New-York tribune., 1918-05-12
By John ]. Leary. Jr.

BY John ]. Leary, Jr.
SID OSs, 1 know there isn't q
ID chance in the world of me
beating the chair, but they
shouldn't be let crown that Dutch
man. He didn't kill those folks they
say he did any more than you did"
Joseph Hanel, the speaker, an in
mate of the death house in Sing Sing
prison, in April, 1916, thus initiated
the movement to save the life of a
fellow inmate. This movement last
week eliminated in the full pardon Of
Charles F. Stielow, who five times
was sentenced to death, was several
times within few hours Of execu-
ton, and who on one occasion with
head shaved and trousers slit to per-
nit the application of the death
carrying electrodes, and with but
most literally snatched from the
chair.
Until Hanel, long since executed for
the murder of his employer, Mrs.
Julia Heilner, of Brooklyn, addressed
this remark to Spencer Miller, jr.,
then deputy warden of the prison,
, there was nothing about the Stielow
case to distinguish it from many that
from time to time end in the death
chamber. He was a farmland, poor
and stolid-of the type Markham had
in mind when he spoke of the "dull,
patient brother of the OK" He had
been accused of the murder of Charles
B. Phelps, an aged farmer, of West
Shelby, on March 21, 1915, convicted
in the cold routine way of country
court, his conviction had been af-
firmed by the Court of Appeals and
nothing was ahead of him but the trip
through the door known to fame as
green, but which really is red.
Handicapped By
Low Mentality
The defence was handicapped by
the low mentality of Stielow - a
handicap afterward proved to be
greater than the lack of cash. Site
low, he found, could be made to agree
to almost anything, but was of no
real assistance in helping make a de-
fence. He could only insist that he
never committed the crime and that
his brother-in-law, Nelson Green, in
dicted with him, was equally innocent.
This claim of innocence the state
combated mainly with the testimony
of George W. Newton, private de-
tective of Buffalo. Newton swore that
Stielow had confessed to him that he
committed the murder. Justice Pound,
who presided, laid great stress on this
confession, without which, he told the
jury, he would have felt compelled to
have ordered verdict of not guilty.
The confession; however, they were to
consider with some evidence that ap-
parently corroborated it, mainly bull
let taken from the body of the dead
man and identified by an expert as
having been fred from small pistol
it was established Stielow owned.
There could be but one result, verdict
OF guilty; and the usual motion for a
new trial being denied, Stielow was
taken to Sing Sing.
Still in the usual way, Stielow's case
went to the Court of Appeals for re-
view. So far as the record showed the
case was without error. Apparently
there was sufficient quantity of proof,
the conduct of Justice Pound was
without flaw, there was nothing wrong
IN his charge to the jury. And in
the usual way Stielow, still protesting
his innocence, was told that he must
be ready to die on April IA, 1916.
Hanels appeal to Miller was the first
time anything was done in other than
the usual way. 1t followed unusual
action when the men in the death house
who. with kecner understanding of
the psychology Of their associate than
any OF the officials who had come into
contact with him had displayed, sensed
that he was innocent and elected Hanel
70 make known their decision to the
men higher up. Usually men in the
death house find their own troubles
too absorbing to permit those O,
others to intrude upon them.
Declared He
Could Not Lie
With Stielow. however, it had beer
different He was unlike others the,
had met. He had nothing to say unles
spoken to, no protests Of innocence, n,
protest that he had been "framed"-
Just dumb person who spoke when h,
was spoken to. and il he talked at al
about his case insisted that he coult
not be executed because he did not kill
anybody.