Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-02-28
TO DIE BY A ROPE.
A New Trial is Denied the Assassin of
Carter Harrison.


Prendergast entered the courtroom
in charge of bailiff. He had been
shaved early in the morning and his
hair was carefully combed. The assas-
sin was assigned to a chair III the place
he occupied during his trial. He soon
grew restless; his face was rale and his
eyes rolled around increasingly.
AS the Court addressed Prendergast
and asked him if he had anything to
say why sentence should not be passed
upon him, Prendergast rose to his feet,
VIGOROUSLY drew a small sheet of paper
covered with notes from his vest pocket,
and addressed the court as follows: ri
don't suppose, Your Honor, that
it will do me any good to
say anything to the Court now
have made no preparation
to say anything in particular. l sup
pose Your Honor is under the impress
sion that you have done your duty
But this plea of insanity has been set
up by my attorney without my consent.
1t was an infamous, q dirty and dis
reputable plea, and was against my OBJ
| jections.
"Now, as for Juror Murray, it is GER
| tain to my mind that from the manner
he answered questions he was anxious
to be juror in this case. There was
something wrong also in regard to sum-
moning the veniremen. Juror Larkin
| came here on a written statement, but
| of course the defendant had no control
over this part of the courts work. The
Evening News contained a whole col
umn about it at the time and it is not
necessary for me to 90 into it further
| no a no Nv 10 otoh
| the proceedings in summOning the
jurors.
'But that is not the question. At the
very beginning of this trial the Court
told me my attorneys would attend to
my case. Nevertheless they did not
AS stated, Your Honor, be-
fore they set up this infamous
! plea of insanity against my will.
But, Your Honor, the issue is did l do
right or did | do wrong? Did / do my
duty or did [ not? Did [ do the will of
God or not? This point has never
! been touched upon, and [ say it is the
! only issue before the court
"Of course if l did wrong I should be
| condemned. But, Your Honor, if did
right [ should be justified and acquitted.
GAS for this talk about the Dacey or
! the Gulteau case, the court all along
ruled that no reference should be made
| to it, but the attorneys for the defend
ant continued it throughout the trial.
AS far as these doctors are concerned,
they came to me without my consent
and without my invitation, and | did
not write them nor give my consent for
! them to come and find out whether |
was insane or not. No doubt the mo-
tives of these men were humane, but it
was through the connivances Of Jailer
Morris that they got into that iail'
Ending his speech, Prendergast
glanced wildly about the room and sat
down to listen to the sentence of the
court. He did not listen to a great part
of the Courts remarks, but turned half
around and looked at the large clock on
the wall
The courtroom was filled when the
Judge read his decision. Prendergast
appeared Indifferent for time, but as
the reading progressed appeared ready
to make one of his old-time scenes.
Prendergast was ordered to stand up
during the reading of the sentence.
Judge Brentano said:
Patrick Eugene Prendergast it rarely falls
to the lot ofthe court to discharge so pain
full duty as devolveS upon it in this case.
Y on stand at this bar convicted OF the crime
of murder of a fellow being, and it is in
cumbent on me to pronounce SEN
| tence on YOU. You have .rod o
1alr and impartial trial and you
! have been defended by counsel whose zeal
and devotion in your behalf merit the high
est praise and compel the admiration of the
| Court | do not think that can fairly be
| subjected to the criticism that did not al
| low you the widest latitude in the presenta-
| ton of evidence that in any way tended to
establish the defense made for YOU and you
were given the benefits of all presumptions
which the law says you are entitled to have.
! Despite all this you have been found guilty
| in accordance with the well-established
principles of law Il evidence governing
trials Of this kind Possibly large
part of this community would,
for the sake Of the reputation
of this great city, upon whom the eyes
of the world were at the time riveted, have
been comforted if the verdict Of the jury
had established the fact that your act was
the result of the trial denies people that
comfort The evidence did not establish
that you were acting under an insane delu-
sion which iuesstibly impelled yon to the
commission Of an act which you did not
discern to be wrong and over which you
had not the power to exercise control. The
jury has found that when you committed
the act you fully understood it and its con-
sequences, and that you might have con-
trolled your actions if you had so willed,
and that your own misguided will was the
sole impulse to the commission Of
to do personal wrong under a
| deIusion or belief that some great public
benefit will flow from it, when the nature
Of the act done and its probable conse-
quences and that the act is in itself wrong
| are known to the actor, can amount to that
| insanity which in law disarms it of Grim
inality. Situated as you are, [ would not
say anything to you for the mere purpose of
| narrowing up your feelings or causing you
unnecessary pain. The solemn and painful
duty now devolves upon me to impose the
sentence and judgment of the law, which
| is that you, Patrick Eugene Prendergast, be-
tween the hours of 10 o'clock in the fore
noon and 2 o'clock in the afternoon, on the
23d day of March, A. D. 1884, in the manner
provided by the statute Of this state, be
hanged by the neck until you are dead.
Just before Judge Brentano began
the delivery of his speech, denying the
motion for a new trial, Attorney S. S.
Gregory filed motion in arrest of judg-
ment, which was overruled. He then
asked for thirty days in which to file a
| bill Of exceptions upon which to take
the case to the supreme court. This