The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-02-03
Friday February 3. 1905.


In Vermont tomorrow Mrs. Mary L.
Rodgers will pay the death penalty
for the murder of her husband. W.
era! days ago the governor of the state
visited the unfortunate woman in her
cell and spent a half hour with her.
On leaving he remarked: 81 wish I
could save her but I cannot" The
governor had gone to see her at her
request. To him she told the story Of
her life. y Vermont paper gives this
account of the interview and the wo-
mans story of her life and her crime
as detailed to the governor:
The governor spent half an hour
with the woman, and at the conclusion
of h interview he pronounced the
words that seal her fate. She had
asked that he come and see her. Be-
cause her letter was exceptionally un-
emotional, logical and far above the
kind q woman of her environment
could write, he anne.
If he had believed he would have
to confront a woman of a low, brutal
order, who would abuse him when
denied her life. he was disappointed.
There was no emotion III the re-
ception accorded the governor Of the
state, who held her life in his hand.
Quiet. gentle of voice, earnest and
avoiding any appeal to his emotions,
she told her story. She made no effort
to excuse the motive that caused her
to first cajole her husband, then to tie
- L@- 1u rx1Dth0p h;~1 rrith
ch%loroform, and have his body thrown
into the Walloomsac river at midnight
three years ago.
She old how she had been tempted
to marry a man 40 years old when
she was a school girl of Is Six hun
dred dollars, the value of a life insur-
ance policy offered her by Rogers. had
won her consent.
Love came to her a year later while.
with a baby in her arms, she was a
household drudge. The man, Morris
Knapp, of Bennington, never even
knew that she. loved him. She grew
to hate her husband and baby, the first
because he had taken her girlhood
and given her maternity while other
children were going to school, the
second because it was his child.
Quietly and matter-of-fact the wo-
man, now % years DID,, told the story.
The governor listened.
Then he arose to his feet n looked
for his hat. He saw there was not an
extenuating circumstance upon which
he could conscientiously save her
life.
Goodbye" he said, and she ex-
tended her hand.
When the governor turne the end
of the corridor he looked back. The
1.-the form of the young woman in the
bloom of her youth, clad in black, was
in the doorway. In her eyes were?
The Governor hurried his steps. The
sitting room door closed quietly.
It had been the last hope. Tt was
gone.
When one reads this ana tries to
realize what this young woman must
have suffered through all those years;
to what desperation she must have
been driven; how she must have
yearned for freedom from the bond
age which was worse than slavery
bondage of body, soul and mind-and
then call to mind h number Of cold
blooded murders which occur almost
daily where the motive is revenge for
supposed injury or for paltry gain,
where the culprit-some desperate or
debased characters allowed TO go
free through some technicality Of the
law or q sentimental feeling on the
part of jurors, it is enough to make
one recoil with horrors. If this wo-
man deserves death for her act there
are thousands of men abroad in the
land today-many of them standing
high in their communities who should
have been thrice hanged" for their
dastardly deeds of murder.