The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1905-07-19
be needed BY the majority

lies i'm Judge Dilps hands.
Judges Vredenburgh and vroom, two
members of the Court who favored Lib
bie's release have been on the sick list
for several weeks and until few days
it was feared rhat they would be unable
to artend to-day's session OF the Court.
Both, however, sent word to Executive
Clerk Edweyd D. Fox that rhey would
surely be crescent if they were compelled
to eng an ambulance to bring them to
Sea Girt. Thus full attendance of the
! Court is assured 1t win be probably late
this afternoon before vote is taken on
the famous case
Lfbbie Cara brandt has served almost
35 years in State prison and is regarded
as one of the most remarkable women
| ever incarcerated How She survived so
many years of confinement nobody hut
herself can explain. She simply says:
II made up my mind when>I came here
of my life and did not fret about it. al
though / always thought that some day
/ would be released
There is not a gray hair in Libb.e's
head and her eyes are just as youthful
looking as if she had only served one
cate young woman when brought to the
prison, but to-day she is rather stout.
She still retains traces of her former
beauty. She is afflicted with heart dis
ease and has been an inmate of the pri-
SON hospital for several months. Prison
Physicians Mackenzie and Brewer said
| few days ago that even if the Court of
| Pardons granted Libbie her freedom they
doubted if she would live longer than a
| few months
The disease has undermined her health
to such an extent that Warden Osborne
refused to allow visitors to the institution
to interview her Whenever her case
was laid before the Court Of Pardons
the Warden charitably withheld that
| fact from her, because, as he expressed
! it, 'sIt would have killed her if l was
| all ffnaa 40
Court of Pardons refused to grant her
clemency."
At least 40 times during the past If
teen years, Libbie's case has been before
| the Court of Pardons always with the
same result. A petition signed by 40,-
| 600 men and women Of the State was
presented in her behalf about a year ago,
but it had no weight with the Court.
| Then it was stated that Libbie would be
compelled to die in prison. Her friends,
however, did not abandon hope. They
had fought harder battles and would not
leave her to her fate. They only worked
harder for release. With what result
to-day's session of the Court will tell.
Libbie Garrabrandt was charged with
having murdered John Burroughs, a
keeper of an alleged disorderly house
with whom she lived in Paterson. in
1870, by administering arsenic in a bowl
of rice pudding. She was convicted of
murder in the first degree and sentenced
| to be hanged Her sentence was com
muted to life Imprisonment by the Court
of Pardons
While Libbie never denied her guilt,
she accused Winfield Bogert. her hover,
of having plotted the crime. She claim
ed that he had promised to marry her.
| provided she gave Burroughs poison. She
said she first bought Rough on Rats, but
| Bogert told her it was not sufficiently
strong poison TO kill a, human being and
| advised her to change it for arsenic. She
complied with his request and carried
out his instructions.
| Bogert was also arrested as an acces-
sorry to the crime but was acquitted by
"a jury. After Iibbie was sent to prison
Bogert went to North Carolina where
he married but died two years later. He
was disowned by his fanny and friends.
Libbie has always said that Bogert in
stigated the crime and that she merely
carried out his plans. At the Laverty
impeachment trial. Libbie figured promi,
nentlv. and by many it is claimed that
the testimony she gave before the Senate
had much to do with keeping her in
prison SO many years
| Libbie's mother has promised to give
4 home for the remainder of her life and
take care Of her while she is an invalid.
This will influence the Court in granting
the plea for freedom, because in past
years when efforts were made to procure
pardon for the woman, the Courts re-
fused on the grounds that none Of Lib