The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-06-22
THE CRIMINAL 5 Defence
Trials in Which Attempts Were
Made to Prove AllblS.
CASE OF GORTON TWINS
Where Lives Have Depended Upon
Accuracy or inaceuracy o'
Clock-Strikine Resemblance Be
tween Two Persons - Criminals
Eavorite Defence.

The alibi has always been favor
tie defence with calculating Grim
inals. 1t has, on the other hand III
hundreds of cases, extracted the nno-
cent from the meshes of a net OF cir
cumstantial evidence which must
otherwise have inevitably dragged
them to unmerited doom.
Clocks have played an important
part in these defcnces. Lives nave
depended on their accuracy or inac-
curacy. In the case of man named
Hardy, who was accused OF having
ta,ten part in murder with others.
one of the murderers, after the crime
was committed, made his way nome
as fast as possible. 1t was night and
there was no one in his house but n
servant. Putting the clock in the hall
back two hours, the man went to bed,
snd rising shortly afterward awoke
the servant and ordered her to go
Gown stairs and see what was the
time. The girl did so, and once more
retired to her room, when the muir
derer, stealing softly downstairs III
his bare feet, once more put the clock
right. The unsuspecting girls evi-
dence that the prisoner was in bed at
the time when the crime was COM
United secured his acquittal on his
trial. The truth was made known
py a deathbed confession some years
later
Witnesses who come forward to
prove alibis by the clock sometimes
prove very unsatisfactory. In a muir
der case at the Central Criminal
Court two witnesses swore most per-
sistently to the prisoner having been
in their company at the hour when
the prosecution contended he was en-
gagged in the crime.
Are you quite certain of the exact
time?" asked the counsel for the pros
ecution.
Certain" replied the first witness.
''lIow are you so sure about it?'
asked the barrister.
1--WE were in the Bear public house,
and | saw the time by the clock in
thr bar" replied the witness, ut was
?7 minutes past g."
You saw t ct time yourself?"
asked the counsel.
Yes"
One of the detectives engaged in
The case here whispered something to
The barrister, and he turned to the
witness once more.
"You see that clock" he said, point
ing to the clock in the court. What
is the time by it?"
The witness turned ghastly pale
scratched his head, gaspei and was
silent He could not tell the time
The alibi bubble was burst The pris-
oner was condemned.
young girl who lived with her
pa. ents in lonely part of Kirkcud-
bright was one day left alone in their
cottage while her father and mother
were harvesting. On their return the
girl was found murdered. A surgical
examination revealed the fact that the
injuries inflicted must have been the
work Of a left-handed man, and the
police discovered in the soft ground
around the cottage the imprints of the
boots of running man. These i'm
pressions corresponded exactly with
the boots Of young laborer named
William Richardson. who was ac-
quainted with the dead girl, and who
also was left handed. Richardson, on
being asked where he was on the day
Uf the crime, declared that he was
employed the whole day in the work
OF his master, a farmer some dis
tance away, This fact was borne
witness to by the farmer and Rich
ardson's fellow servants, and the Do
lice were bafied
The alibi, in spite Of all the other
suspicious circumstances against the
prisoner, appeared so strong as to be
unassailable. But the police perse.
vered. and at last one of the detec-
tives discovered that Richardson and
his fellow servants had that day been
employed in driving their masters
carts. These carts had been driven
In direction which took them close
t. the scene Of the crime. and while
they had been passing through wood
Richardson had requested his COM
rades TO stop few minutes while he
IAN to smiths shop and back. They
did SO, and one of the drivers remem.
bered that Richardson, when he re.
turned, had been absent half an hour
ty his watch. This was ample time
for him to run to the cottage, commit
the murder and run back again. He
had not been to the smiths shop. The
abb thus broke down. Richardson
was found guilty, and, before his exc.
cution, he confessed the justice of his
sentence.
An ingenious system Of proving an
abb was that OF man named Cor
ton-at least, that was one of his 20
names-convicted of various clever
frauds in the north of England. He
had twin brother, and while he was
engaged in robbery the twin kent
himself in prominent evidence in
another far removed place. When
H..