Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-12-20
ny DUKE WELLINGTON

was called as witness in case be
fore Judge Harry v. Osborne the
other day, and early in her examina-
ton was asked how old she was. She
replied that she was about twelve
years old.
DO you mean that you are over
twelve years or less than twelve
years." asked Judge Osborne.
II know | was ten years old and l
am going to be twelve" replied the
child
How about eleven years? Are you
| between the ages of eleven and
twelve years? Didn't you have an
eleventh birthday" questioned the
judge.
Il don't know anything about eleven
years; l never had that" replied the
child with perfect candor. Il know L
was ten years old and I am going to
be twelve .
well. | guess we will call you
! twelve years old and let 1t go at that, =
smiled Judge Osborne as the exami-
nation was resumed.
Deep down in the basement of
! the Court House, with q door that Is
always locked is little room of grue-
some tales, for every article in it, with
| the exception of the woodwork itself,
| is connected with some murder in
this county.
1t is a room used by the county
prosecutors office for the storing OF
material evidence that is to be used In
murder trials, and many the weird
tale could be unfolded If the mani
mate things there could talk Blood
stained clothing from the bodies of
slain persons make UP much OF the
contents of the room, but there are
| other things there of interest. Bottles
suspected of containing poison are
| there, knives and hatchets or any
thing that the State has in its possess
sion that may be of use at the trial OF
an accused person,
Just one thing that is connected
with a murder case Is not kept in the
little, windowless room in the base
ment. That is the actual weapon with
which crime was committed.
That weapon or instrument, what
ever it may be, is kept locked in a
safe in the prosecutors office, and
not trusted to the unguarded, though
always locked, room in the basement.
The little room of gruesome tales has
recently lost some of its most inter-
esting contents, as Chief of County
Detectives Frederick Weimer and De-
tective Sergeant Walter Godfrey, the
homicide expert of the county prose-
cutor's staff spent couple of days
not long ago in going through the
boxes and bundles of stun that litter
the room and destroyed all that had
become valueless through the dis
position of the cases with which the
goods were connected.
=. ~ he
Bromley series of passionate love let
ters written by Miss Florence Bron-
ley, of Philadelphia, affinity of Alli-
son K. MacFarland prior to the death
of his wife, were destroyed. These
letters. over 200 in number, had much
to do with the conviction of MacFar-
iand of first degree murder on his
first trial. but became yalueless to
the State when Mcfarland was ac-
quilted on a second trial.
These letters, to use the vernacnlar
of the day, were about the hottest
that ever came down the pike and
the Newark and New York newspaper
men made life miserable for Wilbur
A, Mott then prosecutor, by their ef-
forts to persuade him to allow the
scribes to have some of the letters
for publication. A great mass of the
letters were eventually published ex-
clusively in the Evening Star, but 1t
might be remarked in passing that it
was not with the permission of the
former prosecutor.
Another lot of stuff" and there is
no better word to be used in describ-
ing it than stuff" was the evidence
found by detectives In connection
with the death Of Ocey Wardlaw Mar
A.. 10 ots ~ thu
bathtub mystery of East Orange, in
November, 1909. In this collection
were some of the originals of the
Suicide notes" that figured in the
case, as well as a nondescript collec-
ton of odds and ends of papers that
apparently were of not the slightest
value to anyone.
Yet Mrs. Caroline B. Martin, moth
er of the murdered girl, and who la
ter pleaded guilty to involuntary man
slaughter in connection with the
death and was sentenced to serve
seven years In States prison, insisted
while under confinement in the county
Jail that the prosecutors office was
robbing her of highly valuable papers
by confiscating this stuff" which in
the main consisted of newspaper clip
pings on hundreds of different sub
jects and vague and incoherent writ
ings of Mrs. Martin, or of Mrs. Mary
W. Snead, or Miss Virginia o. Ward
law, the other two of the famous
trinity of mysterious sisters.
Mrs. Martin died in the State IN
sane Asylum about year ago, hav-
ing been removed there from the
State prison when it became certain
that she was insane. Virginia Ward
law starved herself to death in the
county Jail while awaiting trial in
August 1910, while Mary w. Snead
was allowed to go free after Mrs.
Martin, her sister, had pleaded guilty
to involuntary manslaughter.
At the present time there is moth
ing in the little room that possesses
the interest that the Bunny Brom-
ley" letters or the "bathtub mystery"
| case collection did but every article
therein had some connection with the
killing of one human being by an
other. When, in the course of a
trial for murder, a blood-stained arti-
Gle of clothing is brought into the
courtroom and shown to the jury and
spectators, there is always an invol-
untary shudder which runs through
| those present. The involuntary shud-
der would become a gigantic tremble
| if they could see the box after box
and bundle after bundle of the stuff
piled up in the little dank, dark, grue-
some room in the Court House base
| ment
The general public has little idea of
what efforts Judges Harry V. Os-
borne and William p. Martin make