The Friday Murder Mystery

THE HEARING AT HAGERSTOWN– DETAILS OF THE CRIME, ETC.
[Reported for the Baltimore Sun.]

HAGERSTOWN, MD., June 27, 1877.– James Gardner and J. W. Grove, who are in the county jail at this place on suspicion of being the murderers of Rev. J. M. Friday, June 1, were taken before Justice R. E. Cook, at 9 1-2 o’clock this morning for a hearing. A large number of persons attracted from all parts of the county to the hearing stood in knots on the streets long before the hour announced for the hearing, discussing the case as they had read it in Tuesday’s Sun.

To accommodate the several hundred persons desirous of being present at the investigation, Justice Cook transferred his office temporarily to the town hall. The prisoners were brought from the jail, securely handcuffed, by Sheriff P. J. Mayberry and deputies, and realized for the first time probably the seriousness of the crime with which they stand charged and the indignation it has met at the hands of the people, and deeply expressed in the countenance of many of those present from Harper’s Ferry, West Va., and Sandy Hook, Md.

When everything was ready to proceed with the investigation, the spectators were suddenly disappointed by the announcement of an agreement between counsel to postpone the hearing. State’s Attorney Edward Stake asked for postponement to Tuesday morning, July 3, at 9 o’clock, to which Col. Geo. Freaner, counsel for the prisoners consented. As the witnesses, or most of them, were present, and it not being questioned that there was sufficient evidence to commit the prisoners, there were many surmises as to the real cause of the postponement.

Gardner vigorously denied in his cell during the morning to your correspondent that he had made a confession to the detective implicating Grove as the murderer, and in consequence it was thought better to gain more time, during which counsel feel assured he will turn State’s evidence. Mr. Charles Davies, of Harper’s Ferry, assisting counsel for the prosecution, stated that the evidence was so strong that it would scarcely be necessary to use the confession of the prisoner, even if it had been obtained in the most positive manner in the presence of a third party as witness.

It was further assigned as a cause for desiring postponement that Mr. A. K. Syester, who is a business partner of Col. Freaner, had been retained for the prosecution at the instance of Mr. Whip, of Jefferson, Frederick county, Md., father-in-law of Rev. Mr. Friday. After the postponement was announced by the justice a crowd surrounded the railing enclosing the prisoners, but the hall was soon quietly cleared.

Grove’s reputed wife, who is known as Sally Fair, a woman probably 50 years of age, wearing a “shaker” which covered her entire face, went over to speak to him before he was taken back to jail. As the irons were being replaced on Grove he said to the woman, “Tell the children not to be uneasy; they may hang my body, (with an air of defiance,) but I’ll have my soul left.”

The woman replied sharply, “Hush up, you blame old fool, you.”

Grove as he was taken from the room continued muttering something about being “as innocent as a child” and that “the angels were hovering around him!”

The list of witnesses summonded in the case include John Minks, Mrs. John H. Reed, Richard Donovan, Jas. Bowers, Charles Unseld, Dolly Bender, Jane Waters, Alex Murphy, John Roderick, Wm. Shepherd, Harrison Carter, — Brady, Alex. Dent, John H. Reed, Martha Reed, Mollie Leonard, James Walter, Sallie Grove, Fanny Smith, Patrick Higgins, J. J. Moore, Mr. Wells, Emory Allen, Mrs. Walters.

Since then circumstantial evidence has turned up which completely corroborates that statement. The bag which contained the onions was borrowed from Thomas A. Kirwin, of Harper’s Ferry, by Grove. Both the prisoners were seen by half a dozen persons going over the bridge and up the road, one of them having the bag. The onions, 1 1-2 pecks, were stolen from a patch in front of the residence of Mr. Barnhard at Sandy Hook, and a person in the family heard distinct noises in the patch about this hour. The men were seen returning to Harper’s Ferry bridge near the scene of the murder, after which the two men went up the Maryland heights to a house of ill-repute to which they frequently reported.

Rev. Mr. Friday was murdered about ten o’clock, his watch, which would soon stop after falling into the canal, pointing to five minutes after ten o’clock. All the inmates of the house of ill-repute, kept by Jane Waters, will testify that both men came to the house between 10 and 11 o’clock. Dolly Bender, one of the inmates, says some one brought the onions home and hid them at a corner of the garden fence. Gardner told her to bring in the onions, and to say nothing that they had brought them home. The tops of the onions were bruised “right smart”. They were used next morning for breakfast.

The men have made various contradictory statements as to their whereabouts that night at the hours named. When the men were arrested Grove’s wife said they were at home all that night, but has acknowledged that such was not the case. She told the detective in making the arrest to “saddle it on the right horse,” and when Gardner was arrested he asked, “If they were going to get Grove too.”

Grove and Gardner were born in Loudoun County, Va., and Jefferson County, W. Va., respectively, are both illiterate, and are considered perfect “Molly Maguires.” Grove is fifty years of age, the father of ten children, four of them living, and Gardner is twenty-six years of age and unmarried.

Grove is rather a desperate looking fellow, with narrow receding forehead and high and broad cheek bones. The residents have never known him to work. He lived in a shanty 1 1-2 miles from Sandy Hook, and is charged with having played the “blind man,” and represented himself as a local preacher on various begging expeditions. His name is connected with various larcenies. He served a term in the penitentiary for stealing corn.

Patrick Higgins, one of the witnesses, says that in 1859 Grove and Bill Catherine were under trial for the murder of an Irishman named Corcoran, whose body was found lying outside of Grove’s door one morning with the skull split open, after a drunken brawl. A vigilance committee had the rope around Grove’s neck to lynch him when they were persuaded to allow a trial by law. Grove got off by an important female witness being found wanting. He has been at Hagerstown jail so frequently for various offences that “Grove’s cell” has become a recognization feature of the institution.

Gardner is a red headed young man, of apparently uncontrollable temper, and otherwise is not a bad looking man.

Two detectives of Smith and West’s force were working up the case about two weeks, one of them taking the character of a miner and the other that of a young man who sometimes “played crooked,” and was wanted in Pennsylvania for a murder. The detective in this way worked themselves into the confidence of the prisoners. The detectives went to work at the instance of the officers of Rev. Mr. Friday’s church, Mr. Hopwood in charge.

A vigilance committee of thirty-eight members has been organized at Sandy Hook, and it is openly avowed that if ever the men return there that they will be lynched. A committee of about thirty citizens assisted in the arrest of the two men, several of whom carried masks, and strong arguments were advanced to prevent interference with the law. The indignation in this section is very great, especially in localities where Rev. Mr. Friday was known.

the parties to the romantic marriage which resulted in the death of the officiating clergyman have been remarried, in consequence of a failure of a recordation of the minister’s certificate.

It is believed at Harper’s Ferry that the murderers mistook Rev. Mr. Friday for a gentleman who was expected there to invest money in a mineral quarry. The motive was evidently gain, which was frustrated by a too powerful blow, forcing the body into the canal. Dr. W. H. Gannon says there was a slight abrasion of the skin on the bruise on the right temple. This bruise was not perceptible till after the coroner’s inquest, when the blood diffused.

HAGERSTOWN, JULY 3.– The postponed preliminary hearing in the case of James Gardner and Jacob W. Grove, charged with the murder of Rev. Mr. Friday, near Harper’s Ferry, came up before Justice R. E. Cook, at the courthouse here, at 9 A. M. to-day. The prisoners had a lengthy private consultation with their counsel, Mr. Geroge Freaner, in one of the rooms of the courthouse.

Mr. Freaner then, before the justice, said that after the publicity given to the charges affecting the prisoners it would not probable that they could avoid being held for a higher tribunal, where a full and final investigation would take place. They could not hope to be discharged on a preliminary hearing, and even if the case could not be made out bailable it was not probable the prisoners, poor as they were, could find even reasonable bail. Therefore he had concluded to waive a preliminary hearing, and the prisoners would allow themselves to be committed to await the action of the grand jury, unless on further developments it should be deemed proper to invoke habeas corpus. State’s Attorney Stake, who is assisted by Mr. Syester and Mr. Chas. Davies, said that of course it was the right of the prisoners to waive an examination, and as they had seen fit to do so the State must accede. They would be committed and that was all the State could obtain anyhow.

Justice Cook then made out the commitment, and the prisoners were taken back to jail by Deputy Sheriff Leggett.

The following witnesses for the State were then recognized to appear at the next term of the Circuit Court, which begins on the 19th of November next: John Roderick, F. G. Ott, Martha Reed, Ed. Talterson, Alex. Murphy, R. B. Dickey, Geo. Welb, Patrick Higgins, John Wink, Chas. Unseld, Hanson Carter, Richard Donovan, Geo. W. Beatty, D. P. West, D. Kersner, Abraham Barnhart, Jas. Bowers, Emory Allen and Chas. L. Hopwood.

After the prisoners got back to jail Gardner sent a note to States Attorney Stake requesting him to come to him “with the little detective” and one of the women, who is a witness in the case. Mr. Stake went to the jail and saw him. The prisoner told Mr. Stake that he wanted a hearing; he wanted to get on the stand and testify. The State’s attorney informed him that he could not get him a hearing new, but if there was anything he wanted to testify he should let him (the States attorney) know what it was first. Gardner refused, however, to do this, and Mr. Stake then left him. It is understood the State’s attorney thinks the prosecution is in possession of evidence sufficient to convict both the prisoners. Grove wanted the preliminary hearing waved in order to prevent Gardner from “making a clean breast of it.”