Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1897-10-10

Her Secret Locked Within Her
Breast-Charged with a Double
Murder and Arson to Hide the
Crime-The Victims Were Her
Sister-in- Law and Her Nephew,
and the Coject OF the Murder to
Secure $1,000.
New York, October 9.-The trial OF
Mrs. Augusta Mack, indicted with Mar
tin Thorn for the mysterious murder Of
the Turkish bath attendant, Gulden-
suppe, comes off this month at the
Queens County Court House, in Long
Island City, opposite New York. and
viii prove another sensational chapter
III this, perhaps the most sensational
OF latter day tragedies. That the wo-
man will be convicted few people be-
neve, while bets are freely offerd that
Thorn, her alleged accomplice, will yet
De seated in the electric chair. It is
not SO many years ago that another
woman was tried no less than four
times within sight of the Battery at
New York for capital offense, and vet
escaped the grasp of the law after all.
1his was Polly Bodine, indicted for
numbering her sister-in-law. Mrs.
Houseman, and the iatter's child. in
their house on Staten Island and subse-
quently setting fire to the building to
conceal the crime, in order to secure
the sum of one thousand dollars, sup
posed by Polly to be in Mrs. House
mans possession
Polly's first trial took place at Rich
mond, Staten Island. 1t attracted
great attention, and people came from
lar and near to attend it. In those
days not having the telegraph, the New
York papers used what they called the
pony express" to bring them the news.
After the judge had charged the Jury.
the pony riders waited from six o'clock
IN the evening till one o'clock in the
morning TO get the verdict. all the
time on the backs of their ponies. pre-
pared to start off at minutes notice.
But, after all this preparation, the Jury
stayed out all night, and the pony rid
ers carried back no news after all. The
next Gay the jury sent word to the
judge that they couldn't agree. The
jury stood eleven to one, eleven for
guilty, but the twelfth one Ga Mr..
Stone, a jeweler on Broadway them
had conscientious" scruples that could
not be overcome by judicial arguments
or entreaties. So the judge had no help
for it, and discharged the jury. Polly
Bodlne was ordered back to prison. and
preparations were made for a new trial.
The second trial turned out to be "a
couldn 't-agree party" just like the first
case, and then the trial was removed to
New York, and the authorities were
determined that this trial should be the
last.
There never had been such throngs
before as there were at the third trial
of Polly Bodine in New York. The
crowd at the trial was mostly composed
OF women. The accused woman, all
through her three long trials. was pale
as ghost and almost as quiet as a
corpse. She never said a word, except
70 her lawyers, and she seemed more
like waSWork figure than a woman
After while she got in the habit of
wearing long black veil, to hide her
face, and this made the ladies' at the
trial mad. The men, on the other hand,
felt inclined to have some pity on the
poor creature.
The judges charge at this third trial
was remarkable. 1t was the first great
case Judge Edmunds had presided at,
and everyone was curious to see how
he would handle the trial He charged
the jury that there were some forty
points in the evidence on which they
must make up their minds, one way or
the other, and that each of the forty
points was highly important; some of
them vital.
No wonder that the jury, with those
forty points to settle, stayed out in the
jury room for two nights. The first
night the jury were out they tried to
get asleep, but didn't succeed One of
the jury said afterwards that instead of
trying to balance the testimony he was
trying to balance himself on a chair.
The jury were hungry, too, as well as
sleepy, and an empty stomach don't
make clear brain. On the second
night out the jury, it is true, were pro-
vided with lounges to sleep on. They
were also given a decent meal; but still
the mischief had been done, and the
jury were mad.
During the two nights that the jury
were out the prisoner, on whose fate
they were debating, was sent for from
her prison several times to hear the
judge answer the jury on some ques-
tions they submitted to him. She
looked pale as a corpse, and worn out,
but no one could ever have told, by the
expression of her face, whether she
was innocent or guilty. The officers
around the court called her the
Sphinx she was so mysterious. The
men who remained in the court room
those two nights, waiting for TIE jury
to make up their minds, all pitied this
poor, pale-faced, mysterious woman.
The jury came out at last, and pro-
nounced her guilty" but her counsel
got her a fourth trial after all, in which
the jury disagreed, as they did in the
first two, and the prosecution was final
ly abandoned. Polly lived for many
years afterward in Staten Island, but
whether innocent or guilty of the crime
for which she was four times tried was
a secret locked up in her own breast.
RECOVERY DOUBTFUL.