Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-05-17
R|CHESON IS TOLD
THERE IS NO HOPE
Receives News That He Must
Die with No Outward
Sign of Agitation.

fl0utfnueu from FITAH fNke.D
cyanide it was not with homicidal In.
tent"
MY lawyers told me- Richeson con
tinued, that If | would confess the muir
der they would get me off with a SEN
tence for murder In the second degree,
which is imprisonment for life.
''sWhen | discovered that | had to go
to the death cell they told me that pub
lie opinion would shift in my favor and
that the Governor would be forced to com
mute my sentence"
Richeson. It is said, told the a~lienists
much about his love affairs. He frequent
~ proclaimed his love for Miss Violet Ed
mands, whom he would have married but
for his arrest.
Moses Grant Edmands, Miss ed
mands's father the prisoner said, rs
the best friend ! have on EARTH
Il would have married Avis Linnell had
she agreed to wed, after we became en-
gagged at Hyannis," Richeson said. First
she delayed our wedding with the excuse
that she wanted to finish her music
course in the New England Conservatory.
Again she refused, unless / left the min
istry and entered business. She told me
certain members of her family were OPP
posed to her marrying a Baptist clergy
man. She knew a year before her death
that she never would be my wife.
Before | met Avis l would have mar
ried Miss Howe, of Georgetown, had her
father not broken our engagement after
had one Of my spells, on the ground that
7 n,os orazu xuoonff ora1U hf1f in fhoGp
SPELLS my actions were strange. l was at
the home of this girl for more than a
week, and when | got well enough after
my attack her father told me to get out
and not return"
Decision Of Governor.
The Governors decision came after
reading the reports received yesterday
from the six alienists who were chosen
to examine the condemned man.
The report of the alienists was prac-
tjcally to the effect that Richeson is
sane. The Governors statement follows:
Executive clemency will not be ex-
tended in the case, OF Clarence v. T.
Richeson. The prisoner was sentenced
upon his own confession and without a
trial for a crime which 1t appears I'M
possible that any normal man could
commit.
AFTER his confession and sentence a
plea of insanity was set up by his
counsel and strongly supported by affi-
davits extending over his life. The
character of these afidavits left no
other course for the Governor thai to
submit these and the prisoner himself
to an examination by our leading alien
lists. in order to protect the m
wealth from the charge that the man
was actually insane when the deed was
committed. as we'll as at the present
time.
1.-THE evidence shows that R~icheson.s
family is heavily afflicted with insanity;
that he is a neurotic. a somnambulist
and a neurasthenic; that he is subject to
extreme emotional disturbances, marked
by loss of memory which two alienists
have diagnosed as hysterical insanity.
one physician adding the alternative
term of hysterical delirium, and the
majority opinion indicating that these
attacks are hysterical attacks, marked
by extreme emotional disturbances of
brief duration, with loss of memory
during the attack and for a varying
period following 1t.
THE evidence, however, while clearly
revealing these attacks, indicates that
his crime was not committed during such
an attack. Therefore, while there is
some divergence Of opinion among the
slienists as to whether these attacks in
dicate actual insanity. there Is sufficient
ground for the conclusion that he is ac-
countable for his crime and that the ex-
ercise Of executive clemency in this in
stance would be contrary to the public
good.
1.-THE af1davits and medical evidence as
10 Richeson's unfavorable heredity, his
iapses Of consciousness and his attacks
Of delirium are too voluminous to In
clude In this statement and are not
suited to publication"
Richeson chatted at considerable length
Yesterday with Rev. H. h. Stebbins, chap
lain of the prison. He spent the greater
part of the afternoon reading the Bible
and the religious books which Chaplain
Stebbins took TO him.