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Ihc ouy electrocution 1 ever saw, but I didn’t raind it in the lea*?!. They just bronght the fellow in, slit his trouser leg, placed an electrode there and1 another back of his head and aslced him whether he had anythin? to say. After he said it, the warden raised his hand, and The Str.:c electrician turned on the current, Wilson carae uo Ih his chair and fell back cgain. and they turned on tho current again, turning it off gradually. The man was dead. That was all there was -to it. I saw the autopsy afterward, and. as I said, it didn’t strike me in cither case as particularly terrible.Tho Lucy Wesfowski Case.'In IS97 came the murder trial of Lucy WeslowskL I suppose that is 1 really the most noted murder case that the county has baa in my time. Lucy was a good looking and intelligent German girl, married to a Pole. Some relatives o» hers named Novaclt had saved up 5250. and Lucy went to the bank with the womiu to deposit It. Thru she forged her cousin's name, took the bankbook, which she had* ... j ‘ * ..Tr .1got the. money. She spent It like a drunken sailor—bought dresses ar.d fancy groceries and sweetmeats and toys for her Jli tie shd—In fact, everything that she saw. When tho No-vacks went to the bank to draw their money it wag all pone. It wasn't hard to trace it to Lucy, and there was some trouble, although the families seem to have remained on friendly terms.“One night shortly after the trouble Lucy was calling at the Novacks with several ether women. The coiTec pot was on the stove, and she went to it and-took a drink-from a tin cup. pouring what she left back Into the pot. The next morning the whole family was desperately til, and three* of the ehUdrcn. 3 and 5 yearn old, and a boy of 8, died. 7/tiey was arrested end afterwards indicted for the triple murder. The analysis of the contents of the coffeepot showed the presence of arsenic, and the contents of the stomachs showed the same poison,Won the Jury's Sympathy.Attorney E. N. Wilson defended Lucy, and District Attorney Kline end his assistant, William L. Bamum. conducted the case for tho prosecution. The accused woman had given birth to a baby boy In the penitentlary, and her husband and little girl were in the court room most of the time, as well as the baby. Tho jury was sympathetic from the start, and Lucy certainly made a good impression. The Novncks were particularly stupid, and their story and that of other witnesses-told through Interpreters, was not convincing. *Ed* Wilson did his greatest Work at that trial. He gave reason after res son why almost anyone or evstyone but’Lucy should have com., mined Um murder. ,H« dlda't *«pvmanyone, of course, bxit ha certaioly made a few conjectures.“The jury was out for almost forty-eight hours, but it acquitted Lucy in the end. The verdict was a popular one, too. As far as intelligence went «?he whs head and shoulders over all the other parties concerned, and then there was the baby. No one could believe that a mother of two little children could take the lives of three other little ones. And che law decided that she didn’t, which was all there was of It. If Lucy had committed the murder. I suppose the Instinct of sell preservation mta have been called the ruling motive In her case, for she would probably have thought that by iv 1 ping out the whole Xovack family. 5h;i could escape any danger of go/os io prison for theft and forgery, which it was proved she had committed.Justice and Mercy.w-hat are your ideas In regard to the prosecution of crime? the reporter asked. “When should justice be tempered wfta mercy?- .Ivt a i.r«j ,»i s.: \*L. iilulij'where justice can be tempered with mercy, but there are many others in which mercy to the individual would work injustice to the multitude. Mr. Stan den replied. “Criminals must be prosecuted, capital punishment must be imposed, not because of the . offender, but Hri a lesson to society. And (he higher jtbe criminal may be in the social scute and the higher degree of intelligence he possesses, the more severe and lasting the lesson that will be produced on others by letting the Jaw take Its course.“In determining the punishment for crime many different factors must be trf«en into consideration b««ides the effect upon the persons Involved andHarmless, “fruit laxative” cleanses stomach, liver and bowel*.A delirious cure^ for constipation, \ bilious ness, sick headache, sour stomach, indigestion,, coated tongue, sallow-ness—take “California Syrup of Figs. For .the cause of all .this distress, lies In a. torpid liver and slugglfch bowels.!A fttbtespooftftiJ to-night meftnf *11 j constipation, poison; waste matter, fermenting ' food and. aosr Mis. :gsntly; moved out of your system by micalng
Newspaper Details
Syracuse Herald
Syracuse, New York, US
Sun, Feb 01, 1914
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Onondaga C.
NY, USA 26 Jan 2023
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