The Murder of William Druse - Part 5
Weekly News & Democrat, Auburn, NY, June 26, 1895
Pardon of Mary Druse
Governor Morton has pardoned Mary Druse, who was sent to prison for life for assisting her mother to murder her father. She was confined in the Onondaga penitentiary, but was transferred to the Women's prison in this city, when the institution was opened about three years ago.
The Governor believes that she confessed under great public pressure and finds nothing in the evidence to convict her. the mother was hanged for her participation in the crime. The two women were sentenced from Herkimer county.
The crime for which Roxana Druse suffered the extreme penalty, and for which Mary Druse has served 10 years of imprisonment, or since she was 19 years old, was committed December 18, 1884. Mrs. Druse murdered her husband at their home in Warren, Herkimer county, by striking him with an ax and then shooting him, in the presence of three witnesses. The body was then burned in sections and part of it fed to the hogs and Mary Druse assisted in this operation. On arraignment Mary Druse was not tried, but on the evidence given in the case of her mother, she pleaded guilty.
District Attorney A.B. Steele who tried the case, and Justice Pardon C. Williams, both recommended her pardon. Justice Williams said: "I said to Mary when I sentenced her that if she changed her character and became a good woman, she might hope for executive clemency, but should could not hope for it otherwise." Warden Stout reports that her conduct has bene excellent, but that her health has been poor. She has served bout 10 years.
Friends have been active in working to secure a pardon for her and it is said that upon her release she will be taken by a Mrs. Sherman, a wealthy New York lady, who has worked unceasingly in her behalf and who will place her in an atmosphere healthier morally and physically that she ever enjoyed before. Mary Druse has always been a model convict and has worked about the gardens.
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