The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-02-23
WORSHIP OF CRIMINALS
1T Is NOT CONFINED TO THE MEN,
BEERS OF THE GENTLER sen.
Historic Parallels to Modern FelOn
Frenzy-Lawyer Tells of Infatu-
alton for His Clients.
New York World.

New York World.
Prominent criminal lawyers of New York
declare that women are not alone in paying
extraordinary adulation to those convicted
Of the most terrible crimes; that women
murderers receive the same inexplicable
attentions from men. They say that the de-
sire to cheer, to help and to associate with
felons guilty OF atrocities that have shocked
the world is a madness, a morbid mental
condition that is nothing less than mania
one that must be regarded by normal,
healthy minds as even more revolving than
the miserable recipients of the abnormal
sympathy.
Thanks to the law that 1SmOves the con-
victed murderer to Sing Sing prison for ex-
ecutiOn within a few hours after his SEN
tence. and immures him in a cell where he
may have no visitors except the immediate
members of his family and his counsel.
there are no longer in this city the exhibit
tons of maudlin, morbid sympathy that
once wearied and Disguised the prison Off
Gals and shamed the name Of womanhoOd.
As in Pittsburg recently, when twenty
five women. most of them of good reputa-
ton, paid court in person and by letter to
the Biddle brothers, cruel murderers and
robbers, without one redeeming character
istic: for whom Mrs. Soffel sacrificed her
husband, children, good name and perhaps
her life, so it once was in New York city,
when convicted murderers were executed
by hanging in the Tombs yard and were
kept in that institution until the day of
their death.
NO RUFFIAN TOO REPULsIvE.
No matter how cruel, cowardly and I'M
called for a crime the man or woman may
have committed, they were overwhelmed
hxr
and. strangely most of the letters showed
great religious ferver. Every day women,
young and old, appeared at the portals Of
the gloomy place and begged to be allowed
to see the objects Of the misplaced affec-
ton. They cried bitterly when turned away,
and became almost crazed with excitement
when permitted TO talk with the murderers.
They brought beautiful flowers dainties
and other luxuries, until sometimes a
beetle proved .ruffian, who had never done
a good deed in his life, and who had never
had one decent thought sat in a bower of
flowers from the florists who cater to the
rich, and had more delicacies than he could
eat in weeks. Counsel to the felons had to
night with these strangely loVe-mad women
to get to their clients, and while the prison
officials and employees treated them with
jest ana abuse, they were not one whit
stirred from their determination to be near
the object of their affection as often and
as long as possible.
w men woman was the prisoner the WIS.,
ltors and correspondents were men, invari-
ably well.dressed and we'll supplied with
money-men who would be regarded, aside
from their odd infatuation, as citizens Of
average intelligence and standing.
THE INFATUATED MAN.
The World is in possession of a letter
written not long ago to a woman in the
Tombs, coarse. repulsive creature, whose
blood-stained hands had always been en-
IN,
was more fiend than woman. The man
wrote earnestly, like an infatuated lover,
signing his name and giving his address
and the name of the family with which he
made his home. According to his own tes-
timOny, he was an American descendant
of generation of God-fearing and most re-
spectacle people, and there is no doubt that
he was a stranger to crime and to lawless
persons.
He had read all about this woman's I'M
speakable crime, which compounded muir
der with other felOnies, and when he saw
her picture in a newspaper, true as it was
to every hateful detail of her features, he
fell in love with it, sat down and wrote
from his heart letter that should have
had for Its impulse the sorrows only of
some innocent and prosecuted creature.
This man wrote, knowing full we'll of the
many years of infamy in which the woman
had lived, of act upon act of hers that
should have alienated from her every spark
of human pity. Here is the letter, exactly
as 1T was penned by the strangely inspired
man:
LOVES ATROCIOUS MURDERESS.
"a touch OF sorrow truly makes the
world akin, and shocking as this would be
to my relatives and friends, and contrary
as it is to the rules of etiquette am going
to play that you were some old acquaint-
ance and write to you 1 feel; write as L
would like to talk were you single and
looked (and perhaps you do) like the pic
ture the - first printed in its evening
edition of June 30.
How l love that face. l have kept it on
my bureau ever since and look at it each
day. (All the other pictures l have seen in
the papers | tear up and throw away. }
There is a face that knows what love is;
that has heart and soul to it. Scripture
says that there are times when it is policy
TO become a fool, and / am now going to
give myself up to being fool for a while
in the hope that it may comfort and
strengthen you while giving relief to my
own Overburdened heart.
Il am going to play that you are an old
sweetheart OF mine, and look like that pic
ture, and are not married. Oh, how L love
that face! How / sympathize with Won.
how hate and despise the overzealous peo-
pie who pretend to be judging you, accord
ing to the law and have oppressed and
treated you contrary 10 the law | doubt
exceedingly that you guilty but even
though you were i would love you still, for
you are no worse, everything considered
in one way or another, and are only saved
by grace and by being honest enough to
acknowledge it, but, although my father
and grandfather were both Methodist min
listers, L m.fOrced to say that church peo-
pie in general are hypocrites and liars,
fools and blind, and don't you ever
acknowledge your sins to any one except
your Maker and your legal husband.
QUOTES THE BIBLE.
THE law says no is obliged to say
anything that will criminate themselves
and the Bible says i'm the mouth of two
witnesses shall thing be established
Moreover. if you are guilty, who in the
land, from the President down. could cast
the first Stoneg Oh, shame. ten thousand
times on the nation which pretends to be
Christian. and to follow the Constitution
and the Bible and which is or does neither
number Oh, that | could have some in re-
turn That l could hold you i'm my arms.
look into your eyes and be comforted Men
are not all beasts-believe me, dear heart
BE Datient and go slow, and goodbye /
under obligations if you will send me a
good correct, natural-loOkingJ photograph
of yourself Your friend ever"
Ii might be supposed that the color line
would be drawn by well-bred white women
i'm giving their sympathy To murderers but
the case of the negro, Chastine Cox who
brutally murdered the wife of DR. Hall. de-
strOys this idea. Cox was a mulatto and
exrapr11allv WAS hanged m vbfla -