A story about a young Lykens attorney, Henry E. Buffington, and how he established a legal principle in Pennsylvania, that an individual cannot be convicted for a crime for which he had not been charged.
Benjamin Seiders (or Zeiders) was a huckster, who while in Reiner City (Reinerton), Porter Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, died after he was in a brawl outside the hotel there on Christmas day, 1895. Three men, all represented by Buffington, were arrected tried for murder, with the resulting verdict being “not guilty.” However, one of the men, Frank Adams, was declared guilty of assault and battery, an offense for which he had not been charged and was not being tried. Buffington appealed the case and in the appeal heard in Pittsburgh in July 1896, won the release of Adams by the conviction being overturned on the grounds that only one of four verdicts should have been delivered by the jury, none of which included being found guilty on a different charge.
Some of the newspaper coverage is presented here to tell the story.
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From the Miners Journal, Pottsville, January 6, 1896:
ENDED IN BLOODSHED
Benjamin Seiders the Victim of a Bloody Street Brawl
HELD FOR MANSLAUGHTER
Frank Adams, Isaac Bendigo and Charles Bendigo of Porter Township, Held for the Crime and Now in Jail
Three men charged with the killing of Benjamin Seiders at Reiner City, were brought to jail Saturday night heavily handcuffed and placed behind the bars. They are Frank Adams, Isaac Bendigo, and Charles Bendigo, of Porter Township. Their arrest was the result of a fight on Christmas night at Weise’s Hotel, in Reiner City, in which it is said the prisoners played an important part. The Journal, briefly reported the bloody affair, but since then Seiders has died from the result of his injuries inflicted in the scrimmage. His death occurred Saturday and the man were committed to jail bail being refused. District Attorney Bechtel was notified of the man’s death by a telegram sent him by Adam Heckler Sr. requesting him to come over and investigate the case. Mr. Bechtel wired back that it was too late for him to catch a train and directed Deputy Coroner Michael Ganley to make a full investigation and commit all implicated in the crime.
His Skull Crushed.
The prisoners and a number of other convivial spirits were at Weise’s Hotel celebrating Christmas when a fight occurred out on the road. It was about 9 P. M. and the witnesses are a little hazy as to who the aggressors were. The dead man lived at Liverpool, Perry County and was engaged as a huckster. He frequently made trips to Reiner City where his son Benjamin Seiders resides, with a load of produce and there on one of his trips when the fight occurred. It is said that both father and son took a hand in the fight, that former used a fence paling and son a stone. When it was all over the elder Seiders was found insensible on the roadside, with his scull crushed in. He was carried into his son’s house where he lingered until Saturday morning.
The Bendigo’s and Adams were arrested on Thursday and given a hearing before Squire P. J. Brown, of Reiner City, charged with inflicting the injuries. A witness named Sponsler testified that he saw Adams hit Seiders with a stone. He wasn’t positive it was Adams and ran after him to make sure of his man. Frank Wiest, a man named Updegrave, Else Stutzman and Charles Hand were also called as witnesses. None of them could swear that they saw the man who struck Seiders, but recognized Adams and Charles Bendigo as being two of the principals in the melee. They all saw Seiders with a fence paling in his hand and noticed his son armed with a stone. The Squire thereupon placed Adams and Charles Bendigo under $200 bail each to await the result of Seiders injuries, Reuben Berger becoming their surety. Isaac Bendigo, it was shown, was not in the fight. When the man died the three men were sent to jail charged with manslaughter. The prosecutor in the case is the son of the dead man. The prisoners were represented at the hearing by Charles Buffington, a Lykens attorney, who has been retained to defend the men. He is expected to arrive in Pottsville to-day and petition court for habeas corpus hearing and the release of his clients on bail.
The Prisoners.
Frank Adams is a medium sized man, and has a wife and five children living midway between Tower City and Johnstown. He owns a small piece of land, which he cultivates when he isn’t working in the mines. He is about 35 years old, and when seen by a reporter, he was very nervous and fidgety. He occupies cell No. 17 with Alex Tray. Adams says he known nothing about the fight and was too drunk to remember anything about it. He refused to say anything further on the subject, and kept far back in a dark corner of his cell while the reporter addressed him through the grated door. He is a son of the late Daniel Adams.
Charles Bendigo is 26 years old, and occupies cell No. 46. He came to his grated door when the reporter called and cheerfully greeted us. His conduct was unlike that of Adams and the contrast in the behavior of the men struck the reporter. Charley pleasantly talked to us and answered questions very readily. He denies any knowledge of the crime, never saw Seiders, and did not have a hand in the fight. He was feeling hilarious, but wasn’t so drunk that he didn’t know what he was doing. He did not see any person strike Seiders, and says he can prove his innocence. There was no testimony against him, he says. He is 26 years old and single.
Isaac Bendigo, who is the brother of Charles, is a married man and tills the soil for a living. He has a wife and four children and is 33 years old. He is confined in Cell 72 and spoke freely to the reporter. He seemed glad for the opportunity to speak to some one and came to his door without having to be asked. Isaac says he is an innocent man and did not see Seiders nor did he engage in a fight. He says there was no testimony against him and the squire did not deem it necessary to put him under bail. Constable Ike Seiler arrested him at Tower City and did not give him time to go home to bid his family good-bye. He thinks it an outrage to drag an innocent man from his family and throw him into a prison cell without a bit of evidence to warrant it. His lawyer, Mr. Buffington, will be here to-day, he says, and secure his release.
The Bendigo brothers are sons of Solomon Bendigo, who resides near Johnstown. The story that the prisoners went into the stable yard to attack Weiss, the proprietor of the hotel, because he refused to give them any liquor, and that the assaulted Seiders who was looking after his horses, by mistake, is not borne out by the evidence.
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From the Pottsville Republican, January 6, 1896:
BENJAMIN SEIDERS DEAD
Three Men in Prison to Answer the Charge of Murder
On Saturday night Israel Bendigo, Charles Bendigo, and Frank Adams were lodged in the county jail to answer the charge of causing the death of Benjamin Seiders at ReinerCity, Seiders died on Saturday morning from injuries received in a fight at Weise’s Hotel on Christmas night, and the prisoners are charged with being the parties who attacked and brutally inflicted the mortal wounds upon Seiders. The Republican has already published the particulars of the quarrel.
The prisoners stoutly deny having committed the deed, and claim to have no knowledge whatever of the fight; none of the witnesses testify to having seen the man who struck Seiders. On Saturday afternoon District Attorney Bechtel was notified of the death of Seiders by Adam Hechler Sr. and requested the State officer to come over and investigate the matter. In response to this Mr. Bechtel sent word by telegraph that it was too late for him to go to Reiner City, and instructed Deputy Coroner Ganley of Tower City to have all the parties implicated to prison for a hearing, which the Coroner has done.
Benjamin Seiders, the murdered man, lived at Liverpool, Perry County. He made regular visits to Reiner City with produce, which he sold to his customers. It was upon a visit to his son Benjamin, who lives at Reiner City, that the fight took place. Both father and son were in the fight, and the elder Seiders, after the melee was over, was picked up insensible, with his scull crushed in. He was taken to his son’s house where he expired Saturday.
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From the West Schuylkill Press & Pine Grove Herald, January 11, 1896:
Frank Adams, Charles Bendigo, and Isaac Bendigo, of Reiner City, were committed to jail on Saturday, charged with causing the deaths of Benjamin Seiders, an old Juniata County huckster, who made weekly trips into Porter Township. Seiders was hit on the head with a stone causing a fracture of the scull, the quarrel was the result of too much whiskey.
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From the Miners Journal, Pottsville, March 4, 1896:
PEOPLE IN TOWN
Those Who Were Here and Others Who Went Away
Attorneys Buffington of Lykens, and Whitehouse of town, were in Tower City obtaining evidence for the case of manslaughter in the death of Benjamin Seiders. The Weiss Hotel, Seiders’ residence and surrounding grounds were photographed. The case will come up for trial March 9 [1896].
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From the West Schuylkill Press & Pine Grove Herald, March 14, 1896:
NOT MURDER — The jury in the case of Isaac Bendigo, Charles Bendigo, and Frank Adams, of Porter Township, tried for trhe murder of Benjamin Seiders at Reiner City, this county, brought in a verdict acquitting the defendants of murder, but found Frank Adams guilty of assault and battery on Zeiders, the deceased. Judge Albright, of Lehigh County, specially presiding, sentenced Adams to one year imprisonment in the county jail and to pay a fine of $500 and costs of prosecution.
The deputy coroner, a physician and two other physicians, one of whom was Zeiders’ attending physician, swore that the wound did not cause death, but death was due to pneumonia. The court refused to allow the commonwealth the charge of homicide and confined them to the trial of the defendants for assault and battery.
Witnesses testified that they saw Frank Adams throw a stone which struck Zeiders, felling him to the ground. Zeiders was a resident of Juniata County and had come to Reiner City with a load of produce on Christmas Day, when defendants’ counsel excepted to the court and will apply to the supreme court for special allocatur to have the sentence suspended until a hearing may be had.
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From the Pine Grove Herald, March 20, 1896:
Isaac Bendigo, Charles Bendigo, and Frank Adams, tried at Reiner City, were acquitted, with the exception of Adams, who was found guilty of assault and battery. Adams was sentenced to $300 fine, a year in prison, and costs. The defendant’s counsel will appeal to the supreme court.
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From the Harrisburg Telegraph, May 7, 1896:
BUFFINGTON’S FIRST EFFORT
Before the New Superior Court in Behalf of a Client
Attorney Buffington, of Lykens, made his first argument before the new Superior Court, sitting at Pittsburgh this week. He appeared on behalf of Frank Adams, of Tower City, who was acquitted of the charge of murdering Benjamin Seiders, of Juniata County, at the March term, in Pottsville, but convicted of assault and battery. Mr. Buffington advanced the point that a jury could not return a verdict of simple assault and battery on an indictment charging murder. Frank was sentenced to pay a fine of $300 and serve a year in jail, but is out on bail pending the action of the higher court.
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From the Harrisburg Telegraph, July 21, 1896:
JUDGE ALBRIGHT REVERSED
Mr. Buffington Wins His Case Before the Superior Court
A correspondent writes the Telegraph as follows:
H. E. Buffington, of the Dauphin County Bar, wins his first case against the Superior Court. Frank Adams of Tower City, who was found guilty of assault and battery on an indictment for the murder of Benjamin Zeiders, an aged farmer at Reiner City, is once more a free man. Frank Adams, Isaac Bendigo, and Charles Bendigo, were charged with the murder of Zeiders last Christmas night. After a fight, it was found a large stone had crushed the scull of Zeiders. He lingered unconscious for eight days, and died in convulsions at his son’s house. A post-mortem examination revealed considerable pus on the brain, beneath the wound, and also marked traces of pneumonia, three-fourths of one lung having been inflamed.
Buffington constructed an elaborate and ingenious defense on the theory that the pneumonia killed the man and not the blow on the head, and by a remarkable technical cross-examination succeeded in completely breaking down the medical experts of the Commonwealth, and Judge Albright, of Allentown, who was trying the case at Pottsville, ruled that the corpus delicta had no been proven and the defendants were discharged, but detained Frank Adams, against whom the jury rendered a verdict of simple assault and battery. Under the instructions of the Court, Adams was sentenced to pay the costs, a fine of $300, and imprisoned for one year. The case was appealed to the Superior Court and last May argued at Pittsburgh. Young Buffington saw that the case resolved on one and single point, an indictment charging a a felony triable exclusively in oyer and terminer, can there be a conviction of a constituent misdemeanor, or more specifically stated on a charge of murder, can there be a conviction of assault and battery, and bent all his logical efforts to that one point, and successfully established that such convictions are illegal. The argument in Buffington’s paper-book is a model of logical arrangement, consisting of a single syllogism. This decision reestablishes the old common law doctrine that on a charge of murder, there can only be one of four verdicts: murder in the first degree, in the second degree, voluntary manslaughter, or an acquittal. W. J. Whitehouse, of Pottsville, was associate counsel.
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