THE RETURN OF A MURDERED MAN

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4305, 17 August 1921, Page 4

THE RETURN OF A MURDERED MAN

A TRUE LIFE TRAGEDY THAT IS STRANGER THAN FICTION

Imprisonment for life! It is safe to say that no sentence ever had such a staggering effect on a prisoner as this judgment had on George Pendleton. y He knew he was innocent, but be could not break down the terrible weight of circumstantial evidence brought against him. No one in the court believed him innocent—not even his wife, in her eyes he was guilty of murder. And so Pendleton went to prison, condemned by law, friends, and relatives alike and helpless to save himself.

It was another case where village gossjip <and malicious whisperings; weighed heavily against the man in the dock.

a Mysterious household

George Pendelton, a Texas farmer, ..was not popular with his neighbours in the frontier settlement of Liverpool, Brazoirio Courtty!, Texas, U.S.A. A taciturn, retiring man of 25, he preferred the society of his pretty young wife to that of any other people in the county, and for that reason the settlers were, inclined to-look askance at them. . The arrival of a baby in the Pendleton home did not make them any more sociable towards outsider. People were always discussing them, it was pointed out by certain observant folk that a light burfted' in Pendleton’s house all night. He explained that he was a reader a .id student—something unknown among his neighbour, settlers.

Two miles fronj Liverpool lived another young couple, Mr. and Mrs Guy Hinton. According to country gossip, the Hintons were unhappily married. Both had inherited money, and they quarrelled as to what each would do with it. Mrs. Hinton haL ed the quiet cow-ranch life of Braz. oria County, while her husband insisted on remaining there. One morning Guy Hinton rode np on horseback to the Pendleton home and asked Mr. Pendleton to accompany him some 20 miles to the coast town of Velasco. At first Pendleton demurred, but Hinton seemed so anxious for his company that at last he consented to go part of the way.

Late that afternoon Pendleton returned to his home. People noted the particularly grave expression on his face.

f ,He told his wife that Hinton had asked him tb accompany him on the lonely ride because he (Hinton) had decided to leave his wife and the country, and wanted to relieve his mind and let somebody responsible know why he was going. Pendleton said that Hinson had realised what cash he could without creating sus picion, but wanted more. ,He had therefore begged Pendleto'n to buy his gold watch at a sacrifice.

Pendleton had finally said goodbye to Hinton, who had asked him not to say a word about the failure of his married life. In the circumstances, Mr. and Mrs Pendleton did not hint at any private knowledge when people started to hunt for the vanished Guy Hinton, and public excitement began to grow."

TERRIBLE CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.

A month later, while the Pendletons were at breakfast, there was a knock at the door. Mr. Pendleton rose from the table to answer the summons and, on.opening the door, was confronted’ by a deputy sheriff, who promptly slipped a pair of handcuffs on his wrists. Pendleton was amazed, and asked the officer what it meant.

“You are charged with the murder of Guy Hinton,” replied the sheriff. “His body has been found in the woods on Bastfop Bayou. I should advise you not to talk until you have consulted a lawyer.” Pendleton was dumbfounded—not so much at the charge, for he thought he could easily clear himself, but at the news of Hinton’s death. He was confident that he could explain his last hours with his friend. He had no idea, however, of the circumstantial evidence he was destined to face.

At. the preliminary examination i| was shojvn that the body of a man with a bullet through his head had been found in the woods skirting Bastrop Bayou. The body had been identified as that of Hinton. It was proved that Pendleton and Hinton had left Liverpool together four weeks previously; that Hinton, when he left home, wore his gold watch, and that two boys had seen Pendleton and Hinton standing under a tree talking. >After the boys had passed out of sight they heard a gun or pistol fired from the direction in which they had seen the two men. It was proved, too, that Pendleton had returned to Liverpool wearing Hinton’s gold watch. The body had been found under the. tree where he and Pendleton were seen. In Texas the law seals a defendant’s lips, and, having no means of disproving the case the State had made against him, Pendleton was convicted and sentenced to a peni- I tentiary for life. Mrs. Pendleton believed her husband guilty. This was a terrible blow to George Pendleton. But worse followed. Two years after the trial Mrs. Pendleton secured a divorce and subsequently married a Mr. Devit. Shortly after her marriage she sold all the property formerly owned by rPendleton, which had been awarded to her by the Divorce Court, and removed with her new husband to Atlanta, Georgia.

A LETTER FROM THE GRAVE.

For two and a half years the unfortunate George Pendleton lay in prison. Then an incident occurred which reads almost like sensational fiction. A letter bearing his address and, a South American postmark arrived at the Liverpool post-office. On being opened it was found to be from Guy Hinton, the man Pendleton was supposed tb have murdered. Pedleton wrote to Hinton informing him of the position he was in, and the "dead” man came home. Colonel E. M. House-—later. Dr. Woodrow Wilson’s famous , adviser —raised the matter with the Governor of Texas. The authorities realized that an awful mistake had been made. Pendleton was released in an hour, and, with Hinton—who, it appeared, had been in Brazil, where he had prospered in business—went back to Liverpool. But his imprisonment and sensational restoration to freedom had'- a disastrous effect on Pendleton. He was stricken down with brain fever, and lay ill for weeks. When he-re-covered he left the scene of his disgrace and starte'd to search for his former wife. She had not only married Samuel Devit, but had changed the name of her boy, Pendleton’s son to Devit, not wishing him to grow up bearing the name of a convicted murderer. When Mrs Devit heard of the frightful error that had been made she was overwhelmed with remorse. She fell ill; and her family feared that she might her life. When she recovered, she left Mr. Devit and went to live with her sister.

One day, hearing a knock at the door, she® looked out and saw Pendleton standing there —emaciated, pale-faced, his clothes hanging on his shrunken figure. The shock was too great. In a moment she had lost her reason. Untimately she was declared to be a maniac and was sent to an asylum.

THE REUNION.

The sorely-tried x Pendleton obtained the custody of the little boy and moved to Southern California, where he became a successful fruitgrower. -

When George * Pendleton’s son came of age, his father told him the story ; of that hitherto closed chapter in his life, and encouraged the lad’s keen anxiety to go to Georgia to find out what had become of his mother. The son went to the Vsylum, learned that three years fitter her admission Mrs Pendleton had'been discharged as cured, and that Mr. Devit was He discovered further that his mother had supposed that her boy and*, his father had gone to South America, hating ter very name. The boy persevered in his search, and at last he found his mother in Winston County, Alabama. She wasp still handsome and in splendid health, but her night had been filled with dreams of her former husband. George wrote at once to his father describing the condition of affairs and the sorrow that endured in his mother’s heart. Within a few hours a grey-haired, middle-aged passenger alighted from the train. It was George Pendleton, who had come from Los Angeles to seek his wife. There was a wedding' in the village on the very day of his arrival, and a little later the much-tried husband and wife settled down in a valley near Los Angeles. And so “with wedding bells ended the fearful ordeal of George Pendleton.