The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-24
MURDER or SIXTY YEARS AGO
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~ family lcitrrs anil Whrr Documents,
A. tho time " tho Adams murder IN tsu
Mira, Hell. than Mics I,olu, was y aruwn
Woman, ono horn, brought up and schooed
within tho limits ~ New York. and. until
we'll aknE In her Riflhood all ~,uth n Wall
a,rcrt, she remembers clearly to-day tbs
stir thu criine made. Accordingly, upon
finding thr pamphlet alr determined 10 give
II Ia TVS srS ic0u-e rus SuS was origi-
nally responsible for H. The pamphlet u
entitled Trial 81 John {. Colt for the MUIR
der of Samuel Adams, and the tito naEs
also hears the words Published at THH
Sun mice price six cents" II In Garnisbsd
with woodcuta, and the first shows Colt,
the Murderer" In stock and rolling coat
collar, for Colt was rather a gonteel fellow.
Hia features are rather unpleasant and he has
ObhCtoh pttobtt ups hiih ItpfN''l
10 the likeness Of Miss Henshaw Gotta
Mistress) and Their Child" the young
woman being crowned with a lace cap, With
raven oorkscrew ringlets beneath, and bsars
ing an air Of having been in her day a fac
cinating female, AS they styled it.
The best picture Is one Of the murdeV
itself. Mr.. Adams is shown s~prawling on
the floor, with legs and arms squirming in
his broadcloth coat and gambroon trousers
while the murderer, scowling terribly,
swings O Ratchet in one hand and holds
his victim on the floor with the other.
The crime aroused the 300 600 inhabitants
OF New York as few things had since the
great fire OF six years before. Samuel
Adams, a printer, doing business at 50
Gold street, was engaged in publishing John
G. Colts work on bookkeeping. He called
on Colt 10 settle some accounts.
Neighbors heard a tussle and a fall Look
ing through the keyhole they saw some one.
with back to the door. bending and laboring
over something, but TO their repeated
knocking there was no response. A mes
senger was sent to the police, but it being
about 8 in the afternoon and dinner time,
in the custom Of those days, the officers
sent reply that they were eng ged, and
would come later. The watchers then
waited for them fruitlessly until CANDLE
lght-for this was before the era Of gas
lighting.
The sailing packet Kalamazoo, bound for
New Orleans. was lying at a pier in the
North River. This was in the days when
vessels made long stays in port between
trips, and the Kalamazoo had not done
lading a week later. In the meanwhile the
disappearance Of Adams, coupled with the
unexplained occurrences in Colts officej
caused suspicion. Men who thought that
something was wrong called on the Mayor
and old him what they feared.
Robert H. Morris was then Mayor. He
in person went to work on the case and di-
rected the efforts of the police. Such were
the duties Of the Mayor.
A box was thus traced from Colts office,
in the old granite building at the north
east corner of Chambers street and Broad
way, to the hold of the Kalamazoo, and
was there hauled out from a mass of freight
and opened in the Mayors presence. In
1t was ound the body Of Adams, doubled
up and dashed with cord to confine it in the
box.
The body was traced through a man
who took it to the vessel. He was a carmanI
this being before the time of the modern
truck. The carman drove a heavy bodied,
high sided wagon, now long out of use.
The trial took place in January, 1922
before the Court of Oyer and Termineri
oiioNiot "a SN0 . - Ho
olden time. Done away with by the last
State Constitution, it was formerly the
highest criminal court Of the State.
On the bench With Judge Kent sat Alder.
the same capacity as those officials termed
in New Jersey Lay Judges.
The law Of that time conceived that
they would act as a restraint upon the
regular Judges at times when these were
apt to display too much professional posi-
tiveness on doubtful questions. The account
of the trial does not show that tho two
Aldermen played more than a formal part
Few trials even to-day stir up so wide
an interest as the trial Of Colt. The court
room was packed with men and women
from all parts Of the city, from South street
clear up to the newly built streets around
Washington and Union squares.
The District Attorney backed his strong
case with what would now be called expert
testimony, The experts were DR.. Chiffon
Of certain spots on the wall of Colts DOM
and pronounced them to be blood, and
Drs. Gilman and Nissan, who explained
how the wounds in the skull Of the victim
must have been caused.
The defence tried to obtain a verdict OF
manslaughter. Colts mistress said that
on the night after the murder Colt came in
with a black and blue mark on his throat,
about the size of a siXpence, the sixpencs
being an old Spanish coin then in general
Cyrus W. Field, described as a paper
dealer, bore witness that be had sold to
Colt and Adams the paper Tor Colts book.
But the defence could not eyculpate the
prisoner, Finally, as a last resort tho
brilliant Robert Emmett, closing the case
for the defence, presented 10 the jury in his
summing up what he styled a confession OF
the defendant, an ingenious and circum-
stantial account of the way in which the
murder might have been committed in self
defence and covered up from fear of results.
Among neither the jury nor the public
Of that day does there seem to have been
the least tendency to pity the culprit, AS
for the jury, s~edulously kept, TO Use a
phrase In his Honor's charge to them,
from the influence of the public voice, they
shared their fellow citizens views never.
theless.
Though witnesses, brought from as fur
as Hartford. testified to the good reputs
and mild temper of the murderer, Colt;
whom they had known from boyhood,
though the Judge in his charge laid stress
on various bits of evidence that tended to
establish the absence Of any premeditation
Colts part, the jury without hesitation