USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Cincinnati > The old court house : reminiscences and anecdotes of the courts and bar of Cincinnati > Part 10
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ing woman was sitting beside him, and beside her, sat satisfied and composed, as a lawyer always can be in an emergency, Judge Nat Read, to defend the prisoner with all his great ability-guilty or not guilty. The jury was. sworn and the evidence for the State was taken, plainly and simply convicting the prisoner as charged in the indictment. There was no evidence offered for the defense, because none could be produced. The prose- cuting attorney proposed to submit the case to the jury without argument. "No," said Judge Read, with much assumed dignity and sense of wrong, "we will argue this cause, Mr. Prosecutor, this man is innocent, as I shall show this intelligent jury, beyond any reasonable doubt."
The prosecuting attorney, aware of the reputation and signal ability of the judge, was somewhat taken aback, and a little alarmed, that perhaps there might somewhere be a cat in the meal. He considered, and said, however: "I shall not argue this case, but will await the argument of Judge Read, and then if reply is needed, I will say something."
fudge Read-"That's not fair, it is not treating me fair, it is not treating this fair lady, so devoted to my client. fair ; it is not treating the prisoner fair, not allow- ing him, even prisoner's fare."
Prosecutor-"Well, it is all fair, and I have nothing to say in the affair, except, farewell."
Fudge Read-"Well, I have." And beginning in his most earnest and winning way with his "Gentlemen of the jury," and complimenting them again and again, he made an almost overwhelming onslaught on their sympathies for the poor unfortunate youth before them. He took him on his looks, for he was so good-looking,
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and eloquently demanded, how such a man with such God-given lineaments of face and feature could commit crime-crime such as this? He descanted eloquently and persuasively about youth and innocence, and traps and toils by which they may be, and were ensnared. He contended for mistaken-altogether mistaken identity- that the housemaid witness, though true in her evidence as to the facts, was mistaken-entirely mistaken in the identity of the young man ; and it was not the first case of mistaken identity. And then he read from the books -law books, and story books, and all sorts of books-to show how easily witnesses could be mistaken in their remembrances of the person of an individual. And he referred to the housemaid witness again. " How, gentlemen of the jury, can this witness identify this man? Why, she was paralyzed with fright ; she was frightened to death, during the bold and daring perpetration of this robbery. She was struck aghast, and stood aghast, and all her five senses had left her. She could not hear or see ; she knew not, and she knows nothing of this young man. She can know nothing of him. He is pure and innocent-innocent as the child unborn." But all this eloquence expended, was by no means the climax. It was coming ! The orator now invited the attention of the jury and the court, to the fair, pure, clear, devoted woman beside the prisoner, and called her the " unfortu- nate young man's wife-a most sacred name, hallowed, all hallowed in every heart." He told the jury, that, like the dispensing of the Gospel by the Apostles, he was there to defend this young man, "without money and without price." "He was not there as a hired attorney. But, one day while sitting in his office on Third street, he heard a gentle knock at his door, he opened it, and this
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devoted wife of the prisoner appeared and entered his office, and with tears, and sad and mournful entreaty, implored him to help her in her misfortune, and defend her husband. He could not resist the appeal-he never could resist the appeal of devoted woman. He consented to do what he could for her, and he now stood before them on behalf of this young man and this young woman. He went on in lengthened rhapsody about the virtue and devotion of woman to man generally, and finally turned again to the woman present, and pronounced her "an angel-a divinity," and sat down in triumph, in fact, if nothing more had been said. But the prosecut- ing attorney was wide awake; he knew what he knew. He arose in his place, and said :
" May it please the court and gentlemen of the jury -if you have recovered sufficiently from the ensnaring toils of my friend, the judge's eloquence, I wish to signify to you for a truth and for a fact, in plain answer to all the gentleman's wonderful rhapsody over this woman, that in the confidence of this young, guilty man, she ' could a tale unfold that would harrow up your soul,' if she were allowed so to do. My eloquent friend calls her, with great emphasis, 'an angel, a divinity !' Yes, gentlemen of the jury -
' 'A divinity that shapes our ends.'
For this woman, this ' angel,' this 'divinity,' now stands indicted by the present grand jury, upon the records of this court, for keeping a brothel-a bawdy house!"
Fudge Read (furiously )-" "Tis not so ! 'Tis not so !"
Prosecuting Attorney-"Mr. Clerk, will you please read the indorsement on the indictment against this woman?"
The clerk, who had been posted by the prosecuting
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attorney, and had the indictment all ready in his hand, now read aloud : "Hamilton Common Pleas. November Term, A. D. 1849. State of Ohio vs. Harriet Minckler, alias Harriet Blodgett. Indictment for keeping a house of ill-fame. A true bill. f. Cilley, foreman of the grand jury."
Prosecuting Attorney-" What is her plea ? read further."
Clerk (reads)-" Harriet Minckler, alias Harriet Blodgett, being duly arraigned, pleads 'not guilty,' and is admitted to bail in the sum of $500. John Schneider, security."
Prosecuting Attorney-" Mr. Sheriff, is this the woman sitting here ?"
Sheriff-" That is the woman sure !"
Prosecuting Attorney-" SUCH IS LIFE !"
fudge Read-" I call for the protection of the court for my client. The court shall not allow the prosecutor to go out of the evidence and testimony in this case, in this unprecedented way, to convict my client for the pen- itentiary."
Fudge Brough (who spoke through his nose, natur- ally, and this time emphatically)-"Well, Judge Read, the court thinks that the whole of your speech was out- side of the case, and it is no more than right that the prosecuting attorney should be permitted to travel a little outside to get up with you."
Could anything be more damaging? The clerk, the sheriff, and now the court! Alas, poor Andrews. It was all up, or down, with him. It was all up or down with the devoted angel, divine Harriet Minckler, alias Harriet Blodgett. And how was it with the eloquence of our friend, formerly of the supreme court? Alas ! alas! the prisoner "guilty " was the verdict !
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STORY OF JOSEPH ANDREWS .- QUESTION OF IDENTITY-DIFFICULTY.
But about this business of identity, notwithstanding all the aforesaid, Judge Read was more than two-thirds right in what he said ; for it is a fact that I, as prosecut- ing attorney of this county, had a man sent to the peni- tentiary a few months before this, for a crime of which not the convicted was guilty, but this very veritable afore- said Joseph Andrews himself. The way of it was thus : A midnight burglary and larceny had been committed on a certain night, a long time ago, in one of the rooms of the Dennison House, then on Fifth street, near Main. One Green McDonald, notorious among the police, and men, women and children of this city, was arrested as the burglar and thief, and was completely identified as the very thief by the lady in whose room the burglary and theft were committed, and with whom the robber had quite a tussle in the commission of the crime. Green McDonald was convicted on her evidence, as the robber, and, as his character was already infamous, sent to the penitentiary for a long term of years. After Joseph An- drews was convicted for the daylight burgarly, and theft of silver in Dr. Wood's mansion, he one day sent for me as prosecuting attorney to come and see him at the jail. I went over and found him, deliberate and composed, and he said to me : "Look at me; view me well. Don't I look like some one in this city." I surveyed him, closely inspected his form and features, and in surprise I answered : "Yes; you look like Green McDonald." "That's it," said he; "that's it. You sent that poor fellow, Green McDonald to the penitentiary for what I myself did at the Dennison house." "Can it be possible?"
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said I. "Yes," said he, "it is more than possible ; it is a fact." And to show me that he was the man, that he alone was guilty of the Dennison house affair, and not Green McDonald, he told me all about it, told and described all the particulars of the room, and the lady, and all about the tussle, and his own escape with the booty, etc. I was thoroughly astounded, but as thoroughly convinced, that a great wrong had been officially and judicially done; and I immediately wrote an official letter to the Governor of the State, and had Green McDonald pardoned out of the penitentary as the only remedy of the wrong left, alas ! McDonald came imme- diately to see me at my office, on his arrival in this city from the penitentiary, and thoroughly convinced me, too, from his own standpoint, of his entire innocence. He had been in the penitentiary only a month or two, and this was the best I could do for him. He could claim nothing from the State in the way of damages, or anything else. In this regard, and shame to Government for it, he was wholly remediless, and nobody, official or otherwise, was to blame ; even the witness as to identity swore to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as she in her very soul thought. I went to see her afterwards, and after a long time of explicit narration, she reluctantly concluded that she had been mistaken. Ever after this, I was exceedingly careful about this most important question of identity of prisoners, and more than one I let go, when there was a particle of doubt about his or her identity. What lessons we get about humanity in the administration of so-called justice. From my experience as a man, a lawyer, a prosecuting attorney, and a judge, and a long and observing experience it has been, too, I am compelled to say, that the most uncertain thing I know
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of, is human testimony. And yet we, poor mortals as we are, can not make a move in life without reliance upon it-in courts, or out of courts, inside of the bar, and out- side of the bar, among judges, lawyers and other officials, and among the people. All that is left for us all, is under the circumstances, to do the best we can.
ANOTHER SINGULAR STORY ABOUT ANDREWS.
Bnt again to this singular and quite semi-historical fellow, Joseph Andrews. In my conversation, before alluded to, he told me that, although convicted of the Dr. Wood robbery, he was not going to the penitentiary for it, for they could not take him there. I paid little heed to these menacing words, for I had confidence in the jail, the jailer and the sheriff, and didn't even keep the words long in mind. When, however, I sent over to the jail for Joseph Andrews on sentence day, for him to be sentenced, he was positively non inventus. The bird had flown-he had escaped most thoroughly from the jail and its pre- cincts, by some means or other, and was nowhere to be found. He had made good his words to me, in some unac- countable way-never explained, until some eight or ten years afterwards, he told me about it himself-and this was, singularly enough, how that was : One day, eight or ten years after the last event described, a man was taken up by a policeman, as a suspicious character-a vagrant - and was lodged in jail by the then Mayor of the city, sitting as a judge, while the vagrant was in jail. Judge Tom Key, of our bar, happened to be in the jail attend- ing to something for a prisoner client, and he saw this vagrant by merest accident, and recognized him, and knew him to be "Joseph Andrews," the burglar of the house of his (Key's) friend, Dr. Wood, and remembering
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that Andrews had been convicted and not sentenced, because of his own escape, he thought it his duty to com- municate the facts to the judges of the Court of Common Pleas. He accordingly did so to me, as judge. I immediately advised my brethren upon the bench, that I could not act in the matter, because I had been prosecut- ing attorney when Andrews was convicted. Judge Parker accordingly took cognizance of this important affair, and duly sent for the court records and the prisoner Andrews, after proper inquiry into all the facts, to pro- nounce sentence upon him for the burglary and crime committed long years ago, as in duty bound, the court was, according to law and justice. When the sheriff went for Andrews to his cell, he found him a raving maniac (?) to his utter surprise and amazement ! But the sheriff thought it would not do to give it up so. Andrews must be taken to court before the judge, and let him, (the judge), whose duty it was, determine what was to be done in the premises. It took the sheriff and three deputies to bring crazy Andrews, bound hand and foot, from the old jail to the court house, but they brought him into court, and before the judge, with court open, and presiding upon the bench. Here the scene became terrible. Andrews was more crazy than ever. He cried, screamed, yelled, shrieked, bellowed and cursed and swore, and made such a hullabaloo generally, in his bound and fettered con- dition, that the court could do just nothing at all. There was too much noise, and there was no way to silence it, except by gagging the poor maniac, and this would not do at all in a court of justice "where- in-justice was done," as aforesaid by Gaines. The judge, however, thought he knew his duty, and he im- mediately ordered that a jury, 'de lunatico inquirendo,"
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be summoned before the Probate Judge, and try ac- cording to law, whether the prisoner Andrews was a lunatic or not, and in the meantime the prisoner was ordered and carried back to jail by the sheriff and the aforesaid deputies. The lunatic inquiry was just what Andrews, of all things, desired, for in that, his hopes of ultimate escape and safety lay. He felt sure that a jury would return a verdict that he was mad, and he could much more easily find an opportunity to escape from a lunatic asylum than the now close and carefully-watched jail. But the difficulty with Andrews was, he had to keep up his ferocious insanity during all the time the sheriff was procuring a jury from among the citizens, and the due preparation for the trial, which was to have a long period of three days. But he played the part of the "raving maniac" for three days and nights in his cell, disturbing the jail, the jailer, and all the inmates so much that order and sleep were entirely out of the question. But the three days and nights passed, the jury for inquiry as to the lunacy of Andrews were in their places in the Probate Court, before Judge Warren, I believe, and crazy Andrews was brought again over from the jail by the sheriff and the aforesaid three deputies, and now he behaved, of course, worse, much worse, than ever. It took all the sheriff's office to hold him and procure inter- vals of silence. Many physicians were examined as to the insanity, and, as is always the case with these learned M. D.'s, there were a half-score who testified that An- drews was insane, and a half-score testified that he was sane, before the court and jury. And now, in this pro- found disagreement of doctors, what was to be done? The confounded judge didn't know, so he left it to the common-sense jury to determine, without much of a
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charge to them. The jury retired, and Andrews waited for the verdict, continuing his " Lear-ish " ravings, as he had done in the presence of the jury ; and, as will be seen, it was here he made his mistake, in his too much leering and blinking of his eyes. The jury, after being out some while, brought in their verdict to the total defeat and discomfiture of Andrews, that he was sane, and im- mediately he was taken back to jail as before. The jury, it seems, during the progress of the trial-every one of them-closely watched Andrews and his singular be- havior. They particularly observed his too much leering and blinking of eyes, and properly concluded from this that his insanity was put on, assumed for a purpose, and therefore pronounced him " sane," unanimously. Andrews was certainly out of his element in his undertaking the difficult part of King Lear in his otherwise tolerably good performance. Well, Andrews got back to jail, and as the sheriff put him in the corridor and turned the key of the great iron door upon him, he wisely concluded to give up the game of insanity, particularly as he was so exhausted by the length of the performance, and after washing and dressing himself, he sent over to the court house that he wanted to see Judge Carter. After the adjournment of court, I went over. I saw him, and the first thing he said to me was, " Well, Judge, I have made a d-d fool of myself in coming back to Cincinnati. I didn't think anybody would know me, but they've got me now. I just escaped from the penitentiary at Auburn, New York, where I was in for seven years, and they nabbed me here; and when I saw how things were against me, I just concluded that the best and only thing that was left me was to play mad, and I am not sorry for that, though I didn't succeed. I startled some of those
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fellows, I know, and did the best with the raving maniac's part I could. Didn't I play the part pretty well?'
" Yes," I answered, "but your leering and your blinking of your eyes did the business for you ; you did that too much, so the jury said."
" Well, I admire the jury, but d-n my eyes. I never did know what to do with them."
So I left Andrews and the jail, and he was sentenced by Judge Parker for four years.
STILL SOMETHING MORE ABOUT JOSEPH ANDREWS, &C.
I didn't say all about that Joseph Andrews in my last ; there is a little more yet to say. The way of the transgressor is hard, very hard; that of a criminal, a professional, is the very hardest of all lives, and it has often been a subject of extreme wonderment to me that a criminal does not stop his career and go to something that is honest, even from motives of selfishness, which seem to be the spring of all his criminal conduct and action. A great and experienced forger and counter- feiter once told me that, educated to be a lawyer as he was, (and an able one at that), he daily regretted, and more and more regretted as he became more deeply in- volved in his career of crime, that he had not pursued some honest and honorable vocation of life ; that any vo- cation having honesty and honor in it, even as a matter of selfishness and self-interest, was to be preferred by any man, to that of dishonesty and dishonor ; that a pro- fessional criminal always had more hard work of head and hands in every regard, and that was one of the reas- ons that a criminal life never lasted long. The mental and physical energies of a man in a career of crime were soon exhausted or paralyzed by overwork and exposure,
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and such a man could not live long. Joseph Andrews, the adroit thief and bold robber, had both genius and talent, and if he had employed them in some honest call- ing, he would have made his mark. He was most attrac- tive in personal appearance, and had the ways of a gen- tleman about him, so that very few, except the police, the detectives and prosecuting attorney, would take him for what he really was. He, too, was an example, of the philosophy that continued reason and guilt cannot flourish or even abide together. Reason by guilt will invariably become lax and deficient, and folly and foolishness will take its place. Thus with Andrews. By his own won- derful shrewdness and cunning, and that of the "divine" Harriet Minckler, after he was convicted for the robbery of Dr. Woods's silverware, and before his sentence, he made his escape from the old jail of this county. He went immediately to his mistress, the aforesaid " divinity " of Judge Read, and they both together left for the North. At Cleveland they took one of the large passenger boats across the lake for Buffalo. On the pleasant voyage over, Andrews was big enough fool to pick the pocket of a fellow-passenger, in the cabin, of a pocket-book contain- ing several hundred dollars. Of course within the close precincts and limitations of a steamboat, he was detected, and at once arrested, and confined, and when the boat reached Buffalo, he was handed over to justice, convicted of the larceny, and sent for seven years to the New York penitentiary at Auburn. He served his time, or escaped from there, and then like a fool, again-his reason in his guilt deserting him-he came back to Cincinnati, right in the very jaws of the lion of the law, where a sentence was prepared and awaiting him, and where he was soon "nabbed" and consigned to a term of four years in the
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Columbus penitentiary, by the sentence of Judge Parker. After his comedy of insanity, I asked him what made him such a fool as to come back here. "Oh," he said, " I thought my conviction and my person had long since been forgotten here, and that there was no danger of my being grabbed up on an old charge and conviction of so long standing. But," said he to me, " I'm after all not smart ; somehow or other, however acute and sharp I may be in my tricks, I am always sure to make some d-d mistake or other, which gets me into a devilish scrape ;" and, poorly concluded he, "sich is life." I didn't, of course, philosophize much with him under the circum- stances, reflecting, as I did, that there were " more things in heaven and earth, etc.," and Andrews's ways were some of those things past finding out, perhaps. After he had served his four years in our State penitentiary, I was one night very much surprised by his personal presence. I was sitting with my friend, Judge Coffin, conversing about matters and things generally, on the portico of the Burnet House, where we then lived, when all of a sudden a man came up to me and said ; " Is not this Judge Car- ter?" I answered in the affirmative. "Well," said he, "I thought it was, by the voice. Don't you know me?" I looked, but did not recognize him in the moonlight, and answered, "'I do not, by this dim light." I am Joseph Andrews," said he, " I just came down from Columbus, from the penitentiary. My sentence is out, and I am now resolved to turn from this hard way of getting a living in this world. I want to go to my uncle, living in Indian- apolis, and go to work as a carpenter, and if you will assist me I will go to-night, and you shall never see me again." I did assist him, and I have never seen or heard of him since. I hope and trust that he is, somewhere in
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the wide world, a reformed man, and making an honest and honorable living, for he knew, and if alive he knows too well, that the way of the transgressor is not only hard, but it is not politic in any sense, view or way at all. I have thus dwelt upon Judge Read 's distinguished and extinguished client, whom he tried to save, by the help of " divinity," from the penitentiary, because of the peculiar interest, and the lessons afforded by his career.
LAWYER TOM HENDERSON AND THE SLEIGH, AND WHAT CAME OF IT ALL !
In the days of the old court house we had some singular characters at the bar, some of whom were full of wit and humor in themselves, while some were only the cause of wit and humor in others. One of these latter was Tom Henderson, who lived up to compara- tively recent times, and who will not easily be forgotten for his good points and otherwise, by those who were ever acquainted with him. He was peculiar, singular, and eccentric, but we know he lived at peace with all mankind, and died, we trust, in hopes of bliss beyond the grave. He was an old bachelor-a young one at first, and became an old one-and this fact accounts for many of his singularities and eccentricities. He kept an office-a law office-on Third street as long ago as I can remember, and it was one of the dingiest among the most dingy. Of his office he also made his dwelling place, and certainly slept there, if he didn't eat there. He had strong friendships, and worthily numbered among his friends some of the most worthy members of the bar, for he was a clever fellow and a clever lawyer, and deserved the friendship of his brethren.
One drawback to him was his continued and contin-
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uous inattention to the proper care of his person in clean- liness. If cleanliness is next to godliness, Tom Hender- son kept himself far away from that; he was certainly at the foot of his class in that ; and he used to be some- times called "the real estate lawyer," because he had so much real estate about his person always. He was a worthy compeer, I should think, of Clay Dean in this respect. One of the eccentric facts occurring in Tom's life, which was a frequent cause of humor and wit in others, was, as I remember, about this :
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