Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1914-12-25
WOMAN PARDONED
AFTER SPENDING
YEARS Inv
Mrs. Kate Cobb, Who
Her Husband in Is
Sentenced TO SpendS
hind Bars. 6z
YOUNG AND HANDSOME THEN,
BUT OLD AND WRINkLED NOM

Doesn't Want Freedom Tor Self, But
Fears Disgrace of Death in PEN
itentiary.
Hartford, Conn, Dec. lS.-Tomor
row white-haired, wrinkled old wom
an will walk out of the Wethersiield
State Prison which she entered when
handsome and in the very prime of
life. She is Mrs. Kate Cobb, con
victed of them urder of her husband
IN 1879 and sentenced to life impris
onment. She is siXty-siX years old.
and was thirtyonc when she was sen
fenced. She has therefore spent more
than half her life in the institution
nom which she will be released tomor-
row.
Regularly every two years since
1900, the twcntyiirst year of her inn
priSonment, Mrs. Cobb has appealed
20 the Board of Pardons for freedom.
On some of these occasions her hope
ran high, only to meet bitter disap-
continent. But lpte this afternoon
he board of Pardons, with Gov. Sim
con II. Baldwin presiding, acceded to
he wcman's plea. The pardon is full
and unconditional.
tNto ANShS Ni i7dIuOll.
Tie news of the pardon was tclc-
Jhoned to the prison. and Warden
Garner went Mt once TO the woman's
cell. She knew that her case WAS
before the Board OF rardous but she
looked up at him without hating the
activity Of her knitting needles. The
icfusals to pardon her had been
many. She had little hope. She was
a grandmotherly figure sitting i'm her
rocking chair Zone of the small priv.
ieges allowed herr, an exquisite piece
of lace work falling from her knitting
needles, the walls of her coll hung
with other dainty embroideries for
whose output she has become famous
since her Imprisonment.
But when the Warden hurricdly
told her the good news she fairly
sprang TO her feet and tottered to the
barred door. She made him repeat
the message. Then she lifted her
shrunken hands and cried:
"Thank God, Oh the good God be
praisedl God bless the Board of Par.
dons! Warden, am too surprised and
happy TO say another word"
AS she contemplated her good for
tune her emotion increased, and she
broke down altogether and became
hysterical. But Into last night she
was resting quietly, and received with
smiling calm the further news that
her daughter, Mrs. Luther Spaulding,
of Lebanon, Conn, would he at the
prison tomorrow To take her TO her
future home, which win be with the
daughter and several grandchildren.
Feared Death in Prison.
In her appeal to the Board of Par
dons, Mrs. Cobb declared that she no
longer cared for freedom on her own
account, but asked it that her chill
dren and grandchildren might he
saved the disgrace of having her die
in felon's cell. Besides her daugh-
ter, there is II son who is prosper
GUS business man. Both were small
children at the time their mother was
sentenced.
81 don't know" she said to Warden
Garner, last night, whether now
can ever become used to Il home. 1t
has been so many years that | have
been here, | actually feel certain
fear about going out into the world
even regret nj abandoning this cell
where ! havel ivcd such long, long
time"
The trial of Mrs. Kate Cobb and
Wesley Bishop, Il chemist, and her adj
mirer, of Norwich, Conn, for the muir
der of Charles Cobb, her husband, was
| thee rime sensation of New England
| Waterman and the childhood sweet
heart of Cobb. lie was n rising poll
tician and the tax collector of Nor
witch. Wesley Bishop and his wife and
Mr.. and Mrs. Cobb had been the most
intimate of friends.
| In 1877 Mrs. Bishop died of mys-
FERROUS illness. She had not long be
fore told her sister that Bishop was
utterly infatuated with Mrs. Cobb,
and that she feared they would muir
der her to get her out of the way
Mrs. Cobb Dressed the Corpse.
Notwithstanding the sudden queer
character of her illness no investiga-
ton followed. 1t was Mrs. Cobb
who protesting that she had been Mrs
Bishops closest and dearest friend
dressed the dead woman for burial
Women who were eyewitncsses at that
scene told of a startling, gruesomc in.
cidcnt.
AS Mrs. Cobb lifted Mrs. Bishop
the better to pin lace collar ut tho
back of her neck, there had come 9
sudden contraction of the tendens oil
the dead woman's right arm so tina:
it flew up and the rigid index finger
pointed wierdly at Mrs. Cobb. Tn,
women fled the room, all save Mrs
Cobb, who went on dressing the corpse
and told them they were pack oil
silly women to be frightened at hap
pening due to perfectly natura
causes.
When her own husband died the mex
year, popular clamor arose for an in
vestigation for the affair of Bishop
and Mrs. Cobb and meanwhile be
come public scandal.
Cobb Died of Poison.
An autopsy revealed that Cobb hat
died of arsenic poisoning. Mrs. Cobb
never faltered in her protestations Of
innocence, but Bishop weakened an,
made a confession declaring that hi
had furnished the poison and Mrs
Cobb had administered it to her hus
band, their intention being to marry
when he was out of the way. Mrs
Cobb has never ndnittad hor t,uiIt