St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-05-08
The History Of One Of the Most Stubbornly Con-
tested Trials in the Annals Of American
Criminal Practice.

New YORK, May 7.-Public feeling
has run higher over the Harris case
than over any case involving the eXecu-
tion of convicted murderer IN this
state for many years. and when the
governors decision was received,
string was broken on which there had
long been tension. The fight which
he, his relatives and his lawyers have
made for his life, has been carried to
such extremes, only to be met with de-
feat at every point, that thousands of
people, who ordinarily give no attention
to such matters, became partisans. 1t
took but little time for such news as the
governors decision to travel, and in half
an hour it was the talk of the streets.
With the decision the governor filled a
memorandum reviewing the strong
points of the case, as they appeared to
him. 1t was
Matter of Comment
n this city among those who read the
governors memorandum that he had
seen fit to lay stress in it upon the fact
that while Mary Helen Potts was dying,
surrounded by her young girl friends in
the ComstOck school, she opened her
eyes and said: eff anybody else but
Carl had given this to me would think
| was going to die, but, of course, Carl
would not give anything to me but what
was right"
Those who had no confidence in eX-
pert testimony, which was so extensive
in the Harris trial. and who were in
clined to give Harris the benefit of the
doubt because of their lack of conf
dence in the experts, when they read
this quotation from the governors
memorandum, said that he had seen
with the same eyes that the jurors and
the higher courts had, and had been un-
able to offset in his mind the several
links of direct evidence against Harris
Tor which there was no refutatiOn.
Aside from the circumstantial character
of the evidence presented against Har-
us, the large array of witnesses and
counsel, there was another element in
this case. and it was this that brought
the public into it, into divided sympathy
Between Two Mothers.
one pressing for justice and vengeance
for the death of beautiful daughter.
and the other pleading, battling and
struggling for the life of her dear boy.
who, she declared with all the prompt
lngs OF mothers love, was innocent of
this hideous crime.
Mrs. Harris, the mother of the MUIR
derer, and Mrs. Potts, the mother of his
victim. have been two Of the most con-
spicuOus characters in the case. They
were frirndS until the mother of the
girl, who knew more of the affair be-
tween her and young Harris than did
anybody else, became convinced that
her daughter had been murdered. From
that time she became the quiet, but per-
Slstent. avenger; and today Harris
might be free man. with no suspicion
even upon him, had it not been for Mrs.
Potts. Mr.. Potts was away performing
some sort of a contract in the South
when Helen died. Mrs. Potts, a middle
aged, Notwithstanding woman, with
kindly but firm features, called upon the
district attorney. She told him of
Her Suspicious,
and gave him all her thoughts, snd
he promised to look into it. But he
could not make progress enough to
satisfy the mother OF the dead girl. AL
most daily she called upon him, and she
grew lmpatie ut under his repeated
statement that he was investigating"
He could not tell her all he had learned,
for fear that his effort to find a crime
and faSten it might be interfered with.
She kept going to HIM, bringing her hus-
band with her after he had returned
from the South, and on one of these
visits Mr. Potts significantly said to Mr..
Nlcoll; II am sorry TO have had to
trouble you so much and take up SO omuch
of your time. Had l been here when
HELEN died, and had my wife told me
what | know now, there would have
been no need of the law with CARLYLE
w. Harris, L can assure you"
But they waited for the law, and
she believed had killed her daughter
indicted, arrested and locked up. Then
she was seen no more until the long
trial began. She was a witness there.
and she testified in calm manner, tell
ing every detail of
Her Daughter's Life
that could have bearing on the case.
When the jury retired she sat in the
district attorneys office and waited, and
when she heard the verdict of guilty she
walked away with her husband without
comment, and was seen no more until
the proceedings for new trial were
commenced.
Then she returned to the court, not to
give testimony, but to see that the afi-
davits to disprove that her daughter had
been morphiue eater were all read,
She was there when Harris made his
Wild speech to the recorder, and she