The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-06-12

| Tertiary ana McNu:t twenty-five years o
age. McNutt has secured "A job of decorat
\ ing in Leayenworth aud will open a sho
| there.
WINNER TO GO BACK.
| Winner goes back to the peuitentiary n
general manager OF the Burr company
shoe business there, that company havinl
| the convict contract of the Lansing prison
Senator Bentley arrived at Lans
ing Saturday night at 10 O'Clock. War
| den Chase brought McNutt and Whine
| said TO Winner: I'm AN hour and hal
you will be free man"
Winner gave hoarse CRY and went in t
mysteries, CRYING and laughing by turns
McNutt smiled but was quiet.
HISTORY OF THE CRIME.
The Winner and McNutt case is proba
hly the most famous in the history OF
Kansas. Early in 1873 Winner and young
McNutt came 10 Wichita, and
started paint shop. Winner was !.
years old and McNutt. was % Soon after
McNutt insured his life in favor of Win
ner for 5000. One night a few month:
after the young men settled i'll Wichita
some one discovered that their shop.
where Dunbar's undertaking establish
ment now is. WAS on fire. The people oil
the town turned out and extipgushed the
fire, but McNutt was missing.
The partly burned body OF man
was found in the ruins of the
building. Winner declared that it was
McNutt. but the people Of Wichita did
not believe him. TIE body was recog-
nlzed as that of tramp known as
Texas" the sudden departure of Nc
Mutt and the fact that his life insurance
was in favor of Winner. though McNutt
was married and the father of child, ex-
cited so much suspicion that Winner was
arrested the next day. A few weeks later
McNutt was captured in the woods In
Newton county, Mo. They were tried for
murder. The evidence was so convincing
that they were convicted, and sentenced
by Judge w. =. Campbell, now depart
ment commander OF Kansas, to be hanged,
under the law they went to the peniten-
tiary for life.
MRS. MCNUTT's LETTER
A letter written by McNutt's wife, then
living in Kansas City, played an import
ant part in the trial. She had been in
formed OF the plot by her husband, and on
the morning after the murder letter was
found from her implorinH him not to com
NIT the crime. Ia that letter were these
WORKS which led to the conviction of her
husband and his accomplice: IF you
carry that on we will be ruined. Before
stealing for wealth | will beg on my
hands and knees" She said she had only
one dime left in the world aud she sent it
as Christmas present to her husband
with her blessing.
The young men began to serve their SEN
terce June 10, 1874. just twenty years ago.
McNutt's wife secured a divorce and few
years later married again. Sne is now in
Clay county, Mo-, and has family of
growing children.
FOR five years nothing was done for the
young meu in the penitentiary. Then be-
gan Efforts TO secure pardon. Winners
father set his heart on securing the rele ,se
OF his son, but in every petition McNutt
was as prominent as Winner. The Kansas
board of pardons refused to report favor
ably, and one governor after another re-
fused To hear the plea for clemency. Gov
ernor Click is said to have partly signed a
pardon, but stopped for political reasons.
Letters ASKING him to sign the pardon
were sent from all over Missouri and Kan
sas. Finally when the legislature of 1891
was IN session, the senate committee
on penitentiary affairs visited Lansing.
BENTLEY FREES THEM
Among the members was .. II. Bentley,
senator from Sedgwick county. Winner
secured permission to talk with him and
Bentley promised 10 ascertain the senti-
ment on the matter among the people at
home, The next day he was retained by
Winners father aud went to work. No
effort was made to deny the guilt of the
prisoners or TO plead extenuating circum-
stances. The claim for pardon was
based on the theory that punishment is
not for revenge but to deter men from
committing crime by making examples of
criminals. There was Il long, hard fight
but at last Mr.. Bentley went before Gov
ernor humphrey without paying atten-
ton TO the board of pardons. On the last
day of Humphreys administration Bent
ley made final appeal. an hour before he
turned the office over TO Governor Lewell-
ing. Governor Humphrey commuted the
sentence to twenty five years of lmprison-
ment. Good conduct reduces the length
of the sentence and Winner aud McNut5
were given five years off for good conduct.
Neither had in twenty years received IA de-
merit mark. Winner has worked in the
shoe department aud was book-keeper for
the prison contractor.
BOTH MEN ARE READERS.
McNutt is IA foreman in the paint shop
and VIII open paint shop in Leaven-
worth. He is an expert in his trade aud it
was he who painted and decorated. the
penitsntiary chapel. His mother. who is
his only living relative, now lives in Nova
Scotia. She will come to Leavenworth
anu ACEp hOu>c -AN-Nuss hoth
kept him in a close room and for nineteen
years he did not see beyond the prison
walls. Several times he has been on the
point of becoming insane from despair,
and only the fact that Winners friends
were working for lis release saved him.
Both men have read the prison library
four times. The library IS an eX-
cellent Que aud Senator Bentley said this
morning that he could not name Two men
in Kansas battar in fOrpna1 on rurraut lit
erature than they are.
STORY OF THE DINE.
For many years there was In the EAGLE
office dime which was pathetlcally con-
nected with this tragedy.
1t was a worn little coin, aud il Law for
years in desk, and nc one ever touched
it. Its history was known and that kept
the thief's hands from it and withheld it
from circulation.
The dime WAS sent TO McNutt by his
wife. She was pregnant at the time,
bride and very, very poor. Her husband
had notified her presumably OF what he
was going to do. Immediately after his
arrest. a letter came To him. 1t was pro-
duced in court 1t was from his wife
She prayed, begged, pleaded with him not
TO do the deed. She said she would get
down on her knees and scrub, steal, do
anything to get him money. She sent
him all the money She had-that dime.
After the trial the coin turned mp Ia the
EAGLE Office. For years people stood In awe
of 1t. The toughest journeyman printer Who
ever struck Wichita, one hot summer day
Was famishlng for Il glass OF beer aud was
told about the dime and presented with il.
But he put II down when he heard its
history and would not touch 1t again.
From early in the seventies until 1857
that dime lay on the desk, ITS history for
bidding any one 10 take It up, steal or
spend IL.
One day it disappeared. Investigation
developed the fact that Il woman employe
Of the office, without sentiment but with
tooth for sweets had braved superstitious
awe and spent il for candy.