Evening star., 1899-04-13
STRANGE CONFESSIONS.
Men Who Have Owned Up to Crimes
They Never Committed.


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 relief
| from actual pain is a temptation that
blinds the sufferer to the future. But it
may seem strange, and is indeed one of
the most inexpHcable things in human his
| tory, that men have baen induced by re-
ligious exhortations and other means of
persuasion to sign their own death war
rants by confessng crimes actually never
committed. Such in England was the case
of John Perry, executed near Campd IN in
1861, with his mother and brother. for mur-
! dering William Harrison, steward for Lady
| Campden. The testimony against them
| was chiefly the confession of John Perry
! himself but, to the astonishment of all,
| Harrison, who had been kidnapped and
| carried off, returned two years after the
execution.
| In 1912 man named Russell Colvfn. liv-
! ing at Manchester, VT disappeared, and
suspicious of foul play were entertained
| Public opinion attributed 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 1919, however. a Mr.. Boorn dreamed
that he had been murdered by two men.
WDtIl ne HStu upon dS HIS HtpIeWS, cte-
| phen and Jesse. The ghost of the murder
| ed man even specified the place of the
! murder and the old cellar hole where the
| mangled body had been thrust. Here a
| knife and buttons We're found, which were
| identified as belonging to Colvin. On this
| the men were arrested. Stephen and Col
vim had qual relied just before the disap-
pearance 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 Ste
phen knocked him down, had carried him
| to the old cellar and cut his throat with a
| jack-knife. He further stated that the naXt
year they made away with most of the
bones of their victim. Stephen, after
| time, admitted the truth of JeSSes confess
sion. On this they Were convicted and SEN
! fenced to be hanged on the 2Sth of January.
| 1870. They applied for Communication of the
sentence, and, as some believed their in
nocence. advertisements were inserted in
various papers for Colvin. Not long after
ward a letter appeared in the New York
| Evening Post signed by Mr.. Chadwick.
and dated Shrewsbury, n. J., December 6,
1919, stating that a slightly derangad man
named Russell Colvin had been there five
years before. This was generally looked
| upon as a hoax, but Jas. Whelpley of New
York, who knew Colvin resolved to follow
up the clew, and actually found Colvtn at
the house of William Polhemus, at Dover
n: j., where he had been since April, 1913.
Mr.. Whelptey took him to New York, the
common council gave him means to pro-
ceed to Vermont. and he arrived at Man.
chester 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
aiVe A cannon was brought out and Col
vim was saluted with a discharge of cam
non and small arms, Stephen Boorn firing
the first piece. There was much discuss
sion as to the motive for the confession
some attrihuting it to the effect of i'm
prisonment Il general sort of panic terror.
and others to the injudicious advice and
eXhortationS of q clergyman