The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-11-18
TO SAVE WOMAN
FROM HANGING
Has Been Sentenced to Death
as Accomplice in Muir
der of Her Worth
less Husband.
PETITION IS PRESENTED
Women Of Connecticut Are Signing
Plea to Have Her Sentence
Changed to Life Inn
prlsonment.

q,
UNITED Press Leased Wire Seryice.]
NEW HAVEN, Conn, Nov. 1S.-
Bessie Wakefield will not hang. When
the women of an entire state rise and
fight for the life of a human being,
mercy must be shown.
The women of Connecticut are max
ing determined fight to save the life
of Mrs. Bessie Wakefield and this was
the confident assertion today of Mrs.
Sarah Devlin, one of the leaders in
the fight. The state board Of pardons
will meet December 5 and petitions
signed by thousands will be presented
asking that the sentence be commuted
to life Imprisonment. Mrs. Deylin
told the United Press today OF her eff
forts to arouse public sentiment that
the state might not strangle to deatnI
q young mother Of two children who
was wronged when only a child and
then dragged into the shadow OF the
gallows when only twenty-four years
old"
Mrs. Devlin is the president OF theI
Fairhaven branch of the New Haven
Political Equality Club, but she is in
this fight in her capacity as the moth
er Of thirteen children, working in be-
half Of another mother.
In the state penltentiary Bessie
Wakefield Is awaiting her death set
for next March and shut off from com
munication with those seeking to aid
hep. IN the same prison Is James
Plew the murderer Of Mrs. Wakef1eld's
husband. He also is to be hanged.
In poor little house near Woodbury.
are the father and mother of Bessie
Wakefield and with them the two
children of the condemned woman
| Mrs. Devlin has talked to the chill
dren and with their grand parents.
Think of 1t, the children KNOW"
said Mrs. Devlin, her eyes nlled with
/ tears. "Those poor little children
| have been told. They cant grasp the
meaning Of it, but they know some
power has grasped their mother. Will
humanity always permit such things
as this. Are we now to revert to Gus
/ toms of century ago?
when this movement first started.
! continued Mrs. Devlin, many women
in my organization and others said
/ they would not take part for fear II
/ would hurt the suffrage cause. This
| isn't matter of politics. 1t is mat
| ter of life and death. would fight foI
this woman's life if knew it meant
would never get the ballot.
4 "We are fighting for the life Of q
/! human being, poor, ignorant girl
] She has performed the highest duty o.
: woman for her state, having borne
j two strong, healthy children. But the
! state would come and crush out ths
i life which gave 1t two lives because o
} the act of a man Those who knew
Bessie have said her love for her chill
dren was the one bright spot In he
otherwise dull existence Of want ant
> suffering. They were always will
her. Had Bessie been well educated
she would never have been convicted
She would have told her story
When Bessie Webster was fourteen
: years old she obtained employment
nursing children. Someone wronge'
her. She knew Wakefield then an
neighbors declare her parents insist
ed that she marry him. Wakefield
who was between As and so years oil
abused her The children were witt
out shoes and stockings and thei
. clothes were rags. Wakefield bough
nothing for them. Then Plew al
peared. He was kind to the children
0 He bought little things for them an
q worked his way into the mother
a heart. Those who investigated tn
Plew family, have traced them bac
9 to 1910. At one time twenty-one men
e bers Of the family were found in Sin
7 Sing and Auburn prison. The recor
q of the family of Plew, reveals Grim
through generation after generation
$ Those in the fight to save Bessi
p Wakefield insist that life Is too dea
81 to be sacrificed on the story Of sue
3 man as Plew. They declare tn
mystery Hes uoL uSeH CoNpiete-
solved. Plew's story was that he e
: tered the Wakefield home, tried ,
e chloroform Wakefield, but the latt,
l. awoke. Then they grappled on tt
$ floor and when he had subdued hi
: by threats with revolver. persuade
r him to walk twelve miles towal
s Bristol through the forest. The
; v akefield was killed and Plew swo
Bessie was the accomplice.