Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1909-04-07
NEW YORK MURDREss ADMITS
CRIME-HUSBAND HAD
NO PART.
DEATH COMES WITH THE FIRST
sHock-HIsToRY OF THE
HOMICIDE.

| in Auburn prison shortly after 6
o'clock yesterday morning and ex-
ecuted for the murder of Mrs. Sarah
Brennan at Brownville last April.
The execution of Mrs. Farmer was
| effected without sensational incl
dent. Five women, two of whom were
prison attendants, We're witnesses.
Father Hickey, spiritual adviser of
the condemned woman, following the
execution, gave out a statement signed
by Mrs. Farmer, in which she declared
| that her husband, James Farmer, was
entirely innocent and knew nothing
of the crime until after it had been
| committed.
Led by Father Hickey and with
Mrs. Dunnigan and Miss German, who
| have attended her constantly since
she was brought to Auburn prison,
Mrs. Farmer walked unfalteringly to
the death chair, her eyes half closed
AS she was being strapped in the
chair, Father Hickey stood at her side
and offered prayers for the dying.
First Shock Is Fatal.
said that the woman was dead after
the first shock, but as there was still
a tremor of muscular action, two sue
ceeding contracts were given. State
Electrician Davis said that 1.840 volts
and 71a ampers we're the strength of
the current. After Warden Benham
| had announced that the physicians
had pronounced Mrs. Farmer dead,
DR.. Charles Lambert of the pathology
ical institute at Wards island, N. Y,
| performed the autopsy.
The statement which Mrs. Farmer
prepared before she was taken to the
condemned row, was written by her.
self and addressed to Father Hickey,
who told her that if she could truth
| fully eXonerate her husband she
should do so.
History of the Crime.
Mrs. Mary Farmer is the second
woman to meet death in the electric
| chair. The crime for which she was
executed and for which her husband,
James D. Farmer is also under sent
ence of death, was the murder of
Mrs. Sarah Brennan, a neighbor, in
| the village of Brownsville, Jefferson
county, about four miles from the city
of Watertown, New York, April %,
1908. The body of Mrs. Brennan was
found on the following Monday in a
trunk owned by Mrs. Farmer and in
her possession. Mrs. Farmer and
her husband were given separate
trials, and although the evidence was
circumstantial, both were convicted
and sentenced to be electrocuted.
Mrs Farmers counsel attempted at
the trial to establish that she was in
sane and irresponsible for the crime,
but the court Of appeals declared that
| it was clearly a deliberate and in
territorial act and that there was no
circumstances that "mitigated against
its Nervousness"
Mrs. Farmer came to this country
| from Ireland in 1900 and worked for
time as a domestic in Binghamton
! going from there to Buffalo where she
married James D. Farmer in 1904.
Early in 1905 they moved to Browns
vile where they remained for a few
months at one of Farmers relatives,
after which they kept boarders in an
adjoining village. In May, 1907,
they moved into a portion of an old
building formerly used as a hotel in
a part of Brownsville known as Paddy
| Hill.
| Mrs. Brennan and her husband, Pat
rick, lived in house nearby which
they had occupied for twenty years
and which was owned by Mrs. Bren-
nan. Mrs. Farmer became a fire.
quent caller at the Brennan home
and Mrs. Brennan occasionally called
on the Farmers. Mrs. Brennan kept
the deed of her property, insurance
papers and a savings bank book in a
black oilcloth pocketbook in tin
| case in her bedroom.
Months before the homicide, in Oc-
tober, 1907, Mrs Farmer went to a
| lawyers Office in Watertown, pro-
| duced deed of the Brennan property
and, impersonating Mrs. Brennan, had
| the deed transferred to James d. Far
mer, signing the name Sarah Bren-
| man, The deed was returned from
the clerks Office to James D. Farmer
on November 26, and on January Z,
1908, Mrs. Farmer and her husband
| went to another lawyer in Waterfowl
! and had the deed drawn to Peter j.
Farmer, child who had been born to
them the preceding September 2.
On the day of the crime Mrs. Bren-
mans husband left early for his work
his wife telling him she was going to
visit a dentist in Watertown. Be
tween and 10 o'clock she was seen
| to leave her home and enter the
Farmer house. She was never seen
alive again. Early the same day
Mrs. Farmer took her baby to the
home of a neighbor and left it, saying
she was going up town. Between that
time and the time Mrs. Brennan went