The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-07-20

J the same way. AT midnight MIS-. NOS
trand came to the hotel to inquire foi
her husband She was told that he had
left three hours before. The next morn
ing, Sunday, Nostrand's body was
found beside the road. He had been
struck from behind with an axe and his
head had been split in two The man
who struck that blow is the same old
I man who works in the Sing Sing buck
ct shop, who seems so tender hearted
that he wouldn't kill fly, and whose
reputation in the Jail is that of a model
prisoner.
Kelly, like Cody sometimes talks OF
his crime. His memory is a little hazy
as to the details of it, but he recalls q
bitter hatred of Nostrand which he
cherished in his heart for many days,
and a keen delight in his revenge when
he struck the fatal blow. TWenty-seVen
years in prison have eliminated all the
bitterness which melted him to the muir
der of Nostrand from his heart, and, like
Cody, he scarcely knows now how he
came to commit murder. Both he ana
I Cody attribute their crimes to the influ
ence of liquor Both men are repentant
and take great deal Of comfort out of
their talks with the prison chaplain. In
their old age the only explanation they
! can offer of their crimes is that they
don't understand why they committed
them.
Working as an orderly in the hospital
at Sing Sing is a prisoner who has al
ready served twenty-five years of life
] sentence for one of the most ineXcusable
murders ever committed in New York.
| This is Martin Gill, who deliberately
killed his friend Mortimer sullivan, in
saloon in this city in 1874, because Sulli-
van laughed at him. Gill is a modest
prisoner and one of the most popular
men in the prison From a dssipated
young tough he has been converted into
a tender-hearted old man, who delights
in ministering to the wants of the sick
in the prison hospital. FIRE. to-dayand
with any kind of chance Gill would
make an excellent citizen, but his
chances of freedom are small, for he IS
one of the forgotten ones, Like the 9th
ers, though. he is constantly looking for
ward to the day of his pardon.
1t was on the night of June 10. 1874
that Gill and Sullivan got drunk in sa-
loon at 25S Greenwich street. They
wrestled with each other in drunken
frolic, and Gill was thrown to the floor
with more violence than he thought ne
cessary Securing a cheese knife from
tire free lunch counter, he made several
slashes at sullivan, which the latter cas-
lily warded off The proprietor elected
both men, and they then went to a sa-
loon at 800 Greenwich street, apparently
the best of friends again.
Gill wanted to make a bet on race
and Sullivan laughed at him. Gill
struck Sullivan and Sullivan called him
a baby and said he couldn't hurt any
body In spirit of drunken bravado,
Gill got a pistol and fired shot into the
floor at Sullivan's feet. Sullivan
laughed again, folded his arms and said
II don't believe you'd shoot anybody.
Here's your chance; l won't move
without seconds hesitation Gill put
q bullet through Sullivan's heart, killing
him instantly. The result OF Gill's trial
was one of the most remarkable on rec
ord. With a clean case Of murder made
out the jury disagreed Recorder Hack
EFT was so disguised that he discharged
the jury. adiudging Gill guilty himself,
and sent him to Sing Sing for life on a
plea of guilty of murder in the second
degree.
Two other life men at Sing Sing who
have already spent over twenty years
inside those gloomy walls are John G.
Baldwin, who was sent there on March
T. 1878, and John s. Downing, who
donned his stripes on January II 1880.
Downing was a shoemaker at Asa West
Nineteenth street and came back from
the civil war with a rare record for
bravery in action He was an excellent
citizen until poor business set him
drinking Then he began abusing his
wife, and one night in September, 1879,
he kicked her to death. Baldwin killed
a man in orange county, and was sem
fenced to be hanged, but his sentence
was afterward committed to life impris-
Baldwin is now sixty-one
years old and works in the prison wash
house. Downing is sixty-six and works
in the bucket shop, The men are model !
prisoners and neither one has black I
mark against him
The only life men in the prison who
are in really bad health as the result Of !
their confinement are Patrick Casey /
who entered the prison on June 81, 1884. |
and Samuel 3. Goode, who entered on
December 3, 1885 Casey Is the expo
liceman who shot Sergeant Comiskey in
a Long Island City station house, on
March Il, 1898. An effort was made to +
show that he was insane and he got
three trials, but was finally sent away
for life. He is general utility man
around the prison but is 50 weak that
he is unable to do much work. He can
not live long unless he is pardoned.
Goode who is colored, was the janitor of
a down town office building, when in
April, 1885, he shot and killed Policeman
James North, with whom he had quar-
relied, at Broadway and Wall street.
1oode is so doubled up with rheuma-
tism and other ailments that he has to
use crutches.
one of Sing Sings star cooks is an
extremely affable man, who is doing
ife term for cutting his wife into small
pieces, placing the parts in a bag and
then starting for the river to throw
hem in the water. A policeman held
him up while he was on the way to the
liver. This man is Louis TFrancien, and
lie has been in the Jail since October,
SS5 He is good cook and a well-be-
laved prisoner
OF the other life prisoners at Sing