Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1891 — THE ALMY TRAGEDY. [ARTICLE]

THE ALMY TRAGEDY.

SENSATIONAL CRIME WORTHY OF COMMENT. New England Sentimentality Likely to Interfere with Justice —The Cr min al Deserving ol the Severest Penalty His Deed 1 hat of a Fiend—Sane, but o e > Hish. Revenge of a Coward. The staid old State of New Hampshire has added a chapter to the records of crime in this country which Lard y can be surpassed for the grim background of the murder itself and the extraordinary details which have followed its commission. The crime of which Frank C. Almy is gui.ty was marked by the most revolting cruelty and barbarity as well as by rank cowardice. Six weeks ago the wretch, angered because his sweetheart, (. hristie V arden, rejected his advances, sprang from his place of concealment on a lonely road,dragged her away from her mother and sister into the woods, and notou y shot herdown in cold blood but even mutilated 1 er a ter death. He escaped, boasting to h r terrified companions that now he had had revenge. The horror of the crime aroused ihe ent re comty. Large rewa ds, aggregating 84,00 J, were oirered, and hundreds of peop'e as well as police and detectives from various cities hunted for him t ot only all over the New Hampshire hi.ls but th oughout New Eng.and. Other parts of the country were ransacked, but to no purpose, and at last the theory was accepted that he had gone to Europe, and all hope of his capture was lo t.

It now appears, however, that .he never left the farm of the Warden family. With that fascination which sometimes seizes upon criminals to remain upon the scene of their crimes he concealed himself in the barn. From his hiding-place he saw the luneral of his victim. In dark nights he stole up to the house and watched what was going on within. He saw detectives and reporters within a few feet of him and heard them discuss plans and probabilities for his capture. He even took food from the house in the night and vis ted. Christie’s grave in the cemetery near by. All these weeks it never occurred to the astute detectives to search the Warden premises, and had it not been for the accidental disc -very of some cans taken from the house, which raised a su picion in the mother’s mind that he was somewhere on the premises, he might still have been at liberty. She mentioned her suspicions to the Sheriff, and that functionary with a companion' kept a nightly vigil about the barn. At last they were rewarded by a sight of the lean and haggard murderer emerging from his hiding-place to obtain food. He was entirely unprepared for resistance, but for some mysterious reason the two armed men made no attempt to arrest him. Instead of that they raised a hue and cry and the next day the barn was besieged by no less than 1,500 people, who proceeded to bombard their victim. When he had been wounded tw o or three times and it became apparent to him that further attempt was useless he l to surrender and even dictated terms so far as personal security was concerned. When the terms were accepted he added crime to crime by shooting one of his captors. That he was not killed on the spot speaks well of the New Eng and sense of justice. The Sheriff who had been so reluctant to perform his duty promptly and energetically saved him from lynching by appealing to the crowd to let the law take its co :rse. They decided to do so and the brutal wretch was removed to jaiL If the courts are as fearless and the law is as perfect as the Sheriff boa-ted it will not be long before Almy will expiate his horrible crime on the gallows. It is not so certain, however, that this wretch will meet the fate he deserves., Already there is a certain halo of romance gathering about him His visits to his victim’s grave, his pr. servation of letters and souvenirs she bad given him, his declaration that he loved her all the, time, and that he shot her by accident and then shot her over and over' again because he could not bear to see her suffer, have had a certain effect upon the maudlin and morbid c asses of society who are ready to deciare that he was insane with love. People of this kind are making a lion of him, and there is danger that they may bring sufficiently strong pressure to bear to save him from hanging. With all its conservatism and love for justice, sentimentality is a strong e'ement in the New England composition, as has been shown even in the Jesse Pomeroy case and in many another equally brutal and revolting. The prosecuting officials, therefore, will have a hard task before them, though every circumstance of the murder can be easily established. Should any contingency, however, save this monster from the gallows it will ba a public calamity. The practice of girl killing has beeoma alarmingly common, and it is time that the courts should adopt heroic measures to suppress it There is no better ■ ase to begin with than that of Almy. If all reports are true this is not the first girl he has killed. There is no romance about his crime. There was no love in his feelings toward Christie Warden. His act was dictated by levenge, either because Christie Warden had wounded his pride by her rejection of h s suit or because of lower and more revolting motives. In either case he richly deserves death, and has barred himself from the sympathy of any right-minded person. Crimes like his are becoming alarmingly frequent, and it is time that th; law should step In and protect helpless women from being slaughtered merely because they exercise the right of re.ecting the advances of men who may have conceived a sudden and revolting passion for them