The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1909-12-21
FREE AT LAST
An Old Man to Be Released From Con-
neclieut Penitentiary.
SERVED FIFTY YEARS
He Will Leave His Prison Home
of Half a Century and Step Out
q Free Man Into World in
Which He VIII be Stranger
to Freedom.

WHICH ne Will De Olk1hSSs
to Freedom.
When the State board Of pardons
meets the first of this week 1t will
consider and act upon an applica-
ton for the pardon of John P. War
rem, who is officially designated as
convict No. l Oh the roster Of the
big Connecticut States prison at
Wethersfleld. If favorable action
is taken by the board, and it is gen.
orally believed that such will be
the case, the coming Christmas will
be a happy one indeed for Warren,
for it will be his first Christmas out
side of prison walls in half CEN
tury.
On the day that the board meets
to consiler his case Warren will
have completed an even fifty years
as an inmate of the State prison. He
is believed to be the longest I'M
prisoned life convict in the united
States, and possibly in the world.
When the doors of the big prison
first closed behind him the Civil war
had not commenced, railroad trans
portation was In its infancy and such
common conveniences Of the pres
ent day as the telephone, the cleo
trio car, the automobile and the
typewriter were unheard Of, not to
mention the skyscraper buildings,
wireless telegraphy, flying machines,
submarine boats and hundred and
one other things with which the
present generation Is familiar.
Wife murder was the crime for
which Warren was sentenced to life
Imprisonment. One day in July,
1859, he invited his 1S-year-old
wife to take walk with him, and,
coming to brook near their farm in
Wilmington, a small town in Tolland
county, in northeastern Connects
cut, he suggested that they take
their shoes and stockings off and
bathe their feet in the cool waters
of the brook.
She acquiesced, but once near the
brook, Warren seized her and held
her head Under the foot or more
of water until life was extinct. Just
what was the motive that actuated
the man to commit the deliberate,
cold-blooded and apparently unpro-
voked crime on his wife, none knows,
and Warren himself has never talk
ed Of the crime. since he confessed
and pleaded guilty at the time Of his
arrest.
Warren's plea Of guilty and his
attorneys earnest plea for a second
degree sentence saved his life and
he was sentenced to prison for life
on the day on which notable meet
ing was held at Hartford of famous
Connecticut patriots, under a call
ito save the Union" The war feel.
ing was just then beginning to be-
come factor In national politics,
but Warren was taken to Wethers
field before the war commenced, and,
what has happened in the fifty years
that have elapsed since that time, he
knows of only indirectly and from
what he has been permitted to read.
It speaks well for the methods
employed at the State prison that
the flfty-year inmate shows little evil
dence of failing powers, either men
tai or physical. Though II, he
looks more like q man of As or so
years. He Is alert mentally and
takes an active interest In all that
goes on about him. In recent years
he has been allowed considerable
freedom in the institution, though
never permitted to leave the prison
grounds.
If the aged lifer is released
through the action Of the board Of
pardons next week he will be well
taken care Of during his remaining
years by his two younger brothers
and other members Of his family,
all people OF excellent standing. 1t
ls understood that tho application
for a pardon has been indorsed by
many peorsons Of prominence who
have interested themselves In his
case.