The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-05-02


"Well, there it is."
GUITEAUS AWFUL CURSE.
1t Has Not Particularly Affected the Men
who Tried Him.
Washington Special.
1t was after dusk on the 25th day of January,
1882, the weather cloudy and gloomy, that there
filed into their box in the old Criminal Court
room of Washington twelve jurymen who had
listened for months to the testimony and argu
ments in the case of the trial of Guiteau for the
murder of President Garfield and announced
their verdict, Guilty, as indicted" Without a
drizzling rain and snow was falling, and the
large, dingy old courtroom was lighted by some
half dozen candles placed on the judges desk
and on the tables of the counsel, giving but lit
tie light and adding to the weird darkness OF the
room. Judge Cox took his place on the bench.
AT one table sat Judge John K Porter. Mr.
Davidge and District Attorney Corkhil repre-
senting the government. Mr. Scoville, the
prisoners brother-n-law and his leading COUNSEL
the prisoners brother, and his sister, Mrs SEQ
vile, and some personal friends of Guiteau, sat
with him at an adjoining table. AS the verdict
| was announced the prisoner exclaimed in loud
and defiant tone
"My blood be on the head of that jury. Don't
you forget it. That is my answer"
And when afterwards on Feb. A, 1882. the
Court asked him if he had anything to say why
sentence should not be passed upon him. he re-
piled:
Every officer, judicial or otherwise from the
President down, taking in every man on that
jury and every member of this BENCH will pay
for it."
And when the sentence was pronounced he re-
peated vehemently:
"God Almighty will curse every man who has
had anything to do with this case"
Various statements have from time to time
during the last four years appeared in the press
of the country calling attention to the realiza
%k4 E,,lE @Df
his prophecy.
correspondent of the World called on Col.
Corkhill. the United States district attorney at
the trial, for of the facts connected with
the history of those engaged in it. and whom
Guiteau had specially mathematical. Colonel
Corkhill was found in his law Office IN this city,
and he looked little, if any. older than he did
during the trial. When his attention was called
| by your correspondent to the subject he said:
Eyes, have seen these statements often, and
frequently receive letters asking if there is
| any truth in the stories that are told. There
seems to be an anxiety on the part of large
number of people to seize upon anything that
borders on the superstitious, and it only needs
the slightest coincidence of a prophecy and
| corresponding occurrence to enable them to dis
cover an inscrutablo mystery in connection with
it.
| the government that were called to prove the
crime before the grand jury and whose names
were Endorsed on the back of the Indictment and
who we're examined in chief by the government,
| are alive and pursuing their ordinary business
except Surgeon general Barnes, who died some
time ago. saw the foreman of the jury John
P. Hamlin, OF this city, a few days ago. and he
| informed me that all the jury who tried and
convicted Guiteau are alive and engaged in the
business they were before the trial except one
Michael Sheenan, who was sick at the time and
has since died. AS to the lawyers. Judge Por
ter was in very bad health during the trial. and
the labor told upon him physically very much.
Mr. Davldge is looking as well and
who presided at the trial, is still on
the bench, vigorous and ir good health. The
same is true of Chief justice Cartier, Justices
Macarthur, James and Hagner, who decided the
case, sustaining the verdict of the jury APP
peal. Justice Wylie has retired under the pro-
visions of the law on account of age and long
service. Mr.. Justice Bradley who denied the
writ of habeas corpus, is still on the bench of
the Supreme Court of the United States, though
old enough to be entitled to retire when he de-
si,es. Marshal Henry is raising corn, potatoes
ard wheat on his farm in Ohio, with probably
more satisfaction and certainly with more sue
cess than when his portly, farmer-like form was
seen shadowing the rooms of the courtho
and he was imagining he was performing the du-
ties Of United States marshal.
Assistant Surgeon Lamb, who assisted at the
autopsy, and who triumphantly carried off his
bones, which he carefully polished and articu-
lated at government expense is still caressing
Guiteau's grnning skeleton in the National Mu-
scum in this city.
1.-THE leading experts whom Guiteau specially
cursed-Dr. John P. Gray, of Utica; DR.. A. e.
Mcdonald and Allen McLane Hamilton, of New
York; DR.. E. A. Kempster, of Wisconsin, and
numerous other physicians in charge of the vari
Gus insane asylums of the country whose names
cannot now recall-are all alive, and, with one
or two exceptions, in charge of the same hospi-
tails they were at the time of the trial. In fact,
l think it remarkable that among the large num-
Der of active participants in that somewhat eel
ebrated trial there should be but two or three
deaths in oyer four years. Scoville is in Chica-
go, trying to raise the $50 a month alimony for
his wife, who is trying to have him arrested be-
cause he has not succeeded. Guiteaus brother.
John, who was spectator at the hanging, is
wrestling with the intricate and uncertain bust
ness Of lifeinsurance as of old; Hicks, Guiteau's
ministerial adviser, stopped preaching, and has
gone to Florida to raise orages. 1t may be added
that the hangman who adjusted the moose
around his neck is anxiousy waiting for the
opportunity. which he will have in few weeks,
of performing the same service for two other
convicted murderers in the Jail Awaiting e1ecu-
ton"