St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-02-20
LANCuISH FOR LIFE.
Regain, the Wife Murderer,
Retires From ALI Earthly
Joys.
sd
Without the Cash, Stepniak
Refuses to Deliver His
Lecture.
at
Real Estate Brothers Fail to
Agree in a Business
Way.
Big Suit in Minneapolis Over
a Valuable Block Of Real
Estate. ga

Patrick Regain, the confessed uXer-
eide, was yesterday sentenced to the
state penitentiary for life by Judge
Kerr. Regain. it will be remembered,
shot his wife down in fit of passion.
last December, because she had com
menced an action for divorce. AMI then
started out to hunt up her attorney to
kill him. He was indicted and subse-
quentIy pleaded guilty of murder in the
first degree. Before sentence was
pronounced J. j. McCafferty in
troduced testimony for the pur-
pose of showing such extraordinary
circumstances as would warrant the
court in entering of record that because
of extraordinary circumstances would
not be proper to infiict the death pen
atty. John L. Foley testified that he
had known Regain for seven or eight
years. He knew him white working at
Tacoma for the Northern Pacific road
and at the water works. He lived alone
in wild part Of the place where he
might have needed revolver, and he
regarded him as an eaSy-going fellow.
DR.. O'Brien testified that he had exam
ined Ryan carefully, and he re-
garded him as having a low
order of intellect. There was
evidence Of this in his demeanor and in
his physiognomy- head being shaped
like that of monkey. He was illiterate
and had passed much of his life i'll
mines and this had evidently interfered
with mental development. 5. j. Ahern
volunteered the statement that Ryan
was of weak mind. Ryan testified that
he had come over from Ireland twenty
years ago. He lived in Pennsylvania,
Michigan. New York, Colorado, Mime
sofa and Washington. He had earned
a living by laboring with pick and
shovel. Judge Kerr. In pronouncing
sentence, spoke about as follows:
Mr.. Regain, you have been accused by
the Indictment of the grand jury with
the most grievous crime known to law
murder in the first degree. You have
pleaded guilty to that crime. | fecog
nize the fact that you are man of low
order of intelligence, and yet | think
you are a man that ought to know, and
| think you are a man who does know,
the difference between right and wrong.
There are some circumstances in your
case which take it out of the ordinary
course of cold-bio0ded murder for meF
cenary ends, OF to crafty the passions,
or for revenge or malice. 1T is not that
sort of murder On the other hand,
it is the killing of one whom
you promised to love and cher
ish as yonr wife. and whom you
have lived with as your wife. and who
was the mother of your children. Under
the circumstances Of this case, l think
it is, perhaps, my duty to certify to eN-
ceptional circumstances which would
authorize change in the punishment
from death to Imprisonment for life in
states prison. desire to say to you
in that connection, now, that sentence
for lite III this case means sentence for
life. There can be no pardon, there
can be no release from prison for you,
a Decentralization on n my part. That
you may never expect to obtain. The
Judgment of the court is that you be
taken to the state penitentiary at Still
water and there confined at hard labor
for the period of your natural life.