The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-02-11
OF A JUDGE WHO DIED
On the Eve of the Trial of
Two MurdererS
WHOSE DIAB0LICAL DEED
Was as One of the Judges
Own, Saving the Intent.
WHOSE DIABOLICAL DEED

And 50 the most remarkable figure in
what promises to be the most extraordi-
nary murder case Pennsylvania has ever
developed has passed away
His death was due 10 no disease but
simply to a complete collapse of his pow
ers.
II was to have been the strange fate Of
the great jurist to have tried two men
brothers-for crime so strikngly SINH
lar 20 deed he himself committed that
the intent alone divided them The ac-
cused murderers Of George B. Eyre, the
wealthy Chester clubman, and handsome,
popular Guardsman, were to stand face
10 face with a man who, On almost the
very same spot upon which they were
alleged 10 have slain their victim, had
also slain his man, but by accident-and
he was to have been their Judge!
Il is a curious fact a coincidence odd
almost beyond belief, that the man who
met death at the gun of Judge Clayton
was none other than a relative Of James
and Amos Pierce, the prisoners in the
Media jail, charged with this terrible
killing on Raccoon Creek
For twenty-five years Thomas ]. Clay
five years not man had been hanged in
Delaware county. Murders there have
been a plenty, and convictions not a few;
confessions have been made, but that
dire dread which this iurist had Of send
ing another man to meet his Maker has
saved the murderers' lives.
And now the people of Chester are
wondering; physicians are puzzled over
these propositions: Did not the dread of
trying g case so similar to his own. and
yet a thousand times more horrible, be-
cause of its motive, hasten Judge Clay
ton to his grave? Are not the slayers Of
George 3. Eyre responsible for another
death? Thousands think SO.
1t is a pathetic tale-that of Judge
Clayton's adventure which marred his
ife's work, but tempeted his justice with
mercy as a cutter tempers a knife. In
his youthful days he had ever been a
spartsrnan The reeds Of the Delaware's
Jersey shore and the points Of Raccoon
Island We're places of delight to him.
There he hunted the rail bird and the
duck
Clayton had been Judge but a year.
His rectitude and his keen administra-
ton of the law had already made him
the idol of the people. Then it was that
the jurist and Benjamin HeacOck went
cunning for rail birds A strange turn of
mind led them directly across. the Della
ware TO Raccon Creek to the spot where
twenty-four years later Gearge Eyre,
then a toddler clinging to his mothers
skirts was TO be struck down by a gun
shot.
Heacock was padding; Clayton sat in
the sl1iff, a gun across his knees, wait
ing for a shot A rail bird arose. It few
swiftly along the marshy shore. The
Judge sighted it down the barrel of his
gun. He did not see anything else-only
the bird: it was the instinct of a sports
man. Then as the little feathered crea-
ture reached the spot for which he had
been waiting Clayton fired. The bird
few on, but there in the boat, weltering
in his own blood, his fingers shn working
in the throes of death. lay
Heac0ck A hole as big as an orange
had been torn in the back of his head.
It was an accident. Heacock should
have dropped 10 the bottom Of the boat
when the bird flushed But that terrible
horror felt by one man who has slain
another was upon Judge Clayton. Slowly
he sculIed back to Chester No attempt
To conceal the killing did he make A
Coroner's jury exOnerated him and the
matter might have rested there. but it
did not. To IN some degree mitigate the
loss Of Heacock's widow the sorrowing
jurist made her a present Of 5000 and
pensioned her for life.
The curtain was lowered over Raccoon
Creek and its tragedy for twenty-four
years.
In the meantime George p. Eyre had
grown to manhood. His father had died,
and he was one Of two heirs TO a rich
estate The pride of his grandmother,
Eyre had been made the sole heir Of her
possessions. He belonged to all the fash
ionab,e clubs of Chester. He was adju-
tant Of the Sixth. the crack regiment Of
Pennsylvania Guards
a loving son was Eyre. He never left
town nor. having gone, returned without
sending word to his mother. So when he
telephoned that he was going ducldng on
the morning Of December q, and that he
would be home for dinner the meal was
permitted to shrivel and go cold in that
home or luxury before the family sat
down to IT. They were waiting for the
footsteps Of the one who was never To
come. That was of a Thursday night.
Friday passed and Saturday rushed by.
Then the Eyres notified the police and the
members Of the clubs of which George
was a member that he was missing. Long
strings of boats patrolled the Delaware
ali Sunday searching for the man. who
like fashion.
At this point Il became whispered that
e Eyre was in the Delaware his was not
an accidental death. II was discovered
that the Alpha Boat House. from which
the missing man had set out had been
locker there. all but the
one which bore Eyre's number, had been
plfered. And in that locker were Eyre's
street clothes. n sum Of money and two
theatre tickets. His cunning clothes he
had worn when last he was seen alive |
A boat owned by Bonsal Ladomus had
beer taken.
Rewards for the finding Of the missing
man dead or alive, were offered in rapid
succession until the sum reached nearly
Sis eco. The Eyre family offered a large
amount, every organization II which the
missing man was member stood ready
with its treasury to solve the mystery.
City Councils appropriated a big sum 10
further the search. And Yet. hunt as
they would, not a soul for weeks could
fn6 a single trace Of this wealthy son
OF Chester.
Al last paddle a peculiar bit of wood
with a spike driven into the end Of II.
was discovered lying in the reeds miles
belrvr Chester on the Delaware shore. /