Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-10-02
| PASSING Of G?II2'D3EET
99EEEEE:I|l BY Dl.2nn'0l2llI';;
POLICE: SK.EPTICAI
BY l.. {. OWEN
Especial Leased Wire 10 The Jou;nal-Copy
right, l92i)

right, 1871
CHICAGO. Sept. 27.-Ihe gibbet
in Americ., is going the way of the
torture chamber and the debtors
prison of years past, largely as re-
suit OF Chicago's recent experiences,
eliminating now in the rcprieVe 10
Bernard Grant, 20-year-old slayer
whose stay of execution is accepted
as the next thing to assurance that
lis hanging, delayed seven times,
will never occur.
Such is the opinion of Clarence
barrow, defender Of Loeb and Leo
pold. VINO interpretS the extension OF
temporary clemency to Grant by
Governor Small as indication of
more humane attitude ON the part
of the public toward slayers.
The demand of !, life Tor a life
is waning III this country" Attorney
barrow said. people are becoming
more humane as years go by. Grant
will not hang and the saving OF his
lie will act to bring clemency to
others as the cry for hanging dies
out.
This view is also hopefully held by
Bessie Gaensslen soon to come 10
trial. "They can't hang us now that
the others are getting off, is the
refrain Of these youngsters, products
of ChicaSo's alleys, as they conf
IDENTIFY await their future.
Others TO Get Off
And i'll the background, likewise
confident that hanging for young
people is Il thing of the past, IS
Robert Scott, sentenced to hanG for
killing Robert Maurer, u 1Y-year-old
drug store clerk. who just before the
date of his execution was granted d
tria. after being allowed to change
his plea of guilty to one or not Sull-
ty.
Then, of course, there is Ms. Sa-
belle Natti, the only woman ever SEN
fenced to hang i'll Cook county, who
has been granted new trial by the
supreme court after 1t WAS found
she had been convicted of killing her
husband. on insufficient evidence.
Her final acquitttl is now taken Tor
granted.
This new evidence of court lenien-
cy which is blamed in part for Gil
Cages record of Il killing day and
hanging a year, is Il matter OF
deep concern to the police
They will see Il new test of ~nho
changing court attitude when Anna
Valanis, II; Anthony Valanis, Is;
William Lydon, Is, and Lucille Mar
snail, IS, come to trial for the xiii
ing of Mrs. Gaensslen, which they
nave admitted All the glib assu1-
ance in the world is held by this
remorseless quartet.
They killed to get money which
they believed was due them from
profits OF the unsaVOry business the
slain woman conducted. Now they
expect freedom from the gallows,
and even from serious punishment
because they are Just kids
Criminal Tendency Grows
There's where the trouble comes
in, Chief Of Detectives Michael
Hughes points out. The youngsters,
he says, are the ones committing Il
great share Of the present-day serl-
Gus crimes. Let them learn that
they can get away with it without
serious punishment and there is no
telling where the crime wave will
end.
While the low valley district here,
with it's murky atmosphere of slum
squalor, is producing younger and
younger criminals the court trend is
toward higher age limit for
punishment. The outcome can only
De an incentive to further crime
with law enforcement made more
difficult, in the view of the police
They look for a return to the use
OF the galloWs-a course backward
from the trend that has carried half
dozen states away from capital
punishment, as the sure cure for the
murder mania. The next Cook
county hanging is being watched for
anXiously to see if the period of
clemency can be broken, or whether
the opponents OF capital punishment
will further their cause still more to
point where the next Illinois legis
lature can be approached with d
plea for abolition of hanging.