Show NUMBER av 88 TN N the potters cotters field just outside the gloomy malls of the abslum for tile t ue criminally insane nt fit matteman Matt ewan K N y there Is a headpiece tears the number 88 83 anil and back of this simple niile inscription Is a story of identity concealed even in ili the face of the laws most deter determined efforts kaich makes fiction appear pale and by comparison all that la Is known of the early ill hi tory of sirs mrs henrietta robinson the palpably assumed name of uie the woman whose body rests beneath the lie numbered headstone at Blatt ewan Is that she was of 0 either english or Can canadian adlan origin and that she cams came to troy N X yi Y in 1801 1851 being always well supplied with funds from a source which remained concealed even during the rigid investigation which followed her arrest on the charge or of murder some months after sirs mrs robinson settled in troy a strange and apparently inexplicable tragedy occurred A merchant and a young woman who was living with jils his family dropped dead tit at the table A postmortem post mortem examination ami showed that they had been poisoned and despite tile the absence of motive sirs mrs robinson Robin sou who had been present wag sas arrested but refused to say gay a word even to her lawyer to add to the air or mystery which surrounded the entire case the defendant insisted upon appearing in court shrouded in a heavy black tell which effectually concealed her features all during the trial she sat impassive and unmoved noved apparently taking not the slightest interest in the conduct of the proceedings when the state had concluded its case a comparatively ively flimsy structure of circumstantial stant lal evidence the counsel for tho the defense arose and admitting that he had not a shred of direct evidence to offer introduced the plea of insanity at the conclusion of the trial and before delivering his charge to the jury the presiding judge called attention to the fact that no one in the court had seen the defendants face baca and requested sirs mrs robinson to lift her veil tell slowly and with great dignity she arose but made no effort to comply with the courts request 1 I am here she stated in a volet voice which penetrated to every corner of the crowded courtroom to undergo a most painful ordeal not to be gazed fit at the request was not nos repeated and after a deliberation 0 of several hours the jury returned a verdict of guilty and the prisoner ioner was sentenced to death a decree which was later commuted to life imprisonment by order of the gover governor fier though not before sirs mrs robinson had made her one formal statement 11 the shadow of the gallows when I 1 am dead ike declared all will die with me I 1 have promised to be silent to die without betraying anything the first 18 years of her life sentence te nee were passed lu in sing sing penitentiary tent iary lary she was then moved to the auburn state prison for the insane wh where ere she remained tor for 17 years and finally to tile the asylum in of the criminally insane where the woman of mystery finally died on slay may 4 1005 1905 after 52 32 years in prison during all this time however ho weer she never wrote a letter nur nor spoke a word save to her lawyer who visited her at regular intervals aul and who admitted that ills hla sen serl services ices had been paid tor for by certain influential personages whom lie was not at liberty to name all that was of henrietta robinson was that she played the organ at sing sing with the touch of a master musician and that she died is as she had lived in silence utter and absolute leaving as a heritage some of the most puzzling questions in the lit history of criminal proceedings what was as the TV real kairit and where had she come irom from had she poisoned the merchant aud and his young guest and if so with what motive why had bad she insisted upon conceal lug ing her face during the trial it if she were innocent why lid did she refuse for more than half a century to make tiny any plea for leniency what did she mean by her statement that she had promised to ile be went silent to die NIt without bout bet betraying anything who supplied the funds nith the lawyer was paid the answers to these slid and as tinny more loore usi vid riddles connected with tills this woman of mystery lie concer concerted ded beneath that simple headpiece lit in tile lie potters field tit at Mattek xan a head stone only the number sa |