Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-01-30
Husband Slayer Eats
and Sleeps w ell
After Conviction.
HEARS FATEFUL VERDICT
WITH LACK OF EMOTION
Can Save Own Life by Sac
rificing That of Sweetheart.
Will Do So.

stolid. without showing a particle
OF fear, Mrs. Maddalena Ciccone, con-
victed of first degree murder by
jury in Judge William P. Martins
court last night, took part in the
routine work of The Jail today. the
same as she has on other days she
has been confined there since last
March
The fact that in the eyes Of the
law she is a condemned woman by
the verdict of the twelve men did not
seem to disturb her in the least. She
talked freely to the other Italian
woinen in the jail, but it was notice.
able that she did not refer to her
own case o. that of Antonio Fiore, her
sweetheart brother-in-law. implicated
with her in the murder of her hus-
band. Leonardo Ciccone, on March
last, and against whom she will be
the principal witness for the State
when he comes to trial il a short
time
Mrs. Ciccone is the first woman to
be found guilty of first degree MUIR
der in Essex county since November
s. 1880, a period of over thirtytwo
years. At that time Mrs. Mary
Meierhoffer was. found jointly guilty
with Frank Lammens for the murder
of the woman's husband. August
MelerhofTer, and the pair were SEN
fenced to death by hanging.
They were hanged in the Jail yard
of the county jail on January 6, 1881,
the woman being the first to be exc
an under-sheriff. was in charge of
the hanging for S. v. Van Rensselaer,.
then sheriff of the county, and was
present at the execution.
The case was very similar to the
present one in that Lammens, who
was employed as farmland on the
Mezcrhoffer farm. in West Orange.
became enamoured of Mrs. Meierhof-
fer and the affection was recipro-
Gated
Meierhoffer was shot by his wife as
he lay asleep in bed. The woman on
her trial confessed to the shooting,
but insisted that she was forced to
kill her husband or suffer death her
self. as Lammens drove her to her
husbands bedroom at the point Of a
revolver and stood beside her as she
fired the fatal shot.
The jury returned its verdict Of
guilty of murder in the first degree"
at $40 yesterday afternoon, after
they had deliberated just an hour
and ten minutes When Foreman
John ]. Ford of the jury announced
the verdict Frank NJ. McDernit at
once asked that the jury be polled,
and each of the twelve men pro-
nounced the words that in the State
of New Jersey. in the ordinary course
of events. mean that Mrs Ciecone
will die in the electric chair.
Can Save Herself from Chair.
In this instance the ordinary course
of events is disturbed in that Mrs.
Ciccone can save herself from death
in the chair by turning States evil
dence and giving testimony against
Fiore at his trial. She has already
agreed to do this.
Prosecutor Wilbur A. Mott. in sum-
ming up before the jury yesterday,
told the jurymen that it was the law
of the State that a person convicted
of first degree murder. who afterward
turned States evidence and testified
against accomplices in the crime
would not suffer the extreme penalty.
but would receive clemency for the
aid extended the State.
1t was this statement of the prose-
cutor that undoubtedly caused the
jury to deliberate such short time
over its verdict. as the twelve men
knew that in bringing In a first de-
gree verdict they were not in this
instance condemning woman to
death.
Judge Martin in his charge told the
jury that they must disregard the
statement of the prosecutor in re-
gard to Mrs Ciccone being able to
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