The sun. (Jacksonville, Fla.) 1905-1908, 1906-05-26
% A MOST PERIL EXING CASE o
That of Caldwell and Lans Condemned to Death for the M
Thomas efersons Great Grandson. win They Hang Go


brick building set in lot slOping sharply away from
the street level, and surrounded by high board
fence.
Turn to the right, head south, and heavily barred
windows come into view on the rear of the structure,
which tell the tale of durance vile
This is the Leon County Jail, and the low
chant of negro voices coming from behind those
bars directs the attention of the passerby to this
abode of degradation two gruesOme details of the
sOrdid scene stand out with n prominence that over.
shadows the others.
On the north side of the building stands a hang.
mans gaOws, and ooped from the branches of n
live oak tree growing the southeast is
brand new hangmans rope.
On this gallOws the self-cOnfessed murderer of the
great grandson of Thomas Jefferson was hanged and
huge beams of timber stretching the rope for the
murderer's two accOmplices.
Isham Edwards died on that gallOws, and with his
last words loosened time the hangmans moose
from around the necks of George Caldwell and Mel
son Larkins, who were convicted by his testimony
the witness stand
Never in the history of Florida justice has more
perplexihg case than that of Caldwell and Larkins
engaged the attention of its administrators, and
never have graver issues been dependent the
rect solution of the problem.
If Caldwell and Larkns innocent of the muir
der of Nicholas Eppes, and hanged for it, the
Judgment of two courts directs their innocent blood
will stain the fair mantle of the States honor.
If these men are guilty of this dastardly murder
and escape the gallows through the perured lips of
their accomplice, who doomed to death himself, tried
to his pals other negroes may take courage and
indulge their animal blood thirst
The people of Leon County are deeply interested
in the fate of Caldwell and Larkins, now in Duval
County jail condemned to hang but resting under
a respite granted by the Governor.
But for this respite these men would have been
hanged more than two weeks ago, and their respite
was granted in the afternoon of the day that new
evidence was found which may eventually prove
their innocence
This evidence sufficiently strong to the
Governor to stay the execution until it's truth
fasity be established, for if reliable it will prove
albi for the condemned men.
Two years have passed since the murder of N. r.
Eppes, but the wave of horror and Indignation which
it aroused has not been spent and the interest which
the details of the tragedy excited from the first is
still great.
The sympathy of the people has gone out to the
widow the two daughters and the son of the muir
dered man, and the story of the sons efforts to clear
up the mystery of his fathers death touches all
hearts with its pathos, while it affords an example
of patient investigation, high courage and treess
energy that compels the admiration of all who
know it,
N. r. Eppes, grandson of John Eppes, who mar.
ried Maria, the younger of the two daughters of
Thomas jefferson, lived the plantation about six
miles north of Tallahassee, where his father lived
before him. He worthy scion of distn-
guished family and reached old age respected by all
and loved by those who knew him. He had owned
negroes, held their affections He was never known
to have enemy, white or black
The day he murdered he drove into town, and
started his homeward journey in his buggy about
s o'clock in the afternoon.
About s o'clock that night his buggy found
standing before his gate with his dead body in it.
He had been killed by receiving charge of shot in
the back of his head
His son, Edward Eppes, young man, whose life
had been spent in the country, tragically called to
the responsibility devolvng on the head of family,
responded with wisdom seldom exhibited. He
sumed entire of his mother and two sisters and
devoted himself to them and to bringing his fathers
murderers to justice.
The entire county was aroused by the news of this
dastardly crime, and the Sheriff had Isham Ed
wards, George Caldwell and Nelson Larkins in Gus
tody. Their removal to Live Oak for safe keeping,
their incarceration in the Duva County Jail, their
conviction and sentence to death, the appeal to the
Supreme Court, the affirmative decision the confess
sion of Edwards fixing the guilt on Caldwell and