Smyrna times., 1889-08-21
The Tragic Death of Judge
Terry.

The death of Judg Terry, shot by
Marshal Nagle, on Wednesday, closes
the most thrilling chapter of crime
furnlshed'in the annals of the present
generation, and he fitly died by the
violence he had made a conspicuous
feature ofhis long and deeply Grim
soned career. That Judge Terry
meant the assault upon Justice Field
as the prelude to murder, none who
knew him, his antecedents and his ju-
dicial dispute with Justice Field, could
doubt for a moment, and Marshal
Nagle simply performed plain and
Imperative duty when he shot Judge
Terry while in the act of preparing
his assault.
Judge Terry has been man of mur.
derous intent ever since he became
known in California. He was one of
the earliest of the pioneers in the new
gold fields one of the forty-niners, in
fact-and the lawlessness that ruled in
those days was just to his taste. He
was able, ambitious, despotic, brave
and desperate, and when Chief Justice
OF the State, narrowly escaped the
short shrift Of the vigilantes. He
plunged bowieknife into the neck of
one of the representatives. of the vigi-
lantes, and was arrested and held in
close confinement for some months.
Had his victim died, Terry would GER
tainIy have been executed and thus
saved California from several of the
most disgraceful criminal records
which stain her history. The wound
ed man recovered, and Terry was
finally discharged. He refused to re
sign, however, and it was his defeat
for reelection to his judicial position
that led to the murder of Senator
Broderick. BrOderick, then a power
IN politics, opposed Terry's renomina-
ton, and from that day Terry planned
the murder of his foe, regardless of the
kind offices of friendship Broderick
had previously performed for him.
The killing Of Senator Broderick
was deliberate murder. He had un-
hOrsed the faction Of "Velvet-heads."
Of which Judge Terry was the chief
and it was resolved that he must die.
He was first challenged by Perley,
friend of Terry, and next by Terry
himself; and had Terry fallen instead |
of Broderick, challenge after challenge
would have followed until the heroic
Senator was murdered. 1t was not a
challenge because of a mere personal
atlront it was a challenge resulting
from a murderOus conspiracy that
planned duel after duel until Broder
ick fell; and Judge Terry was the
leader Of the murderers. Broderick
could and should have declined such a
hopeless contest, and made his appeal |
to the world. He had proved his cour-
age; he had met his antagonist on the
field of honor, and could not have been
accused of a want of courage; but he !
must be judged by the customs aud
ruling sentiments of his surroundings.
and they made Broderick decide to
accept the inevitable doom that mur-
derers had planned for him.
From the day that Broderick fell. |
Terry has been like Cain of old, a
wanderer with the mark of the mur-
derer upon him. He plunged into the
civil war, logically espousing the
Southern side, and probably would
have welcomed death in battle as an
escape from the public reprobation
that greeted him everywhere. He re-
turned to California after the war to .
find himself almost friendless, and he
naturally fell in with the adventures.
Miss. Sarah Althea Hill. and conspired
with her to establish marriage con-
tract with the late Senator Sharon.
His great ability and energy enabled
the consplratOrs to win their case in
the lower Court, but the conspiracy
and its perjury and forgery were ex-
posed later, after the death of Sharon
and the marriage of Terry to the ad-
ventures, and it finally fell upon JUS
tice Field, of the Supreme Court of the
United States, to deliver the judicial
Judgment that defeated the most in
famous combine of crime and greed
ever brought before an American
Court For the most atrocious and
violent conduct in court when the
opinion was read, Justice Field commit
ted both Terry and his wife for con.
tempt, and it was then that Terry re-
solved to murder the Judge who had
exposed his crime.
The first opportunity for executing
his murderOus purpose was given on
Wednesday last, when Justice Field had
returned to California to sit in the
Circuit Court, as Terry was in prison
when Field left the State last fall to
meet the Supreme Court in the regular
winter session; and Terry at once pro-
ceeded to provoke Field to the sem
hIappa Of t.acanR;uo. .,.e.A