The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1915-12-31
FOR YAzOO
is DECLARED SACRED
NOTED CONVICT SAYS tiE DOES
NOT WANT PARDON FROM
MISSISSIPPI FARMS.

+ III itS ioouS- uoeCu 'DsS. oos e"S -
100 Sentinel prints story in which
Il states that J. G. Bennett. formerly
a well known Jackson newspaper man,
does not want pardon from his SEN
tence for bigamy. The Yazoo story |
ia as follows:
ION the eve of the departure from
official life in Mississippi. when Gov.
Brewer is being besieged by friends
OF almost the entire penitentiary pop
ulation to grant pardon. it is note
worthy that at least one convict not
only does not desire pardon, but
spurns the very suggestion CT such a
thing with vitrolic warmth. 'rhis con-
|vict is none other than James Gordon
Bennett. former city editor of the
jackson Daily News. and at one lime
a well known newspaper worker on
various New Orleans dailies.
After a sensational trial lasting
several days, Bennett was sentenced
in the Yazoo Circuit Court about four
Years ago to serve term of eight
years in the penitentiary for higamy
1t developed on the trial that Bennett
who posed as single man, had wife
and children in North Carolina, and
that he kept up correspondence with
them regularly. Notwithstanding this
fact he paid court to a teacher in ono
of the public schools in Jackson
where both lived at the time, and this
courtship resulted. in marriage, thu
ceremony being performed in Yazos
City, at the home of relative of thu
young lady.
Notice of the marriage was sen
out by the press of Jackson, and fel
under the eye of the first wife bacl
, in her North Carolina home, Sh
wrote to Jackson and verified tn
facts of the second marriage. and too
steps to have Bennett arrested on tn
charge of bigamy. The case was tai
|
! en- up by the then District Attorne
McNeal, the Yazoo grand jury foun
an indictment against him, and ser
, sational trial resulted, wife No.
and her relatives coming here to proi
ecute Bennett.
BENEFITS first ruse was to den
his identity, but this failing, he set u
the plea that he had been divorce
!, from wife No. while living in Okli
!, homa several years ago. Asked
. have records of this fact furnishe
from the clerks of the courts there, h
stated that the court house and all tn
records had been destroyed by fir
Proof OF these alleged facts were nj
loffered at the trial, and Bennett wa
found guilty and sentenced by jude
e Henry, then serving as Judge on ii
bench here, to eight years in the pc
1t itentiary.
"A year or two ago, there was SON
y talk about petition for pardon +,
d Bennett. No evidence of any effort
this sort was manifest, but the repo
m evidently came to the ears of Benne
who seems to be anxious to serve h
time out, as manifested by the folio
ing letter, received by a citizen
Yazoo City recently:
"T am advised that some misgu
ed person or persons in Yazoo are Il
ing to get Brewer to pardon me. L
not know who they are, but their {
:, sumption is as contemptuous as W
= the act of the people of Yazoo VIII
they sent me here to protect Ellis
" when they condemned a WON;
:, through me, in their efforts to destr
me. on the evasive testimony of pr
- en- blackmailers and perjurers, hil
n by Ellis and his Yazoo friends for
~ occasion.
=" "'You can advise this person. If J
know him, that my contempt for
y people of Mississippi generally, {
~ the people of Yazoo in particular,
!" the one thing hold sacred-the !