The Saint Paul globe., 1905-04-09

NithOdb thc hHOWieUSG Oh the OIneT-
he is the first, he is a consummate
actor and liar as well; if the second, a
subject worthy of the study of the most
profound alienist
Wood is accused of the wanton and
deliberate murder of George Williams,
farmer of the village of Watching,
N. j., who was found on Feb 2 last
dead in his sleigh on the Coontown
road, not far from Watching, with a
bullet wound in his back. 1t seems
to be well established that Wood had
gone off on this ride with Williams and
that the disappeared before the finding
of the body.
Yet he has ever since declared with
unShakable emphasis that he has no
recollection of having been anywhere
within miles of the scene of the killing
on the day ii was done. This, however,
is not a denial that he was there, for
to 1T he adds the astonishing assertion
that his mind is total blank concern
ing his actions and movements in
period of several days, beginning three
days before the day of the murder.
Two Men Strangers
Moreover, it has been proved beyond
doubt that Wood and Williams had
never seen each other in their lives be-
fore they started on the fatal drive,
that both were men of clean records
and that there was not the faintest
shadow of a motive for the crime. No
weapon has yet been found and Wood
insists that he never owned or carried
one in his life. Nevertheless, cartridges
corresponding in size with the wound
were found in a suit case belonging to
him, and there is no question that he
was in the vicinity when the murder
was done.
Curiously enough. the place where
the affair happened is where Wood
was born and spent his boyhood days,
but he left there when he was years
old, seventeen years ago, and has been
back only at rare intervals. He says
now that he had no thought of going
there last February and that If he
did go he was not conscious of the fact,
but was acting in response to a mental
condition over which he had no con-
troll.
On the night of his arrest his speech
and actions were such that he was put
under examination at police headquar-
ters in New York by DR.. Ball, who
thought the man might be under the
influence of a drug. At the end of the
examination, however, the physician
declared there was no evidence of
drug and that Wood was apparently
suffering from aphasia.
This word is defined in medical cir
cles as a lesion of the brain which is
seldom dissociated from absolute in
anu WHICH, luNOINcS d pe1llldi VI
complete loss of memory concerning
the acts done by the victim while the
condition lasts There are cases of
the kind on record, and 1t is entirely
possible that Wood. acting under this
abnormal mentality, did unconsciously
go to the scene of his youth, did take
the drive with Williams, and did,
moved by some inexplicable murderous
impulse, kill him.
woo4te Nareion of 4ha
To a correspondent who saw him in
his cell the other day, Wood again told
his version of the case without the
slightest variation from his former
statements. In the strange circum-
stances the man offered an interesting
study, but the impressions he conveyed
will be made clearer by a brief re-
hearsal of the facts of the story.
Edward Martini was a conductor on
the trolley system in Plainfield, N. j.,
until short time ago, but on Thurs
day, Feb. 2, he was bartender in the
Washington house, hotel kept by
Henry Maui, just outside the limits of
Plainfield. At about 10 o'clock that
morning a man thoroughly answering
the description of Wood, except that he
wore mustache, which has since been
removed, entered the barroom and took
a drink of whisky.
Chatting for a moment with Marfinz,
the stranger said he was walking to
Mount Horeb, about eight miles away,
but would like to get a rig" Marfinz
directed him to the house of William
Demler, around the corner, and he
said he would go there. Instead of do
ing so, he went to the grocery store of
Williams, who was a tenant of DEM
ler's, and asked for the latter
Demler was out, but Williams said he
would drive the man for $3.50, and the
proposition was accepted. While the
sleigh was being made ready Demler
appeared and thought he recognized
the stranger; but after a close scru-
tiny he became convinced that he had
never seen him before. 1t was about
1920 when Williams and the stranger
started off along the Coontown road.
On the way they passed John Miller,
who was working with boy helper.
Williams was sitting on the right of
his passenger.
They had gone about 200 yards when
the boy thought he heard a shot, but
Miller paid no attention. A few min
utes afterward Eugene Pope came
along and stopped long enough to say
that there was a man drunk or dead
in sleigh UP the road" Miller went
up the road, but did not at first recog-
nize Williams, who was bundled up and
lying limp against the high back of
the sleigh, his arms hanging by his
side.
Body Finally Identified
1t was not until Frank Jennings
came along that Williams was identi-
fed Jennings hurried to a telephone
and called up w. Howard Toms, coro-
ner Of the county. Williams body had
been found about noon at a spot about
Az miles west of Watching. One of
the first to reach the place afterwards
was Justice of the Peace Cooper. He
saw at once that Williams had been
shot below the shoulder blade, three
inches to the left of the spinal column
No weapon was found, but there
were footprints in the snow. These
were tracked across the fields to the,
barn of Mrs. Sarah Pollock, Woods
grandmother, and then for four miles
over to the Millington station, on the
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western
railroad. BY crossing the lots the fugi-
tive had saved two miles, showing that
he was no stranger to the geographical
conditions of the neighborhood. There
was no train, however, until ten minues
after o'clock, and it was then learned
that the man had bought no ticket,
but had walked up the railroad track to
Lyons, flag station, where he had
boarded train for New York.
So much for the day itself. Stranger
Still is what followed When If WAS