The Innocent for the Guilty.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 187, 10 June 1873, Page 7

The Innocent for the Guilty.

There have not been wanting in the records of English criminal trials cases where men have been condemned and punished for offences they have been perfectly innocent of. The circumstances connected with the confession of Antonio Silvestro, in South Australia, appears to reveal a case of this character, in which an innocent man has paid with his life the penalty of a crime committed by another man. We before alluded to some of the circumstances connected with this'case, and we now furnish the sequel. An Italian named Antonio Silvestro called at a police station at Streaky Bay, and told the officer in charge that he had just taken the contents of a bottle of strychnine, which he produced. Silvestro had fits and convulsions, and during the intervals of these the policeman obtained the following statements:—"That ten years ago, at Castlemaine, he, Antonio Silvestro, committed a crime which placed his life in jeopardy, and ever since the fugitive had wandered about the wild bush, never venturing near a town, or any place of human habitation, except occasionally an outlying shepherd's hut, fearing detection. The murderer lived on wild animals that he could catch, and on such roots and fruits as he could find in the desolate and hungry Australian bush, till he at last resolved to end a life of misery. These are the particulars of the account. Now for the most distressing chapter in this story of crime. In the year 1863, Castlemaine, in Victoria, was agitated greatly by a shocking murder which had been perpetrated at Daylesford. The victim was a young woman named Margaret Graham, who was found murdered in her dwelling. The al leged murderer, David Young, was prosecuted and convicted, but up to the last moment denied his guilt. In this he was borne out by his clergyman—the Reverend the Dean Crawford, of Castlemaine—and by Mr Otto Berliner, the well-known detective, who at that time was a member of the Victorian detective department, and had been specially called up from Melbourne to assist Mr Superintendent Nicholson in the enquiry into the murder case. Berliner all along expressed his belief that Young was innocent, and that an Italian was the murderer of Margaret Graham, and, because of that belief, refused a reward tendered to him for Young's conviction. The Age starts an investigation of the case, and calls upon the Victorian police to satisfactorily answer these queries :—What other murder was committed in 1863 in the Castlemaine district? Was Antonio Silvestro not an inmate of the hotel in Blanket Flat, where Margaret Graham was once a dancing girl ? Is Antonio Silvestro not the man who last met Margaret Graham in Albert street, Daylesford, and had a dispute with her a few hours previous to her death, in the presence of Anne Jewett, the witness found by Detective Bei-liner, who was not examined during the trial of the Young murder case ?