of this occurrence is of romantic interest. The murder
itself, the _corpus delicti_, was strange; planned with deliberation and
sagacity, and executed with firmness and vigor. While conjecture was
baffled in ascertaining either the motive or the perpetrator, it was
certain that the assassin had acted upon design, and not at random. He
must have had knowledge of the house, for the window had been unfastened
from within. He had entered stealthily, threaded his way in silence
through the apartments, corridors, and staircases, and coolly given the
mortal blow. To make assurance doubly sure, he inflicted many fatal
stabs, "the least a death to nature," and stayed not his hand till he
had deliberately felt the pulse of his victim, to make certain that life
was extinct.

It was strange that Crowninshield, the real assassin, should have been
indicted and arrested on the testimony of Hatch, who was himself in
prison, in a distant part of the State, at the time of the murder, and
had no actual knowledge on the subject.

It was very strange that J.J. Knapp, Jr. should have been the instrument
of bringing to light the mystery of the whole murderous conspiracy; for
when he received from the hand of his father the threatening letter of
Palmer, consciousness of guilt so confounded his faculties, that,
instead of destroying it, he stupidly handed it back and requested his
father to deliver it to the Committee of Vigilance.

It was strange that the murder should have been committed on a mistake
in law. Joseph, some time previous to the murder, had made inquiry how
Mr. White's estate would be distributed in case he died without a will,
and had been erroneously told that Mrs. Beckford, his mother-in-law, the
sole issue and representative of a deceased sister of Mr. White, would
inherit half of the estate, and that the four children and
representatives of a deceased brother of Mr. White, of whom the Hon.
Stephen White was one, would inherit the other half. Joseph had
privately read the will, and knew that Mr. White had bequeathed to Mrs.
Beckford much less than half.

It was strange that the murder should have been committed on a mistake
in fact also. Joseph furtively abstracted _a_ will, and expected Mr.
White would die intestate; but, after the decease, _the_ will, the
_last_ will, was found by his heirs in its proper place; and it could
never have been known, or conjectured, without the aid of Joseph's
confession, that he had made