STRANGE MURDER CASE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 196, 18 August 1900, Page 5 (Supplement)

STRANGE MURDER CASE.

A STATES SENSATION.

A strange murder case was tried in Richmond, U.S.A., during June. A report Oom that place dated the 16th says: Public opinion in the Old Dominion swung heavily against Andrew C. Gilli'tan, on trial at Windsor for the murder .*»C Beverly Turner, on whose plantation "ho young man was brought up as a farm hand, when it became evident that in order to escape the gallows Gilligan stood ready to blacken the character of Isabelle Turner, his employer's daughter, who had been his sweetheart. In the beginning the trial had every element to make it most interesting, for it was understood that the girl, Isabelle Turner, was in possession of facts that would tend to clear Gilligan or to convict him of the murder of her father. There was romance mingled with the tragedy, and people flocked from miles around to see the tangle unravelled. But with the progress of the hearing the romance gradually wore away, and the testimony of the girl on the stand swept all vestiges of it from the face of the affair. The shadow of love that had somewhat hidden the hideous aspect of murder dissolved in the burning eloquence with which Isabelle Turner performed a two-fold duty—the aiding of justice in the avengement of the murder of her father and the defence of her good name. C. A. Gilligan, who had entered the trial as one half excusable in the eyes of the people, came out of it with MORE THAN A STAIN OF MURDER on him. The prevailing sentiment against him roused his friends to his defence. They contended in the crowded streets of the little town that the fact that Gilligan had killed Beverly Turner was indisputable, for he had confessed; that punishment even unto death confronted him, and that to save himself he could not be blamed for hiding behind the girl. Gilligan Is the son of the overseer on the Turner plantation. As a boy lie was laabelle Turner's playmate and grew up almost as one of the Turner household. As the girl budded into womanhood and Gilligan grew to be a-tall, strapping youth, of handsome face and graceful bearing, the brotherly and sisterly affection gave way to love.

Eventually, of course, Mr Turner learned of the infatuation of his daughter for Gilligan. -There was the usual stormy scene; the girl was sent off to school and the young man was ordered from the plantation. This was over two years ago, when the girl was not quite IS. and Gilligan was little past his majority.

It appears that Gilligan from this time

WENT TO THE BAD.

He took to drink in order to forget, and only made memory more poignant. When Mr Turner. thought that tho love of the girl had grown cold he brought her back from school and commanded that she should see no more of young Gilligan. She promised, and that was the end of it in the mind of the father.

The resourcefulness of lovei'S was not lacking in this Virginia pair. A hollow tree in an orchard was a convenient postoffice with two patrons—lsabelle Turner and Gilligan. In this tree he would deposit his letters breathing love, and in this tree would find tho answers to them. It is said now that Gilligan was so bereft of the chivalry that is supposed to be innate in every Virginian, no matter how humble his birth, that he read these tender letters from a trusting girl to boon companions in taverns and joined in the laughter they provoked among his friends. Mr Turner was murdered on the night of December 27. Gilligan had borrowed a gun that day, and after the murder he disappeared. Soon he came back, gave himself up and confessed to the sheriff. He said that the girl was with him when he murdered her father, that Mr Turner had caught him with his arm around her and had threatened to kill him.

"I shot in self-defence," said, Gilligan "It was his life or mine."

Gilligan's story was believed. He had

BEEN A POPULAR YOUNG MAN, and the love that all the world has for a lover went out to him in his cell. No breath of suspicion had attached to Isabelle Turner, and it was generally considered that in coming back to give himself up Gilligan had done the manly thing. It was known that Mr Turner was a man of violent temper and it was not considered improbable that he would threaten to kill the farm hand whom he found hiaklng love to his daughter.

When Isabelle Turner took the stand for the first time since the murder of her father her features were seen in public. She is a strikingly handsome girl.

In her testimony the girl told of the coining home from Hollins Institute on December 21 to spend the Christmas holidays. She told of a trip to Ferguson's Wharf on the snowy day of tho crime, and said that Gilligan had attempted to speak to her, and that she had repelled his advances. She swore that w*ien she reached her home that night, after a drive to Smithfield with her mother, Gilligan had tried to intercept her as she entered the house.

"He took hold of my cape and wanted to talk to me," said the girl. "I told him it was too cold to talk, that I had no time and that I did not desire to talk to him. He kept hold of my cape, but I wrenched it from his hand and ran 'to the house."

Then she gave Gilligan the lie. Sheriff Edwards swore that Gilligan told him •that Mr Turner had found his daughter

IN THE. EMBRACE OF GILLIGAN.

The girl swore that she was in the house when her father was shot; that she heard the report of the gun and paid no attention to it, as the shooting, of firearms in the neighbourhood was not unusual during the holidays. She told in detail of her actions in the house that evening, of preparing supper, of conversations with her mother, of seeing a skulking form at the back gate and of going for "Andy" Cotton, a negro boy, to come to the house.

"While on our way to the cabin for Andy Cotton," said the girl, "my mother and I passed Mr Gllligan on the road. He was whistling and passed us without speaking. We thought that papa was at Mr Crocker's, but when he did not come In at 9 o'clock we sent Andy Cotton for him with a note. He was not there and Mr Crocker came over. We searched for papa, and Mr Crocker found his body. It was lying in the snow near the fence and he was dead."

This testimony was given in a low, clear voice. The girl looked steadily at Gilllgan, and Gilligan with impassive countenance twirled a clg-arette and gazod at the floor. Up to this time Isabelle Turner had been composed.

Colonel Boykin arose and apologised for a question he was about to ask. It was a painful question, but it was made necessary by the character of the testimony of Sheriff Edwards. The gi^rl answered it vigorously, sitting erect,' her eyes flashing. Then she bowed her head and sobbed, and the shame of Gllligan was complete. His face expressed no emotion, nor did he raise his eyes from the floor when his attorney arose to cross-examine his former sweetheart.

The cross-examination was brutally searching, but it did not shake the testimony of the girl a particle. She said that she had loved Gilligan, but that for eighteen months previous to the murder she had been Indifferent toward him. When the cross-examination had closed Isabelle Turner was strong in the affections of the people who heard her, while the murderer was branded with something more than the mark of Cain.