mentioned a sus-
picion, arising out of all the facts that her
aunt had been poisoned. Thereupon the
court ordered an inquiry to be made into
the story. AS q result the body of the
woman was exhumed and upon being
opened was found to contain sufficient
arsenic to have killed six men.
Stevens was put upon his trial, con-
victed and sentenced to be hangsd
Feb. 3, 1860 The sentence was carried
out, but not before Stevens, who was q
burly man, standing nearly six feet high
and of great strength had almost killed
the warden in a desperate attempt to es-
cape. 1t could be wished for the sake Of
our faith in the justice of human tribu-
nails, that in every case OF conviction for
poisoning the evidence left as little room
for doubt as in the case just recited. But
alas prisoners are very often more subtle
than Stevens. and where they ara sutfi-
GENTLY cunning as Palmer was, to commit
their crimes with so much circumspectiOn
that nothing but their own confessions
can settle our doubts the death penalty is
involved in a horrible uncertainty. For,
say what We will. such specters "a that of
Capt. Donellan, when once they begin to
walk. walk on for all time, and their
ghostly footballs invade our confidence in
human Justice with doubts that can never
ba digsolvad