BRIDGEPORT, Conn., Feb. 26.--The line of defense of Frank E. Bassett was shown today. Witnesses were cross-examined with a view to throwing light on the theory that he was so completely under the influence of Mrs. Alexander that she controlled him about as she pleased. Another point sought to be drawn out from the medical testimony was the probability of "Stuttering Jack's" having half awakened when the chloroform was put to his nose, and commenced a frantic struggle for life with his murderers. When the prosecution rested, late in the afternoon, it was with the understanding that two witnesses, seafaring men, who are expected hourly in port, should be allowed to give their testimony immediately upon their arrival. Mrs. Alexander, with drawn veil, was partially hidden in the crowd of women thronging the court-room in the afternoon. A woman about 40 years old sat in the gallery with her knitting, and the click of her needles was heard on the floor below whenever there was a pause in the proceedings. One man brought in his own chair, and when a Deputy Sheriff desired to dispossess him, he pointed triumphantly to the antique piece of furniture as "my property."
    Isaac Bedient testified that "Stuttering Jack" was his companion on the boat Mary E. Baylis on one of her voyages last Summer; after their return, "Jack" was in Bassett's company, and came to the vessel with him somewhat intoxicated; afterward the three men drank together, and Bassett and "Jack" went away together.
    John Wynkoop, of the Mary E. Bayliss, corroborated Bedient's testimony in part. The vessel returned to Bridgeport on July 11. The witness identified a brass ring and other articles found in the buried clothing as belonging to the murdered man. The witness made the acquaintance of Mrs. Alexander on board the Whip-poor-will, which was lying at a Brideport dock one Sunday in July last, when Bassett brought her aboard and introduced her as his wife; Mrs. Alexander and the child were on the Sterling, of which the witness took charge upon Bassett's arrest; they landed at New-London, and in a conversation with Mrs. Alexander she remarked that she had to support Bassett; she liked him, however, because he was a handy man around the house, could wash the dishes, take care of the baby, and make himself generally useful; besides, he was the best man she had ever lived with, for she could almost twist him around her finger; she afterward said that she would have revenge on Bassett for selling her property, or would get satisfaction in some way.
    There was a stir in court when Wakeman W. Wells, the jailer, was called. He testified that Bassett was in jail for theft when Judge Lockwood called to see him one morning, and told him to say nothing of the crime of murder with which he was charged; a few hours later, however, Wells went to Bassett's cell and asked him how it was that he, brought up in the State of Connecticut, could do such a thing, whereupon Bassett told him the story in full, and the following morning the jailer determined to commit it to paper; he called Bassett into his office, and there took down the statement which Bassett made; he was positive that he used no threats or promises to influence him to confess the murder.
    The confession reads as follows: "Mrs. Alexander went to Dr. Young some time in April to see where she could sell her own body. Dr. Young told her to go to New-Haven and see Dr. Sanford. Dr. Sanford gave her no encouragement about selling her own body. He told her he would give $25 for her own body, but not until after she was dead, then he would give it to her children. After she got home Mrs. Alexander and Lizzie Cavanaugh said to me that they knew how to make money now. They then proposed to me to obtain bodies. I told them I should not have anything to do with it. In about a week Lizzie left. Then Mrs. Alexander wrote a letter to Charles Bateman, and his daughter answered the letter and told her he would not have anything to do with it, and a few days after my father was in the house and she says to him, "I know how we can make money now." My father says, "How?" She says "getting bodies; I can get $25 apiece for them." Father says, "I don't want anything to do with it." Then in about two weeks Mrs. Alexander had him go and hire Mrs. Rosa McMann to come and do her washing, and Mrs. Alexander undertook to give her a dose of laudanum in a glass of beer. She did not drink all the beer; said it tasted bitter, and I asked Mrs. Alexander what was the matter with the beer. She said, "Nothing, only I was going to put Rosa to sleep." I told her that would not answer; she made the reply that it was none of my business. Two days after she gave me a note to give to Frederick Stevens' drug store, on State-street, and get a bottle of chloroform; she also gave me a bottle to get alcohol in, and a small bottle for winter-green, and a note in her name to Stevens, stating that she wanted it to clean clothes with, and a few days after I went to Wallace's bakery to get a barrel one Wednesday evening; she told me she wanted it to put patterns in.
    "A day or two after I went over to town and I met Jack Rufus. Rufus was tight at the time, and I had a glass or two of beer with him; then I asked him to come over to the house with me and have supper, and before we had supper she gave him a glass of whisky to warm him up. After supper he took the baby and sat down on the lounge, and I went into the other room and went to reading the paper. Pretty soon she came into the room where I was and put the baby in the cradle and said Jack was asleep, and she went out of the room again, and pretty soon she came back again and said she had got him fixed, and I says what. She says I have chloroformed him. She called me out of the room, and I told her she had done wrong. She said, "Never mind, Frank, we can got $25 for the body." Then she got the barrel, and I helped to put him in, and then headed the barrel. In the morning I hired a team, and we both went to New-Haven to see Dr. Sanford. After we got there the Doctor would not receive the body and we started for home; came by the way of Derby. We came down the back road to Stratford, and on the way we dumped the barrel in the woods where it was found."
    "I was particular to ask him who chloroformed the man, and he said that Mrs. Alexander did," added the jailer, after reading the confession; I also asked him where he was at the time, and he said that he was in the other room."
    Dr. Robert Hubbard testified that the sponge used in this case would hold enough chloroform to kill a man; the chloroform and the exclusion of air by pressure would kill a person in two minutes, a drunken man in much less time; most persons would be awakened if asleep when chloroform was applied; probably there would be some resistance under the circumstances.
    The finding of "Stuttering Jack's" coat and shoes buried under the hen-coop, and of his body in the Town of Huntington, was testified to by Officer George Arnold; Mrs. Alexander pointed out the hiding-places; the officer found a bottle of arsenic, a number of medical works, and a pistol in a valise belonging to Mrs. Alexander. William E. Marsh, the Chief of Police of Bridgeport, corroborated his subordinate's story about the finding of the body; he recognized the face of the body in the barrel as that of "Stuttering Jack."
    After some further corroborative testimony, Dr. Charles E. Sanford was called as an expert to testify as to the properties of chloroform. "If a sponge of chloroform were held tightly to the nose of a person asleep," he said to Judge Lockwood, "inhalation of the chloroform would be impossible; there would be a strangling sensation for want of air, and there would naturally follow some struggle on the part of the individual."
    Officer Orris S. Jennings testified that when Bassett was arrested by him he trembled so that he could hardly stand, and he appeared very nervous; he said that he did not know when he saw the officer whether he was wanted for theft or "something else."
    Jailer Wells was recalled, and testified that he first broke to Bassett the news of the crime with which he was charged, and that he appeared very much staggered, and came near fainting.
    Here the prosecution rested its case.
    William E. Hayes, the first witness for the defense, contradicted Mrs. Alexander's statement that Bassett was not away from the house for three weeks after the murder; the witness towed the schooner Sterling out of the harbor on July 15, and Bassett was one of her crew.
    The principal object in calling J. B. Beckwith, a dyer, who stabled his horse in rear of the factory, was to show that Mrs. Alexander had great influence over Bassett. His testimony was ruled out. The witness never paid any attention to Bassett when he met him at the factory, for he looked upon him as "a fellow who didn't know anything." State Attorney Olmstead asked Mr. Beckwith, amid laughter, if he had not quarreled with Mrs. Alexander because she would not go out riding with him; if he had not told her that he liked to go to ride with a good-looking woman; if he had not said that his wife was sick at home and would know nothing about it? Mr. Beckwith gave an emphatic "No, Sir," to each of the questions.
    The father of the prisoner, George Bassett, a man with straight hair, copper-colored complexion, and the features of an Indian, testified that his son was 24 years old, and had never been very bright since an attack of scarlet fever when he was 4 years old; Mrs. Alexander had talked with the witness about furnishing bodies for the doctors, and had described the business and the enormous profits to be derived from it. The witness listened, and finally "guessed he wouldn't go into that business."
    Mrs. Susan M. Bassett, the mother, corroborated all that her husband had said about Frank's illness and subsequent stupidity. Lizzie Cavanaugh, Mrs. Bassett added, had told her in the court-room that the result of her visit with Mrs. Alexander to New-Haven was not told to Frank; on one occasion she saw Mrs. Alexander point a pistol at Frank because he hesitated about getting some kindling-wood; Mrs. Bassett had tried to induce her son to leave Mrs. Alexander, but without success.
    Bassett will testify to-morrow.

Source:

Unknown, "The Bridgeport Murder," The New York Times, New York, N.Y., Thursday, 27 February, 1879, p. 1.