The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-03-21
MRS. PLACES CRIME.
Murdered Her Stepdaughter and Tried
to Kill Her Husband.

Mrs. Martha Place killed her stSpdaugh-
ter. Ida Place. at their home. No s3s Han
cock street. Brooklyn, on Feb. :. 1855. The
girl was but twenty-five years cd. A
double murder had been planned by the
woman Sac killed her stepdaIshter when
the girl was taking an afternoon nap, split
ting her skull open with and pouring
vitriol on her face and into her mouth. The
same evening the woman Jay in wait for
her husband, William w. Place, in the d9rk-
ened hallway of the house, and when he ell
tered she struck him III the face with the
ak and inflicted serious wound. lie man
aged TO get outside the front door and alarm
the neighbors before he became uEcon-
scious. When the police and neighbors en-
tered the house they found Mrs. Place in a
bedroom in which gas was escaping, and she
was shamming unconsciousness. 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 womans crime was
jealousy of her stepdaughter. Places first
wife died six or seven years ago. and about
eighteen months afterward he engaged the
woman who became his second wife to act
as his housekeeper. Her maiden name was
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 possessed of an
ungovernable temper, which led to frequent
quarrels with Ida, and Mrs. Place was very
much embittered because her husband took
the young WomanS part Another cause of
family pickering was Places refusal TO have
his Wtfe'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 woman. Miss Place was
| popular with the families in the neghbor-
hood, and this also made the stepmother
| jealous. Mrs. Places story of the crime
| was that she had thrown carbolic acid in
her stepdaughters face during one of their
| quarrels and then got the AK to defend her
came out during her trial that she had
made preparations for flight and had writ
| ten to her brother 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 the Court Of APP
pealS 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 COM
mitted. 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 Il Governor Roosevelt announced his
refusal to interfere, accompanying 1t with a
| memorandum, which. after reciting a his
| tory of the crime and giving the report of
| the medical examiners. closed follows:
| There is no question of the woman
guilt and no question OF her sanity. All that
| remains 10 the question as to whether I
/ should be justified in interfering 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 cap
| ital punishment which has occurred since
/ murder, and L refused TO consider the APP
pealS then made to me on behalf of the
man who had killed his wife after / became
| convinced that he had really done the deed
| and was sane. In that case woman was
| killed by man; in this case woman was
/ killed by another woman. The law makes
| murder was one Of peculiar elaboration and
i atrOcity. To interfere with the course of
the law In this case could be justified only
/ on the ground that never hereafter, under
/ any circumstances, should capital punish
| ment be inflicted on any murderess, even
though the victim was herself a woman.
/ and even though that victims torture pre-
| ceded her death. There is but one course
| open to me. i decline to interfere with the
| course OF the law"
| Several weeks before his official decision
| was given out Governor Roosevelt was
| quoted a s follows: My sympatfles in Grim
| inal cases are for the wronged and not for
| the wrong-doer. The fact that the criminal
| is woman makes no difference to me- /
| am always ready TO try to see that justice
/ Is done. In ordinary cases If a woman is
| found precisely as blameworthy as man l
| would punish the woman exactly as much
| as the man. 1 have no sympathy with
| mawl<ish sentimentality."
| After the murder was committed Place
| showed no interest in his wife's fate. He
/ testified at the trial. but has taken no part
/ in the efforts to save her from the electric
chair. and has refused at all times TO talk
i of the case.