Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-04-04
A FREE MAN ONCE MORE.
THOS. CAMPBELL PARDONED AFTER
TWENTY YEARS IN PRISON..
Convicted in tho Luzerne Court of First
Degree Murder In 1877, n Carbondale
Man Narrowly Escaped the Gallows.
Now He Is Pard0nsd.

An unjust sentence OF life impriSon-
ment abounding in features of pathetic
interest was abruptly terminated by
order of the State Board of Pardons on
Thursday. AS a result of a newspaper
reporters halt before a cell to which
his attention was attracted during a
visit to the Eastern penitentiary in
Philadelphia nearly year and a half
ago, the Board recommends pardon for
Thomas Campbell, who has served u
years and : months for the murder of
Michael McNulty at Carbondalc on July
4, 1876.
Campbell owes his pardon to John Il.
Wilson, a Philadelphia Essniag Bulletin
reporter, who was sent by his paper
during the latter part of 1896 to report
on the condition OF the inmates of the
penitentiary at the time of Judge Cor
don's investigation.
Mr.. Wilson visited over 100 cells, and
was just about to leave the institution
when he stopped opposite the cell in
which Campbell had been incarccrated
y
man, who earnestly looked at him
through the grating.
Campbell, with tears streaming down
his face. told the story of his crime. He
said he fired one shot at man while
under the influence of drink aud had
killed him. They had been friends
almost up to the moment of the shooting.
They got into dispute as to George
Washington's nationality. Campbell
said he was Scotchman and his friend
McNulty vowed that he was an Irish
man. They were both drunk and Me
Nulty got angry and ordered Campbell
away. Campbell refused to go, and Me
Nulty put his hand on him to make him.
In fit OF drunken anger Campbell pull
ed out his revolver and fired one shot
at McNulty. He did not know that he
had hit McNulty until he was arrested
the next morning.
Campbell said he had been tried twice
at Wilkesbarre, Carbondalc then being
in Luzerne county, and at the last trial
had been sentenced to death, on the
evidence of one witness, a woman who
perjured herself and swore his life away.
His case aroused much sympathy at the
time, and his sentence was committed to
Imprisonment for life by Governor
HartraDft the day he was about to mount
the scaffold.
Mr.. Wilson's sympathies were
aroused and he told Campbell that he
would either prove conclusively that the
sentence was just one, or obtain his
pardon. For fifteen months the news
paper man worked on the case unceaS-
ingly, and went over all the testimony
OF the two trials of twenty years ago.
He found lot of newly y-discovered testi-
mony, brought out subsequent to the
trials, which showed that Campbell had
been convicted on the oath of Mrs. Ann
Foy, whose testimony at the coroner's
inquest and the trial differed materially.
MIR. Wilson prepared the case for the
Board Of Pardons, and personally argued
it, One of the strongest arguments
offered was that the Judge who presided
at Campbell's trials was of the opinion
that the grade of Campbel's otfensc was
murder of the second degree, and that
the maximum penalty for the crime UNI
der the testimony should have been
twelve years.
The pardon was opposed by j. +. Rcy-
nolds, who represented the McNulty
family.