New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-06-16
FREED AFTER s. YEARS,
HE'S LIKE VAN Wrinkle
World a Strange Planet to John
P. Warren, a Wife Murderer,
Pardoned at Seventy-four.
LOYAL TO HIS LONG ABODE
Will Not Leave Wetherstield,
Conn, Prison Till He Has
Instructed Another
in His Duties.

Hartford. Conn. June 15.--John +.
Warren. who holds the prison duration
record was pardoned to-day by the
state board For three years friends and
sympathzers had endeavored to secure
his release but the action Of the pardon
board. coming after a sitting at which
no one had appeared to plead his case,
came as a great surprise
Warren was informed tonight of the
boards decision. Although several years
beyond three score and ten, he appeared
strong physically and mentally. n
brother. who is a prosperous farmer Of
Tolland County. will take care of him.
For years Warren has been a trusty at
The state prison. He said tonight he
would not leave the institution until he
had taught some one else 10 do his work.
In 1859 Warren killed his girl wife on
his farm. and hid the body in the woods,
where it was afterward found When
arrested he admitted the crime. His
plea of guilty went far in deciding the
court to impose life sentence instead Of
the death penalty.
As from Another World.
After iifty-three years behind the bars
Warren. probably the longest confined
convict i'm America, is like a being from
another world. Having gone to prison
before the outbreak of the Civil War. the
aged man knows nothing of the tele-
phone. the typewriter or the automobile
save what he has read in the papers.
\ shade OF mystery as TO the reason
for Warrens crime has always hung
over the case. He confessed to the deed
and calmly told of how in July. 1852, he
had persuaded his young wife to take
walk with him. and on their coming to a
brook proposed that they remove their
shoes and stockings and so Wading Ihe
wife. a girl Of only eighteen, acqulesced
and they entered the water. Warren
then seized her and without word held
bar under the water until she was dead.
The deed was committed on his farm
in Wilmington
Whatever feeling or passion prompted
him to kill his wife, Warren has never
revealed. The crime was apparently de-
liberate and coldblOoded. The murderer
confessed. and only the eloquent plead
ing of his counsel saved him from death'
Strange as it may seem, in face OF the
facts. the lawyer secured second ue-
gree conviction for Warren who was
sentenced on the very day a notaoie
o.tberine of patriots was held in Hart
ford 70 answer a call 10 preserve the
Union.
since entering Jail Warren has been
model prisoner. No mention OF MS oeeu
has ever dropped from his lips ana unto
tho last moment of his Incarceration ne
has kept secret the reason for the muir
der.
In liberating the aged man the state
hoard is breaking all precedent tor par
doning a 'lifer." Warren has applied
before for pardon. his last plea having
been made in December, 1909. He was
then seventy -one years old. and felt sure
of being released. AS he sat in his little
cell and told of his hopes for pardon ne
soliloquized: Born again at seventy
one. | will go into new world; not
tho world | left in 1859 but another
world have read of the new one. Had
I not read. read, read, would have gone
mad"
The prisoner expected pardon then by
Christmas time. and talked hopefully OF
what he called his best Christmas pres
nriGnnarC mar
doned. but the aged man was remaaded
ence more.
n.an az ALI Prisnners.