Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1894-01-11

murder Executive clemency could
not be obtained, although tho 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 \ Black. All hope was gone
for the unfortunate man, but not until
eight days before the day his sentence
was to have been executed did he
show that he appreciated or under
stood his awful situation. On that
day Kunkers counsel was surprised TO
receive message from the prisoner
asking for an immediate interview.
The counsel on entering Paul's cell
saw that remarkable change had
come over him. His mind had cleared.
and for the first time he seemed TO
realize his peril. For the frst time,
also, he was able TO give his counsel =
connected statement of his movements
from the time he left Baltimore. He
described Winter minutely, and salts
fed his lawyer at once that he was tho
victim OF 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 tho
officers more time.
winter, having been unable TO force
the silver snuff box on KunlSel or his
family, took II with him when he left
his victims house. A week or SO after
that "A stranger appeared In Ashland
and secured work in a blacks mith shop
there. lie gave Winter as his name. II
happened that another workman In tho
shop had only recently removed TO Ash
land from Buffalo. lie was a sub
scriber TO n Baltimore newspaper, and
when the Kunkel murder trial came up
he svas interested In IL, 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 Kunlsel would hang. On the eve
Of the hanging, when Winters fellow
workman read him the story that Kun
kcl had finally been able 10 tell, al
though Winter had not changed his ap-
penrancc from what IL 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 n pigch of snuff from his box,
as he had often done before in the shop,
and offered his fellow workman n
pinch Then the man noticed that the
box was u handsome silver one, and
that on the inside OF the lid was en-
gravcd the word Cooper That in
staut 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. lie made dash for the
door of the shop, but the workman
seized him before he could get out and
shouted for some one to get an officer.
Winter wns secured, and the Maryland
authorities, who had failed to get any
trail of him, informed OF his capture.
lie was taken to baltimore, where IL
came out for the first time that he was
Conrad Winter, who had been sem
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 tile 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 ho was in the penitap-
tiary he had made n vow to have ven-
gcauce on Mrs Goodwin as soon as his
term was out On being discharged he
went straight for Mrs. Goolwin's. On
his way he overlook Mrs. Cooper walk
ing home from the village, lie thought
she was Mrs. Goodwin. lie snealSed up
behind her and smashed her head In
with heavy stone, Dragging her to
| the roadside he saw that she was not
Mrs. Goodwin. lie took the things she
| had and covered her with brush. lie
! slept in the woods near by, and next
day, when he saw kuulScl, he conceived
the idea of casting suspicion on him as
she murderer and palmed her property
<bff 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 Kunlscl to take 1t.
The snuff box was used in evidence
against him in the trial, aud the man
who had captured Winter by means Of
it expressing n wish to retain 1t as q
memento Of his having been able to
save the life of an innocent man and
bring guilty one to justice, the hus-
band of the murd cred woman presented
it to him, and it is his family that has
1t to-day. IN. Y Sun.