The midland journal., 1894-01-12

''He was in prison there ten months
before his trial came on, and during all
that time his mind remained in such a
state that he couldn't be induced to
give any account of his movements
after leaving Baltimore, and his coun-
sci and friends had nothing to rely on
for their case but his good character.
This was of no avail, and Paul Kunkel
was convicted of the murder of Mrs.
Cooper and sentenced to be hanged the
following September, on day which
proved to be the anniversary of the
murder. Executive clemency could
not be obtained, although the bishop
of the diocese earnestly interested him
self in the condemned mans behalf, as
did many prominent and influential
persons, among them the late Judge
Jeremiah S. Black. All hope was gone
for the unfortunate man, but not until
eight days before the day his sentence
show that he appreciated or under
stood his awful situation. On that
day Kunkel's counsel was surprised to
receive a message from the prisoner
asking for an immediate interview.
The counsel on entering Paul's cell
saw that a remarkable change had
come over him. His mind had cleared.
and for the first time he seemed to
realize his peril. For the first time,
also, he was able to give his counsel a
connected statement of his movements
from the time he left Baltimore. He
described Winter minutely, and satis-
fed his lawyer at once that he was the
victim of a heartless scheme of the real
murderer. Detectives were Immediately
set to work searching for Winter, but
no trace of him could be found. A res
pite was granted Kunkel, to give the
officers more time.
''Winter, having been unable to force
the silver snuff box on Kunlzel or his
family, took it with him when he left
his victims house. A week or SO after
that "a stranger appeared in Ashland
and secured work in blacksmith shop
there. He gave Winter as his name. 1t
happened that another workman in the
shop had only recently removed to Ash
land from Buffalo. He was sub
scriber to a Baltimore newspaper, and
when the Kunkel murder trial came up
he was interested in it, and, at Winters
request, read the accounts of the trial
to him, Winter being unable to read
English. When the man read how
Kunkel had been seen coming away
from the vicinity of the spot where the
murdered woman's body had been
found, and how the tell-tale umbrella
and shoes had been found in Kunkel's
house, Winter remarked that that was
evidence to hang any man, and that he
hoped Kunkel would hang. On the eve
of the hanging, when Winters fellow
workman read him the story that Kun
llel had finally been able to tell, al
though Winter had not changed his ap-
pearance from what it was as Kunkel
described him, the workman did not
suspect that he and the man Kunkel
described were one and the same. It
was not until three days afterward that
the truth was flashed upon his mind in
an instant He was talking with Winter
about the strange case, when the Ger
man took pinch of snuff from his box
as he had often done before in the shop,
and offered his fellow workman a
pinch Then the man noticed that the
box was a handsome silver one, and
that on the inside of the lid was en-
graved the word Cooper That in
stant he knew the murderer stood be-
fore him and had been with him for
nearly year. He dropped the box.
and the gaze of horror he turned on
Winter told the latter that he had been
discovered. He made dash for the
Of hn b,,&
seized him before he could get out and
shouted for some one to get an officer
Winter was secured, and the Maryland
authorities, who had failed to get any
trail of him, informed of his capture.
He was taken to Baltimore, where it
came out for the first time that he was
Conrad Winter, who had been SEN
fenced to the penitentiary seven years
before for horse and sheep stealing.
He was tried and convicted and on the
scaffold he confessed.
''On his trial for sheep stealing
he had insisted that he had been
forced to the crime by his mis-
tress, Mrs. Goodwin, whom, he being
bound to her, he supposed he was
obliged to obey in everything. In his
confession to the Cooper murder he
said that while he was in the peniten-
tiary he had made VOW to have ven
geance on Mrs. Goodwin as soon as his
term was out On being discharged he
went straight for Mrs. Goodwin's. On
his way he overlook Mrs Cooper walk
ing home from the village. He thought
she was Mrs. Goodwin. He sneaked up
behind her and smashed her head in
with heavy stone. Dragging her to
the roadside he saw that she was not
Mrs. Goodwin. He took the things she
had and covered her with brush. He
slept in the woods near by, and next
day, when he saw Kunkel, he conceived
the idea of casting suspicion on him as
the murderer, and palmed her property
off on him with that end in view. He
said he always intended to dispose of
the snuff box, but for some reason
could never make up his mind to do it
after failing to get Kunkel to take it.
The snuff box was used in evidence
against him in the trial. and the man
who had captured Winter by means of
it expressing a wish to retain it as
memento of his having been able to
save the life of an innocent man and
bring a guilty one to justice, the hus-
band of the murd cred woman presented
it to him, and it is his family that has
it to-day."-N Y. Sun.
GEO nensive Curiosity,
A well-nourished dude who was at
titudinizing In front of popular retail
dry goods store detected a street urchin