New York Dispatch

HANGING PLAYED OUT."

WAS JACK REYNOLDS NOT RIGHT ?

Forty-one Murders in One Year,

and Only Four Convictions.

The Car-Hook Murder—A Salutary

Example Lost.

OTHER PROMINENT EXAMPLES OF "HOW

NOT TO DO IT."

THE LATEST COWARDLY MURDER

STOKES A MARTYR ALREADY

The Cheapness of Life in New

York.

WHERE WILL IT ALL END?

Jack Reynolds was to a certain extent correct when

he said that "Hanging is played out in New York."

His own experience disproved the assertion, but had

he possessed a little more influence it is not so cer-

tain that he would have expiated his crime on the

gallows. He defied the sentiment of the communi-

ty, without possessing any of the requisites of wealth

and influence to make his defiance good, and his life

paid the forfeit. In the main, however, this ignorant

brutal lout's statement was the correct one.

FORTY-ONE MURDERS AND ONLY FOUR CONVICTIONS.

The records of the Coroner's office show that dur-

ing the past year forty-one human beings have lost

their lives in this city by the knife, pistol, bludgeon

or other weapons. In very many of these cases the

intent to take life was clear and convincing. Never-

theless, there were only four convictions for mur-

der in the first degree, and in each case the murder-

er's counsel has succeeded in procuring a stay of

proceedings, on a writ of error, and carried the case

to the higher courts. There is no reason whatever

for carrying up nineteen-twentieths of the murder

cases that are decided by the Court of Appeals. In

no other country is the law in this respect so loosely

administered as in ours. Only on the clearest and

most palpable violation of the common law, or in

case new evidence can be procured, is a case allowed

to be appealed in a court in Europe. It is well, of

course, to give a person accused of murder a fair

show for life, but this has been fully accomplished

when the evidence of both sides is all in, and the

case has been fully and fairly summed up by the op-

posing counsel and the judge delivered his charge to

the jury. To delay the just process of the

law,

and cause a loss of months, and it

may be years, to intervene between the sentence

and its execution, is monstrous, and yet it is precise-

ly what is constantly being done here.

THE CAR HOOK MURDER.

Probably the righteous indignation of this com-

munity was never more deeply stirred than by the

murder of Avery D. Putnam by Wm. Foster, in May

last. Mr. Putnam, a quiet, inoffensive man, was

riding up-town in a Broadway car, accompanied by

Madam Duval, an acquaintance, and her daughter,

Miss Virginia, aged 15 years, a mere child in years

and experience. Foster, who was much under the

influence of liquor, the result of a previous two days'

debauch, got on the front platform of the car, and

looking through the glass of the door, saw the little

girl seated a short distance from it. He endeavored

to attract her attention by various disgusting noises

with his lips, and when the child, frightened, sought

the protection of her mother, the drunken scoundrel

went inside and, seating himself near the party,

commenced leering at them in the most offensive

manner. The attention of Mr. Putnam was at-

tracted by the manner of the ruffian, and he natur-

ally interposed an objection to the continuance of

those insults and outrages. Foster, in an insolent

and threatening manner, demanded to know what

business it was of his, and when Putnam rejoined

that the ladies were under his protection, Foster de-

manded his name and dared Putnam to fight him.

Putnam declined to enter into any controversy, when

Foster arose and exclaimed, " Well, I am going as

far as you, and when you get out

I WILL GIVE YOU H-L."

He went forward and asked the driver of the car if

he had a car hook, and he was told that he had. Ten

minutes later, ample time for reflection on the part

of Foster, and to repent of his murderous project,

had he suddenly conceived it, Mr. Putnam and his

party left the car by the rear platform. Foster, who

had ridden past the street where he lived, caught

the car hook from the place where it hung, and

coming stealthily along the side of the car in the

shadow, unobserved by his intended victim, and

only seen by Madam Duval and the others when too

late to avert the blow, raised the iron hook aloft and

dealt Putnam a crushing blow on the head.

The unfortunate man fell to the pavement insensi-

ble, and with a fractured skull, from the result of

which he died within thirty-six hours, but not until

he and those with him on that night had fully identi-

fied the murderer, who was arrested within a few

hours after the assault. The facts were fully proven

on the trial, which took place within two weeks after

the death of Mr. Putnam. The prisoner was defend-

ed by a good array of counsel, but they could not

back down the damning evidence against him. The

premeditation and the assault were clearly proven.

The prisoner was condemned to be hanged after a

reasonable lapse of time. and there was every reason

to believe that the majesty of the law would be vin-

dicated in this case, at least. The public demanded


it. and justice could only be subserved by allowing

the law to take its course. One after another of the

Supreme Court Judges were petitioned to grant a

stay of proceedings. At the eleventh hour, and after

the preparations for the execution were complete,

Judge Pratt, of Brooklyn, who has achieved a rather

UNENVIABLE NOTORIETY

since then by his performances in this line, granted

a stay of proceedings, and the prisoner was respited.

The death of Ex-Judge Stuart, one of Foster's coun-

sel, has still further prolonged the proceedings, so

that the case has not yet come before the General

Term of the Supreme Court. The stay of proceed-

ings was granted on the flimsiest of technicalities,

and good lawyers say that the hanging of Foster is

only deferred; that the judgment of the lower court

is bound to be reaffirmed. The fact remains that

the salutary influence that would have been exerted

by the summary execution of Foster, is gone, and

cannot be revived by his subsequent execution,

AN EIGHTEENTH WARD VENDETTA.

William H. MacNevins and Edward Hines belonged

to rival gangs of young ruffians in the Eighteenth

Ward. They had had many quarrels and fights, on

one occasion pistol shots being exchanged. On the

night of Dec. 1, 1870, they went in a First avenue

saloon. MacNevins and his friends professed to be

anxious to make up the quarrel, and asked Hines to

drink with them. He did so, and apparently every-

thing was progressing amicably, when MacNevins,

who was considerably under the influence of liquor,

without provocation applied an unseemly epithet to

Hines, and assaulted him. The blow was returned,

when a brother of MacNevins. and some more of the

gang, joined in the attack. Hines fled from the sa-

loon, followed by the gang. As he fled, MacNevins

fired two shots at him, causing fatal wounds. Mac-

Nevins was convicted on May 13. 1871, and sentenced

to be executed July 14 ensuing. Apparently there

was nothing here on which to ground a bill of excep-

tions. Yet our judges are so accommodating, that

no difficulty was experienced in obtaining a stay of

proceedings, and the case goes to the General Term

of the Supreme Court to be argued. and if the judg-

ment of the lower court is re-affirmed. it will be taken

to the Court of Appeals, the last resort.

AN EAST SIDE MURDERER'S JUDGMENT AT

FAULT.

John Purcell, an East side licensed vender, in May,

1869, shot Wm. Kiernan, and almost instantly killed

him. Kiernan had endeavored to get up a prize

fight on a small scale between Purcell's younger

brother and a boy of his own age. The elder ob.

jected to his brother's engaging in a fight, and the

result was a quarrel and fight between himself and

Kiernan. Purcell was worsted, and going away, he

obtained a pistol, came back and renewed the quar-

rel. and ended by drawing his pistol and shooting

Kiernan. The murderer and his victim were of no-

toriously bad character. good representatives of the

ignorant, audacious class to be found in our city.

There was no reason whatever for the killing of

Kiernan. Among roughs of this class, fights are of

every day occurrence. There was no pretense that

Kiernan had threatened the life of Purcell. The

latter, when taken to the Union Market Police Sta-

tion immediately after the killing, in response to the

questions of the Sergeant on duty, said: "Yes; I

killed the son of a b-h ; I can stretch a rope as well

as any man," showing that he had fully calculated

on the punishment that might be meted out to him.

and defiantly braved it. Is it right that such a low

ruffian as this should escape punishment because he

has killed one nearly as worthless as himself? In

the eye of the law one person is as good as another,

and entitled to the same rights and protection to his

property and person. He was found guilty of mur-

der in the first degree, on Feb. 28, 1870, nearly a

year after the crime was committed, and sentenced

to be hanged on April 8, 1870. He is still in the

Tombs, although nearly three years have elapsed

since the commission of the crime, thanks to the

chicanery of the law.

A TENEMENT MURDER

Lawrence Sullivan, a laborer, living in a tenement

in Washington street, near the Battery, was in the

habit of getting drunk on an average of once a

week and beating his wife in an outrageous manner

On one of these occasions, when the screams of the

woman had collected a crowd of her fellow-tenants

about the door of her apartment, she ran from her

persecutor and appealed to them for protection.

John O'Brien, also a laborer, interposed when Sulli-

van attempted again to maltreat his wife. The brute

returned to his room, procured a knife, and running

to where O'Brien was standing, plunged it into his

breast, causing death in a few hours. The assault

was committed on June 26th, 1870, and Sullivan was

tried and convicted on the following 15th of Decem-

ber, and sentenced to be hanged on Jan. 20, 1871.

In his case, too, a stay of proceedings was procured,

and he still lies in the Tombs awaiting the slow

movements of the law.

WILL STOKES ESCAPE THE HANGMAN?

The specimens we have given above show how easy

it is, for a time at least, to elude the gallows. With

the exception of Foster, none of these condemned

murderers possess either wealth or family influence,

and their guilt could not well be clearer. And yet,

under our cumbrous system, it requires from two to

three years to carry into execution the sentence of

the law in cases where there can be no question of

the guilt of the condemned. In view of these facts,

people already begin to ask whether there is any

chance to secure the conviction of Stokes. He is

possessed of family influence, wealth, and an array

of counsel comprising three of the oldest, most

astute, talented, and clear-headed lawyers to be

found among those comprising the New York bar.

Bets are freely offered that Stokes will never make

the acquaintance of the hangman, and such is evi-

dently his belief, judging from the jaunty way in

which he carries himself, and his gay laugh and

easy bantering tone when conversing with the friends

who call on him daily. There is no question what-

ever as to his guilt. Stokes and his friends will

hardly deny that.

They build their hopes on Fisk's notoriety, and

the detestation with which he was held by the com-

munity. Beside, it is no secret that they intend to

show that Fisk had procured the indictment of

Stokes and Mrs. Mansfield for conspiracy, in en-

deavoring to extort money from him by threatening

to publish certain letters which Fisk, in his infatua-

tion, had written to Mrs. Mansfield, describing the

Erie and other stock operations, and which seriously

compromised many parties beside Fisk and Gould.

There will undoubtedly be rare exposures when the

trial does come off; for, with John Graham's tact in

such matters, it will be singular if Fisk's character

be not riddled like a sieve, and his wrong-doings

fully ventilated.

THE EFFECT OF THIS STATE OF AFFAIRS.

There is no question but this state of affairs has

rendered the community very lax on the question of

human life, the latter being rated very cheap, in-

deed. Knowing this fact, the authorities have of

late accepted pleas of manslaughter in the second or

third degree, where there was no question of the

guilt of the accused, and where a conviction for

murder should have been easily obtained. A few

examples will illustrate this.

Annie Bowe was brutally beaten with a club and

kicked by her husband, John, causing death. For

this he was arraigned on a charge of murder, but

was allowed to plead guilty of manslaughter in the

second degree, and was sentenced to Sing Sing for a

period of four years. A pickpocket sometimes re-

ceives a longer sentence.

John Wall fractured the skull of Patrick Cahill,

with a pitchfork, during a quarrel in the stable, No.

263 West Thirty-third street, on the 13th of June

last. For this he received a sentence of three years

imprisonment.

John O'Brien stabbed and mortally wounded

Charles Casey at No. 17 Roosevelt street on the 15th

of July last, and was sentenced to State Prison for

four years.

John J. O'Brien was stabbed and mortally wound-

ed by Daniel Foley at No. 153 Elm street, on the 24th

of September last. Foley was arrested, but the jury

rendered such a non-committal verdict that the mur-

derer was never even committed to the Tombs to

await trial.

There are other cases, but these are fair samples.

The great fact stands prominently forth that of the

immense number of deaths by violence in this city

not one in twenty of the assassins are adequately pun-

ished. Thoughtful men ask where is this to end.

Those who are competent to observe, point to the in-

creased number of felonious assaults each year, and

say they are the legitimate fruits of this lax admin-

istration and execution of our laws. There is no

need to amend the laws. They are good enough as

they stand. Give us the kind of men who will ad-

minister them in a just, upright and fearless man-

ner.