The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-06-23
Send HIM TO TENNESSEE
Twenty Years at Hard Labor
Await Forger Stoddard
There.

The exclusive publication in THE JERSEY
CITY NEWS yesterday of Forger Stoddard's
letter to Prosecutor Winfield asking aid in
securing a mitigation of his sentence OF ff-
teen years, caused considerable comment
last night. The statement in the letter that
Chief Murphy had said he had been sufi-
GENTLY punished already, is untrue.
II did not see Stoddard; be had been pun
ished enough, but l did tell him that 1
would aid him. if l could, in being removed
to Tennessee, where several indictments are
hanging over his head" said Chief Murphy
this morning.
About two weeks ago Stoddard wrote.
asking the Chief to call on him at the State
Prison. Chief Murphy regards Stoddard as
the cleverest scamp in the line he operates in
the country. Out of curiosity as much as
anything else he went to see the convict:
"He is an educated man. said the Chief.
81 have investigated his whole career. He
is a scamp, but / attribute his wrong doing
to bad companions. His parents are well
Massachusetts,. He speaks several languages
and has the ability to write In half a dozen
hands. An expert would never be able to
recognize the writing as done by one man.
1 visited him at the prison and he made a
pathetic appeal to me to aid him IN pelng
turnedioyer to the Tennessee authorities.
HE saidto me: Chief Murphy, you are
the only man who every got the best of me.
Now / have sent for you to aid me. l want
TO be pardonedby the New Jersey %author1-
ties. gIhaSetbeen in prison three years ana
L nave paid the p~enalty7of crimes committed
here. NY ahealth is breaking down and for
my dear old IhotheT's -sake1 want to be re-
leased. 30 IN S9bnH41ft
~. Whatlgoodw ouldlit do you to get out
iof heref asked Chief Murphy. 'You must
know that L will b~eacompelled to give you
over to the Tennessee authorities,
81 know that, broke in Stoddard. MY
greatest crimes were committed IN that
State, and by law I should be sent there and
not kept here for petty offenses.'
"tMy object in wishing to be returned to
Tennessee is to be sentenced as soon as
possible. | want a few years of liberty. l
know that On leaving here l am to face
twenty years of Imprisonment in that other
State. | want to go. though, and nave IL
over. If l am a free man once again no
one will ever need to befriend me. l will
be a man, honest n trustworthy al
ways"
In view of the fact that twenty years i'm
nrisonment is staring him in the face i'll
tennessee, Chief Murphy told Stoddard he
would do all he could to have him removed
TO Tennessee.
II did this,n explained the Chief, because
he will be severely punished there, when set
free he will doIwhat is right! He is not a
dangerous man. I do not think he
would resort to murder or anything
of that sort. He lived on his wits
While in prison in Tennesse he sent forged
letters to Governor Blackburn, ~purporting
to come from some of the best citizens OF the
State. In these letters the writer set forth
that Stoddard was not his right name.e and
that for his family's sake he should be re-
leased. Finally Stoddard struck one Of the
Governors particular friends. and was
pardoned. The forgery was discovered
three days later when the Governor CHANGED
to meet his friend. :,
"'Nell, 1 pardoned that man Stoddard
for you,' said the Governor. His friend was
amazed, and declared that he didn't know
Stoddard. A search was made for the pris-
oner, but he had skipped. He was caught
here six months later trying to procure
money from the friends Of JEFF Davis
by forging the am OK the
latter's daugher. In the letter he
represented thai Mrs. Davis was in financial
straits. While in Tennessee, he vlctimized
farmers by playing the part of a railroad
surveyor. He would lay out a line for an
imaginary road across a mans farm, and
for a consideration change it to suit the WA.
er. A few days later a couple OF ACCOM-
pliccs would appear on the scene and sell the
farmers stock of the new railroad ct greatly
reduced rates. III
81 have asked certain men tc aid in his re-
moval to Tennessee, but as yet | have heard
nothing from them. He cannot escape
twenty years imprisonment in Tennessee at
hard labor a.