THE TRIAL, CONFESSIONS AND CONVICTION OF JESSE AND STEPHEN BOORN, FOR THE MURDER OF RUSSELL COLVIN, AND THE RETURN OF THE MAN SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN MURDERED

Manchester, VT: Journal Book and Job Office, 1873. Original Wrappers. Very Good binding. Octavo. 48 pp. First edition. As issued, stitched into printed wrappers. Rear wrapper has several creases to the top corner from folding; covers lightly soiled; spine a bit worn; a small chip to the fore-edge margin of the final leaf, no affecting text; all in all a well preserved copy. The trial of the Boorns "is one of the most famous cases in Ameircan criminal law and a constant reminder that innocent persons can be convicted. Russell Colvin, the alleged victim, had married a sister of the Boorns and had several children by her. He was mentally deficient and disappeared in 1812. Local gossip credited the Boorns with having disposed of him, prsumably because he was a burden on the family. In the spring of 1819 . . . the Boorns were arrested and, either from fear or mental weakness, they told stories involving each other in the death of Colvin. A farmer in Monmouth County, New Jersey, believed he recognized a hired man in the vicinity from the description. This man, who was mentally deranged, was enticed to Manchester, arriving on December 22, 1819, six weeks before the day set for Stephen's execution. It was definitievely established that he was the missing Colvin; he had apparently wandered off of his own volition" McDade 111). Sargeant, one of teh Boorns' defense attorneys, offers this account as a cautionary tale of the fallibility of the legal system when it come to misidentifications. "Though published fifty-four years after the event, the pamphlet . . . contains important information on the discovery and return of Colvin" (McDade 113).