Evening star., 1927-11-08
R|NEHARTS SECURE
SLAYER'S PARDON
Physicians Personal Plea
Wins Release of Former
Gardener After 22 Years.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

DIR. Stanley NJ. Rinehart of Wash
tngton and his famous novelist wife
Mary Roberts Rinehart have just
brought about the release from West
ern Pennsylvania State Penitentiary
of a life-sentence prisoner, Angelo
Jackson, negro, who had served -
years for first degree murder. There
by hangs a tale worthy of the gifted
pen of the authoress of The AmaZ
ing 1nterlude" and co-creator of The
Bat for it's kind of human inter
est story encountered only in fiction
and the drama.
A quarter of a century ago Jack
son. then young Alahaman Just
come Nawth.' was a gardener in the
Rineharts' employ at their suburban n
home outside of Pittsburgh To their
amazement they picked up the paper
one morning and found that Angelo
the night before had shot and Killed
a young colored woman with whom
he was keeping company. He told the
police he acted in self-defenSe. he
cause the girl had threatened his life,
and also he'd really intended only to
fire shot that would friGhten, nat
hurt her. Within year jackson was
tried. convicted OF premediated mur-
der and sentenced to de on the gal,
lows. Through intervention Of his
counsel. w. H. S. Thomson of Pitts
burgh, later appointed to the Federal
bench by President Wilson. the
negro's sentence was commuted to life
Imprisonment. That was i'm the Fall
OF 1905.
Freed by Pardon Board.
T. =
liberated by order of the Pennsyl-
vania Board of Pardons on Novem-
Der 3. His release followed per-
s5nal plea the week before by DR..
Rnehart. speaking eloquently on be-
half of himself and of Mrs. Rinehart.
Only her convalescence from iniu-
ries suffered in Hawaii last Summer
prevented the novelist from going
to Harrisburg and pleading for the
negro. Like homing pigeon" as
the Rineharts put it. Jackson came
straight from prison in Pittsburgh
to Washington. where he spent last
Friday. November 4. on visit of
pious gratitude to his hardly less
gratified benefactors.
.The eX-prisener had on him some
sf35. the accumulated savings from
prison labor at 2 cents day during
the past four years The Rineharts
saw Jackson put up at hotel had
him driven around Washington by
their chauffeur. fitted him out with
a. complete new wardrobe. and then
sent the negro on his way rejoicing
IA bit richer in cash than when he
arrived-to a new life with relatives
In the Middle West.
Dazed by Modern Things.
Some day. perhaps. Mary Roberts
Rinehart will weave into book ar
play the emotions Of Jackson as a free
man after being shut off from the
world for the better part of 25 years.
He was dazed by everything he saw
and heard in Washington. The traffic
unnerved him. Automobiles were nov
cities when Jackson was previously at
liberty. He was terrified by the buzz
Ing of Army airplanes. having never
seen such apparitions in the sky. At
his. hotel a radio set emitted sounds
that he thought were works of the
evil spirit. He was SO upset by an
hours stroll through the streets that
he not only lost the way back to his
lodgings. but had the utmost difficult"
even i'm directing the Rineharts' chauf-
feur to the part of town they were in.
When DR.. Rinehart was before the
Pennsylva MIA Pardon Board he nre-
scented evidence that Jackson had been
a model prisoner in Western State
Penitentiarv. He was popular nris.
oner, too. for several years ago when
he tried and failed to secure a pardon.
fellow convicts raised $40 for his legal
expenses. In Pennsylvania "iifer"
has the right Of appeal for pardon
after serving more than Is or 1s years.
DR.. Rinehart had visited the negro in
the penitentiary and kept in written
touch with him throughout Jackson's
long ordeal.
(Convripht 1917