The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-18
SOME UNUSUAL CONFESSIONS.
Men Who Have Owned Up to Crimes
They Did Not Commit.

Men Who Have Owned Up to Grimes
They Did Not Commit.
From Wonderful Events.
That a man on the rack, with every
nerve quivering, with every nerve drawn
to its utmost tension, with the pain in
creasing in intensity and violence, should
confess himself the perpetrator of crime
is natural enough. The prospect of re-
lief from actual pain is temptation that
blinds the sufferer to the future. But 1t
may seem strange, and is indeed one of
the most inexplicable things in human
history, that men have been induced by
religious exhortations and other means of
never committed.
Such in England was the case of John
Perry, executed near Campden in 1861,
with his mother and brother for muir
dering William Harrison. steward for
Lady Campden The testimony against
them was chiefly the confession of John
Perry himself, but. to the astonishrnent
OF all, Harrison, who had been kidnapped
and carried off, returned two years after
the execution.
In 1912 man named Russell Colvin. liv-
ing at Manchester, VT, disappeared and
suspicious of foul play were entertained.
Public opinion attributed his murder to
Stephen and Jesse Boorn.i Still, as there
was no definite ground on which to arrest
them, the excitement gradually drew
away In 1919 however, a 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 specified 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 quarre1ed just be-
fore the disappearance of the latter and
Stephen had been seen to strike him with
a 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 further stated that
the next year they made away with most
Of the bones of their victim. Stephen,
after a time, admitted the truth of Jes-e' s
confession. On this they were convicted
and sentenced to be hanged ON the 2sth
of January, 1920. They applied for COM
mutation of the sentence, and, as some
believed their innocence, advertisements
were inserted in various papers for Col
win. Not long afterward a letter appeared
in the New York Evening Post. signed by
a Mr.. Chadwick, and dated Shrewsbury,
N j., Dec 6, 1919, stating that slightly
deranged man named Russell Colvin had
been there five years before. This was
generally looked upon as hoax, but
James Whelpley of New York, who knew
Colvin, resolved to follow up the clew,
and actually found Colvin at the house
of William Polhemus at Dover, N. j.,
where he had been since April, 1873.
Mr.. Whelpley took him to New York,
the common council gave him means to
| proceed to Vermont and he arrived at
Manchester on the I'd day of December.
The whole place was in a 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 as to the motive for the con-
| fession, some attributing it to the effect
| of imprisonment. general sort of panic,
| terror and others to the injudicious ad-
| vice and exhortations of clergyman.