Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1908-07-16
EUGENE ARAM'S LIFE.
The Remarkable Career of This
Famous Murderer.
A SCHOLAR AND A Sc0UNDREL
Tho Hero of Bulwer's Novel and
Hoods Poem Was Really Vile
Criminal Who Abandoned Wife and
Children and Knew No Remorse.


derer who inspired two of the master
pieces of English literature - Hoods
poem and Bulwer's novel-was hanged
on Aug 6, 1756.
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 Knaresborough to open
school in 1874. There strange de-
velopment took place in Arams char
acter. He formed an association with
a drinking, turbulent crowd of men,
the opposite of himself, among them
Daniel Clark, who kept a little cob
bers shop, and Richard Houseman, a
flax dresser.
In 1745 Clark married a woman with
a small fortune of $1,000. Immediately
he and his companions devised
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-
posit them in a safe place Then after
securing the plunder 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 n 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 a 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. 6, 1745, he,
Aram and IIouseman went to the cave
to divide the spoils before Clark left
Aram and Clark had quarreled 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 at the sight and,
as he said, afraid of meeting the same
fate, turned and ran away. Aram did
not show q particle of remorse or fear.
He gathered up the booty and carried
1t 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 he disclosed
the murder and made him believe he
was equally guilty in law.
Clark's disappearance was not no
ticed for a day or two Then the peo-
pie from whom he had borrowed"
jewelry 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
1t suspected that Clark had been mur-
dered. The neighbors began to jeer 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 a situa-
ton as usher in school at Lynn. In
June, lbs, a horse dealer who had
known him in KnaresbOrough met him
in the Lynn market. Aram denied his
identity by a singular coincidence,
almost the day the horse dealer accost-
ed the now gray haired schooteacher
a skeleton was found by some work
men digging a pit in Thistle hill, in
Knaresborough.
A country town has a keen recollec-
ton of everything that has occurred
to disturb 1t, and Immediately the dis
appearance of Clark fourteen years
before was remembered. Houseman
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 q
rush for that place, and soon n skele.
ton was eXhumed
II did not kill him. gasped House.
man, now thoroughly sober and terri
fed. 1T was Aram. had no part"
Houseman was taken to the village
Jail, and warrant was sworn out for
Aram. When the officers took him
away from the school the pupils cried
The government used Houseman as
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 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
Hnaresborough forest until 177S. 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 a part of English literature