Morning journal and courier., 1882-01-07
trouble he put a kettle on my machine and placed it right in my way
HE HAD NO BUSINESS

HE HAD NO BUSINESS
 to bring 1t to me- It was. against the rules for him to leave his machine and I had noth- ing to do with his work, and was not obliged to do anything with the pot he left on my ma chine. 1 told him to remove it or I would break it. He said if I broke it he would break my head I knocked the kettle off on the floor. Keeper Chapman saw Reed at my machine and called him to his desk He rep rimanded him and gave him a discredit mark. This is all evidence that was sworn to on my trial. Reed went back to his ma chine and got to work again I kept on to work. The keeper left the shop and went up stairs. I didn't know he was away. All at once I felt something strike me on the shoulder. My side was to Reed.
 turned quickly around and saw that Reed
 had flung the missile at me. picked up the
 piece of iron that he had thrown at me and
 flung 1t back. It struck him in the side,
 lower down than where he hit me. On the
 opposite side of Reeds machine were some
 kettles piled up, and on top of them was a heavy Iron wrench two and half feet long
 There was particular place to hang up this
 wrench, and he had no business to lay it on
 the kettles. He must have had an object in placing 1t there. I could see the weapon
 from where l stood, and saw him reach for it
 as threw the piece of iron back at him.
 knew his object was to injure or kill me. l 1 l tacks upon other prisoners, and from myself seeing him attack man, that he was dan
 gerous character At my right was large
 iron bar, used poker to take care of the fire. It was the
 ONLY INSTRUMENT
 of any kind near me, and firmly believing 1 that my life was in peril I seized it and ran | across to where Reed was I struck him. | He had the wrench in his hand when struck I | = 1,o,.l and seeing that he still had the wrench ln l his hand struck him 8 second time on the 1 head. Then he fell up against post, and
 struck him third time. I didn't know for | four or five days afterwards that l had l killed him. I asked Broadway and other l officers, after they locked me up in the ''soli- ! tary," if Reed was dead, and they would not
 tell me- They said I could find out for my l self. What I did was done in the heat of
 passion and was directly the result of feeling
 that my life was in imminent danger. never premeditated to kill him. The only | time I had to do so was between the | time he hurled the piece of iron at me till the 1 time l struck him as described. This was 1 less than half @ second--in an instant as it
 were. had not previously known him. l l had had no previous difficulty with him. | Then how could I have premeditated mur | der, planned it, within second of time
 l was carried away by passion and thought
 that my life was in danger. This is not mur-
 der. It does not come within the scope oi 1 the definition in law of that terrible crime l l therefore should not suffer death. If the 1 gallows is in store for me the people of my | old home and of this city will know that I go
 to my fate bravely and calmly, for my heart l is clear and free of the stain of murder.
 WITH THIS FEELING
 nerving me shall close my young life with o[>1l1 H. Al,o4 shall be cherished not as one who was Q mur- | derer, and an utterly depraved and vicious l person, but as one who was the cruel victim of circumstances-as one who was less guilty than he was unfortunate. Let the people so think of me and shall feel that though the scaffold shall be my fate it will have no ter
 row for me, for it's horrors and pains will not be felt or be abhorred so long as my memory
 is not execrated by my fellow man. God bless all and save other young men from a