The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-11-25
She was committed to the Tombs, and
subsequently convicted. Afew weeks
later the mother of the girl who owned

later the mother of the girl who owned
the ring returned from the country
and proved the governess innocent.
She went into Court and confessed
that she had been surreptitously
prowling through the governess' bu
reau drawers and had dropped the
ring there without knowing it.
Of course the governess was releas-
ed by "the angry judge but the wo-
man had been locked up with crimi-
nails for few weeks and was subjected
to the insult of being photographed
by a person who said he wanted pic
lures for a lecture on ''Crimc and Its
Penalty"
A man named Bill Anderson swore,
in Ottumwa, Ia, in 1888, that he and
Pleasant Anderson had murdered
Christian McAllister near Blakes
burg, Ia. in 1881. Pleasant Ander-
son denied the statement vigorously,
but he was arrested and lodged in jail
to await trial. In the meantime the
farmers thereabout thought McAllis-
ter s murder should be more promptly
avenged, so they held a midnight trial
of Pleasant Anderson in a neighbor
ing schoolhouse. They all wore masks.
Anderson, of course, was found guilty
and was hanged from a tree. About
that time Daniel Miller, the Superin-
tendent OF the Sunday School and a
prominent worker in the Church, was
convicted q forgery. Before he went
to prison he informed the Sheriff that
he would like to confess something.
For some reason or another the Sheriff
would not permit any one to see him.
The Grand Jury met and adjourned
without indicting any of the persons
who helped to hang Pleasant Ander-
son. A number of years afterwards
the forger and Sunday School Super
intendent was stricken down in his
cell. On his death-bed he confessed
taat he had murdered Christian Nc
AIlister, and that Pleasant Anderson
had not even known anything about
t.. What good did the confession do
Pleasant Anderson =? He was dead.
In May, 1885, John Crew mysteri-
ously disappeared from little Michi-
gan town. 1t was supposed that he
had been murdered, and suspicion fell
upon John Van Nimman, brother
in-law of the missing man. Circum-
stantial evidence governed the prose
cution of Van Nimman and he was
convicted and sentenced to life i'm
prisonment. He served ten years in
the Jackson prison, Michigan. Crow
was not dead at all. In his wander
ings about the world he one day hap
pencd to read in an old paper the
story of his murder by John Van
Nimman. Thereupon, in April, 1894,
ne set about to get Van Nimman out
Of prison. The unfortunate man has
presented claim to the State for his
ten years services.
A young New York butcher named
David Wolf was sentenced in 1887 to
serve six years in Sing Sing prison fo1
forgery. William Gross, who was in
reality guilty of the crime, confessed
after few years and was sent to the
Elmira reformatory.
VOLTS friends made a desperate
effort to have him released from his
undeserved agony and retained law.
yer. Governor Flower pardoned him,
but that was all. In 1892 an assistant
district attorney in New York city
SAID that he knew two men who had
served seven years in Sing Sing on
sentences Of fifteen and twenty years
respectively who were innocent. One
of the men for whom the prisoners
were enormously identified" con,
fessed the crime on his death-bed.
The attorney wanted to know how to
get the innocent men out of prison.
The Law made all provisions to get
men into Jail, but none to get them
out. The Governor came to the res.
cue of the convicts.
Annie Waters was charged by Gle.
ment Schwartz, of Linden, N. j., with
having stolen $500 of his money on
February 3, 1893. Mrs. Walters pro.
tested that she had never laid eyes on
Schwartz, and that instead of benig in
Linden at the time of the burglary
she was in Bound Brook. Her pro
testations of innocence availed hel
nothing, for she was convicted and
sentenced to several years imprison'
ment. Afterwards it was found that
her story was true and she was releas.
ed.
All of these cases have never fgur'
ed in the. legal books. Most of them
are recent, and there are hundreds Of
others Of which no mention has ever
beer made. Some of the famous cases
in the books on this subject are Ham.
ilton and Saunders in Missouri
Bourns in Vermont, Tames Bazwell in
Gibraltar, Martin Guerre in France,
Morris and Hilderbrand in Pontiac,
ILL.,, Sorin Ovist in Denmark, and
Wickliffe and Blake in Albany. They
are thrilling and blood-curdling and a
study of them goes far to make men
doubt the wisdom of accepting any
kind of evidence.