Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1905-06-11
Remarkable Case Shown by The
Records of Arizona.
BROTHERS LOOKED ALIKE
Absence of a Scar on John eramlct.'s
Breast Saved Him From Prosecution
For Crime of Which He Was Alb.
soIuteIy Innocent.

county, Arizona, It's scenes for tho.
most part being in the mining can,p
Of Clone
In the eu,::inor Of 1891 burglar; On.
tered the store of Charles l.. Tavlp.
pew open the safe and took several
hundred dollars in money. There
were blood stains about the place, in,li.
catihg that at least one OF the burg
lars hal been injured hy the cxpln.
sion. Suspicion pointed toward left
Bramlctt, gambler we'll known In
camp, because he was found the next
uay with wound ON his hand and
blood on his apparel for which he
could not account satisfactorily. He
was arrested for the crime. but never
was tried
before the succeeding session of The
grand Jury 3ramlctt was taken sick
Oh uroDSical affection and was taken
from the county Jail to The county hos.
pi'al. where lie died and was buried
as a paIper. No question was raised
at the time of the announcement OF
MS death. nor was The body viewed
ny othcr than the hospital aut horilics
ana tue undertaken, William thinner
man, VINO laid him away, though u,Iitc
number OF persons attended tho
funeral
few weeks later two miners who
Ind left Globe Travelled through The
mountains To Jerome. another mining
camp, 100 miles away Immediately
on arriving there they went into a
restaurant, and were greeted AT the
uoor by man whose presence startled
mem. Tor he seemed To he none other
,han Jcif Bramlctt. whose funeral they
mad Witnessed in Globe.
nt,fr
said: Hello. .IcT!" were plcasautly
answered in kind and procecdcd with
thcir meal. there being little further
conversation between them. Tho
meal finished, the miners tclcpraphcd
me sheriff In Globe that Jeff Dramlct;
was I'm Jerome
nc Shcrill tcIcSraphcd an order of
arrest, and Deputy Sheriff Bcnbrool,
OF Glohc, was sent after the man. Dur
ihe inc oiilccr's absence all sorts of
speculation was INDUCED in by tho
Giobc people. IT, was soon popularlv he
heVed that the death of Bramlctl and
ms subsequent burial was Il r,sc: that
me undertaken and hospital officials
hau becll bribcd to bury Il s,Ibsti,u, q
CORPSE, or pcrchancc collin full of
iocks. while TIC real Bramlcl-. had
nIen hiio"cu % ':"rirt under cover Of
60 "''N' MS olI'ttl lntNrIlptl..
In a few da"s Officer Bcnbrook rc
turned with The man In custody: The
GloDcItcs, with few exceptions do
cared the prisoner To be Jeff Bran
ic't. lie admitted without the slight
est hesitation that he had been known
ny mat name throughout the territory
tho,sh he reserved an explanation
until latcr, when a court of inquiry
was convened by Justice of the Pence
Strong
Before that official appeared many
citiIenS, among them the two
miners who had caused the arrest
or the man. and all Of whom sworc
positively That they believed the man
before them was the man arrested for
SAFE robbery, and who WAS presumably
buried some weeks before. But there
were three men who appeared in the
mans defense. One of them was DIR.
j, M, Largent, the county physicians
Dr. II. Shields Collins. now n vol
KNOWN Arizona practitioner, and you
correspondent, who had known lief;
Bramlctt for years
The latter testified that, while there
was most striking resemblance.
mere was a difference in weight, and
me suspected man had heavier mus.
1achc than had the dead man. DR..
Largent testified that if the accused
were Bramlctt, there would be found
scar on his breast where he had
tappcd him for relief from dropsy. DR.
Collins testified to having known
Bramlctt for years, and that once al
the Silver King mining camp Bramlctt,
whlie intoxicated, had gone 10 slcep
100 close to camp fire and his feet
were badly burned. tIe knew il 10 he.
me same man that was In the county
hospital, and If the accused were the
same person. he must have inefface-
aDie scars OF that burning for which
Dr. Collins had treated him
But the men who lost their money
were unconvinccd They demanded
that the coffin buried by Undertaken
zimmerman be eXhumcd, fully beIiev.
ing 1t would be found filed with
stones or Second hand" corpse. It
was so ordered. and procession of 50
men went to the graveyard and OK
hIination followed. The body was
TOO badly dccomposcd for fun indcnti.
ncation. but tho clothes were demons.
tratei to have been the apparel worn
by i3ramlctt. and there was sufficient
resemblance 10 see that the corpse
was that Of a white man with mus.
tache and hair very much like that
Bramictt was known TO have possessed.
On the return Of this party the in
QUESTION was resumed and the ac
c,ised man told his story. He said that
his name WAS Bramlett, but that his
Christian name was John. not Jeff.
and that he WAS more often called
Jeff than John by reason of his resem.
blance To a twin brother named JEFF,
who had been in Arizona for years,
though he had not seen him since they
both left their home i'm California.
They had never had trouble, but the
family instinct WAS not strongly de-
yelcDcd, and they had not correspond.