Most Heinous and Diabolical

A special train took John Snowden, in the custody of Sheriff Sullivan and several policemen, from Annapolis’s West Street Station to Towson in time for the opening of the trial for his life on the morning of Wednesday, January 23, 1918. Anne Arundel County state’s attorney Nicholas H. Green had been in Towson since the day before, consulting with George Hartman, his Baltimore County counterpart, who would assist in the prosecution. Hartman assured him Snowden would get fair and impartial treatment there.¹ The trial, expected to take two to three days, had landed on the docket of Judge Frank I.