Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1895-08-16

CONTRARY to general expectation, the
jury in the Kent ease found the prisoner
guilty and fixed his punishment at death.
The Mandan Pioneer has given remark
able evidence of enterprise in publishing
page after page of the trial, and nearly in
full the plea of Attorney Nye, the Mn
neapolis attorney hired by the Lalrds,
the relatives of Kent's wife, to lead the
prosecution. The editor of the Record
has carefully read every line regarding
the trial that has appeared IN the Pioneer,
and we are free to state that to us it seems
strange that jury would sentence a
dogto death-let alone human being
on such evidence. Not the shadow of a
motive for the terrible murder was
shown. There was nothing in the testi-
mony to show that Kent had treated his
wife unkindly, and there was no insur-
ance on her life, as at first reported.
There is not as much reason to suppose
that Kent procured Swidensky to kill his
wife as there is to believe that the red
handed butcher attempted to assault her;
that he was unsuccessful, and that he
killed her because he feared that she
would cause HIM trouble for his acts.
The mere fact that Kent left Mandan
about the time that the murder was
committed is proof that no conspiracy
could have existed between him and the
murderer. A shwwd, designing crook
as the evidence showed Kent to be
would never have departed suddenly on
the eve of murder that he had ar
ranged, leaving his weak minded tool to
be put to the rack by skilled detectives
and local citizens whom his crooked
ways had transformed into bitter enc
mics. 1t is more reasonable to suppose
that Swidensky, having in mind the
escape from death of Blixt by throwing
on another the chief responsibility for
murder, knowing the bitter feeling
against Kent on the part of influe ntial
people of Mandan, seeing the enormity
of his crime, and perhaps with assistance,
trumped up the charges against the
fleeing husband to save his own miser-
able neck.
As sample of the methods employed,
take the testimony of Kent's son, Earl.
At the time the crime was committed
the boy refused to leave Mandan, and
the detectives sent out by his mothers
relatives, coupled with the efforts of
Bingenhelmer, Kents bitter enemy.
could not get him to take sides against
his father. But finally he was taken to
Minneapolis; and. on the witness stand,
he testified that he liked his father until
he went to his mothers relatives; that
they said that they wanted to have his
father hanged, and that now lie was
against his father. He also stated that
he had been coached by the attorneys for
the prosecution short time before.
There Is nothing in the character or
past life of Kent to elicit sympathy
on the part of any one. By his own
admission, on the witness stand, he is
rascal of rascals; he has practically been
a fugitive from justice for more than
twenty years; he forswore the name his
parents bore, and lived under an alias.
Even in his flight from Mandan, as be
he was seeking to evade pun.
ishment for embczzlement from an in
surance company. Underthe old English
law, for crimes that he admits he would,
unon conviction, have been turned over
to the tender mercies of the hangman.
And it is evident that the two juries
that have convicted Kent have felt that it
is better for society that such man as
he should be removed from the face of
The earth; and all through his plea, as
given in the Pioneer, the wonderful
eloquence Of Nye made his past record
the central truth to which he sought to
keep the minds of the jury rlveted, and
It is likely that any other twelve men on |