The Portland daily press., 1895-08-13
THE PETITION FOR THE PARDON
OF STAIN AND CROMWELL,
Judge Crosby Talked Three Hours in Open
ing the Hearing-How the Fake Asser-
ton That Stain Signed a Receipt Led to
a Conviction-What the Foreman of
the Jury said-Judge Crosby or Judge
Peters.
ESPECIAL TO TIE pREss.l


have come Hon. Josiah Crosby, G. W.
Curtis, president of the Dexter National
bank, Cyrus Foss, and Geo ge A. Abbott,
who believe that Barron, the cashier of
the Dexter Savings bank had committed
suicide when he was found dying in the
vault of the bank on the night of Febru-
ary 20, 1878. Consequently they and other
Dexter citizens ask that David L. Stain
and Oliver Cromwell, convicted of the
murder Of Barron be pardoned from the
States prison. r. Fl. B. Pierce, ESQ.,,
represents Mrs Barron and others who
oppose the pardon. 1t is the old con-
troversy which has divided Dexter into
factions for the past seventeen years. Did
John Wilson Barron commit suicide .--or
did Stain and Cromwell commit murder
Judge Crosby in an argument that occu-
pied three hours before the Governor and
Council this afternoon and evening, be.
gan by maintaining the suicide theory,
and then proceeded to argue that Stain
and Cromwell did not have an impartial
trial He asked that they be pardoned
because the petitioners believed it their
uuUy SOJu CiulAcDS w thSh ullt lJdIuUu DIS
a matter of right and justice. Judge
Crosby made two leading points One
was that the foreman of the jury, the late
Silas G. Hatch had said that he was lead
| to vote for conviction by piece of evi-
dence afterwards proven false The other
point was in the form of affidavits at
tacking the Identification Of Stain and
Cromwell by Dexter people. Judge
Crosby also claimed that Chief Justice
Peters erred in his conduct of the case.
Tomorrow Judge Crosby will call
several witnesses including Hon. Josiah
FL. Drummond, who was counsel for the
Savings bank in the civil suit against the
Barron estate to recover the amount of
Barron's alleged shortage. Then Mr..
Pierce will represent the case of the re-
monstrants Attorney General Powers is
also in attendance representing the state.
Mrs. Barron is not present.
The proceedings began at 4 O'Clock,
when Councillor Clason moved that the
petition be taken from the table. Mr..
Crosby then read the petition and began
his opening of the case, first recounting
the history of the finding of the dying
Barron and the subsequent events. The
affair occurred Oh the 22nd of February,
1878, and on the next morning Mr.. Barron
died AT first every body believed that Mr..
Barron had been murdered. Mr.. Crosby
was himself firmly convinced of it at that
time. Barron was found in the safe,
gagged and manceled, both the doors be-
ing closed. 1t was regarded as impossible
that any man could have committed
suicide in any such smanner. The people
of Dexter did everything they could to
trace the supposed murderers. They sent
teams to scour the country; they used the
telegraph; they hired a detective, and in
all $1,000 was spent in trying to run down
the criminals. But nothing was learned
;,,a lft ri TO ho
A DIFFERENT SUS PICION,
due to the accidental discovery of dis
crepancies in the books kept by Mr.. Bar
ron Mr.. Crosby told of the discovery of
the shortage in Barron's accounts
amounting with interest to $4,000. The
experts who examined the banks affairs
| also found that no money was taken from
the bank at the time of the robbery. On
the files of the bank, they found note
for $4,000 and this was secured by an IN
surance policy on Barron's life Mr.
Barron did not say in his written direc-
tions concerning this insurance policy
that he wanted to pay back money which
| he had taken. He said, instead, that he
wanted to make good the amount of a
bad loan made by the bank trustees and
| for which he was in no way responsible.
But. according to the theory of the
| petitioners. he wanted to cover up his
| shortage, because he was not man with
scared conscience, not man hardened
| in wrong doing, not man who could
have lived to old age constantly doing
| wrong. He was not that kind of man at
all. He wanted to make reparation to
| the bank, but at the same time to do it
| in a way which would give him the
credit of a generous act
Here Mr. Crosby put in good word for
Stain and Cromwell, referring to the
manner of their arrest, which he said was
calculated to hold them up to the world
the New York World Of the day following
the arrest, pointing out the pictures, re-
| ferring to the great length of the account
the illustrations, etc. 1t was anything
to make sensation. They drew on
| imagination when they didn't know the
| fact. In the World, Barron was repre-
sented as being found in a safe with
| facts. One paper labeled picture as
| the house in which Stain was captured
| Another made this house the Barron
| homestead. Mr.. Crosby said he referred
| to these matters to show that Stain and
| Cromwell had been held up as bad men
| in order to make a newspaper sensation,
I'and that their chances of an impartial
| Urdll Ittu DcGn WS6hOlOd Ul6r6DV,
| Next Mr.. Crosby devoted himself to
showing that Charles Francis Stain, the
son of the convicted man, who first made
| the charges, was
| AN UNMITIGATED LIAR.
| He re ad from the World. Charles
Stains story of the Dexter bank robbery
In this story. Stain represented himself
as being in the vicinity of Dexter when
as a matter of fact he was in Auburn
jail. Young Stain, said Mr.. Crosby,
was capable of making up any story and
did while in Norrigdewock Jail under the
tutilage of Deputy Sheriff j. H. Mitchell
manufacture story of the robbery of the
Winthrop bank in 1876. The confession
which charged his father, Cromwell, and a
robbers, was all false. Deputy Sheriff
Mitchell afterwards became a claimant
for the reward in the Dexter case. Stain,
4