FREEDOM OR DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19762, 8 October 1927, Page 2 (Supplement)

FREEDOM OR DEATH.

DRAMA OF A GOLD RUSH. 1 SEQUEL TO MURDER CHARGE. TWENTY-ONE YEARS IN GAOL HOW LIBERTY WAS GAINED. When President Coolidge granted abso ' lute freedom to Vuco Perovicb recently, 1 says a correspondent of the New Yorlt ! Herald Tribune, writing from Kansas city, he ended a drama of the gold rusl which reads almost like fiction. 1 Behind bars twenty-one years and in the shadow of the gallows, Perovich's spectacular battle for liberty was ended by the Executive pardon He. has not 1 been bitter over the misfortune Fate ha< ' heaped upon him. And now, at forU 1 years of age, owner or two barber shop: in Rochester, he sees a happy future Some day he will visit his fatherland Montenegro, where his- father was i nobleman. Perovich was released from the Federa prison on November 6, 1926, by Judgt John C. Pollock, of the Kansas Federa -Court, on a writ of habeas corpus. Hi.plea was unusual; he asked freedom oi death. If his plea had been allowed ht have been taken back to Alask;and hanged according to a court decree there His argument was based on hi* declared innocence of a murder for which he was convicted. The murder was in 1904 At that time he could not speak English. It was his contention that death would be preferable to an innocen man than a cruel imprisonment. Judge Pollock held with Perovich, rul ing that the President of the United States in 1909, Mr. W. H. Taft, had at right to commute the death sentence im posed on Perovich by the Alaskan court . without consent of the accused. In hi;- . decision, however, Judge Pollock declared justice would not be served by sending Perovich to the gallows after he had served twenty-one years in jail ant priron. That point was not decided. Commutation o! Sentence. President Taft was asked to commute the sentence after Perovich had been in jail four years. He did this by execu tive order. Perovich was taken to the Federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, to pass the rest of his life. There the young nobleman studied American laws and customs, mastering both language and law. He came across the legal point which proved to bo the sesame for his recent release. Perovich applied to the court and Mr McDermott, a Kansas lawyer, -was ap pointed to represent him. Then came the presentation of facts in the case. Strangely, time had shifted characters in this drama so that the former Presi dent, Mr. Taft, was now Chief Justice of the United States and was called upon to pass upon the legality of his own exe- - cutive order that saved Perpvich from the gallows. Last May the court held against Judge Pollock, and Mr. McDermott and Perovich shaped their application for a pardon from President Coolidge. Few of the romantic novels ever written about imaginary principalities in Europe are dotted with stranger and more unusual circumstances than have entered into Perovich's life. His father was Chief Justice of Montenegro and a friend of the late King Nicholas. His mother was of the royal family. An Early Life of Ease. As a child Perovich played jrith the royal children and no expense was spared in his education. At fifteen he could speak eight Slavic dialects and Spanish, French and Italian. A few years later Russia and Turkey became involved in on© of the Balkan wars and he enlisted in the Russian army. The youngest officer in the army, he was decorated for bravery and commissioned a lieutenant. When war was over he desired to join a brother who had come to America. Reports of gold in Alaska also attracted him, and finally he obtained permission to go there. In Alaska Perovich met an American prospector named Sam. Perovich could speak only a few words of English. They found a claim from which they took about £2BOO worth of gold. They went to Fairbanks, Alaska, to buy machinery so they could take out gold in greater quantities. One day while Perovich was standing in the door of a saloon in Fairbanks his partner came staggering to him, wounded and bleeding. " Our claim has been jumped," Sam muttered. Perovich said that he hurried back to their cabin ancj found three men there. He asked for his clothes and belongings. Answering, the men drew knives and started to attack him. He was six feet tall, weighed 2051b. and was toughened by months of hard labour. Seizing a huge board, he fought them off and finally obtained his clothes. A few days later ho was arrested on a charge of assault. He was given to understand an assault charge meant little in Alaska. Accused of Murdering Old Man. While Perovich was in prison pending the outcome of the assault charge, he declares the three men accused him of the murder of an old prospector at a wood chopper's camp to which Perovich had moved after the fight. These witnesses, he declared, produced clothing said to have belonged to the old man and accused Perovich of having .threatened to kill the lold prospector. The cabin in which the prospector lived was burned and the accusers alleged that Perovich had murdered him and had burned the cabin to conceal the crime. Before Perovich knew what it was all about he was charged with murder. The members of the jury were quick to believe the accusers. It was charged in the prosecution that - Perovich's lack of. knowledge of English was only a pretence and that accusation prejudiced the jury against him. He was convicted. Theu the question arose in the minds of those who reviewed the case that the testimony of the three men might have been prejudiced. A Brother's Aid Refused. After President Taft commuted his sentence, Perovich became one of the lost legion in the Alaskan gold rush. He heard of his brother who had made a ! fortune in Alaska and was returning to Montenegro to be married. Perovich refused his brother's offer to forego his marriage and spend his fortune to obtain freedt,.. 1 . His brother went to Europe and never returned, abandoning the case as hopeless after receiving the decisions of the courts. Released on the habeaus corpus plea, Perovich went to Rochester and bought a barber shop with a small initial payment. Before long he had paid for it, and purchased another. Now he has the latter shop cleared and owns a motor car. Besides his brother who amassed wealth in Alaska, Perov h had three other brothers. They §re killed in the World War, Then widows, with eight children, are Jivinc in Minnesota. Virtually all the money Perovich earned from special work while ho acted as prison interpreter was sent to the widow# to support the children. His lawyer estimated that he had sent them nearly £4OO.