The vessel was delayed for a week by storms. Before the ship reached its destination, passengers and crew were overcome by a terrible stench that came from the hold of the vessel. After a thorough investigation, Adams’ body was found in a box among the freight. The authorities were notified and the box traced back to where it came from. As a result Colt was arrested and indicted for murder in the first degree. Colt, after he had been in the Tombs for a few weeks, made a confession, saying the crime was done in self defence. The trial lasted ten days. The jury brought in a verdict of murder in the first degree, and Colt was sentenced to be hanged November 18th, 1842. On the day of his execution, when the Sheriff went to Colt’s cell to prepare him for the last struggle, he was startled to find him dead. Just then the cry of fire was raised, which caused intense excitement among the officials and prisoners in their cells. The lurid glare which came from the burning cupola and which cast a shadow on all sides, attracted wide attention and a great crowd of people. After the fire was extinguished and order once more restored, Colt was found in his cell in a pool of blood. Many persons in the city believed that the burning of the cupola was a well designed scheme to save Colt from the gallows, and in the midst of the excitement Colt escaped through one of the side doors by the aid of powerful friends and a dead body from one of the hospitals was substituted in his place. A few years ago Charles Wesley Smith, a resident of New York, informed the writer that he was present at the burning of the Tombs cupola, November 18th, 1842. A great crowd came to witness the raising of the black flag which was to be the final act in the hanging of Colt and which announced to those on the outside that the sentence of the law had been carried out, but it failed and the general opinion was that Colt escaped. Mr. Smith says that he stood in front of a blacksmith’s shop, opposite the prison, in Centre Street, with many others, when he saw dense smoke coming from the Tombs cupola. In a few minutes there was great excitement in and outside of the building. In the prison yard it is said pandemonium reigned supreme, the shrieks and yells of the prisoners begging to be taken out of the building could be heard a block away. Soon after the firemen reached the prison they played a small stream of water on the fire, which quickly extinguished the flames, and it was all over in half an hour. The general prevailing opinion among the people of the city at the time was that a scheme had been carried out successfully which permitted Colt to go scot free. And that the cupola fire, which was a put-up job, aided him greatly in his flight.