Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1891 — CANFIELD IS IN PRISON. [ARTICLE]

CANFIELD IS IN PRISON.

MERITED DOOM OF NELLIE GRIFFIN’S SLAYER. \ Flea'ling Guilty for Fear of Mob Vengia.ice, He Is Sent for Lite to the Jackson Fenitenttary—Speedy Justice Cor an Inhuman Wretch. [Charlotte (Mich.) dispatch.] Russell C. Canfield, the inhuman murderer of little Nellie Griffin, escaped the lynchers’ rope by pleading guilty and receiving the sentence of life imprisonment Less than twenty-four hours ago he was captured, and to-night he is in the State Penitentiary at Jackson. Justice has been swift in his case, but in the opinion of the enraged people here she has been far too merciful. Horrified and maddened by the fearful crime of the monster, the people demanded blood, and had Canfield been still in the jail hero this night would have been his last. It was his fear of mob vengeance that caused him to confess, and dread of the vigilantes’ rope-drove him to plead guilty and seek safety behind the solid walls of the State’s pri.-on. Sheriff Pollock saw the prisoner in his cell this morning and told him of the danger ho was in from the enraged people. He seemed to feel this by intuition, and seemed to be willing to do anything to save his miserable neck. When the Sheriff asked him if he desired to plead guilty as he had confessed he replied, “Yes, I’ll plead guilty to murdering the girl at anytime.” The prosecuting attorney was seen and Judge Hooker notified Early in tho afternoon Canfield, the Sheriff and the prosecutor slipped quietly into the court-room by a side door, and the charge was read to Canfield. His dull, sleepy eyes looked uneasily at tho windows as if fearing a bullet. He hardly understood the reading or the importance of the charge as it was read to him. When it was finished he was asked: “Do you plead guilty or not .guilty?” “I am guilty,” said the wretch, and he shivered as if with an ague chill. Judge Hooker then sentenced him to imprisonment for life, and at once the Sheriff hustled him on a Michigan Central train, and he was taken to the State’s prison to undergo his lifelong punishment, The story as told by the murderer and taken down is substantially this: Canfield went from Dimondale to Joncsville on Tuesday morning, Jan. 27, by rail, from the latter place going to Coldwater. After spending some time in this town, he visited the State School and had a talk with Superintendent Newkirk. He told the latter that he wanted to adopt a girl from the institution, saying he would provldo a good home for her and alleging, as was true, that he was possessed of a comfortable property. He gave his name to the Superintendent as G. Hendershott, and finally made arrangements to take Nellie Griffin with him to his alleged home. In coippany with the girl he returned to Jonesville and thence to Dimondale. After getting off the train at the latter place Canfield, with his victim, took the road leading to Mr. Harrison’s farm. Before reaching it he struck off the traveled highway, going through several tracts of wood until he, with his charge, reached the piece of timber by tho river where the body was found. They talked for a few moments and Nellie manifested great distress of mind and wept bitterly, begging Canfield to take her back to the institution at Coldwater. Turning a deaf ear to the girl’s pleadings, Canfield, struck her down and choked her to death. Ho then denuded her body of clothing, and, taking tho corpse in his arms, threw it headlong into the river. The clothes he took to Harrison’s farm and hid them under the floor of the cow stab!©. Canfield maintained stubbornly to the last that he had not abused his victim. When Canfield had signed this confession of his guilt he was at once locked up and a guard placed over him. Sheriff Pollock, after taking precautions to guard the jail in case of an attack, started for Harrison’s farm, near Dimondalc, to search for the girl's clothes. Under the floor of tho cow stable on Mr. Harrison’s farm the clothes were found wrapped in a bund-la To the people who read Canfield s confession, his admissions concerning the crime seem incredible. Very naturally the reader would picture him to be a bloodthirsty-looking villain, with brutality stamped on every feature, but this is not tho case. He is a mild-man-nered, inoffensive-looking man of slender build, and rather below the average height. He says that he is 55 years old, and his appearance indicates this to be the truth. He has regular features, a full beard, mild, honest-looking blue eyes, and is as far from looking the villain 'he aeknowiodgesihimself u be as can be imagined. .The Harrison family, for whom he drove a milk wagon daily to Lansing, refused to believe him guilty until his own confession forced them to admit it They state that he was a quiet unobtrusive man who never had much to say and did his work well. He is understood to be fairly well fixed, and has an income from a small tarm that he rents, preferring to drive a milk wagon for Mr. Harrison rather than conduct his own farm and do his own cooking and housework. The other convicts in the penitentiary, say they will knock him on the head when he gets to work. A suggestion has been made that oil might with advantage be used at the most exposed lighthouses to reduce the force of the waves. It is thought that this end might be attained by placing, say, a couple of small steel buovs in the most exposed direction at a distance from the lighthouse of some 150 feet. There should be a pulley on the buoy and a slight rope, so that the bag or appliance for distributing the oil could be hanled.in when required. The method is most simple, and can be tested" without great expense. The English papers report among the “overdue” vessels a brig which sailed from Liverpool for New Orleans, “in a leaky condition, overloaded, and three men short of her complement. * If there is any good reason why the brig should not be at the bottom of the lantic we should like © hear it. Never speak ill of anybody; yon can do just as much execution with a shrug )f the shoulders or a significant look. Abe woman born contrary, or is it aojnired?