In re Snyder

• Decision Date: 01 January 1885
• Citation: 24 F. 910
• Parties: In re SNYDER.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Tennessee

24 F. 910

In re SNYDER.

United States Circuit Court, E.D. Tennessee.

1885

Mr Snyder, (assisted by Moses Clift,) pro se.

BAXTER J.

On the trial of civil suit of Geo. H. Thomas v. The Respondent and others, had in this court at its October term, 1884, the following extraordinary testimony was elicited: The plaintiff Thomas, was an educated weakling. He had lived for a while just prior to his arrest, as hereinafter shown, in southeastern Missouri, where he was involved in a good deal of troublesome civil litigation, and to escape therefrom he fled to and took refuge with a friend at Bartow, Florida. From this place he wandered aimlessly to Chattanooga. Here he took lodging under an assumed name with an obscure family in the suburbs of the city. He was guilty of no criminal offense against the laws of Missouri, or any other sovereignty, but he was controlled by an unfounded and vague apprehension that his adversaries in Missouri would combine and charge him with some crime as a pretext for his arrest and extradition to enable them to bring other suits against him in that jurisdiction. Under this hallucination he contemplated flight to South America. While impelled by these fears, we wrote letters and tore them into pieces and scattered the fragments around his room. This singular and suspicious conduct attracted the attention of the city police, who gathered up the scattered fragments of his writings, and from them concluded that he had committed some grave criminal offense in Missouri from which he was endeavoring to escape. The policemen took Snyder, who is an attorney at law, into their confidence. After consultation they not unnaturally reached the conclusion that he was a fugitive from justice, for whom there was probably a reward offered. In this belief, which I have no doubt they honestly entertained, they determined to arrest him. A warrant has then obtained charging him with being 'a fugitive from justice.' It did not impute the commission of any specific crime, or allege any venue and was consequently without authority of law. Nevertheless Thomas was arrested under it, and taken to the county jail for incarceration; but the sheriff, who is ex officio jailer of the county, declined to receive and detain him as a prisoner without a formal mittimus. Thereupon Sloop, a policeman who had been an active participant in making the arrest, and who then had him in custody, acting under Snyder's advice, applied to the justice who had issued the warrant for his arrest, told him in Thomas' absence that Thomas waived an examination, and upon this false representation, and without further inquiry, the justice issued a paper in these words:

'State of Tennessee v. Geo. H. Thomas, alias Parkhurst. Judgment that the defendant in this case waived examination through H L. Sloop, officer, and was committed to wait further action of the court.

'G. M. SHERWOOD, J.P.'

This paper, vicious upon its face, quieted the sheriff's scruples, and he consented to receive and hold Thomas as a prisoner. After taking the usual precautionary measures for his safe detention, including the taking of $200 in money which Thomas had on his person, he committed him to one of the cells of the jail. Many reprehensible things were said and done in connection with Thomas' imprisonment which need not be enumerated here. It is sufficient, for the purposes of this case, to say that Snyder, who was jointly interested with the officers in the arrest in the hope of getting a reward therefore, became satisfied that Thomas has a weak-minded and partially demented creature; that he was innocent of any crime; that he was well connected, and could probably obtain advances from his relatives; and that the only hope of realizing any remuneration; for his labor expended in connection lith Thomas' arrest and imprisonment has to gain the confidence of Thomas and assume the office of his legal adviser. To effect this end he began and continued to play upon and intensify the prisoner's fears. He told him that one David Hughes, of Bartow, Florida, said that he 'was wanted both in Florida and Missouri,' and followed this fabrication with a long list of interrogatories and intimations, which were intended and calculated to intensify Thomas' apprehensions. Thus alarmed, Thomas expressed a wish to consult an attorney. To this request the sheriff said, in Snyder's presence, 'It is of no use for you to apply for a writ of habeas corpus, for the hearing of the matter can be adjourned from day to day, and you ill simply waste what money you have. ' At this juncture, Sloop, one of the interested policemen, demanded the key to Thomas' trunk, which the latter gave him, and the parties left him for a while to nurse his delusion alone. But subsequently Snyder returned to his cell, and told Thomas that 'he had read the letters found in the prisoner's trunk, and was convinced that he was more sinned against than sinning; that there was a description of him published in the National Detectives' Gazette, coupled with an offer of $500 reward for his capture; that he (Snyder) was not interested in the Missouri parties who wanted the prisoner, but would get his money if the prisoner was delivered to them; that the sheriff was going, in a few days, to Missouri, on other business, where he could get full information, but if the prisoner could get $500, and give it to him, (Snyder,) he would arrange with the officers, and take him out of jail, under the pretext of taking him to Missouri, and would, as soon as they got out of Tennessee, turn him loose, and report that he had been taken back to Missouri, or, if the prisoner preferred to leave the country, he would go with and procure a passport for him; that he was an attorney, as well as a detective, and could act as an attorney for the prisoner; that he was on intimate terms with the officers of the jail, and would therefore be allowed more liberties than were accorded to other attorneys; that the officers of the jail expected to get a part of the reward offered for his apprehension, and would be on the watch; but that something would occur to enable Thomas to get off in such a way as that they (the jail officers) would lose their share of the reward, as they were not as suspicious of him (Snyder) as they were of others.' These suggestions produced the result they were intended to secure. Thomas accepted them as the best and surest method of escaping from the embarrassments which, in his diseased imagination, were impending over him, and retained Snyder as his attorney, and thereafter implicitly adopted and followed his counsel, without, as far as I can see, the slightest misgiving of its wisdom or fidelity. On application by Thomas, he was furnished by a; uncle in Ohio with $200, and by an aunt in Connecticut with $700 more. These remittances passed through Snyder's hands. His friend in Florida sent by one Humphries, a special messenger, the further sum of $800, but, in consequence of the facts to be hereinafter stated, this last remittance las not delivered either to Thomas or Snyder. The messenger intrusted with said last-mentioned sum was a young lawyer from Florida charged with the responsibility of inquiring into the nature of the accusation against Thomas, ascertaining the facts, and taking such steps as he might, in his judgment, deem necessary and proper for his release. On his arrival at Chattanooga he promptly reported to the deputy-sheriff, who, in the absence of the sheriff, had the custody and control of the county jail and the prisoners in it, told...