The Topeka state journal., 1897-12-24
LONGDON LET OUT.
Either Greatly Sinned Against or Our
Legal Machinery is Run by
ImbeciIes

ImbeciIes.
Rev. John L Longdon. the Methodist
minister who was sent to the peniten-
tiary three years ago from Topeka, for
violating the age of consent law, was
pardOned today by Governor Leedy.
this afternoon and Longdon will be re-
leased tomorrow morning, in time to
reach his family in Topeka for a
Christmas reunion.
The pardon was secured through the
efforts of Capt. J. @. Waters.
The prosecuting witness, Minnie
Brown has made an affidavit that she
perJured herself on the witness stand;
that she was practically compelled by
the prosecution to admit the charge
made by the county attorney, although
it was not true, and states further that
pressure brought to bear against her
by the social purity league and the at
torneys, was responsible for her testi-
mOny which was induced by fear Occas-
ioned by threats against her.
An affidavit from Thomas Archer
says that the girl came to him after
she had joined the Salvation Army and
without any solicitation desired him to
make a statement for her to the effect
that she had misrepresented the facts
on the witness stand, and thereby help
her to right the wrong which she had
committed against an innocent man.
Mrs. H. Pratt, mother of the girl,
now living in St. Joe, also makes affi-
daVit that in her opinion, her daughter,
WINNIE crown was compelled through
fear, owing to her extreme youth, to
testify that LOngdOn was guilty al
though she knew at the time he was
not. Mrs. Pratt also says that the
girl has since told her that she did
not tell the truth on the witness stand.
There are perhaps dozen other doc
umentS tending to prove that the wit
neSSeS miSrepreSented the true state of
affairs and succeeded in convicting
LongdOn. He says in a letter to the
governor:
When the prosecution had about
completed its case and realized that
conviction could not be secured, one of
the attorneys took the prosecuting wit
ness and two other women into a side
room. Prior to this time the girl had
sworn that [ was not guilty of the
charge. When she came out of that
room the attorney had a signed state
ment in which the girl declared that
l was guilty. That is the time she was
compelled to swear to a falsehood."
Longdon says: 7 have been perse-
cuted by q society which is maintained
by a religious fanaticism." He refers
to the Topeka Social Purity league
Gov. Morrill, refused to issue the par
don, and the POpuIist board not long
since, made a similar recommendation
The signers of the petition for Long
don's release are as follows:
Major j. K Hudson, H. T. Chase,
Dell Kefzer, P. c Chamberlain, r. L.
old, Eugene Wolfe. C.P. Adams, R B.
Welch, D. B. Dyer. Charles s. Eagle
n. G. Dyer, o. S. Carman, Horton; e
K. Felt, w. NJ Hord, J. P. Rowley, w
B. RObey, w r. Hazen, Lieut.. Gov
Harvey, D. H. Brannan, S. H. Roberts,
Andrew NOrdquist.s S. IS. Isenhart, Jet
more and JetInore,- Hugh HeaId, John
w. Day, a. B. Quinton. w E Sterne
Webb McNan and r. G. Wilson.
Capt. J. @. Waters said today:
There is a household in this city
composed of six little bits of children
and a good Christian mother, with two
grown daughters respectfully married
and one grown son who is also married
living at Salina, who have been suf-
fering all the agony a household can
know by the conviction of the husband
and his incarceration in the peniten-
tiary for a crime of which the jury
stay there his wife has kept the fam
lily together, making a fight that would
have appalled, the stOutest man. By
dint of the closest economy they have
been housed and clothed by her. Not
moment of that time did a mem Der
of the family forget the father. They
have importuned the board of parSOns
and the governor.
THE governor ascertained who and
what the family was; he learned that
the man had been, during his entire
had been given the warmest recon-
mendations from both the Republican
and the present warden.
The governor had presented to him
the sOlemnly sworn affidavit of the girl
who testified that she had sworn false
" that she was too young to cOmpre-
bend the gravity of testifying falsely
that it was wholly untrue and she de-
sired to undo the mischief"