The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-03-20
DEATH BY WIRE.
CONTINUED from First Page)


William w. Place, in the darzened hall
way of the house, and when he entered
she struck him in the face with the axe,
and inflicted a serious wound. He man
aged to get outside the front door and
alarm the neighbors before he became
unconscious. When the police and
neighbors entered the house they found
Mrs. Place in a bedroom in which gas
was escaping, and she was shamming
Inconsistencies. Mr.. Place recovered
consciousness, and said his wife had
tried to murder him, and the woman
was arrested, after they both had been
taken to a hospital.
The motive for the woman's crime
was jealousy of her stepdaughter
Places first wife died six or seven years
ago, and about IS months afterward he
engaged the woman who became his
second wife, to act as his housekeeper.
Her maiden name was Garretson, but
she had been married to a man named
Savacoll, now dead. AS long as she
was housekeeper it is said she was ex-
tremely kind to Places daughter Ida.
but she became quite different person
when Place married her. She was pos
sessed of an ungovernable temper which
led to frequent quarrels with Ida and
Mrs. Place was very much embittered
because her husband took the young
Woman'S part. Another cause of family
pickering was Places refusal to have
his Wife's adopted son live with them
the woman was much inferior to her
husband and Stepdaughter in education
and social qualities, and many friends
of Mr.. Place had cut his acquaintance
on account of his marriage to the wo-
man. Miss Place was popular with the
FAMILIES in the neighbOrhOOd and this
also made the stepmother jealous. Mrs.
Places story of the crime was that she
had thrown carbolic acid in her step
daughters face during one of their
quarrels, and then got the axe to de-
fend herself from an attack by her
daughter, but it came out during her
trial that she had made preparations
fOr AicrIf l7.o1
Their that she would go to him.
Mrs. Place was tried before Judge
Hurd in Brooklyn, last summer and
was found guilty of murder in the first
degree. The case was carried to tine
court of appeals, but the conviction was
affirmed and she was sentenced to
death. Governor Roosevelt was then
petitiOned to exercise clemency, it being
alleged that Mrs. Place was insane at
the time the crime was committed, and
he appointed Drs. Dana and Polk of
New York city to report to him on this
point. They informed the governor that
the woman was sane when she killed
her stepdaughter and was sane now.
This destroyed her last hope of life, and
on March 10, Governor Roosevelt, an
nounced his refusal to interfere accom-
panying it with the following memoran-
dunn:
mo more painful case can come be-
fore a governor than an appeal to ar
rest the course of justice in order to
save a woman from capital punishment,
when that wOman'S guilt has been
clearly established, and when there are
no circumstances whatever to mitigate
the crime. If there were any reasonable
doubt of the guilt, if there were any
basis whatsoever for interference with
the course of justice in this case, I
ground for interference. The accused
was condemned as guilty of murder in
the first degree after full and fair trial,
although, as all men know, a jury in
such a case is always reluctant to give
a verdict against a woman If any JUS
LITIGATION whatsoever exists for with
holding it.
This verdict was then reviewed at
great length by the court of appeals.
and was affirmed without a dissenting
voice, though this court always scrutin-
ICES with the most jealous care such a
case. desiring that the benefit of every
doubt shall be given to the accused, I
wrote to the district attorney and to
the Judge who tried the case to learn
whether they thought there was any
ground for executive clemency. They
both answered that there was none
wha teVer, and that the case was one of
peculiar outrage, the letter of the judge
running as follows:
4" The record before you will show a
crime of shocking atrocity, followed by
another, the attack on William Place.
having murder for it's object; that both
crimes were premeditated and deliber-
ate there can be no doubt; in my opin-
ion the verdict was eminently just; I
think the applica ton entirely without
merit, and 1 know of no ground for in
terfering with the sentence
Il went carefully over the evidence
which showed that the accused had
first blinded her stepdaughter with acid
and then strangled her, and, after wait
ing in the house all day. when her hus-
band returned at dark had attacked
him and endeavored to kill him with an
axe.
Her attorneys and her pastor appeal
ed to me for clemency. They raised no
questions to her guilt, but claimed that
she was insane at the time the deed was
committed, and was now insane; the
clergyman stated that she was undoubt-
eddy sane at present, but that he be
lieved her to be insane when the deed
was committed, although he did not
then come personally in contact with
her.
Il accordingly appointed two doctors
of the highest standing, upon whose
professional capacity, common-sense
and deep conscientiOusneSS I could i'm
plicitly rely, and directed them to ex-
anime the accused to decide whether
she was or had been insane. They re-
ported to me that she was not insane;
that she was sane at the time of the
murder and before and since.
There is thus no question of the wo-
mans guilt and no question of her san
ity. All that remains is the question as
to whether 1 should be justified in in
terfering to save a murderess on the
ground of her sex when no justification
would exist to interfere on behalf of a
murderer. The only case of capital pun
ishment which has occurred since the
beginning of my term was for wife muir
der, and 1 refused to consider the ap-
peals then made to me on behalf of the
man who had killed his wife after I be-
came convinced that he had really done
the deed, and was sane. In that case a
woman was killed by a man; in this
case a woman was killed by another
woman. The law makes no distinction
of sex in such crime
This murder was one of peculiar de-
liberation and atrocitY To interfera