Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-12-11
GEO. KNIGHT DEAD.
Had Spent 43 Years in the
Maine State Prison.
Sentenced to Death, But Commut-
ed to Life Imprisonment.
He Protested His Innocence 10 the Very
Hour Of His Death.

knight, who had been an inmate Of the
| Thomaston State prison for 43 years, a
record said TO be equalled nowhere else
| in this country, died at 2 O'Clock Sun
day afternoon.
| He had been in poor health for sew
eral years, and though there never
passed day when he did not expect
the morrow to bring his long sought
pardon. he began to weary of the life
which had been his more than two
score years. and long for the release
which death would afford the spirit if
not the body.
A week ago, when feeling more than
ordinarily dispirited he cut his throat
with a razor, and though the blood of
the poor old convict was gushing from
five ragged wounds when the warden
found him, life chung tenaciously TO
the weak and shrunken form. In a few
days he grew worse, however, and the
prison physician, DIR. A. r. Smith,
pressed him for confession before the
spirit passed 70 its Maker.
You are weaker" said DR.. Smith
IF you have anything to say you had
better say it now before it is too late"
The aged convict looked at the ply
stefan, his weary eyes glistening with
tears.
Il have told you all l have to tell"
said he. Il never murdered my wife,
never. as He alone could tell ! have
told the warden that l would like to
have my body sent back to Poland
that it may rest where my youth was
spent and amid the peace that has
been denied me in this long, weary
life"
Still protesting his innocence, the
convict watched the physician depart,
and from that moment would eat and
drink only when food was forced upon
him. He had told the story of his in
nocenCe to hundreds of sympathizers
ard to generations of wardens. but
hope was crushed so often that moth
ing but the memory of it possessed the
cd mans frame.
He saw men convicted of a similar
crime, pardoned and allowed to go
forth free. but his name was never in
Guided in the list.
Knight was allowed considerable
IItcuOEll III llS ieilCI ytciis bNiiio ~
garded as weak in body and oftentimes
weak in mind. Thousands of visitors
to the prison have seen the little old
man at work on the WardenS lawn.
and thousands of times in the past AZ
years he has been pointed out rs an
object lesson. He was a skillful gar
dener and took great pride in the work.
The crime for which knight was
committed was the murder of his wife,
oct 6. 1856, in Poland. Knight was an
Industrious farmer and possessed of
rapidly accommodating fortune. In lS45
he married the widow Of his brother,
their respective ages at the time OF the
tragedy being 81 and 40. The disparity
in their ages was source OF domestic
difference, and Knight figured that II
he were free once more he would mar
~ a younger woman, and as shown
bv the TRIAL his affections were not
ALWAYS bestowed on his helpmate.
But they continued to live together,
and Mrs Knight maintained her posi-
ton in the family even after she had
become firmly resolved that her hus-
band intended to kill her. In a letter to
a friend eight days before the murder
tried to kill her. once with a razor,
and once by giving her poison. This
letter was not opened for some rea-
son until after Mrs. Knight death
and a crime which might have been
ayclted was carried on to the grim
end.
In the summer preceding the murder
Mrs knight was i'll poor health, ana
the doctors were at loss To diagnose
her symptoms Or Josiah Carr of Me
chanic Falls. afterward acknowledged
that he had suspisions that ms medl-
cines We're being counteracted by SLOW
poison, and that there was toul play
going on in the household.
on the night of the murder Knight
started with load of shingles for the
town of Gray. According TO the test
mony he had not proceeded Tar on the
road before he hitched his oxen in the
woods and stole back to the house
There he found his wife sleeping with
his mother, and with butcher knife
he cut her throat from ear to ear.
Knights mother, who was feeble III
body and mind, ran shrieking from the
house The screams and Mrs. Knight s
cries for help awakened q boy ana
girl who We're the only other occu-
pants of the house, but fearing to go
into the room they ran to neighbors
for help.
The girl. Hannah Partridge, saw a
form pass by her bed and come into
relief against the starlight. The
shadow was that of a man and its re-
semblance to Knight was the strongest
piece of direct evidence which after
ward sent him to prison.
When the neighbOrs found what had
transpired they followed Knight, over
taking him as he was driving into
Gray. He manifested little emotion
when told of what had happened, and
delivered his load of shingles as if
nothing had happened.
Before the coroner's jury he was
asked how his shirt came to be so
white and spotless after the work of
unloading shingles in which he had
been engaged the night before. He be-
came tangled in his replies, and sus-
picion was directed toward him.
After leaving the inquest he walked
through the woods and was seen to
throw something into the bushes. 1t
proved to be a bloody butcher knife be-
longing to himself. This was intro