Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1874 — A Scrap of Paper Saves a Man From State Prison. [ARTICLE]

A Scrap of Paper Saves a Man From State Prison.

For several days past the Essex County Court of Quarter Sessions in Newark has been absorbed in the trial of a young New Yorker named Patrick McCarragher on an indictment for complicity in the wholesale series of burglaries perpetrated during last summer in the suburbs of Newark by one Louis Walrabe, alias Meyer, “ the Orange Mountain burglar.” The circumstances of the case are exceedingly interesting and reveal a degree of blundering and looseness in the administration of justice which fur-, nishes the reverse of a flattering commentary on “Jersey justice," about which the ex-State of Camden and Am. boy is wont to be so proud, and, in the main, justly, indeed, as the sequel will show; it was only by chance that an innocent man was saved from conviction of crimes which would have consigned him to State Prison for ten or fifteen years and his octogenarian mother to her grave. The facts in the case are as follows: This W alrabe, alias Meyer, above mentioned, had found against him twentyfive indictments, the full penalty for which, in case of conviction, would reach nearly 100- years’ sentence in the State Prison. He’ had several accomplices. One of these, Richard Barrett, was also arrested and indicted. Walrabe, in the hope of having his sentence toned down three or four score years, pleaded guilty and turned State’s evidence. Through him it was hoped to sweep in quite a gang of burglars. Barrett stood trial and was promptly convicted. In the meantime Walrabe said a certain James Murphy was an accomplice. He gave a description of the latter to the Newark Chief of Police, who took it down in writing on a scrap of foolscap and gave it to Detective Becker. Becker went to New York and saw McCarragher go in and out of Barrett’s house. Thß excited in Becker’s head the idea that he might be implicated, so he induced McCarragher to go to Newark with him, saying that he might be able to do something for Barrett. On reaching Newark what was McCarragher’s amazement to find that seeing him,.declared that he was James Murohy. Upon this evidence the Grand Jury indicted McCarragher as an accomplice of Walrabe. He was placed on trial, and the evidence seemed pretty strong against him, though his friends and employers—all highly respectable people—came from New York and did all they could for him; proving him a person of unblemished reputation. But Walrabe swore that McCarragher was Murphy. During the trial it came out that the paper upon which was the description given by Walrabe to the Chief and by the Chief to Becker was lost. The case went to the jury on Monday at two o’clock. They were out all night. Yesterday forenoon the Court sent for them and McCarragher. The Court handed them a scrap of paper, saying that that doubtless would facilitate their deliberations. They took a searching look at the prisoner, retired, and in & few minutes returned with a verdict of acquittal. The paper was the description of Murphy. It called for a person the very opposite in appearance from McCarraghetf a light-complexioned person, whereas McCarragher is dark. As a matter of course there was great rejoicing among the friends of McCarragher over his hair-breadth escape from a felon’s doom. — N. Y. Herald.