The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-04-01


ing to and coming from the house in
trap drawn by brown pony.
On the other hand, numerous wit
nesses were called for the defence to
show that the prisoners were at home,
could remember what the weather had
been. The jury returned a verdict of
Not guilty." and the prisoners were
released. Subsequent inquiry proved
that the night in question, when the
housebreaking had taken place, was
fine and bright, but that the night of
the previous Sunday had been all that
the witnesses described. Their evil
dence had clearly related to the wrong
Sunday.
A case in which an innocent man was
able to establish an alibi and refute
mass of extraordinary circumstantial
evidence against him was that of the
Cannon street murder. Sarah Nilsson
was the houSe-keeper to large firm,
with premises in Cannon street, in
which she lived. Upon the night Of the
murder, man, whose duty it was to
lock up the building after the hands
had left, closed the place and duly de-
livered the keys to Mrs. Nilsson. The
housekeeper and a woman who acted as
cook were now the only persons in the
place. The cook. in her evidence, stated
what happened. Mrs. Nilsson was sit
ting in the dining room and the cook
was in the bedroom: about ten minutes
past 8, there came ring at the door
bell. The witness was about to go
down to answer 1t, when Mrs. Nilsson
called out to her:
Elizabeth. the bell is for me. will
co. s:=....
The cook stayed In her room, but
later, on went downstairs. when she
was Mortified to find Mrs. Nilsson lying
dead in the CORRIDOR just inside the
door. She had been killed by a terrible
blow with a erowbar that was lying
close by the body. ...- -.,..-.
An arrest was made. and the prisoner
was defended by Sergeant Ballantyne
and Mr.. Montagu Williams.
The defense was able to prove by the
evidence of witness after witness, that
the prisoner was at Elton and Windsor
upon the night of the murder at times
which rendered it impossible for him to
have committed the crime, A boot
maker and the bootmaker's son, for
whom the accused man worked. had
seen and spoken to him there. The
alibi was incontestible, and the prison
er was acquitted. The murderer has
remained undiscovered to this day. =;
A young girl who lived with her
parents 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
ground of the cottage the imprint ofthe
boots of a running man., These inn
pressions correspondent exactly with
the boots of a young laborer named
William Richardson. who was ac-
qnainted with the dead girl, ana who
was also left handed. Richardson, on
being asked where he was on the day
of the crime, declared that he was en-
ployed the whole day in the work. of his
master, farmer, some distance away.
This fact was borne witness to by the
farmer and Richardson's fellow SER
wants, and the police were baffied.
The alibi, in spite of all the other
suspicious circumstances against the
prisoner, appeared so strong as to be
unassailabIe. But the police per-
severed, 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
a direction which took them close to
the scene of the crime, and while they
had been passing through a wood
Richardson had requested his comrades
to stop few minutes while he ran to
a smiths shop and back. They did so,
and one of drivers remembered that
Richardson when he returned had been
absent half an hour by 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 alibi thus broke
down, Richardson was found guilty and
before his execution, he confessed the
justice of his sentence.
An ingenious system of proving an
alibi was that of man named Gorton
at least, that was one of his twenty
names-convicted Of various clever
frauds in the north Of England. He
had twin brother, and while he was
engagedin a robbery the twin kept him
self in prominent evidence In another
far removed place. When Gorton was
arrested, the persons who had met the
twin trooDed into the witness box to
relate how they had met and con-
versed with him elsewhere at the hour
of the crime. "'
Their evidence was of course given In
all belief that it was perfectly correct,
for they had not the slightest sus-
picion Of Gorton having double The
arrangement broke down at last, how
ever, through one Of those little over
sights that even the most cunning
rogues will fall into and the ingenious
twins came to their deserts. The Cor
tons were criminals of the kind that, as
that clever detective Littlechild once re-
marked, make detectives gray before
they are old. New York Sun.
WIT AND HUMoR IN THE