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#Post#: 4979--------------------------------------------------
***Bookends: Amer Ben Ali & Francis Lingo A Comparison***
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: July 27, 2025, 10:02 am
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I'm going to be digging into the second trial of Francis Lingo,
shortly.
His second trial for the murder of Ann Miller resulted in the NJ
Supreme Court
overturning the conviction. Judge Garrison freed Lingo and for a
few years, he
was not heard from again.
That is until 1897.
This is a comparison between Ali and Lingo:
HTML https://i.imgur.com/PiLKsXZ.jpg
#Post#: 4980--------------------------------------------------
Re: ***Bookends: Amer Ben Ali & Francis Lingo A
Comparison***
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: July 27, 2025, 10:03 am
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Be sure to look at the last item on the list.....
** Ali was offered a job at a dime museum in Manhattan.
** Lingo accepted one in Philadelphia.
**Ali was born roughly between 1845 and 1850.
**Lingo was born around 1846
**Ali was arrested in April 1891 and charged on April 30th for
murder
**Lingo was tried for murder in March 1891
On March 8th, 1892, the NJ Supreme Court okayed the request
for a new trial.
Thus inspired, Lingo was said to have begun writing his
autobiography.
By June 1892, Dr. Formad and Dr. A.P. Brown had both died.
This weakened the
prosecution's case in the new trial.
One of the witnesses for the defense, a black man named
Dorsey, was put in jail
for robbing and outraging Jennie Camperson, a local
Camden(NJ) County woman.
In late August, 1892, Lingo was 'scared' by a former Camden
jail prisoner's ghost.
On November 3rd, the second trial began in Camden.
The nail exam undertaken by Dr. Formad was brought up to
ascertain whether
there was blood under his nails...and the tests did.
On November 12th, the jury found him innocent. Judge Garrison
dismissed the prisoner.
**Dr. Formad played a major role in the Ali trial with his
forensic evidence.
**Dr. Formad, played a major role in the 2nd Lingo trial, by
virtue of his death.
**Lingo spoke English well, while Ali had difficulty with our
lingo in America.
** Ali testified at his trial. It didn't go well.
** Lingo testified at his second trial ( Miller murder ). He
held his own.
** Dr. Formad testified at Ali's trial and introduced nail
evidence that led to a conviction
** Dr. Formad testified at two trials in which Lingo was held as
the suspect. Lingo was not
found guilty in the first murder case, but was in the
second. There was a re-trial and he was
released from custody for the second murder. Formad had
examined Lingo's nails for the
first of the two trials concerning the Annie Miller murder.
At the second trial in 1892, his
findings were brought up and corroborated by Dr. Wormley,
also of the U. of Pa.
** Ali was charged with vagrancy ( Queens County), theft ( Kings
County), an assault( New York
County), and the murder of Carrie Brown. Those are the known
arrests.
** Lingo was charged with five separate counts in late 1897, one
of which was the Federal
crime of misusing the US Mail. These charges were vacated. He
was sentenced to twenty years
for the attempted abduction of a woman.
He was released in July 1916. He was reportedly at death's door
in 1918 down in southern Delaware at his
brother's home, a fact mentioned in a few papers. His daughter,
a chocolate chip off the old block, was
fined for destroying a farmer's crops in New Jersey in mid-1898.
**Ali served 11 years in prisons and an asylum. Had he not been
released in 1902, it is possible that he
would have been released in 1911 ( after twenty years served, a
practice enacted in New York State after
they established a pardon bureau).
** While we don't know what Ali did prior to arriving in
America, we find that Lingo, while a slave,
climbed up a ladder to his master's daughter's room, hid under
her bed, and was nearly thrashed to death
upon discovery. He did this at the age of 16 around 1864.
** One of the canards about American justice, especially in the
19th century, was that blacks
could count on not getting fair treatment or competent
representation in court. While some of
the non-moves made by the Ali defense team were questionable to
modern researchers, Ali had
the support from the sidelines of the French Government and a
pro bono defense.
**In examining the expressed opinions of the jurors at the Ali
trial, there were no signs that his
status as a non-citizen or being from a non-European background
affected their judgment.
** One newspaper in New Jersey asked the reader to consider
all the time, expense, and effort
extended by the defense not only to represent Lingo, but also to
obtain a second trial in which he
was released. His treatment, although his track record as a bad
egg was known, was equal to, if not
greater, than many cases involving White suspects.
John Wesley Wescott, Lingo's lawyer, went above and beyond
normal behavior in his verbal
assaults against Dr. Formad. Formad was berated and insulted
several times by Wescott. A rumor
made the rounds ( NY World, March 1891) that the prosecution
requested that authorities protect
Formad in case that the verbal threats turned physical.
The defense claimed that they had learned that one
prospective juror stated he wished to be chosen
just so he could 'convict the nigger'. The juror was selected,
according to the defense team.
**Modern Brownian researchers have expressed their mystification
that Ali received the degree of
support that he did, in light of his track record. In
particular, to some, is the continued effort even after a
near-fatal assault on a fellow inmate in Matteawan Asylum.
**Lingo's defense team, despite their awareness of Lingo's
reputation, pulled out all stops in their
defense of Lingo and disparagement of Dr. Formad.
**A confession from Ali that he had been in room 31 was
recounted by court interpreter Emile Sultan
** The State prosecutor placed a black detective in the same
jail cell with Lingo in an effort to wheedle a
confession from him ( he didn't, but did say that he wouldn't
make any noise unless he had to). -
Philadelphia Inquirer, March 22, 1891.
**Dr. Formad received approx. $1,000 for his service at the
Lingo trial.
**Dr. Formad received $1,200 for his time at the Ali trial.
**Ali's lawyers filed an appeal on the day of his sentencing,
July 10th.
**Lingo's lawyer filed a motion for a new trial almost
immediately.
**Witnesses at the Lingo trial were paid an undisclosed amount.
**Witnesses at the Ali trial were put in jail for at least 56
days and were unpaid.
Three men who served time with Ali in Queens MAY have been
paid for their
time at the trial. The length of which is unknown.
**The money paid to jurors for the 8-day Ali trial is unknown,
to date.
** Jurors on the first Miller trial received $ 384. That's
$13,565 in 2025 dollars.
**The foreman of the first Lingo trial , a Mr. Burroughs, was
alleged to have said he favored conviction
before the trial began ( one juror dismissed the claim that
Burroughs made that remark).
** Joseph Barttels, the foreman in the Ali trial, was at first
for acquittal; then for conviction; and then
several years later, the author of a letter to Ovide Robillard
stating that if 6 other jurors were for Ali
receiving a pardon, he'd join them.
Like Ali, Lingo was on occasion referred to with sympathy in
the papers.
Like Ali, Lingo's track record wasn't too good.
Unlike Ali, Lingo would be remembered as a man who got away
with murder, while
Ali, who may have committed murder, is still regarded with
some degree of sympathy.
**The Ali trial cost New York City $6,000. That's roughly $
211,955 in 2025.
**The Le Coney trial cost New Jersey an astonishing $ 23,000 in
1890.
The first Miller trial cost New Jersey $15,000
Unless the Philadelphia Inquirer made a big mistake with
these numbers, this translates into
a total expenditure for the two trials as being...in 2025
dollars......$ 1,342,381.00
#Post#: 4981--------------------------------------------------
Re: ***Bookends: Amer Ben Ali & Francis Lingo A
Comparison***
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: July 27, 2025, 10:52 am
---------------------------------------------------------
More to come....particularly from Philadelphia papers in 1897
and the coverage of the attempted
abduction of a woman in that same year.
Personally, I believe he got away with at least one of the two
murders ( Le Coney or Miller). Formad
said he found blood on Lingo's person....which is what he
investigated....and he did. It was up to
the State to link it to Lingo. The second trial featured some
additional factors that were not brought
up at the first Miller trial. It created reasonable doubt, and
the killer ( IMHO ) walked.
At the time, Ali's trial was considered one of the most
sensational in NYC history...with major
factors being Inspector Byrnes, the Whitechapel Murder rumors,
and the competitive press.
At the time of the Lingo trial, it was considered the most
sensational in New Jersey history.
In December 1892, Lingo was giving lectures and re-telling his
travails to interested parties
in Philadelphia, as well as being a delegate for Sunday Schools
in Homesteadville ( or 'Matchtown')
and singing in his uncle's church choir.
One sample from the papers in December 1897. I, for one, am
surprised that so little is discussed about this
criminal and his crimes. I just came across a bleeding heart
amateur NJ historian's blog that bemoaned the
racism Lingo faced in the two original trials for the Miller
murder ( Why was he released then?)....and completely
overlooked his 1897 antics.
More to come.......
Philadelphia Inquirer
December 20, 1897
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HTML https://i.imgur.com/ilJcECp.jpg
#Post#: 4982--------------------------------------------------
Re: ***Bookends: Amer Ben Ali & Francis Lingo A
Comparison***
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: July 27, 2025, 6:23 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
If anyone is interested in the 47-page PDF I compiled of Francis
Lingo's crimes and trial information in 1897, plus Two articles,
one from 1892, where Lingo said that
Dr. Formad's death was a judgment from Heaven for Formad's
medical findings.....and a 1916 article concerning his release
and the reaction he could expect should
he return to New Jersey society from both black and
white).............send me an email at:
EastRiverEcho@outlook.com
....and ask for the 'Lingo 97' file. You'll be glad you did
and maybe even name one of your future kids after me.
This is a stunning case that deserves more attention.
List of articles in order:
HTML https://i.imgur.com/oGi5O0f.jpg
Following the first article:
HTML https://i.imgur.com/laQtVMH.png
HTML https://i.imgur.com/QkK5JbT.png
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