MET HIS PUNISHMENT AT LAST.

Evening Star, Issue 9185, 14 July 1893, Page 3

MET HIS PUNISHMENT AT LAST.

On May 8, at the Siug Sing Prison, New York, Carlylo Won tworth Harris was executed for one of the cruellest, most cold-blooded, dastardly murders recorded in history since the days of Lucrezia Borgia. The murderer met death in exactly the same way that he has faced every act that led to it. His demeanor was conspicuous for its calmness. There was something exaggerated and forced about his composure. It smacked of the theatre. The man was not only serene—he was polite and plausible. He asked leave to say a few words touching his innocence with a wave of the hand and a careful modulation of the voice that would have done credit to a trained orator. Physical fear appeared to form no part of his makeup. No case of poisoning in recent years, excepting the famous trial of Mrs Maybrick in England, has attracted such widespread interest as did the trial of Carlyle W. Harris. It was on the morning of February 1, 1891, that a joung girl died in the Comstock Finishing School, on West Fortieth street, New York. She was known to her schoolmates as Helen Potts,-and was a singularly lovable and popular young lady. Miss Potts had been suffering from insomnia, and had taken an opium prescription given her by a friend who was a medical student. It was in the summer of 1889 that Helen Potts and Carlvle W. Harris first met The Potts family had a cottage at Ocean Grove, and Harris, with his mother and sister, located uoarthem. "Carl," aa they called him, came to the Potts cottage, frequently. Helen was fascinated hf his light-hearted-ness, his carelessness, bis brilliancy. The pair were constantly together, and before the summer endedtho young man

i ftf the time (hardly twentyftlbit Mrs Potts, to whom tbo mattelr wte Melted,'treated it as a joke, and rWiisea to tohsMerit at aIL The faitfily , & opjwait|ou to' the rttatch continued, and to ill Appearances the couple were reconciled to, the situation. But they were not,f~>nd tbe secret ceremony was agreed .upon,." On the Bth day of mumcy, 1860, tfeey i#ce married in m Wt York C% W .by. W. R Rinckhoff, the- itlderniao «tf tire - SjJixtcenfch district. Every precaution was taken to avoid disoovery at the time.- The coirolo iirare married undor-fche names of Charles/ Harris iod ■''&&&*s&¥& Neifeon being |^' aiid they managed so well that not uutil the following August did even the mother suspeob Jhe truth. In August, 1880, became very ill. It was necessary to confide in somebody, so she went to her uncle, Dr C. W. Treverton, of Scranton, and told him part of the story. The physician took his nieoe in and gave her every attention. For a month she was dangerously ill, and during that time Mrs Potts was telegraphed for and came. The nature of the sickness opened the mother's eyes, and further concealment was impossible. The story told was enough to wring any mother's heart. The daughter's health had been ruined by operations performed by the husband, Harris, and her illness at that time was septic poisoning, the result of a dangerous operation performed in* June, and for which she was then under treatment. Ostensibly to fit her for the society she would have to move in when the marriage was niade public, Harris induced Mrs Potts to send her to a boarding school in the city, everyone supposing that she was a young girl. The long weeks of illness and anxiety told upon the young wife, and she became a victim of insomnia. On January 20 she complained of this to Harris, who was calling upon her. In her extremity she asked his help, and he prescribed for her. On January 21 he called at the school with six pills, and gave four of them to " his patient," as he jokingly called her. Two of them he retained ana took away with him. The next day, January 22, Harris left the city for Old Point Comfort, Virginia. On the Saturday following (January 31) Mrs Potts spent the day with her daughter, and they discussed the forthcoming marriage. That night the young girl wife was aroused by some of her schoolmates coming home from a lecture. She sat up with a gasp and a struggle for breath, remarking that she had had such beautiful dreams. " Lie down and go to sleep and you will feel all right/' was the admonition of her friends. " Yes, but I-think it will be the sleep of death," was the reply as she sank back upon her pillow* Her heavy breathing attracted attention, and soon the school was aroused: Physicians were summoned, but despite their labors the young woman died the next morning at eleven o'clock. Still the secret was well kept, but on the morning of March 21 a New York paper published the story of the marriage, the year of gtiilt and concealment, and the filet that various affidavits and written statements of the mothef had been-sub-mitted to the District Attorney for action. Two days lator Harris was arrested, and subsequently the grand jury returned an indictment for niurder; The trial began On January 19, 1892, before Recorder Smyth, aha nearly a week was spent in selecting a iiiry; No pains were spared on either side; The defendant's career as a book agent, an actor, and as a student at the College of Physicians aiid Surgeons was minutely traced, aiid he was proved to have been a libertine and loose character generally. Br Allan M'Lanß Hamilton and Professor Witthatts both testified as to the result of the autopsy oil the body of the unfortunate, woman, showing clearly that she had died from morphine. The trial lasted nearly two weeks, and lawyer Jerome broke down under the strain* It was a matter of surprise to everyone that Harris was not put upon the stand in hi.s own defence; The case was given to the jury on the night of February 2, just one year after the murder was committed, and they returned a vordict of " Guilty " after deliberating ail hoiir and twenty minutes. From February 2, 1892, till this year Harris and his rich friends besieged the courts and the halls of the Legislature, but all in vain, thoiigh Governor Flower appointed a special commission to inquire into the case.