The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-02-29

| Gilbert street, this city, and Harry i Roe of Poughkeepsie, N. T., from the gallOws.
 'tNofRaing remains to be done, in the | legal Ine,'' said Attorney Charles HI.
 Shapiro of counsel for Williams and Roe, this morning. We have ex- 1 hausted every legal Hceans to save 1 Williams, and nothing is left now bl, | to commend him to his spiritual ad. wiser, Father Carey, chaplain of the prison
 1 Williams and Roe, charged with the murder of County Commissioner Hu- bert Case of Barkhamsted, and con l victed, will hang at one minute after midnight Friday. Their appeal to the board of pardons, their last re- source, was denied after 8 hearing yesterday.
 sI am innocent,'' each man pro- tested at the end of the hearing.
 Ihope some day to meet MT. Case ] whom I have never seen," said Roe! "I hope to meet him and the man who killed him and God Almighty together. It will be too late then to l straighten things out"
 Williams cried: ttI know that pub lie opinion of this state is that l am guilty. I get down on my knees every night before I go to bed and pray to God and to MT. Case that they will look down on the world and see th1s wrong and right it.
 Friends of each man appeared be- fore the board yesterday and were questioned. Roe's friends said he had been a criminal all his life but that lately, they believed. he had been un- duly influenced by Williams. Roe was brought in first, was sworn in and, facing the bench upon Which the board sat, told his story from be- ginning to end in a quiet, low, but clear voice, without any hesitation He started with the time when he first met Williams, in Poughkeepsie, in Oc- tober, 1914, told of a visit to Winsted early In November, 1914, and of a trip from there to Hartford, thence to Bristol and then to Waterbury, in each of which places, except Hart ford, he said/ he and Williams had committed burglaries. From Water bury the pair went to Bridgeport, WilliamS's home, and from there to Poughkeepsie again. They were in Poughkeepsie the night of Saturday, November 2S, he said, and broke into a number of coal offices. The next night they went to Wdnsted to make nitrog1ycerine, arriving there at four o'clock Monday morning.. Roe de- scribed the trips and their incidents in great detail, particularly the way in which November 28, the day of the keepsie. He spoke for nearly half an hour.
 When he had finished and had made his protestatfon of innocence, he was cross-examined by States Attorney Warner. He acknowledged that a, statement which he had signed short ly after his arrest, which did not agree with his testimony at the hearing, was false in those places in which it dis agreed. In answer to a question by Miss Daily he said that he had lied then to shield his brother, who had 7ie7 saT77y they started out on the burglarfes in Poughkeepsie.
 Roe's hearing was closed by MT. Morchauser, who said that Roe had been connected with crime since his earliest babyhood and that he had grown up a criminal.
 ftI am not here to say he is not guilty he said. "I am convinced he is one of the parties who had to do with this affair. We appeal to you not that he is innocent but that he is 9 youth who has never had chance with a negro father and with a crini- nal mother. We ask you to commute his sentence to life imprisonment
 Roe was led from the room back into the shadow of the gallows. This was it 1:30 o'clock, an hour and one qua ter after the hearing had com menced. A recess of 45 minutes was then taken while luncheon was served to the board.
 Williams Account Agrees.
 Williams was put under oath when his hearing commenced at 2:15 o'clock. He told practically the same story as that told by Roe, but went into great CT detail, remembering dates, hours and sums of money very easily, as well as little incidents which, appar- ent1y, bore no relation to the story as a whole. He spoke easily, without hesitation. He referred to Roe always fiT7cr T7a Christian name. He arrived in Pough- keepsie, he said, at 11:30 o'clock on the morning of November 28 and met Roe at the 1atter's home at noon. He then described the burgIaries which he said he and Roe had committed in Poughkeepsie that night.
 They arrived back at Roe's home at 5: 50 o'clock the next morning, he said After spending the afternoon making .nitroglycerine they went to Wdnsted arriving there at 33O o'clock Monday
 morning The same night they re- turned to Poughkeepsie, after hearing of the murder of MT. Case from Ar thur Paeflin, 8 friend. From Pough- keepsie Williams went to Bridgeport.
 Williams then told how he had at- tempted to commit suicide, after his arrest, in the Litchfie1d jail, saying that he had lost hope after witnesses in the trial had sworn against him and that he had come to think that nobody would believe him. He said that Roe had told him that he (Roe) had not read the statement which he had signed.
 Williams alleged that Captain Hur-' ley had questioned him after his arr rest and that the captain had written answers to questions when he had not made them. After he had fin ished his testimony he was cross-ex- amined. He acknowledged that the dates which he had just given did not agree with those which he had given after his arrest, but said that he had not been able to name the correct dates a~that time. He acknowledged also that he had written a letter from the jail in which he asked friends to have his wife present at the trial, as she knew that he was in Bridgeport the day and night of the murder.