The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-02-09

nd h NJ h who led John into ev1 Ways
He was Of tbs light and airy and nippent
type Of criminal. the most hopeless 90 far
a. any reform IL concerned. and yet the
most plausible and convincing In their
expressions Of desire to reform.
SpwARp's POWER ovEB
Edwards ~humbugging Of people was
by no means confined to women In TINS
respect. In the faoe Of damning evidence
against him and his brother In the Kshney
and Fitzgerald oases, he convinced men
here that are Of sound enough sense IN
ordinary matters not only Of his Innocence
Of the particular crimes In question: out
OF his earnest desire to repent his sins and
lead q better life.
Probably early In their acquaintance
he convinced Mrs. Sofel that he was an
Innocent man under an unjust sentence
Of death. She says he did. and there Is
no reason TO doubt her word; although
later on she became 30 completely under
bis influence and so blindly led by him
that she would have followed him like q
faithful dog, even though abe knew him
10 be the vilest murderer and
unhung.
And right there we come to the border
land Of the mystery which hangs over this
strange case. and that Is the extraordinary
influence which Edward Biddle undeniably
had over women. Old OF young, OF high
or of low degree, women who came In con-
tact with this criminal, or who even came
into his presence, seemed to be from that
m more or less under a spell. Where
ever he has been traced In all his outlaw
career there has peer found a wake OF
all devoted 70 him 10 the death.
During his trial here and subsequent
thereto women rallied to his support In
swarms. To their influence, and TO their
influence alone, Is TO be attributed the fact
that he and his brother escaped hanging
at the dates in m~id-January first fixed for
their execution.
The crime for which the brothers were
condemned was an atrocious 10. They
invaded a home In the dead Of night and
there shot TO death a crippled man In the
presence OF his wife. Traced to their
hiding place they murdered one OF the
officers who came to arrest them and
wounded several others.
The evidence against them was damning,
and was clinched by the testimony Of their
accomplice, Walter Dorman, who saved
his neck by turning States evidence. All
three we're In the Kahney burglary and all
three. in the eye Of the law, were equally
guilty Of tho murder which that involved.
A jury of twelve men convicted them
without hesitation. and a jury composed OF
all the women who saw them In the court
room, or who since the trial have even re-
motely come in contact with Edward,
without a dissenting voice reversed the
verdict OF the courtroom jury and elevated
the two worthless scoundrels to something
like a pedestal for saints and martyrs.
MRS. ~soFFEL's INFAIuATIoN.
1t is an old story, OF course, that women
Of a certain type have an overmastering
for that quality of strength and
recklessness in the male character which
goes into the makeup Of a tho~rough-going
The weakness OF good women
for murderers, when once they are Gagged
murderers and under sentence OF death,
is notorious and has resulted In many dis
NAL demonstrations of morbid sentiment
tally. But over and above all these rea-
sons for feminine sympathy. there surely
was something in the personality Of Ed
Biddle which drew women's SYM
patty and affection to him as a magnet
draws a steel needle.
And yet he was not what would be called
a handsome young man. SO far as con-
tour Of face n regularity OF features
are concerned. John was the better look
ing OF the two. Yet for John no woman
had a second glance. while from Edward
1t seemed hardly possible for them to IT
their eyes.
Perhaps II was q certain smiling. light
heartedness Of bearing; perhaps it was a
suggestion Of something akin to effeminacy
impaired by the long front hair that dropped
about his sloping white forehead from
the ever part straight dow the middle
a boyish, laughing. efeminacy. yet known
to be combined with the desperation Of
a very devil. Maybe II was this, maybe
it was a combination Of alf a dozen things
which could so overwhelm the reason Of
a respectable woman Of good social stand
ing that she would journey all the way
10 Harrisburg to plead with the Governor
TO grant the murderer a reprieve that he
might adorn the earth a little longer with
his presence.
THEIR ACQUAINTANCE.
But there IL no use in trying to analyse
what 1t was that gave Edward Biddle his
power over women. That power he had to
a degree that many believe was that much
exaggerated thing called hypnotism.
Surely over the wretched Mrs. Soffel
the influence he welded was Of a kind TO
suggest the widest yarns OF hypnotism.
From all the evidence thus far developed
there is every reason for the belief that his
influence over her began before she had
ever spoken to him or he to her began
by his simply turning his face toward her
as she sat or stood by the sitting room
window Of the warden's residence. which
commanded, not only a window OF Biddle's
cell, but the high-walled well, or court,
in which the prisoners exercised, the Bid
dies among the rest.
IL seems to be clearly shown that Mrs.
Sonel first came under Edward Biddle's
spell through an exchange OF g~lances from
this window which quickly grew into an
unmistakable filtration. Here was a
woman 81 years old, the wife Of a good
husband, the mother Of four children whom
she loved, degrading herself almost from
the first time she set eyes upon him by