FULL
TEXT: Charles Atkinson, sentenced in the Camden (N. J.) County Court in July of
last year to a ten-years’ term of imprisonment on the false charge of criminal
assault [euphemism used at that time for rape] made by his seventeen-year-old
stepdaughter Mary Miller, will leave the Trenton Prison to-day a free man. The
Court of Pardons in Jersey City yesterday made this decree.
Atkinson
was not only granted a full and free pardon, but he goes back to his friends
and relatives with the judicial stamp of innocence on his brow. Mary Miller,
his accuser, in a fit of remorse, recently confessed that she had wronged her
foster-parent when she swore that he had maltreated her, and, like Barbara Aub
[who had retracted a rape charge after the accused had been convicted], she
made a complete retraction of her accusation. Her confession was placed in the
hands of Gov. Werts and by him laid before the Court of Pardons. The girl
acknowledged that she had made the false charge for revenge.
When
Atkinson married Mary’s mother, three years ago, the girl was in the State
Industrial School for Girls, having been sent there as an incorrigible.
Although only fourteen years old, she had acquired the habit of remaining away
from home at night. At the end of two years, on the promise that she would
abandon her habits, she was released from the Institute and returned to her
house in Camden.
For a
time she carried herself properly, but the life at home was too slow, and she
began to frequent the Gloucester race track, just across the river. She became
the companion of disreputable women, and the efforts of her stepfather to
reclaim her were in vain.
Falling in everything else, he threatened to send her back to the Industrial School.
She had an abhorrence for this place, and it was shortly after this threat by
her father that she caused his arrest and imprisonment on the false charge.
Alkinson
had not been in prison long before Mary committed a breach of the peace that
caused her recommittal to the Industrial School. About the time of Barbara
Aub’s sensational retraction of the charges against Langerman, in this city,
Mary Miller was moved to remorse, and one wrote to Atkinson in the Trenton
Prison that she was sorry for the wrong she had done him. A day or two
afterwards she told her story to one of the women teachers of the school.
Rev.
George C. Maddock, chaplain of the State Prison, was sent for and the girl
repeated to him the story of her retraction. She said she would never have made
the charge had she not been advised to do so by some of her associates at the
race tracks. They told her, she said, it would be an easy way to get her
troublesome stepfather out of the way, and when he was in prison she could lead
the life with which she had become infatuated. It is understood that the
girl has given to the authorities the names of the alleged conspirators and
that an investigation, that may lead to the indictment of a number of persons,
is in progress.
Gov. Werts, after receiving the girl’s confession, sent a
Supreme Court Commissioner to the school and had it verified. Mary reiterated
everything she had said to Chaplain Maddock and then made affidavit as to its
accuracy.
TRENTON,
Jan. 2 – For seventeen months Atkinson has been confined under his ten years’
sentence for assault upon Mary Miller, his stepdaughter, now in the Industrial
School for Girls and who recently confessed that Atkinson was innocent.
“I
have very little to say about the latter,” Atkinson said to-day when called
from his cell, “because I think the least said the better. Mary is evidently
sorry for what she has done. I knew, and so did my wife, that I was innocent,
but Mary’s testimony sent me here. I have been watching ever since I came here
for her to repent, and now that she has done so, everything is all right. Mary
is naturally a good girl, and I believe she could be kept way from her evil
companions.”
[“Atkinson
Is A Free Man. – Court of Pardons Acts on His Step-Daughter’s Confession that
She Falsely Accused Him. – Judges Declare Him Innocent. – Says This Barbara Aub
Was Induced by Evil Persons to Send Him to Prison for Ten Years.” The World
(New York, N.Y.), Jan. 3, 1896, p. 9]
***
***
More historical cases of False Rape Accusations
***
[767-10/25/21]
***
No comments:
Post a Comment