The Osceola times., 1882-07-22

eff in that fashion II nearly killed them"
"What other murderer was in the hab-
II of receiving the attention OF women?'
asked the reporter.
"Ob, several of them. II seemed to me
TO be only necessary for man TO have
committed a particularly heinons crime
I to become the hero and idol of lot of
addlepated or thoroughly corrupt and
vicious females. / used TO watch them
closely, and | came to the conclusion
that it was not piety that attracted some
Of these women. Ore woman, whose
name l could not give you, tor she has
had four husbands inside OF ten years,
was a constant visitor, and took great
fancy to Wheeler, the stranger. She was
speedily cut out, however, by good
looking married woman, whose husband
lives on Powell street. A big policeman,
who is not unknown TO kearney street,
brought this married woman up one day
to see the Jail, and after that she spent
the most of her time on the outside of
the strangers wicket sic brought him
boquets and books, and, between her
and the other women that wanted TO win
smile from him, the villains cell be.
came like conservatory.
"You may think I'm exaEgerating, but
sir, it's fact that this cold blooded, I'M
natural rDfhan, who has outraged every
principle of decency, has received 50
many boquets in day that he could
make present of one to every cell in
murderer's row. The more the papers
described the revolving details of his
horrible crime, the greater interest these
morbid minded women took in him.
The other ruflians, who had dyed their
hands only in some drunken wife's blood
or killed some person in brawl, were
entirely overlooked in the anxiety to
minister TO the comfort of the stranger
The charm ofillicit love seemed to have
imbued his brutal crime with romantic
interest that none of these prurient-
minded women could resist. There were
three sisters-at least they said they were
sisters-who did everything in their
power to make things pleasant for Wheel
er. One of them used to keep lodging
house near Portsmouth square, and the
other two live in Oakland and are mar.
ried. | have been told, on good authori-
ty, that these three women subscribed
$4,000 to help Wheeler make his de-
fense, and you can say with truth that
bat for them he would be to-day - we'll.
would not like to say where he would
be. The scriptures say, YOU know.
Judge not etc. The gallows, however,
would have found one of the finest sub.
jects that was ever offered to it. Now,
none of these women who visit Wheeler
are actuated by the feelings of kin.
Wheelers wife and the murderer himself
told me that he had not relative in Cal.
ifornia.
"What are you to infer, then, when you
see lot of well-dressed women fawning
on such scoundrel and covering him
with boquets and subscribing a large
sum to save him from the gallows, though
he had been convicted of most hideous
crime? One would think that TIE bru-
tality which he showed to their sex
would have made all womankind his
enemies. Ihave come to the conclusion,
though, from my observations in the city
jail, that there is class of female, who
are fascinated by any fiendish cruelty 10
their sex. They think that the man who
could perpetrate the crime deserves SYM
pathy and encouragement, and they go
to the Jail and give it boldly-so boldly
that it is as much as the prison authori-
ties can do to keep them within the
bounds of decency. The Gottung case
shows that.
There are more people who have
sneaking admiration of notorious crimi-
mails than the world at large imagines,
and think it would be good plan to
make it more difficult for people to get
into the jail and crafty their prurient
tastes. As it is now, the jailers have no
choice but to let visitors in on certain
days, and as long as they violate none of
the municipal ordinances they can dis.
grace themselves and the community by
treating condemned murderers as if they
were the unfortunate and innocent vic
Tins of some tyrannical law"