Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-10
~H Indignation Among His Nedou Played AMI Important nhe Crisis dJhn Grhams Ek-Dahd His Wife and
Ell Disappearance His laughter Iet Pndn%m Court

who attended when Susan Graham
was Ill.
The effect on the Judge of this an
nouncement was not profound. He was
used to hearing sensational charges
made by excited women. But when
he saw the havoc the announcement
had worked on both the child and
John Graham he was much more I'M
pressed.
what should have brought only a
smile to their Hips frightened the
young girl instead. John Graham's
face turned CHASTITY.
The judge recalled the girl to the
stand.
TITS a serious thing tn lie on the
witness stand, my child" he said. "Are
you Susan Graham?"
1T did not take much to frighten the
l. child into confessing that she was
not Susan Graham. She was n of
seven children of a widow named Col
Inns, and her home wa in a SUSSEX
village. Her mother was poor and
could scarcely afford them food, to
say nothing of decent clothes anc
schooling.
One day the child was playing by the
side of a pond when a stranger-she
glanced at John Graham now with
marked uneasiness-came over to her
and looked at her from every side. She
would have run away from him but
that he took out a shilling and gave 1t
to her. He asked to be taken to her
mother.
There he told of being a w~ell-to-do
farmer living alone. He would pay
Mrs. Collins S pounds If she let her
daughter Hannah, to whom he had
taken a fancy" come and live with
him for several weeks. He would clothe
and feed her well and send her to
school. It would be worth that and
more to him to have some n help
him forget the death of his W daugh-
ter.
Mrs. Collins was willing, so was the
child. The stranger treated her well,
the girl testified. He told her, how
ever, that he had lied to her mother.
His own girl was rot dead but had
run away. He "a charged with hav-
ing murdered her. He protested he
was innocent. Would Hannah help
him escape a terrible and unjust PEN
atty?
Hannah promised to help. For weeks
he told her about his daughter and his
neighbors. For weeks he rehearsed her,
how to behave when they should return
to Gotham. She was an intelligent
child and learned well.
On the day they appeared in Gotham
they saw a woman coming toward them.
"Say, How do you do, Mrs. Benson! "
Graham whispered to her. In the same
way the child learned to say How do
you dol" to Gotham townsfolk for days
thereafter. And once she learned their
names she needed little further coach
ing from Graham.
Even Graham's lawyer looked appall-
ed. Unless his client could in some
way shake her testimony Graham
would find himself in a serious situa-
ton indeed.
The moment Graham was called to
the stand his lawyer saw but little
hope for. him. The man was completely
unnerved. At once he confessed.
Eyes, Your Honor, ] did spend the
three months, not in looking for my
daughter but for some N who would
resemble her. I had little hope of
finding the runaway. My n hope
was that I could make you all think
that 7 had found her. I pinned all
that hope on Hannah. I am guilty
of this fraud, Your Honor. But be-
fore God, I did not kill my daughter
v *% y
THIS is not the place to discuss the
legal weakness of the case against
John Graham. For all mans preten-