The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1908-06-16
EUGENE ARAM'S LIFE.
The Remarkable Career of This
Famous Murderer.
A SCHOLAR AND A SC0UNDREL
The Hero of Bulwer's Novel and
Hoods Poem Was Really a Vile
Criminal Who Abandoned Wife and
Children and Knew No Remorse.

Children and Knew No Remorse.
Eugene Aram, the scholar and muir
derer who inspired two of the master
pieces of English literature = Hoods
poem and Bulwer's novel-was hanged
on Aug 6, 1856
Aram was born in 1904 in York
shire BY the time he was fourteen
years old he was regarded in the neigh
borhood as prodigy Of learning His
fame for piety and gentleness as a
scholar spread. and as a result he was
invited to Knaresb borough to open
school in 1874. There a strange de-
velopment took place in Aram's char
acter He formed an association with
drinking. turbulent crowd of men,
the opposite Of himself, among them
Daniel Clark, who kept a little cob
bler's shop, and Richard Houseman, a
fax dresser.
In 1745 Clark married woman with
small fortune of $1,000 Immediately
he and his companions devised a
scheme to rob her and her friends.
Clark was to obtain all the goods he
could on credit and hand them over to
Aram and Houseman, who were to de-
post them in safe place. Then after
securing the plumber Clark was to de-
camp, leaving his wife to shift for her
self, and the property was to be sold
and divided among the three men.
Clark went about procuring wide
variety of articles on credit. He pre-
| tended he was about to give great
wedding feast and borrowed silver
tankards, salvers, spoons, ETC., from
whoever would lend them. AS fast
as the different articles were obtained
Clark, accompanied by Aram and
Houseman, carried them to place
called st. Roberts cave.
| When Clark had Borrowed" about
everything valuable his acquaintances
! had to lend, the plotters decided it was
time for him to disappear SO in the
early morning of Feb s, 1T45, he,
Aram and Gouseman went to the cave
to divide the spoils before Clark left.
Aram and Clark bad quarreled a good
| deal during the progress of predatory
| operations. At the entrance to the
cave the quarrel was renewed, and
Aram pushed Clark away and rained
down tremendous blows on his head
and chest Clark fell dead.
Houseman, terrified ut the sight and.
as he said. afraid of meeting the same
fate, turned and ran away. Aram did
not show particle Of remorse or fear
He gathered up the booty and carried
it to his house. where he buried part of
it in the garden. He buried Clark's
body and heaped stones over the grave.
In the afternoon he went for House
man and threatened him if ne disclosed
the murder and made him believe he
was equally guilty in law.
Clarks disappearance was not no
ticed for a day or two Then the PEG
pie from whom he had Borrowed
iewelry and plate began to make in
quiries. Suspicion was directed to
Aram in some way. The village au-
thorities searched his house and found
bundle containing battered plate and
clothing stained with blood Notwith-
standing this, no action seems to have
been taken by the authorities. nor was
it suspected that Clark had been MUIR
dered The neighbors began to ieer at
the learned schoolmaster, however, and
Aram suddenly left his wife and chill
dren and walked to London.
For fourteen years his family heard
nothing of him. He spent the greater
part Of the time wandering about from
place to place, at last finding situa
ton as usher in a school at Lynn In
June. 1853 a horse dealer who had
known him in Knaresborough met him
in the Lynn market Aram denied biz
identity. BY a singular coincidence.
almost the day the horse dealer accost-
ed the now gray haired schoolteacher,
skeleton was found by some work
men digging a pit in Thistle hill, in
Knaresborough.
country town has keen recollec-
ton of everything that has occurred
to disturb II. and Immediately the dis
appearance of Clark fourteen years
before was remembered. Housenan
still alive, got drunk first and then
Joined the crowd of villagers looking
at the exhumed skeleton. CLARK he
said with drunken gravity. was never
buried here"
The latter. still too drunk to realize
the gravity of his position. muttered
that Clark's body would be found in st
Roberts cave. The crowd made a
rush for that place, and soon skee
ton was eXhumed.
Il did not kill himp' gasped House
man. now thoroughly sober and terri;
fed 1T was Aram. had no part"
Houseman was taken to the village
jail, and a warrant was sworn out for
Aram. When the officers took him
away from the school the pupils cried |
The government used Houseman as q |
witness to convict Aram. The latter's |
speech in his own defense has come |
down complete-a mastery attack on |
circumstantial evidence, showing the |
intellectual power Of the man. Aram |
made a half confession the night be- |
fore his execution, followed by an at |
tempt at suicide. According to the |
custom of the time, his body was |
hanged in chains, and it swung in |
Knaresborough forest until 1778. Years |
later, when the details of his crime |
were dim, his remarkable career at |
tracted Hood and Bulwer, and thus the |
obscure, talented, perverted man be
came part Of English literature