Ilion High School - Class of 1948

The Herkimer Evening Telegram - December 26, 1947

Martin E. Murphy Recalls Duty As Juror in Warder Murder Trial

Article 8

Martin E. Murphy Recalls Duty As Juror in Warder Murder Trial

The Christmas pardon given to Rutger B. Warder, 69, by Gov. Dewey, recalled to the memories of many Herkimer residents today Warder's murder trial in April, 1921, that matched, in some respects, the lurid dramatics of an older and more historical crime - the American Tragedy.

In the American Tragedy, novelized by Theodore Dreiser, Chester Gillette, a 23-year-old stripling, was convicted at the court house here of the murder of his sweetheart, Grace Brown, at Big Moose Lake in 1906. Gillette was electrocuted at Auburn following a trial that piled sensation upon sensation.

Warder's crime, the murder of Henry Werner, of Old Forge Rd., drew less national interest than the American Tragedy but nonetheless attracted "box office" crowds to his trial.

Ralph Harter, Brook St. Ilion, discovered Werner's body in a woodlands just above the Old Forge Rd. school on Feb. 22, 1921. Warder, at that time a boarder at the Werner home, first admitted and then denied that he had slain Werner.

Sentenced to Die

He was found guilty in the first degree by a jury of 12 Herkimer County residents and sentenced to die in the electric chair. Later the death sentence was commuted to life by the late Governor Alfred Smith upon recommendations by the jurors, the district attorney and relatives of Werner.

Among the jurors was Martin E. Murphy, 511 Renwick Ave who has conducted an insurance business in the Manion Bldg, for the past 42 years. William Cress, now dead, was the sheriff. The late Earl Ward was district attorney.

Others on the jury were John E. McEvoy, presently living at 335 E. German St.; Fred H. Brown, now living at 517 N. Main St.; Leon Klock, Edward P. Walthart, Bloomfield C. Wires and John W. McCoy, all of Herkimer; DeForest G. Gorton, Winfield; Emerson D. Rider, Litchfield; Harry T. Deyo, Fairfield; Leon F. Upson, Schuyler, and Jeremiah Ryan, Frankfort.

Pulls 'Sneak Play'

Murphy recalled today that the trial lasted three weeks, during which time the jury was locked up in the Palmer House.

"I got so homesick at one time during the trial," Murphy said, "that I begged Sheriff Cress to let me get away from the hotel on a Saturday afternoon. He allowed me to go home in company with Deputy Dow Powers. I had a nice warm bath, made a change of clothes and went back to the hotel where the other jurors, tired and wearied, 'convicted' me of having made a sneak play."