The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1881-04-05
An Act or True Devotion.

Fred Olds, now confined in the Kansas
State Pcnitentiary, makes q remarkable
statement concerning the murder at Topeka,
of one d. w. Farris. in March, 1874,
| which, 1t will be remembered, created such
a sensation at the time. Olds, a boy then
Of Is, confessed to the murder at the trial
| Of the case, and Is now undergoing the SEN
| tenCe for the crime. But ii his statement
Is to be believed he Is innocent Of the
crime.
The boys statement ls story Of sons
devotion and fathers cowardice. He
! states that on the day Of the murder his
| father sent him home after his loaded gun,
. which he got and placed in the murdered
mans store about noon. Later in the af-
lcrnoon he met his father, who told him
tina. FaIris had gone off on trip, and
wanted him (Frcd) to run the store during
his absence. The father then gave the son
the key Of the establishment, and instructed
him to open the store bright and early the
next morning. He also gave the boy $25,
and told him to 20 of and play billiards
the rest Of the afternoon, and 10 the opera
in the evening. The youth then went on
regular spree, aud was with crowd of
friends all night and until breakfast time,
when ho wont home, and attGrward went
to the store and opened up for the day.
Shortly afterward the father came in aud
told the boy that he had 10 use the horse
and ''do job," and wanted the boy to
assist him. The LOB is supposed to be a
plan Of the old man to get rid Of the body.
About that time the officers appeared IN
the establishment and arrested the pair.
They had been put on the track by friend
of Farris, who doubted that the merchant
would 20 out of town SO suddenly without
telling him. A search of the cellar was
made and q mans leg was found. The
father and son were then escorted to jail to
answer to the charge of murder. On the
way the father cautioned the son to say
nothing. The boy says he became con
vinccd at once that his father had commit
ted the murder, but at the Cor0ncr's IN
quest he shielded bis father and convicted
himself. Olds, senior, then got out on bail,
and the boy remained in jail five months.
During his confinement the father visited
the son frequently. Ononc OF these visits
the boy was told that there was bag con-
tanning pair of boots on top of cupboard
in the jailcr's office, and he wanted them
secured and burned. There were two doors
between the prison and the Office, but to
the surprise OF the boy the jailcr strangely
LETT these two doors unlocked, and the bag
was very easily gotten, and in the presence
OF other prisoners burned in the stove.
Two of these witnesses are now in the pen
itentiary. These boots, it seems, were the
fathers, and bore marks that pointed to
his guilt. After that the father made his
soA another visit, and the boy was per-
suaded to sacrifice himself to save his
father, upon the promise that pardon
would be procured in a few years on the
ground of the youth of tho prisoner. AT
terward the mother vlsi..d to her that he
had killed Farris in a quarrel. When the
case came up for trial young Olds pleaded
guilty to the charge and wholly exonerated
his father from oil completely in the bloody
deed.
After the prisoner had been in the peni-
Tertiary year, his father and mother went
to Michigan and from there to California.
After five years Mrs. Olis came back and
endeayored to procure pardon for her
boy, but failed. This intelligence was
conveyed by letter to the father, and in a
month after he killed himself.' The know
ledge Of the suicide, however, did not
reach the boy until some time last summer.