The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1894-12-06
AFTER Is YEARS
IN THE STATE
PHNITENTIARY TWO MEN RE-
LEASED.
They Were Convicted of Murder and SEN
fenced to Hang, but Governor Roberts
COMMITTED Their Sentence-A
Novel Case in Very Truth.

The following self-explanatory and ex-
tremely interesting document was is
sued from the governors Office yesterday:
The State of Texas VS.. Ben Krebs and
James Preston. Life sentence in the
under conviction for MUIR
der. Application for pardon.
The two applicants, Ben Krebs and JAS.
Preston, are now in the state penitentiary
at Rusk, serving a life sentence on con-
yiction for murder. For over 10 years
they have been imprisoned in jail and the
penitentiary under that charge. They
each are old and on the verge of eternity.
One is over 20 and the other is just under
that age. Of all the cases that l have
ever read or that have appeared before me
for consideration, this is the strangest,
most novel and peculiar.
In the night of August 26, 1876, William
England and his wife, and her son and
daughter by former marriage, were as
sassinated at their home several miles
from the county site, in Montague county.
The two applicants and youth named
A. X. Taylor, step-son of Ben Krebs,
were arrested, put in jail, tried and con-
victed for the crime. Krebs and Preston
were sentencd to be hangd and Governor
Roberts committed their penalty to life
term in the penitentiary. Young Taylor
by reason of being less than IL years of
age, under the law, could not be executed,
and therefore was sentenced to the peni-
Tertiary for life. After serving several
years therein he died. Krebs was tried
convicted and. given the death penalty in
Montague county. The case was appealed
to and reversed by the court of appeals
The venue of all the cases was then
changed to the adjoining county of Cooke
where the trials resulted as before stated
On appeal to the court of appeals their
cases were affirmed, and had not Governor
Roberts interposed executive clemency the
two applicants would have been executed
as murderers.
The blacklist pages of criminal annals
do not portray or present blacker or
more tiendish deed than the destruction
of the England family, for which these
two men have been condemned. That
night Mr.. England and his wife and her
three children by a former marriage,
Isaiah ID. Taylor, young man, and Miss
Susie Taylor, young lady, and Harvey
Taylor, also young man, were at the
England home, and were about going, or
had just gone, to bed when three men
came and began the savage, slaughter.
Mr.. England was shot and had his throat
cut anu tCuClS WIZ phoS "
death. The young man Harvey Taylor
was the only survivor of the massacre.
Excuse for or paliation of the brutal
'eed has never been atterll ted. All eff
forts to do so would have deepened its
atrocity. Those who did it merited and
should receive the death penalty with all
it's terrible consequences. That's the
question: Who did it? Mrs. England, af-
ter being shot, ran to the home of Mr..
John Musick, over half a mile distant,
and said "Krebs came in and presented
his pistol at Isaiah D. Taylor and
shot him; and that she and Susie
ran, and Krebs followed and shot her,
and she asked him to shoot her no more. 3"
She also stated that as she and Susie ran
out of the house Krebs followed them,
and Susie exclaimed: "Oh mother, Ben
Krebs has come to kill us ALL" And on
being shot, Susie further exclaimed: "Oh
mother, Ben Krebs has killed me-" The
next day Krebs was carried before her,
and she told him to his face that he was
her murderer; that she knew him by his
whiskers, by his Dutch talk and cursing,
and even by that old white hat that he
then held in his hand" Krebs denied the
charge, and said to Mrs. England: 1T
must be your imagination"
Had not this dying woman made these
declarations, or had she accused some
ether person of the crime, Ben krebs
and the other two defendants would
doubtless have gone unmolested. She
fastened the guilt on Krebs by this iden-
LITIGATION. The other two became lnvolv-
ed By reason of being at Krebs' home
that night-Preston as a boarder, and
Taylor as a visitor, being kinsman OF
Krebs-and by the further apparently
eliminating fact that when Krebs was
charged with the crime Preston denied
it and stated that he knew him to be in
nocent because they had stayed together
that night at Krebs' house.
Aside from these facts or circum-
stances, there are some other bits of evil
dence mot clear of conflicO used in the
cases against the defendants, which con-
sidered by themselves lOr collectively
could not have been deemed sufficient
under the rules of circumstantial evidence
to cast more than suspicion on either of
the accused. 1t is true that Krebs and
the England family were on unfriendly
terms as neighbOrs, and they were then
witnesses against Krebs in
a misdemeanor case soon to be tried. So
it may be noted that John Musick, an
other neighbor, according to an affidavit
on file with me, was also lat outs with
the England family because, he claimed,
they had taken the land they occupied
from his father, and thus had deprived
himself of valuable property rights.
On the other hand, Preston and the
England family were good friends, SO
much so that but a few months before
the homicide, Mr.. England had preached
the funeral of Preston's deceased wife.
If Krebs was mad at the Englands, Pres
ton was not. If Krebs was their enemy,
Preston was their friend. If Krebs had
n motive, Preston had not. Looking an
other way, it may be said that if Krebs
was unfriendly to the Englands, so was
Musick, their other neighbOr. If Krebs
had malice towards them, so had Mu-
sick. If Krebs had a motive, Musick had
one quite as strong. The hatred of Mu-
sick was as deep, as malignant, as dead
", from all accounts, as it was possible
for Krebs to harbor. Had Mrs. Eng
land said, "Old Musick killed me-" he
would have taken Krebs' course through
Jail and the courts to the scaffold, or to
for life by executive Gle
mency.
1t was natural for Mrs. England and
her daughter. Susie, to suspect Krebs,
for the two families, but a short while
had fallen out over gaps in
The fence" and "hogs in the field" Moth
ing provokes more i'll feeling among farm
ars as neighbors than bad fences and
trespassing stock, especially in the swine
kind. 1t never entered the mind of the
England family on that fatal night that
their neighbor, Musick, had a greater
grievance over the land question than
heir neighbour Krebs. had over the stock
trouble. Excited by the gun flashes and
,ory scenes that plunged the pitiful fam
ly through blood into death, it was quite
IL IL. ,f,.1 ILL., V,NT. aug,ts,