Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1905 — THE WRONG MAN [ARTICLE]

THE WRONG MAN

“An innocent man need never be afraid to face a jury.” So spoke a young lawyer but lately admitted. “What say you, Dick?” I asked of Boynton. “In theory I agree with our young friend; in practice, with you. I’ll give you a case in point if you like. “It was about ten years ago when 1 was aroused about 2 o’clock in the morning by a messenger from a police court, the bearer of a hastily scribbled note from an old client of mine. He was a childless widower, much interested in Egyptology, and consequently spent much of his time in Egypt. Being rich, he could afford this ex- . pensive hobby “The note I received ran: “Dear Boynton—They have brought me down here on some absurd charge or other. Come and arrange for my release immediately. R. ROWLEY. “I hastened to the relief of my client. Now, I must tell you he was very fastidious in his dress and particularly natty and trim in his appearance. He wore a brown beard, cut in Vandyke fashion. “Judge, then, of my astonishment when I was shown a man dressed in a particularly flashy style, of the kind affected by the sporting fraternity—a acleau shaven face, save for an inch or two of side whiskers. “ *Ah, Boynton, get me out of this quick.’ “ ‘There is some mistake,' I said to the policeman.

“ 'How?' asked he. “ ‘Why, this is not Mr. Rowley. This is not the gentleman I came to see.’ '"That so? Well, this is the man who gave me the note I sent up to you.’ “At this I looked up at the man before me and said: “ 'What made you use Mr. Rowley’s name?’ “He clutched me by the sleeve and gasped out: “ ‘Why, man, what do you mean? Do those clothes so alter me? Speak!’ “I looked at him very keenly, and gradually there dawned on me thut, after all, this was my old friend Rowley. “‘Heavens’ Is it you, Rowley? What are you doing here? Come, man, compose yourself and let’s get at the bottom of this.’ “All I could get from him was that he had arrived the previous evening in New York, had engaged a room at a hotel and had gone straight to bed. About midnight he had been aroused by a violent knocking at the door and on opening it had been gruffly told that he was under arrest. “Hurried by the officers, he had hastily dressed himself, protesting uselessly that the clothes he was hustled into were* not his, and was hurried off to the station. "No amount of cross questioning could get him to vary or enlarge bis story, nor could he give me the slightest reason for his arrest. As to his beard, owing to a slight skin eruption he had shaved it off some time ago. “The next step was to get him bailed out. This I found was not so easy a task. “My nonrecognition at first of my friend was against him. The police justice next morning protested that this prisoner was a confidence man wanted for various offenses, and that he was a certain Wilcox, alias Boucher, alias Palver, alias Moroney, and scoffingly declared he would not let him out under $3,000 bail. “I did not stay to argue the matter out, but in less than an hour was back with a couple of friends of well known wealth and standing. “Next morning my client was in a state of fever. I easily got a certificate from my physician exaggerating the illness. "He remained in my house and in bed for nearly a week. During that time I found out enough to solve the mystery to my moral satisfaction, but not enough to convince a jury or even any outsider. The solution of the mystery was this:

“The man with many aliases had come by the same train as my friend Rowley, had registered at the same hotel and had been assigned a room on the same narrow corridor. By some chance my friend after supper had been given the key of Mr. Wilcox’s room and had gone straight to bed. “Mr. Wilcox’s keen mind, ever bent oo covering up his tracks, on finding that he had been given the wrong key said nothing, examined my friend’s valise, and then the Idea came to him that it would be a good thing if he couM pass out of the hotel as Mr. R. Rowley. “The probability was that he (Rowley) was in his room. To open the door was an easy trick for the crook. Then he must have taken my friend's attire, leaving his In its place. This effected, he paid his bill as Mr. Rowley, saying he was going to catch the 11:45 p. m. night express for Syracuse, and so vanished. “His resemblance in Wileox's attire was so like the photos sent on to thepolice and so unlike his own photos that, with the correspondence, papers, cards and odds and ends which Wilcox bad either In haste or Intentionally left In the coat and vest pockets and which the police at the station had seized when they bad searched him, I shudderingly felt the chances were all in favor of a speedy conviction.” “What did you do?” asked the young lawyer. “What did I do?” you ask. “I smuggled him off on a boat to Cuba and forfeited the ball. He was, as 1 said, a rich man. It was the simplest way out of the difficulty and the surest Still, my client, though perfectly Innocent, Is now a fugitive from justice."