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Show A HELL ON EARTH. Mora Testimony on ilia Murder Kstealed on a Heath lied. Svit.uTsK, N.Y., Aug. 7. Louis Hoffman Hoff-man of this city, editor of the Central Democrat, returned today from Koches-ter. Koches-ter. whither he had gone to obtain further fur-ther evidence of the guilt of Joseph I.eikauf, w hose death iu this city two years ago with a confession of murder on Ids lips has aroused a tardy intercut in the cruel fate of the convict In the prison at Amberg. Bavaria, unjustly condemned for another's crime. Mr. Hoffman succeeded in finding Henry Smith, a man who became the boon companion of I.eikauf soon after his arrival in this country. The evidence of the sleuth bed confession to the wife, now dead, is reinforced by the statement state-ment of Smith, who makes affidavit, that Loiknuf revealed to him the whole story of the murder from beginning to end. , The recil.il. Smith says, was for the most part voluntary. vol-untary. Huns pound Into his unwilling unwil-ling ears by the haunted man under a solemn pledge of secrecy. Bcforu it had been divulged Smith's su-picloin had been aroused by the conduct of hi friend, who could neither sleep night or bo by himself days. His life was blighted' by the guilty conscience ho carried. After being frequently taxed with hiding a crime he finally told the circumstance without reservation. reserva-tion. This Is the testimony which Mr. Hodman obtained In Itochester. and on which the ruse will ho pressed before tho German authorities. The murder wu brutally conceived and executed with the sole object of getting nn unfair share of the parental estate, consist inn of a few paltry acrea of land. The victim was a stepbrother who had won the favor of the father. As Smith relate the atnry, n sister of I.eikauf knew of the crime before it wa committed, and of the Innocence of the ninn finally sent to prison and innocently inno-cently punished for il. It wa the sia-tcr sia-tcr who wrote to Leiksuf. nddresslng him by the name of West Instead of I.eikauf, nn occurrence that led to tha impression that it was an alias. Thu far It ha licen Impossible to discover dis-cover the name of the prisoner In Amberg Am-berg prison, who ha suffered for nine years for a crime be did not commit. This ninn w as arrested on suspicion, Leikauf told Smith, heeauscjhc happen-od happen-od to be In the vicinity of the murder and could not account for hi presence. Of this fact Lciknuf sister Informed li i in after he had lied to thl country. Hi life after hi flight must, from Smith description, have been a hell on earth. |