The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-29
FEW HAVEN MORNING THURspAY
TO BE HANGED ro-moRRow.
Benjamin WiIIis's Crime Murdered Ills
 Former Teacher, David Lambert.

Former Teacher, David Lambert. Benjamin R. Willis twenty-three years old, will be hanged at the state prison early tomorrow morning The crime for which he pays the penalty was one of the most unprovoked and brutal that has ever taken place in Fairfield county, and the sentiment or the community will agree with that or the superior and supreme courts in in hicting upon the murderer the highest penalty of the law.
 Willis, with companion named Fred Brockhaus, arrived at the home of Da- | yid S. R. Lambert of Wilton December | 17, 1897, and entered the house in the latter part of the afternoon. MT. Lam- | bert had kept a private school for some years and Willis was his pupil, having drifted to it and received his education 1 for some time in payment for dolng oad l jobs about the house and barn. He was thus familiar with the premises. Mrs. 1 Lambert was in the house alone at the time and Willis and Brockhaus, with masks upon their faces, approached her, seized and gagged her and admln- istered chloroform to her. She became l quiet and giving them no further trou- 1 ble they proceeded to ransack the house in search of valuabes, finding but little, a gold watch and one or two trlnkets | of jewelry being the extent.
 | Meantime MT. Lambert, who had been away from home. drove up and entered the house. The boys met him and in stantly began firing upon him With loaded revovers. Six shots took effect, one crushing in his skull, and proving the fatal wound, one entering his right lung, one hitting the elbow and one taking effect in the hip, while the two | others were flesh wounds in the ab- domen. Leaving the body of Lambert on the floor writhing in pain, and Mrs. Lambert gagged and chloroformed, the two went out of the house, hitched up MT. Lamberts horse and drove off, the team being found next day near the railway station. Mrs. Lambert, after recovering from the effects of the chloroform, aroused herself, broke the straps and gags and went about the house to see what property had been taken by the boys, or young men, one O1 WIlUSS NOiCCS < w lllla SIC Iho1s, AAs she recognized. She had only passed into the next room when she stumbled upon the body of her husband She as certained that he was still living and gave the alarm, help coming as soon as possible. Efforts to save MT. Lambert life were fruitless and he died Decem- Der P, five days after the assault.
 Suspicion immediately attached tc Willis who. it was remembered, had been about Wilton within a few days and who had been running down hill 1T his morals and habits very rapidly. He managed to evade detection, although he was shadowed in several places from
 New York to Chicago March g, 1898 Fred M, Brockhaus was caught in Chi
 cago while at his brothers table. Under his pillow in his room were found two heavily loaded reyolvers and although he made no resistance to going with tht
 officer, he stoutly denied at first al
 knowledge of the crime. He finally dit say that he entered the house witt Willis but that the latter did the shoot
 jug. Two days later Willis, alias Charle
 Jerome Sharp, was arrested in Chicag
 and in the presence of the detective ant
 Sheriff Hawley, who had gone to tha city after Brockhaus, confessed tha he was in New York and that he me Brockhaus there, got him drunk ant took him to Wilton to assist in robbin. the Lambert house. After the crim tn
 two worked their way to New York, an
 en route to Chicago visited Philadel
 phia, Washington, Richmond and Gin e cinnali.
 }, Both men were brought to Bridgepori : where they were held for the crinina : term of the superior court in May |. Judge Thayer presiding. During tn
 trial States Attorney Samuel Fessen
 den had presented the evidence, putin
 before the jury as the final stroke in hi
 case the confession made to the detec ' tive in Chicago in the presence of Sher , if Hawley. Upon the presentation an 2 acceptance of this testimony the coun :. sel for Willis, Mir. Lynch, refused to g D on with the defense. saying that he wa : surprised and had made no preparatio 5 to meet such testimony. The case wa l. adjourned for three days and when r. was again presented to the jury no evi d dence was given in behalf of the ac cused, his counsel arguing that the con
 fession was not properly before tn
 
 D utes, returning with a verdict of guilt
 of murder in the frst degree Jude e Thayer sentenced Willis on June to l l. hanged November at the state prisoI e Willis counsel prevailed upon Gov
 ernor Cooke to grant reprievc Noven
 Der i, until December 30, in order tha
 the supreme court might review th
 case, the claim of the attorneys as = the improper evidence of the confessio
 having been brought before that coul
 in New Haven November 29. No oC
 casion was found to interfere with th k judgment of the lower court
 Willis has q mother who has vsite y him several times since his confinemer
 at the state prison, although it is no d said that she has gone to hospital i
 New York heart broken by the condu,
 of her son. She is evidently a German . Willis only other visitor from out town is a girl calling herself Elise, six 1 teen wears old. She lives in New YorI