Trial for the Murder of Benjamin Twitchell, 1872

 Oxford Times, Oxford, NY, April 3, 1872

San Francisco, Cal, March 12, 1872

Mr. Editor:  I clip the following item from the San Francisco Evening Bulletin of March 9th, thinking it might be of interest o many of your readers, as Benjamin Twitchell was a man well known in Chenango County [NY], especially in the town of Guilford, where he resided for many years before he came to California:

Incident in the Life of Harry Byrne

Editor Bulletin:  A person by the name of Benjamin Twitchell had been shot and killed by one Samuel Gilmore in a land dispute, and Gilmore was on trial for the offense.  Mr. Byrne being at that time prosecuting attorney.  The trial had lasted several days and was then near its close.  It had run far into the night, and being before the days of gas, the Court room, lighted as it was with a few candles, presented a very dismal appearance.  Mr. B. was making the closing appeal to the jury and drew in his argument a picture of the scene.  "Before him," he said, "sat his Honor, the Judge who had passed many weary hours in hearing the case, he who still far into the night sat doing his duty to the people and the prisoner.  Here sat the jury, who had left their business and their homes to try the prisoner, and who had patiently listened to the evidence and the remarks of the lawyers.  There was the Sheriff, an old man grown gray in the service of his country, was overcome by the labors of his calling and the late hour, hardly able to keep awake, yet ready to answer to the demands of his position.  Here even the prisoner's attorney and the people's attorney, each doing their duty, and there sat the prisoner himself, listening to all with eager interest. The picture was nearly complete.  There was one figure wanting to make it entirely so."  Mr. B. paused in his speech; the dim court room was silent.  Raising himself up, he strode over to where the sheriff sat dozing, and seizing him by the shoulder, exclaimed in that remarkable voice of his,

"MR. SHERIFF, BRING BENJAMIN TWITCHELL INTO COURT!"

The effect was electrical.  The Judge stood upright, pale and silent; the jury rose in a body.  The terrified Sheriff stood shaking and trembling, while the prisoner, with open mouth, and eyes almost leaving their sockets, gazed at the scene as if fully expecting, as he no doubt did, to see the ghost of the murdered man stalk into Court.  None except those who have heard Mr. B's, remarkable voice could fully realize the effect it must have had in that dim Court room in the still hour of midnight, in such a scene, calling on the dead to come late Court.  None present but fully expected for the moment to see the dead man walk into the Courtroom.

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Harry Byrne died a few weeks ago, "the last of his race," leaving an estate valued at two hundred thousand dollars, most of which he bequeathed to his friend, Gen. Carpentier.  It is said the will is to be contested by Matilda Haron, the actress, who, it is said, he became infatuated with, and privately married many years ago.

Yours truly,  M.