Who Killed The Judge

One raw morning in March the janitor of the Court House of B entered the Judge's private room for the purpose of making a fire, and was frightened almost out of his wits at flnding the honorable dignitary lying motionless on the ground. The janitor was about to retreat and raise the alarm by ringing the Oourt House bell, when he bethought himself that the Judge might have but a fit, and that he could render him the needed assistance. Therefore he hastened forward and tried to lift the prostrate man, who lay on the floor with one hand partially hidden in his bosom, while the other, lying near his head, held his pen-holder, the gold pen of which had its nib broken. But as the Judge was a large man, given over to some extent to obesity, and the janitor a cadaverous fellow, who had been denominated " Bones " by tbe attaches of the Oourt House, he found his attempt tiseless, and soon gave it ut) as futile. The stare in the Judge's eyes and the ghastly hue of the skin told the janitor that life had departed, and a moment af ter this discovery the Oourt Honse bell was spreading wonderment throughout the town. At that time an unusually interesting court was in session at B , presided over by Judge Blakely. A large number of criminal cases had been disposed of, and but few remained which were of more than passing importance. The session just drawing to a close had attracted many people from the rural districts, and the several hotels were nightly taxed to their utmost capacity. Attorneys from a distance were in attendance, and many friends of the prisoners still remained in town. Therefore the wild ring of the Court House bell, fully three hours before the opening of the court, startled everybody who heard it. There was catastrophe in its unwonted tones, and while Jabez Throck, the janitor, still held the rope he heard the patter of a multitude of feet in the stone corridor below. Eeleasing the rope, he planted himself at the top of the stairs and forbade the crowd stirging up, saying that the Judge was dead and that the Coroner was needed. The report of the Judge's death now spread like wildflre, and the Court House was speedily surrounded by the most excited crowd ever seen in B . After some delay, caused in a great measure by the extraordinary excitement, the Coroner, a slow but precise man, announced himself ready for business, and, accompanied by the Sheriff, several surgeons and the janitor, proceeded to the Judge's room, the door of which was iocked behind them in order to keep intermeddlers out. Judge Blakely was found in the manner in which the janitor had left him, and the examination was begun. The surgeons, who had come beforehand to the conclusión that apoplexy had taken the Judge off, were forced to abandon such ideas, for a brief examination told them that an assassin had been there. A crushed skull over the left ear and four dagger stabs in the región of the heart were the proofs of the murder. Lying in its accustomed place by the coal stove was seen one of the instruments of death - a short iron poker, to which adhered both hair and blood. But the dagger was missing. The assassin, whoever he was. had first struck the Judge from behind with the poker while he sat in his great arm-chair at his desk, as tüe position of the chair and body intlicated, and then dealt the blows with the dagger. In bearing off the sharp instrument of death it was at first believed that the murderer had left no clew behind, but after the surgical examination a diseovery was made that startled every one. Lying upon the desk, and almost entirely concealed beneath a rnass of legal documente, was a piece of legal cap, upon which was traced, in a spasmodic hand, these words: "Jason Boioers did this .'" Below this brief but startling sentence, which seemed at once to flx the identity of the assassin, was what appeared to be an attempt of the writer to affix a signatura, but after a "J" the pen made a long mark, which the beholders could follow aoross the desk to the very walnut edging. It seemed that death had suddenly stricken the writer in the act of signing his name, and the broken pen in the .Tudge's lifeless hand pointed almost positively to the writer. There was such a man as Jason Bowers. He was not a resident of B ; for some time past he had been an inmate of the county jail- held there on a charge of forgery. On the day prior to the night of the Judge's murder, this man Bowers had been aoquittod by the jury selected to try him, and, at the moment of the commission of the crime, he was a free man. He had nevcr been heard to say aught against the Judge more than to remark that he thought tnat, in the charge to the jury, he (the Judge) had favored conviction. I At home the young man liad not borne an irreproachable charaoter, having beeu engaged iu aiïairs of questionable honor ; bufc the trial for forgery was his first appearance before a criminal oourt. Upon the evidence of the writing on the paper whioh was pronounced by all to be in the late Judge's chirography, and beyond doubt the lust work of his life, the Sheriff resolved to take Jason Bowers into cufstody if he was still in town. The young man was not diffioulfc to flcd, as he was in the crowd below, and on the charge of malicious murder he was forthwith arrested and lodged in jail. We now como to the most mysterious part of our narrative. At the Ooroner's inquest but little light was thrown upon the crime. Jabez Throck, the janitor, said that he found the outer dcors of the Oourt House locked from the inside, and that he had been obliged to enter through the coal-cellar, of which he alone carried the key. It was not an uncommon thing for the deceased to remain in his room till 12 at night, during a session of court, and that upon such occasions he locked the Oourt House when he left for home. Upon the jam tor s testimony, the theory that the murderer had been conceaied in the building was started, but this was injured by the various county offioers, who swore that they had locked the iron doors leading into their offices iinmediately after the adjournment of court, which gave the murderer no place for concealment but the stone corridors. The Court House was od the second street running parallel with the river, and one of the town sewers connected it with the stream. There was a bare possibility that a small man might have obtained ingress into the building by the sewer, but an examination of its mouth dissipated this theory. The eourt-room was situated on the second floor. The murderer, to reach the Judge's apartment, was compelled to cross the courtroom, which, when wrapped in darkncss as it was when the murder was cotumitted, was no easy task for one unaequainted with the arrangement of the furniture, etc. If the assassin had iraversed the room just described he had failed to displace a single chair, severa! having been left in the aisies as the Sheriff testifled; and the mode and manEer of his exit were also left in the dark. There was nothing to point to the evildoer save the piece of paper already twice mentioned, and by the major part of B 's inhabitants it was regarded as conclusive. Jabez Bowers was abjured to confess, but to the surprise of all he protested his innocence, and declared that at the proper time he would prove an alibi. A new Judge took Blakely's place, I and the session was resumed. Á new Grand Jury was summoned, which dicted Jason Bowers for willful murder, and, after the disposal of several grand larcenies, the young man was put upon trial for his life. The District Attorney, a man who had won many eulogiums for his rigorous I prosecution of criminal cases, was summoned to B to look after the interests of the State. After an investigation of the case he declared that the jury would deliver a verdict of "guilty" without leaving their boxes, and the trial was commenced. It is called to-day "the great trial" at B , though sixteen years have passed away, and the old Court House has given place to a new one. Jason Bowers exhibited no signs of guilt when placed on the prisoner's stand and confronted by the crowd in which his friends might have been numbered by pairs. It was known that he hoped to prove an alibi, though few believed his ability to do so. "If, gentlemen," said the District Attorney to the jury in opening the case, Til i iii' i ■ i i 'wesnali snew tliat ïnimediateiy alter his acquittal of the charge of forgery the j prisoner made threats against the de ceased; that he was seen in the vestibule of the Court IL.use at the hour of 10, or thereabouts, on the night of the murder; if, at the time aforesaid, he, standing on the stone steps, addressed one of the witnesses for the State in his own disguised voice, so that the witness will swear positively concerning his identity, we shall present a oase that will demand conviction. "But, if we shall further show, gentlemen, that the prisoner carried to his washerwoman, at daylight on the morning after the oommittal of the crime, a shirt, the right cuff and bosom of which contained blood stains; if, proceeding fnrther, we shall show that when the prisoner was arrested there was found upon his person a dagger whose blade fitted the several wounds in the deceased's breast; and if we shall make known the fact that the prisoner, after his acquittal, declared that he could traverse the court-room with ease after dark; and then if we offer in evidence the last words (written) of the deceased - words which he must have written after he had been left for dead by his murderer - we shall confidently expect a conviction, though we would wish to see the prisoner, if innocent, prove a factory alibi." The attorney's opening address created a profound impression; it seemed to seal the prisouer's doom. If the prosecution could prove what they said they could, f rom whence would the alibi come ! The defense relied mainly upon proving an alibi, as the prisoner's chief counsel stated in his response to the District Attorney. They stated that the bloodstains on the shirt, as well as the dagger on the prisoner's person, would be accounted for. His supposed prosence in the outer vestibule on the night of the crime would be swept away by the oath of the mostrespectablecitizens of B . We will not enter upon the details of the trial. The prosecution introduced proof bearing upon the several heads of the District Attorney's address. The man who Rworn to thp. nrisoner's enoe on tho Court House steps was a persou of uudoubted veracity, and well respected iu B . He had known Jason Bowers previous to liis arraignment for forgery, and could not have been mistaken in the voioe that addressed him on that niglit. The figure on the steps corresponded with t!ie prisoner's; but the face was concealed, as if purposely, by the slouching of the hat. This witness swore positively. The prisoner's shirt, accompanied by his washerwoman's testimony, was exhibited in court. It produced a profound impresion, lor unobliterated stains of a dark color were visible on cuff and bosom. The prosecution, ably and almostvindictively conducted, seemed to give the prisonerno chance for escape, and the def ense was regarded frivolous bef ore its turn came. The fact that the doors leading into the Court House were foundto be locked on the iuside by Jabez Throok, the itor, on tho memorable morniDg, was commented upon with proof by the de fense. It waa furtherinore provcd tha every window was found fastened, likewise on the inside, after the discovery of the Judge's dead body. The defense admitted the prisoner's remark ooncerning his ability to traverse tiie court-room after dark, but said that he meant by it that his protracted trial had familiarized him with the room. The blood-stains on the shirt were accounted for by saying that the prisoner had cut his wrist on the night of the crime, and, in fact, when he was arrested his wrist was found to be bandaged by bloody linen. The alibi which the defense had proposed to prove did startle everyono. One of the most respectable grocerymen in B testifled that Jason Bowers had been continually in his store from 9 to half-past 10, inclusive, on the night of the murder, and several creditable witnesses deposed to having accompanied him from the grocery to the hotel, which was reached at a quarter to 11. This damaged the testimony of the witness who had sworn to having encountered Jason Bowers on the Court House steps at 10 o'clock. or thereabouts. Ön cross-exarnination, several of the prisonor's witnesses adrnitted that his manner was exeited and strange ; but the elerk of the hotel said that shortly after the prisoner's arrival he went np to his room ; did not see bondage on wrist then ; had loaned the prisoner the I dagger shown in eourt ; the prisoner had returned it just before retiring, but had got it again before breakfast on the following morning. The washerwoman, on cross-examination, said that the prisoner told her that he wished his shirt by noon, as he wanted to leave B at that hour ; noticeü bandage on his wrist. The defense also brought forward witnesses to prove tïiat the prisoner had expressed to several his intention of leaving B at the hour mentioned ; but that he was prevented by his arrest for murder. As the defense progressed the spectators looked perplexed. It was evident that a loophole for the prisoner's escape would be offered. The prosecution looked dumbfounded. The Judge's charge was elabórate in its details ; his Honor leaned to a belief in the prisoner's guilt, and the jury retired. After an absence of four liours, during which time they sent for elucidation on several points to the court, the twelve returned with a verdict of - Not guilty ! No demonstratioDS of delight foliowed the announcement of the verdict. The aeoused bowed to the jury and was discharged. That day he left B and died ten years later without unraveling, if he could, the secret of the Judge's death. Years afterward, when the old Court House was demolished, a rusty dagger j was found in the belfry, and the slats of the blind windows showed evidences of removal, as if to admit and let out a man! The discovery renewed speculation on B 's great murder ; that was all.