The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-06-11
DIRECT PROOF OF GUILT.
LACKING IN MANY CASES WHERE
CONVICTION WAS INEVITABLE.

Notable Instances in This Country
within Past Few Years-NIiscar-
riGges of Justice Abroad From
the Same Cause-One Strange Case
in which Judicial Error Was
Corrected.
From the New York Press
It is scarcely too much to say that the
majority of persons who are accused of
murder and against whom is nothing but
circumstantial evidence are convicted. Cal
over the great murder cases of the last 10
years which have occupied the public mind
and pages of the newspapers in the United
states for months-Carlyle Harris, DR..
Buchanan, Theodore DuIant. Mrs. May
brick, Mrs. Fleming, Mrs Mack and Mar
tin Thorn, Lizzie Borden, Harry Hayward,
William Holmes, Luetgert-aI these cases
we're based on circumstanual evidence.
and conviction ensued in all Of them. ex-
oept two, Lizzie Borden and Mrs. Flem-
ing, who were acquitted
In the summer of 1892 jury in Waldron,
Ark, found Abner Ray guilty. of the muir
der of John Potts. The convicted man
rose to his feet to protest his innocence
His limbs trembled. his face flushed, and
he fel forward dead of heart disease. A
moment later John Potts entered the
courtroom.
In the essential detail of the case his
tory simply repeats itself, for in 1871, at
Gibraltar, a case strikingly similar o.
Cured James BaXwell, a rich merchant
lived in small house near the base of
Mount St. Michel His daughter. Eezia
was of SURPRISING beauty and had many
sutors, all of which she treated with in
difference. But at church one day she saw
gazing at her a handsome young stranger
william Katt, an Englishman. II was
love at first sight, and soon Katt found
means TO be presented 10 the beautiful
glrj, and shortly asked of her father her
hand in marriage. But he was opposed
bitterly to the match.
Dead in the Black Cap.
The lovers implored, but in vain. Then
the girl announced that she would marry
him in spite of everything. The father
was enraged and was heard 10 say that
he would kill her rather than to permit her
10 marry Kat. A few days later clies
were heard coming from a cave back of
BaXwellS house. After little the means
died away. Then the daughter was missed
and after a few days search was made.
In the cave were found skirt and other
articles of her clothing clotted with blood.
Bits of hair, to which blood adhered, were
identified as from the head of E.ezia Bax-
well was arrested, convicted OF the murder
of his daughter and sentenced 10 death.
As he was being led to the scaff0ld he saw
Kit in the crowd. and stepping over TO
him said: My friend. in one minute I
shall be in eternity. l wish to die in peace
with all men. Give me Your hand. ! par
don you for the terrible injury your evil
dence has done me-"
Baxwell mounted the scaffold and the
black cep was drawn over his face. Just
as the trap was about to be sprung a
sharp cry was heard.
II am guilty 1t is l alone"
The proceedings were stopped and Katt
explained excitedly that he had carried
off E!ezia with her consent to be his wife.
At that very moment she was net far
away in place of concea lment But his
further deeds had been done without her
knowledge. He had taken a lock of her
hair and several articles of her dress, and
had daubed them with lambs blood and
put them in the cave and had made the
cries that the neighbors had heard While
katt was speaking Baxweu had dropped
unobserVed into a chair and as soon ( $
the officials had recovered their wits they
took off the black cap from BaxWelTs
head But BaXWell was decd. Heroic, in
deed, must have been the human frame
that could have withstood such strain.
Ten Years in IA Michigan Jail.
=
his brother-in-law, John Crow, in May.
1885 John Van Nimman served ten years
in Jackson prison. Michigan. In some out
of-the way pace in the word where
Crow was wandering he came across a
newspaper account of the trial OF his
brother-in-law He came back and in 1894
got Van Nimman out
Two brothers Travelled together to a sen
port town in England. After dinner they
got into a hot argument, al the end of
which they retired 10 q doube-bedded
room. One of the brothers, seized with a
vio.ent fit of nOse-bleeding, rose at 8
oc.ock in the morning and wandered TO a
cliff. He was seized by smugglers, whom
ne unwittingly had detected in buying
puncheons Of spirits. They We're too smi-
able to murder him, and merely put him
on board a vessel which was bound for
the West Indies. Meanwhile his brother,
who, afler his port wine and alle1ca ion, !
had gone calmly to sleep, awoke in the
morning to find his brothers pillow COW
cred with blood and his brother missing. /
he hastily rang the bell and summoned
the landlord But all his protesta lions of
innocence were fruitess and he was soon
In the hands of the law. Stains of blood
we're traced from the bedroom to the edge
OF a cliff, where marks of a scuffie were
found
The brother was tried, convicted and
hanged. Left for dead on the sallows, |
MS life was saved milaCulously by a wan |
dering shepherd, who, attracted by a low
moan, cut down the hanging, choking
man, resuscitated him and helped him to
escape on board a vessel bound for the |
Barbados. The first man he met at Roe
buck street, Bridgetown, was the brother |
Tor whose murder he had been wholly con-
Ncted and half hanged
Knife in Hand, Yet Innocent.
Early in the century Jonathan Bradford |
Kept an inn on the London road to OK |
lord One night a gentleman of fortune
named Hayes stopped here and took sup |
per with two other wayfarers. Indiscreet- |
ly he mentioned that he had a large sum
OF money After retiring one of the two |
travellers was awaked by a eroan in the |
room next to his. He woke His friend. To- !
gether they made their way into the ad- |
Joining room, where they found Hayes |
weltering in his gore Standing over The |
oed with a dark lantern in one hand and |
knife In the other was the owner OF /
the Inn, Jonathan Bradford himself
In vain Bradford protested his inno-
cence. In vain he urged that, having be n /
alarmed by the groans. he had seized a |
dark lantern and knife, the only avail /
able weapon, and rushed INFO the room |
on'y mcmen, before the guests had done /
so and for the very same purpose. He |
mad been discovered by tie bedside with o /
weapon in his hand. The portmanteau OF |