Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1901 — ASKING A PARDON FOR THE OLDEST CONVICT. [ARTICLE]

ASKING A PARDON FOR THE OLDEST CONVICT.

Mention has heretofore been made of Wm. Lee, the oldest oonviot in Indiana in length of confinement, in connection with the fact that many years ago he lived in this oounty and worked several years for Addison Parkison, on his farm in Barkley Tp. An effort is now being made to secure his pardon. He was sentenced for life 33 years ago, on ciacumetantial evidence for the murder of Benjamin L, Tea. The murder was committed on . the night of November 18th, 1867, in Tippecanoe county, near Colburn. Lee was an employee on the farm of Mr. Tea. They had become involved in litigation over the rental of the farm. On the night of the above date,. Tea started home after spending the evening with a neighbor. He carried a lantern and as he was passing a gate in a cornfield a shot wps fired. Tea was shot in the back and killed. Lee was arrested the day after the murder, the very day on which his suit with Tea was to have been tried in the circuit court of the county. One of the strongest circumstances against Lee was that the tracks left by the murderer just fitted his shoes, hob-nails and all. He is well remembered by Mr. Parkison, and also by T. J. McCoy who stayed on Uncle Ad’s farm 3 months, while Lee was there.

Tom remembers Lee very well and has always been friendly to him, and had him made a “trusty” in Warden Harley, ? s time, which he still is, but he thinks Lee, who is 65 years or so old, and of failing mind, is better off in prison than he would be out. Lee has $155 he has saved from overtime earnings, and also thinks he could earn his living as a machinist, which is largely a delusion. Mrs. Elizabeth T. Tea, widow of the man Lee was convicted of murdering, still lives at Battle Ground. She is strongly opposed to Lee’s being pardoned. She says that there is no doubt in the world but that he is guilty; that he threatened many times to kill her husband, and also his entire family, and if he ever had the opportunity he would finish the job that was begun, and, no matter if he is a trusty now, if he got out she would be in fear of her life. Once before an effort was made to get Lee pardoned, but owing to efforts on the part of Mrs. Tea’s friends, Gov. Hovey did not grant it. Mrs. Tea was told at that time, according to the Lafayette Call, that if Lee was pardoned for that crime, there was another that he had committed, that would immediately be taken up. It wbb the murder of a boy, his head being cut off, and placed on a railroad track, below Lafayette, to make it appear like an aocident. The boy’s watch and SSOO were found in Lee’s trunk, beside a number of keys, a steel mask, and various other things that are unheard of for the use of a farm hand, as he was.