The sun., 1903-09-27
A STRANGE TRIO OF CRIMINALS
The Murder That Ended Their
Reign Of Terror.
Nothing Evil In Their Looks or Their
Surroundings. and Two Hardly More
Than Boys. Yet Their Neighbors Still
In Dread Of Thenl--Ilved as Bandits in
Columbia County. and None Dared
Interfere With Them-Their Victim,
Peter Hallenbeck. Their Only Remain.
Ing Friend When They Murdered Him.

Peter HAllenbeCk. Their Only Hemaln.
INK Friend When They Murdered Him.
HUDSON, Sept. 28.-It seems an extrava-
giant thing to say, yet it is but the simple
truth that the people Of Greendale, the
village about four miles from here in which
the Van Wormer boys were reared. and in
which they committed the atrocious mur-
der that has doomed them to die in the
electric chair. will not draw free breath
until sentence has been carried out and
these three young men are actually dead
and beyond the power Of further villainy.
Nothing in all this curious story Of crime
is more remarkable than the abject terror
which these three young fellows, two Of
them little more than boys, had spread
over the community in which they lived.
Even now that all the resources OF the law
in their favor have been exhausted, that
final appeal for executive clemency has
been Of no avail. and that. apparently,
nothing can save them from the death
penalty, there are women and men, too.
in and near Greendale, who are still under
the spell OF terror which the Van Wormers
created in the country.
you won't mention my husbands name,
will you?' pleaded a woman there to-day
to a SUN reporter. please don't put it in
the paper that he told you anything against
them.
MY nerves are all unstrung. l have not
been myself since that awful night. 1t
don't seem as though l could stand any
more anxiety.
Please don't connect our names in any
way with it,.
And yet who is there to dread? The
much feared Van Wormers have not a
week to live. As Mr.. Cady their lawyer.
said in his appeal to the Governor for
executive clemency, they have not a
friend in the world, they have not per-
son in the world, save me- to say a word
for them"
The hestatement of the attorney was literally
true. Barring the stepmother with whom
they lived at the time of their crime. there
probably could not be found in all Columbia
county a single person to utter syllable
in their favor.
1t should be said in partial explanation
of the present state Of mind of some OF
the people of the community, that it has
been to a certain extent brought about by
letters, anonymous and otherwise, which
have been received since the Governor
refused to interfere in the case. On their
face these communications are utterly
meaningless. They come for the most
part from groups OF cranks who are always
heard from in cases that are attracting
much public attention. They are cranks
at distance in all instances.
The source OF the anonymous commune
l. Io,,htnI h1yf fhpoo zuhN ho
received them. In a community that was
in normal state Of nerves such letters
would not receive a moment consdera-
ton.
But we don't know what may happen
Our wells may be poisoned; our houses
and barns may be burned we may be shot
down from ambush, said woman resident
of the neighborhood to-day
The fact of the matter is that the farming
community where these boys ran their
careers was 80 long in terror Of them that
the terror still continues by sheer force of
habit even though the causes Of it are hope
lessly beyond all further power for evil
There is a psychological mystery in the
criminal evolution of these young men
which is hard to fathom. Looking at their
faces il is impossible to believe that they
were born into the world marked with
hopelessly criminal instincts,
NOT LIKE CRIMINALS IN LOOKS.
Their clean-cut American features suggest
the revers, of depravity, They have even
no traces of dissipation. Indeed, 80 far
as drink is concerned. they were rather
more temperate than the average young
men Of their age.
Each one Of them is an intelligent, spirited
looking, prepossessing young fellow, who
would be about the last person you would
pick out in an assemblage OF American
youths as of criminal instincts, least Of all
as a desperate capable of cold blooded
murder.
Indeed it is safe to say that any Grim
inologist, after careful study of Willis.
Burton or Frederick Van Wormer, would
look elsewhere than TO inherited criminal
instincts to account for their evil deeds.
The first thought that arises in the mind
Of anybody looking into the faces Of these
Young men is that there must have been
some external cause, some deplora BILE
environment in childhood and youth to
develop them into what they became.
And right there arises complication in
the problem. Had they been reared in tho
sllms Of a great city. had they from boy
hood been surrounded by criminals and
been familiarized with crime from the
first dawn of intelligence, then it might all
be clear enough. But the Van Worner
boys had no such surroundings.
The community In which they grew
from boyhood 10 manhood Is typical OF all
that is cleanest and best in Amer rural
life. All about them was the moral tonic
OF orderly, industrious lives, simple pleas
ures and the pure, strong air Of the country.
Greendale indeed all Of Greenport town
ship. might be taken as a sample of all that
In healthest and most attractive In an
American farming country. The relatives
OF the Van Wormer boys themselves are
people even rather better than well to
do--people living in spacious farm houses
with vide yards about them. yards in
which flowers bloom and there is the shade
Of spreading elms and naples
And yet in jlst that community did
these three brothers develop into capacity y
for crime that would have qualified them
for membership in the worst gang Of ban
dts that ever infested the Western from
tier. For nearly two year. before the
eliminating strOcity which hae brought
down upon them the extreme penalty Of