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| On the 8th of September 1853, George Ward and Gibson joined company for the purpose of attending a show at Mount pleasant, Pa. On their way they called at the homes of the citizens to collect money due Gibson for blacksmithing; Among others they called at Sechrists' residence. According to Sechrist's testimony, a short time before this event he had come into possession of a sum of money and when he went to get the money to pay his bill they saw where he kept it. Some time during the night they returned, broke into their house, robbed them of their money, killed Mrs. Sechrist and supposed they had killed him also. They then set fire to the house that they might conceal the crime. Mr. Sechrist it appears only feigned death and when they went away he managed to escape from the burning building and found his way to a neighbors house where he was cared for and the alarm given. The crime produced intense excitement. Ward and Gibson were immediately arrested and a search was made for the money they were supposed to have secured; though many persons afterwards doubted if Sechrist possessed but a small sum. It is said that though he accused these two men of the crime. Yet in his testimony he would not swear postively that they were the persons who were guilty of the act. In the biography of Jacob Turney, as it is given in the History of Westmoreland County by George Dallas Albert, it is stated that “Mr. Turney who served as District Attorney from 1850-56, obtained prominence as a practitioner especially in the long contested trial of Lucinda Sechrist, a case renumerated among the remarkable criminal trials of the land and which resulted in their conviction of murder in the first degree. But on a new trial granted the prisoners, after a protracted trial, were, to the astonishment of the community who generally condemned the jury for their verdict, acquitted, when they immediately left the region.” The statements that “the community generally condemed the jury for their verdict” seems hardly justifiable, unless public sentiment was that Ward and Gibson were not the persons who committed the crime, but that Sechrist himself was the guilty person. It is said that he and his wife had frequent quarrels, which caused some to think that in a fit of passion he may have done the deed. |
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