June 30, 1911 - Blasts Name, Saves Man Facing Jail for Her Deed
as published in the New York Herald
ACCIDENT, SHE SAYS.
Pretty Widow Tells of Night Drive and Fear the Allowed Innocent Man's Conviction.
{Special Dispatch to the Herald.}
PHILADELPHIA, PA, Thursday. - At the expense of the own good name Mrs. Stella Hodge, a pretty widow, whose home is in Warren, PA, has by her confession placed herself in the shadow of the gallows to save an innocent man already convicted of murder in connection with a crime for which she declares she alone is responsible.
The death of Emil Amann, at Warren, on the night of January 27, the conviction of John M. Andrews, Superintendent of the Water Works of the city, for the crime, and the confession of Mrs./ Hodge today furnish one of the strongest examples of the fallacy of circumstantial evidence in the history of criminal jurisprudence.
Mrs. Hodge was arrested yesterday in Atlantic City, admitted the shooting to a detective and today in a Magistrate's court confirmed the confession.
Mr. Amann was employed by the Warren City Council as a waterworks expert; it was his business to look into and correct any physical discrepancies in the system. In this work he was the aid of Mr. Andrews, the superintendent. Mr. Amann on the night of January 27 last telephoned to a Warren liveryman ordering a horse and buggy. "Send a horse that will stand tied," said he. "I'll want the rig about thirty-five minutes; charge it to Amann and Andrews. "
Pursuant to the order the rig was delivered to Mr. Amann about eight o'clock that evening. Policeman at eleven o'clock that night found the horse straying in the streets, dragging the harness. The lines and traces had been tied about the animal's neck in a crude way, as if by some who knew little of harnessing a horse. At daybreak the following morning two women living near the Warren reservoir saw the buggy standing on a common near by. They called attention to it, and soon the body of Mr. Amann was found, lying face down in the mud, a bullet hole in the back of the head. The dead man's teeth clutched the stump of a half smoked cigar.
Held on Circumstantial Evidence
Nearby were three empty cartridge shells and a rod away an automatic revolver. The weapon was identified as having once been in the possession of Mr. Andrews, the water works superintendent. He was called as a witness at the Coroner's inquest and confronted with the ownership of the revolver and the fact that Mr. Amann had asked that the hire of the horse and buggy be charged to "Amann and Andrews." The water works official frankly admitted that Mr. Amann had telephoned to him on the night of January 27 to go with him to repair a water works break, but he declared he had declined to go.
Mr. Andrews arrest followed. Despite his attempts at an alibi and desperate protestations of his innocence, the coil of circumstantial evidence slowly drew itself about him and a jury returned a verdict finding him guilty of having killed his friend.
Half the town testified at the sensational trail. Mrs. Hodge was summoned, but for some reason yet accounted for did not testify. With guilty knowledge of the facts of Mr. Amann's death she kept silent, all because she knew that to speak would blast her reputation in the community where she lived from childhood.
But there was a lawyer in the case who entertained none but practical views regarding crime and its relation to the law. He was James Scarlet, who achieved fame because of his legal work in the Capital graft trails at Harrisburg and for the United States government in the powder trust case.
Mr. Scarlet hired a detective, and on a hint or two that he had gathered out the man upon the trail of Mrs. Hodge. The woman was coaxed to Atlantic City and suddenly was confronted by the detective with a hypothetical story of the killing of Amann.
Filled with sympathy for the innocent Mr(s). Andrews, terror-stricken by her own knowledge of the tragedy, she chose between self-sacrifice and honorable duty and told what she knew.
Tells Story of Shooting.
Mrs. Hodge said that Mr. Amann took her buggy riding on the fatal evening and went to a reservoir on Tanner Hill, where he told her he had to examine a valve in one of the water mains.
"He stopped the horse a few yards from the reservoir," she said, "and started toward the sheet of water. I was alarmed at being left alone; I feared that some one might see me, and I knew it would ruin my reputation. I called Mr. Amann to come back, and told him of my fears. He took a revolved from his pocket, and laughingly handed it to me. I was holding the weapon when the horse became frightened and plunged, and it was suddenly discharged. It was an automatic weapon, and one shot after another followed in quick succession. Mr. Amann fell toe the ground dead.
"I was so terrified that I did not know what to do. I fled. The next day, when the body was found, there was talk of suicide, and I kept quiet. When Mr. Andrews was accused I was tempted to tell, but I could not bring myself to the point of ruining my reputation. I am ready now to face the court and tell all I know."
Mrs. Stella Hodge Was Married to Jamestown (N.Y.) Man.
Warren, PA - Thursday - Mrs. Stella Hodge, under arrest in Philadelphia for the shooting of Emil Amann here last January, is well known here, according to attorneys in the trail of John M. Andrews, who was convicted of murder in the first degree, for the crime. Hodge is her maiden name, and she was married three years ago to Arthur E. Drake, at Jamestown, N.Y. Her parents live at East Whitfield, Bradford county, PA., and a brother, John, is in the automobile business in Syracuse, N.Y. The husband is said to be in Port Huron, Mich.
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