New-York tribune., 1920-04-30
Governors Two-Week Re.
prieve Saves Bronx Slav.
ers Prepared and Wait
ing for Final Summons
Mclaughlin, Idiot,
Keeps On Laughing g
Smith Acts on Justice
Mitchell's Request; New
Trial To Be Considered
Special Dispatch to The Tr;bun.


OSS1NING, N. Y, April 29.-Joseph
Mllano, James Cassidy, Charles Nc
Laughlin and Joseph Usefof, sentenced
to die for the murder of Otto Fialo.
subway station agent, received re-
prleve OF two weeks tonight when,
their their span of life had dwindlcd
to four hours.
There is no clock in the death house
at Sing Sing, but the condemned men
knew that their time was short, that
the court had denied the last minute
application that was made for stay.
that the Governor had found no ground
on which he could grant the final ap-
peal that had been made for clemcncy.
Final Delicacies Served
The delicacies which the irony of
prison tradition grants for the final
meal of the doomed had been served.
The baggy suits of black, with trouser
legs slit for the electrodes, already were
wrlnkled with restless changes of pos
ture. The prison barber had tonsured
the tour Tor the death cap. Priest and
rabbi and warden had been in and out
all day with cheering words that brought
no hope Of life
marking the hour of Z; within, unmeas-
ured, time passed by years or seconds,
according to the mood Of the moment.
A step sounded in the corridor. 1t
was Warden Lewis f. Lawes. The men
recognized it. They thought the time
was growing short. They had not ex-
pected the warden again so soon. al
though they knew he spent as much
OF his time as he could spare in the
death house on such a night. They
had no nope 1t was the beginning of
There was clatter of keys and the
warden entered. Scarcely was he
through the grated portal when his
voice doomed out, echoing through the
old death house, where the men abont
to die are confined. and around the
stone elbow of the prison wall to the
new death house. where are their com
panlons whose time has not yet come.
Prisoners Get News
Good news. boys!' the warden
shouted. Good news! The Governor
mas given you all reprievc"
For a moment there was utter
silence. Then, almost like a groan.
came .deep-throatcd ejaculation, in
the thirty -one men in the condemned
cells joined.
"Thank God!" they said.
warden Lawes stepped close to each
OF the four cells and gripped the hands
OF the men whose lives had been saved
Mliano, whose turn was first, since he
was to have been the irst to 20. had
a query on his lips that even his pro-
1ound emotion could not rcprcss. In
inc hopeless belief that perhaps only
the robbcr who fired the fatal shot
actually was guilty of a murder com
m'tted IN the course of a robbery. he
had confessed earlier. in the dav that
1T was he who had shot the elderly
station agent
Tell me, warden" he demanded
was 1T because | confessed 2"
NO one knows better than Warden
Lawes that every one concerned in I,
felony is equally guilty under the law
OF murder that is incidental to that
felony, but Warden Lawcs could NOT
spoil that moment for the man who
on his words. b '"s
Words Bring Cheer to Slayer
II don't know" he said; ''it might
have had something to do with it."
The light in Milano's eyes was his
reward. 1t was as though the murderer
felt that he had done something to ex
plate his offcnsc.
Milano had been selected to 20 first
because his nerve had been weakening
vlsibly throughout the day. Uscfof,
who cannot understand why he should
be put to death, as he knew nothing of
the shooting until it was all over, was
in the next cell.
~ think this is awful good news,
warden" was all he could say.
Mclaughlin, whom alicnists have de-
scrlbcd as an imbecile and who was
third on the death roster, was laugh
CONTINUED on pago ..shU