The Columbia Democrat. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1837-1850, 1845-05-17

recently made an excursion through the
Auburn State Prison. He gives the follow.
ing accoun, Of his interview with a murde
rer.
sOn my return to the prison office was
introduced to the chaplain, Rev. O.E. MOT.
ill, which reverend gentleman informed me-
tha, n man by the name of Wyatt, then con
fined IN one of the cells for the murder oil
Gordon, on the 9th of March. in the Au
burn State Prison, had confessed TO him
ina, he had lived gambler Sc yeral years in
the South and West and he would like
should call upon him. accompanied him
70 the cell of The murderer. The door was
thrown upon its grazing hinges, when the
reverend gentleman introduced me as an &C.
quaintance of his who had travelled South
several years, aud thought that he (WyatO
would be glad TO converse with him, He
said he was happy to see me, and asked me
to be seated. After short discourse reIa
live TO the different classes of men then in
confinement, | asked him wha, he followed
IN his travels through the South. He told
me gambling asked him how long he
nad been engaged in that II, farious busnessl
| He said twelve or thirteen years. | asked
him il he knew many gamblers! He said
ne did.
asked him If he ever knew one by the
name Of Green lie said he did. | asked
| mis- name lie answered 'John;' said Ae
knew him in 1892, 3, and S and saw him
IN 1912 in St Louis. asked him it he
was intimate with Green. He said he knew
| lnim as one gambler knew another. ask
If favored BIN. He said if would stanG
IN the light he would tell me. did so.-
He said looked Ike the man. told him
was the man, but that never knew hin,
lby The name OF Wyatt. He said did not,
| hat Wyatt was not his real name He then
lod me another, which was not his real
Iname, and asked me it did not hear of a
man being murdered near ST. Louis, in the
wear lS4l, and Of two men being arrested
lbo,h tried and convicted, one having a new
irial grant d him, the oil OF being hung !
old him that thought had lie said he
was The man that had the new trial granted
and was acquitted; and said he, 'they
hung the wrong man; he was innocent:
am The guilty man, bu. they hung him and
Icleared me But says |, you were un.
der different name still, al that ,ime.'-
He said, Yes, by none of these names dc
you know me, but my real name you are
familiar with. Your name said he, j
Iknsw in the year 1892, the gamblers called
: YOU John, but Jonathan is you real name.
My curiosity was highly excI,ed at the
strange management of The murderer. Blu
lyou may imagine The increase OF it when he
told me his real name.
looked al The murderer and could scarce
ly believe my own eyes, yet he stood be
fore me a living marvel. ! have pledged
secrecy as 10 his real name until after hi;
Execution. interrogaled him Oh his frs
= steps in vice, and how he became 50 mar
D dened. He told me TO remember the ueal
. ment he had received from the Lynchers
+, lash a, Vicksburg. did, bu, my eye
could scarcely credit realty. had known
. him IN 1892 3, 4, and in the ealy par, o
'35, as barkeeper in VIcksburg. He wa
never a shrewd card player, but al tina, tim
y, We was considered an inoiiensive youth =
u rhe coffee house he kept was owned b.
North. who with four others were execute
y on The 5,h OF July, 1885, by Lynch law
I Wyau and three others were taken on tn
- morning Of the 7th, stripped and one thou'
and lsshes given TO the four, ,arred an
festhered, and put into a canoe and set 4;
Idtil on The Mississippi river. 1t makes m
blood curde and my flesh culver 10 thin
j. II The suffering condition OF these unfortI
nale men, set adrih on the morning ol III
l7lh of July, with The bro'ling sun upo
p their mangled bodies. Two died in abol
IS two hours after they were annsr. Wya
. land another remained with their hands an
i, feet bound forty hours, ufrerlng more ,ha
=. tongue can tell or pen describe, when the
~ we're picked up by some slave negroes, wi
" started the two survivors 10 their quarle,
'e His companion died before they arrived
OF Wyatt survives TO tell The horrors Of Il
I'd Lynchers last. lie told me sevea murde
I'd had been occasioned by lheir unmelcif
n. treatment to him, and one innocent N;
.r. hung. know his testaments TO be uu
for had known him before 1895, and +
truth in other particulars cannot be double
l., He murdered his seventh man, for viii
- crime he will be executed.
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