New Britain herald., 1926-04-06
GERALD CHAPMAS'S IGNORLE END

Seldom has there been as con siderable a rcvulsion against the death penalty throughout the state as has marked the execution of Gerald Chapman Not that the pub lie opposes death for murderers per sc but in the case of Chapms- there apparently was much diver slty of opinion among many hon est people regarding thc element of doubt in connection with this par ticular crime. II would be idle 10 deny this fact; 1t has boon met with on every hand. The prevailing opinion seemed 10 be that so long as the slightest doubt existed the prisoner should not be hanged but sent 10 prison for life, But the officials ot the states law thought otherwise All tho evidence they needed had been heard and the verdict had 10 stand according to the prcccdcnts and dignity of Con- uecicut justice. The diminutivc super bandit" Is no more and so- cicty Is saved the menace of Chap man alive,
 Tho prisoner reached the moose at tho age of 3S after having be- gun a "carecr" Of crime at the age 1 of 19. His life story and various "eXploits" are familiar. That he was headed for such an end, or q | life in prison, was certain from the ] time he set out upon a career to wrest a life of fancied luxury from society. He made q bid for vio- 1 lent death when he opened his war against honest men: and he reach cd the end with certainty.
 There is a false glamour about enemies Of the law which follow them to their graves and live long after. Of the thousands of honest and intrepid plainsmen who wrest- ed an empire from a wilderness virtually all are forgotten, but the name of Jesse James remains a byword Thus Chapman, although a crook, a robber and a murderer, is known by name 10 almost every one while the names of some statesmen upon whose actions the fate of nations depended are near ly if not quite forgotten.
 When a man - even a crook - is at bay and fights for his life 1T the manner of Chapman, the hu. man element is uppermost, anc there is q widespread interest ir the criminal. Had Chapman during one of his periodical forays upor society met with sudden deatf there would have been one or two days of surprise and he would haV'
 been forgotten forthwith. But tn
 long drawn battle for life" by tn
 bandit, and the dramatization 0
 his effort to escape the moose, mad
 him a national character. The pub lie became intensely interested i
 him as they would in the villai of a romance, this interest bein intensified as the legal battle fo his life ragged and there was som
 doubt whether he would escap the moose after all.
 Chapman was not an obscur criminal, and the cause celebre 1 which he figured will not be quick r Iy forgotten. In the annals ( : criminology his career of banditr l and it's final chapter will go dow { alongside the dismal story of Leo
 bold and Loeb and such unwortf
 ies,
 The one constructive elemel Il that may grow from the miasm
 swamp of the Chapman case is ' sentiment in Connecticut again " tho continuation of capital punisl Il ment. There is room for q diversi
 of honest opinions about the mod | opcrandi of punishing such cnemi
 of society as Chapman; but 7 every brutalizing recourse to u -- moose the sentiment against
 grows. This sentiment as the r c suit of the Chapman case has Il u been accelerated in this sta " through any maudlin sympathy f '9 the criminal - there being almo U universal agreement that he W II as bad an egg as the underwor
 ever produced - but on gener
 humanitarian principles.
 'd The New Britain man who W