The semi-weekly messenger., 1907-01-22
STRANGE CASE.
Or an Erroneous Conviction and Its
Sequel.

| "One of the strangest cases of erro-
neous conviction OF which ever knew"
said the old lawyer. was that CT
Jonathan Bradford, who was hanged
in Oxford England, for the murder
Of Christopher Hayes. Bradford was
an inkeeper and a Very respecta BILE
man, too. One evening Hayes who was
trayeling towards London, stopped at
lhis inn, and while in conversation with
two men at supper mentioned to them
that he had upon his person a large
sum Of money Late that night, after
every one in the inn had retired, the
two men heard groans from an ad-
Joining room, as of one dying in pain.
lThey both arose, lighted a candle and
went softly TO the door of the next
room There was a light in the room
land the door was q jar. They entered
and saw upon the bed weltering in nis
blood the body of a man. Another
man stood over him with a knife in
lone hand and a dark lantern in the
Other The man seemed as terrified
las themselves. but his terror carried
with il all the indications Of guilt.
| The two men soon discovered tha
1.-THE murdered person was Christopher
Hayes, with whom they had talked at
the supper table the night before. and
THE man standing over him was Brad
ford, the landlord. They seized Brad
ford at once and diSarmed him of his
knife. which was covered with blood.
bradford assumed an air of innocence,
positively denied the crime, and as
serted that he, too, had heard tho
groans, armed himself with knife
for his defense, and had but thai min
ute entered the room before them.
This sort of defense was % no
iavSiI 1t was proved at the trial that
bradford had heard Hayes tell about
having a large amount of money with
him. 1t was proved that Bradford's
knife exactly fitted the wound in the
breast of Hayes, the knife and the
right hand of Bradford We're bloody.
land with such apparent evidence Of
guilt the jury convicted him, and the
Judge, in sentencing him to death said
| "Mr. Bradford, either you or myself
committed this murder
bradford was hanged shortly after
Iward protesting on the scaffold that be
by all.
Bradford was innocent after all.
THE murder was actually done by the
Ifootnan of Hayes, who Immediately
lupon stabbing his master, rifled his
pockets of his money and gold watch
land escaped back to his own room just
| ibefbre Bradford entered. Eighteen
months after Bradford was hanged
l.
his deathbed confessed the murder and
gave to the officers of the law the
watch and part of the money he had
stolen from his master.
But the strange part of the strange
! case has yet to be told. Brad
ford, though innocent of the murder
and in no way connected with 1t, was
nevertheless a murderer at heart
He had heard Mr.. Hayes say At sup
per that he had large sum of money
with him., and that he went 10 MS
bedroom with his dark lantern anc
knife intending to kill and rob him
hut when he reached there he was
struck with amazement, when he turn
led back the bedclOthes to find that the
man had already been stabbed, bleed
ling and dying. In his agitation ne
dropped his knife upon the breast or
the murdered man and thus the knife
became bloody, and in picking it up
his hand was covered with blood. too.
lat this moment the two men entered
land caught him.
"The circumstances Bradford con-
!fessed to the clergyman who attended
him after his conviction and the cler-
lgyman afterward made them public. -
kansas City Star.