The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-06-28
G0rdOn's Last Letter.
Letter from Gordon to Warden Rice
Suicide determined On long siuce-Three
ways of taking his life-Strongest prot
esiaiOns of innocence, etc, etc.

The following is a literal copy of letter
found in Gordon's cell after he was removed to
the gallows, addressed to Warden Rice. He
left several letters to his parents, relatives and
others, in all of which he solemny protests his
inn ,cence. The following letter is undoubted-
ly the last written by the man and done the
night before his death,
THoMAsTON, June Oath, 1875.
Warden Rice
My Dear Il feel it my duty to pen
these lines to you. l have ever been kindly
treated by you and your family. L have re-
ceived many favOrs from Mrs Rice, and for all
your kindness l can only thank you all with
the deepest gratitude. l am aware that you
have done all you can to save my life, and l ap
preciate all You have done for me- 1 also have
been treated kindly by the other officers in al
most every instance. l have ever intended to
do my duty since have been here; and of late
it has been far easier for me to do my duty
than it used to be-
l have been forced to die an ignominious
death for crime that / am innocent of, and
the thought of the disgrace it will leave behind
has brought me to fulfil my determination. 1
have ever and always been prepared to take
this step rather than suffer death on the gal
lows. L have often been assured that my SEN
tencc would never be executed, that no man
would ever dare to execute my sentence on the
evidence; still, from the time soon after L was
convicted prepared myself so that l should
never have to go on to the gallows. That is a
death that did not deserve, and being inno-
cent of the charge, 1 deemed it my duty to pre-
vent it if L could, and shall do all in my pow
er to prevent it, SO if fail it is not my fault.
I prepared myself in three different ways, so
that If | was detected in one still had another
resource. To clear your suspicious, l will say
truly that neither any officer nor convict has
ever passed me anything whatever to help my.
self with. l consider that it is easier to bleed
to death than die by poison, so have taken
my chance. 1t is not insanity that drives me
to this. My mind was never clearer than
when l take this step. l am forced to it. Still
the world will say that was coward and dare
not face death on the gallows.
care not what the world says. Set any
man in my situation and if he is an innocent
man, he will be justified in my. opinion if he
prevents his being executed on the gallows.
Perhaps also the world expects me to confess
that am guilty. Here must say that | know
positively that am innocent in every sense of
the word.
just as soon as it was started against me, I
was already convicted by the community.
claim that did not have an impartial trial,
that prejudice did more towards convictng me
than the circumstantial evidence did even after
it was strengthened by false witnesses. l was
not able to show my innocence from the very
fact that it should have shown itself. Thers
must be a clew to the perpetrator of that crime
somewhere, and think and feel that the time
is near at hand when that clew will be found.
Then how all will feel about the matter
If l was guilty of that crime 1 should say so,
for it would be relief to my friends for if 1
deserved this death they would not feel so bad
about it, and it certainly could do me no harm,
not in the least. But have nothing to con-
fess. The whole guilt of that crime lays ON
some other persons head than mine. But still
it does no good to say it. The world knows or
thinks it knows better than l do. leave this
world without any malice against any one I
am only sorry that some have gone so far as
they have.
Mr.. Rice. thanking you and your family
for what you have done for me, will now bid
you all good bye.
Faithful until death, farewell,
j. TRUE GORDON.