Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1898-06-17
STRANGE CONFESSIONS.
Men who Have Confessed to Crime
which They Never Committed.

Men who Have Confessed to Crime
which They Never Committed.
That q man on the rack, with every
nerve quivering, with every nerve
drawn to its utmost tension, with the
pain increasing in intensity and vio-
lence, should confess himself the per-
petrator of crime is natural enough.
The prospect ofrelief from actual pain
is a temptation that binds the suffer to-
the future. But it may seem strange,
and is indeed of the mostinexplic-
able things in human history, that men
have been induced by religious exhor-
tations and other means Of persuasion
to sign their own death warrants by
confessing crimes actually never COM
mitted. Such in England was the
case Of John Perry, executed near
Campden in 1861, with his mother and
brother, for numbering William Har-
rison, steward for Lady Hampden.
The testimony against them was chief
ly the confession of John Perry him.
self, but, to the astonishment of all,
Harrison, who had been kidnapped and
carried of, returned two years after
the execution.
In 1912 man named Russell Col
vim, living at Manchester, Vt, dis
appeared, and suspicious Of foul play
were entertained. Public opinion at
tributed his murder to Stephen and
Jesse Boorn. Still, as there was no
definite ground on which to arrest
them, the excitement gradually drew
away In 1918, however, o Mr.. Boorn
dreamed that he had been murdered
by two men, whom he fixed upon as
his nephews, Stephen and Jesse. The
ghost Of the murdered man even speci-
fed the place Of the murder and the
old cellar hole where the mangled
body had been thrust. Here knife
and buttons were found, which were
identified as belonging to COlvin. On
this the men were arrested. Stephen
and Colvin had quarreled just before
the disappearance of the latter, and
Stephen had been seen to strike him
with club and knock him down.
In short time Jesse confessed that
he and Stephen, with their father,
after Stephen knocked him down, had
carried him to the old cellar and cut
his throat with jack-knife. He fur
ther stated that the next year they
made away with most of the bones of
their victim. Stephen, after time,
admitted the truth Of Jesse's confess
sion. On this they were convicted
and sentenced to be hanged on the
2Sth of January, 1920. They applied
for Communication of the sentence,
and, as some believed their innocence,
advertisements were inserted in vari-
GUS papers for Colvin. Not long after
ward letter appeared in the New
York Evening Post, signed by Mr..
Chadwick, and dated Shrewsbury, Nj,
December 8, 1919, stating that
slightly derauged man named Russell
Colvin had been there five years be-
fore. This was generally looked upon
as hoax, but Jas. Whelpley Of New
York, who knew Colvin, resolved to
follow up the clue, and actually found
Colvin at the house of William Pol
hemus, at Dover, NJ, where he had
been since April, 1918.
Mr.. Wbelpley took him to New
York, the common council gave him
means to proceed to Vermont, and he
arrived at Manchester on the 22d day
of December.
The whole place was in state of
wild excitement. People gathered in
from all the surrounding country to
see the dead alive. A cannon was
brought out, and Colvin was saluted
with discharge Of cannon and small
arms, Stephen Boorn firing the first
piece. There was much discussion,
some attributing it to the effect OF i'm
prisonment, q general sort of panic,
terror, and others to the injudicious
advice and exhortations of clergy.
man