The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-05-28

farmer near Merchantville, while on her
way home was waylaid in a bush lot.
She was assaulted and her throat was
cut. Again was Francis Lingo, the ne
gro farmland, arrested. Again he tried
to get off by proving an ilibi but he
was convicted The case was carried
to the supreme court and new trial
was granted.
Then Supreme Court Justice Garrison,
the trial judge, assumed a responsibility
that he knew would arouse a storm of
public indignation. After the first trial
he had visited the scene of the murder,
walked over the route Lingo had taken
and had become convinced in his own
mind that the negro could not have COM
mitted the murder. When the case was
called again he discharged the prisoner
Lingo figured as an attraction in dime
museums for a short time, and then
went back to his home near Merchant
vile. Four years passed, and the negro
was found to have laid a cunning plot
to lure pretty but friendless white girl
from Philadelphia to MerchantvilIe on
pretense of engaging her as governess.
He meant to take her into the woods,
where he had already prepared her grave.
Lingo's quick removal to the strong jail
in Camden and promise of his speedy
punishment are all that prevented
lynching bee. He was sent to state pris-
on for twenty years, and the women of
Camden county breathed freer than they
had in a long time.
After the abortive trials in the lie
Coney and Miller cases murders increas-
ed rapidly in Camden county. In the
spring of 1891 Demenico Phillipo Coco, an
Italian berry picker in the lower part of
the county, slit his sister-in-law's throat.
He got off with twenty years imprison-
ment. For crushing a mans skull with
brick in Camden William M. Mount was
sent to prison for only ten years Early
in 1892 Alfred Boyer cut Alexander Gibbs
throat in Camden He was convicted of
murder in the first degree but the gal
lows was cheated again. The verdict was
set aside and he went to jail for twenty
years.
1t was not until July 20, 1892, that the
sheriff Of Camden county was called upon
to act as hangman. There was no gal
lows in the county, and he had to have
one built especially for the execution of
James Moulton. Moulton was an old col
ored pensioner, who murdered Lydia Ann
Wyatt, his housekeeper, and buried her
body In his cellar. He had no money to
hire lawyers, and in his case the law took
its course without interruption. On the
same galloWs, nine months later John
Hill, colored lad, who had waylaid and
killed an enemy, expiated his crime.
A clever lawyer saved George Morris,
colored, from sharing Hills fate. He
apparently the state had a clear case.
Morris had plotted to kill Ella Ford, his
paramour, and had even gone to Phila-
delphia medical college and bargained to
dispose Of her body for $25 before he COM
mitted the crime. But on the witness
stand Morris said he had killed the girl
with a stove poker during a quarrel. The
state produced a different weapon, but
Morris lawyer fitted the stove litter in
the dead woman's skull, and got his client
off with twenty years in state prison.
Two or three more homicides with
lucky escapes for the accused occurred
before the sensational murder of William
G. Kairer, a Camden baker on Feb. u,
1894. Kairer and his son were aroused by
burglars. While searching the lower part
of the house a shot rang out and the ba-
ker fell dead in his sons arms. Theo-
dore Lambert, colored convict, was ar
rested, and, largely on the evidence of
his pal he was convicted.
Then shrewd Camden lawyer, John
L. Semple, discovered a method of de-
laying the execution of his client that
has since been resorted to in numerous
murder cases. He appealed to the United
States supreme court. and when a decis-
ion was rendered against his client he
took a fresh appeal. Lambert was three
times sentenced to be hanged, but it was
not until Dec. 10, 1895, nearly two years
after the killing of Kairer, that he was
swung from the gallows in the Camden
Jail.
This was the last execution in Camden
county. Since then there have been four
teen persons murdered. Only four de-
PENDANTS have been convicted, and they
were. each sentenced to twenty vars In
state prison. The most brutal and mys-
terious of these crimes was the double
murder of Mrs Zane and her daughter,
Eli Shaw, the son Of the one and grand
son of the other woman, was charged
with the crimes There were two trials
and acquittalS in each case The muir
ders of these women are still unavenged.
Prosecutor Of the Pleas Wilson H. Jen-
kins believes that the gallows will not be
cheated in the cases of the two muir
derers now in the county jail. He has Sc
cured a confession from Francesca Abb
betto, who, in order to get rid of the
husband of the woman he was enamoured
of, cut Garrano De Feos throat and de-
capitated the body to prevent its identi-
fication. Athletic took Mrs. De Fec to
New York and had a good time while the
buzZards were feasting on her husbands
body down in the Jersey woods. The
woman forced him to go back to the scene
Of his crime, where he was arrested.
Almost as fiendish was the crime of
Edward Oswald, a dental instrument
maker, Of Camden, who hacked his wife
and child to death two weeks ago with
a knife he had made especially for that
purpose. Oswald cut his own throat, but
he lives and will be tried with DE Fec
next fall.
OF the later crimes which sWelled Cam
denis murder list the McCusker case is
conspicuous, because the victim was a
man and his alleged slayer was woman.
No one In Comden had more friends than
jovial Michael McCusker, superintendent
of the Union News companys stand at
the Pennsylvania railroad depot His
wife was one of the handsomest women
in Camden-tco handsome for her own
good and Michaels peace of mind Their
first meeting came about through a flirta-
ton in the depot, and after they were
married she was not insensible to the ad-
miring glances of other men. The result
was domestic discord, which eliminated
In a tragedy late in the summer of 1897
The husband came home one night and
found the door fastened. He broke 1t in
His wife came down stairs with a re-
volver in her hand. They met in the
hallway and there was scuftie and a
pistol shot
When a policeman arrived, Michael Nc
Cusker, writhing in agony on the floor,
pointed to the weeping wife and said:
'She shot me- @N
ooh, don't say that Mike" the woman
cried. Then she was led away to jail
McCusker died in few hours.
1T was freely predicted that Mrs Nc.
Cusker would not be convicted-no
woman ever had been convicted of muir
der in Camden county. Looking very
pale and sorrowful, dressed in stylish
tailor made mourning suit, for which she
had been measured in Jail, Mrs. McCus-
ker went on the witness stand and ex-
planned to the jury that her husband had