Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1907-04-26
HARRINGTON LOSES PLEA.
SUPREME COURT RULES THAT
FREDERICK SEYMOUR MUST
DIE FOR MURDER.
LIFE ROMANCE OF CRIME.
Son of English Hack Driver Married
Three American Heiresses and
Killed ST. Louis Man.

WASHINGTON, d. c., April o.
In an opinion by Chief Justice Fuller,
the supreme court Of the United States
today dismissed the criminal case of
Frederick Seymour, alias Lord" Bar
rington, under sentence of death in St.
Louis on til. charge of numbering James
p. Mccain in the outskirts of that city
In June, 1905, in effect affirming the de-
cision of the supreme court of Missouri,
and thus sustaining the verdict of guilty
returned by the trial court.
Married Kansas City Girl.
The case has been before the public for
attention, largely because of Barring
tons pretense of bearing an English
title under which shortly before the
tragedy with which his name is connect
ed he married a young lady of good fam
lily residing in Kansas City.
Fought Through Courts.
Darlington made a vigorous fight in
the st. Louis courts, contending that his
conviction was due to prejudice and that
When the Missouri supreme court de-
cided against him, he brought the case
to the federal supreme court on writ
of error, cOntending that his trial had not
been fair
Life a Romance of Crime.
After q life of crime beginning with
boyhood, harrington, society highway
man, resourceful crook, bigamist, torger
and murderer, is to pay the penalty OF
his last crime on the scaifOld.
The crime for which Darlington is to
die was the murder of james L. Mccain,
a well-known sporting man of st. Louis,
on June 10, 1905. Mccain was shot,
his body robbed and his remains thrown
into a pond at Bonfils.
During the active years of his career
Lord" Darlington was one of the most
picturesque figures in polite crookdom,
for although he was of lowly origin his
speciality of passing as member OF the
British peerage went we'll in several cit
les and helped him to live without work
for years.
He was the son of a hack driver in
Tunbrdge Wells, England and his real
name is f. G. Barton. He was arrested
for the first time at the age of seven
years, when he was caught setting fire
to the common. At twelve he was SEN
fenced to five years in the Red Hill re-
formatory for embezzlement. After serv-
ing three years he made his escape by
means OF a rope, only to be arrested two
years later and sentenced for robbery.
For this he served in Yorkshire prison.
The crook. who had taken to himself
the name of Frederick Sydenham Bur
goyne stole securities valued at $4,000
at the age of eighteen, and was SEN
fenced to ten years penal serviture, but
was released on a forged pardon.
Joins Army and Deserts.
About this time he decided it would be
to his advantage to give himself a new
surrounding by joining the army. Here
he could observe the ways of the officers
who made up much of the English So
ciety. This was in his twenty SECOND
year, but before his enlistment was a
year old he had forged a furlough, fled
from the army and committed a burglary
for which he did ten years stretch.
That completed the English police rec
ord. He perfected himself in French.
German and the classics and was a pol
ished fraud when he came to America
in 1891. He posed here as the son of an
English nobleman of wealth and rank.
WEEDS American Girl
AS such he won Miss Celestine Miller
of Brooklyn, an heiress with a fortune
in her own right. After marrying Miss
Miller he had the effrontery to return to
his own land and established himself
with his wife in home at West Brigh-
ton. There he told his wife the truth
about himself. Stripped of every penny
by her husband the unhappy wife re-
turned to this country with her child,
and Barton was arrested and sent back
to prison to serve out an old sentence
AS soon as the sentence was expired Bar
ton returned to the United States, hav-
ing found here the best field for his pc
culiar operations.
In 1902 Philadelphia society received
with open arms Lord Burgoyne," of the
English peerage. His lordShip was none
other than the eX-convict, but before
that came TO light he had courted and
welded Miss Margaret Rafferty,, an
heiress. He told her he was heir to
While they were on their honeymoon
"Burgoyne" slipped from the train and
disappeared. She would believe nothing
against him until she went to New York
and learned the truth from his first wife,
with whom "Burgoyne" was at the time
attempting to effect a reconciliation.
"Lord Darlington" Appears.
Receiving no notice from his first wife,
the ex-convict, who had been wandering
in the west, made his debut in ST. Louis
society under the alias of Lord Bar
rington' He met and married Miss
Wilhelmina Grace Cochran, of indie
pendence, Ia, who was visiting in st.
Louis at the time. Before he could en-
Joy the money he had obtained through
this marriage a hard-headed brother of
Miss Cochran had uncovered his record
and had harrington" thrown into pris-
on. Following his exposure Darlington
succeeded in winning the confidence of
Mccain, a wealthy horse owner and
hotel man. On the night of McCann' S
disappearance the two were seen drink
ing together The murder was traced to
Darlington, and he was convicted. The
legal fight to save him from the gallows
extended over two years.