The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-01-18
LIKE STONE.
David Coulter, the Accused MUIR
derer of Edward Illston,
Made a Psychological Study by
Becky Sharp"
HAS HE NO HEART :?
Is the Boy Simply a Moral
Monstr0sity
Like Jesse Pomeroy, Who Muir
dered for Pleasure.
A VISIT is MADE
VISIT is MAI
To the Home of His Father
and Mother
At ValleyFalls-No Intellectual
Life at Home.

"Yes, we all feel this trouble terrible
bad"
That was what Mrs. Coulter, the moth
er of David Coulter. the accused MUIR
derer of Edward Illston, said to me We'd
nesday evening as I sat talking to her at
her home at Valley Falls.
"We wasn't never in no trouble like it
before" she continued, "and it goes hard
with u.s."
Then she furtively wiped away with
her bare hand tear from her right eye,
while it's mate dropped unretarded on
the soft face of the infant at her breast.
But she did not raise her chin from where
it had rested against her chest ever since
/ entered the room.
My heart always aches for the mother
of criminal, and my heart ached for
the mother of this particular accused
criminal, as I sat and looked at, and
talked to, rather than with her. She did
not talk much, and her voice choked
with tears and sobs a little when she
did
l arrived at Valley Falls about o'clock,
and after d drive of nearly mile through
the mud. climbed out of the carriage be-
fore a small house, quite near what
would have been the sidewalk, only there
was none, and raped on the front door.
who were playing about inside.
said, docs Mrs Coulter live here?"
As spoke, man came quickly, with
a somewhat aggressive air to the door,
and said, ''Yes."
"May l see herr"
was accorded that privilege and in
vited to sit down. 1t was a poor, bare,
sadly.
The children were not tidy; the father
looked morose, not to say cross; the
mother cowed and broken; her hair was
disarranged and her appearance as unin-
viting as her surroundings.
Beside the three or four chairs and the
stove in the room, there was an old
fashioned bureau with heavy marble
top, which spoke of either better days or
the second hand shop.
Two or three old fas hioned oval framed
pictures hung high UP on the dingy
walls.
allow many children have you, Mira.
Coulter?" l asked.
mine. My oldest son and daughter at
home have gone TO church"
said, Il live in Topeka and l am
going to the jail tomorrow; l will see
your son; is there any message or any
thing else you would like to send -him?"
She shook her head slowly, and the
father spoke~up and said: 81 was down
there day before yesterday.
1.-The papers said [ tried to get Dave to
plead guilty; l didn't; why should he
plead guilty when he is innocent? He
didn't shoot the boy purpose"
Here the mother spoke again: THE
papers didn't tell the truth about how
my boy looks; they said he had red hair
and grey eyes. His eyes are blue and
his hair is brown"
The mothers heart could see only
beauty in her boy.
AS we talked the four children looked
at me rather curiously. One of them
was a pretty little haxen- haired creature,
with blue eyes, who looked out of keep
ing with her surroundings.
''My boy is SICK" Mrs Coulter said.
81 think he took cold going from Leav-
worth over"
YES said her husband, 'sand the To-
peka Jail is SO dirty-the Leavenworth
jail was clean. The boy is sick with
sore throat, and he can't keep clean in
that dirty place.
Mrs. Coulter said, without raising her
head or changing her expression, in a
sort of hopeless monotone, "Pll be aw-
full thankful for anything you do for my
boy" No message of love or cheer, no
emotion; but perhaps that was scarcely
to be expected with an entire stranger.
1 wondered if the boy got his indiffer-
ence, amounting almost to stoicism, from
his mother. His father had seemed
man of more than average intelligence;
not very affable, certainly, but not disa-
greeable. to strangers, at least, and not
Illiterate. The mother had shed an
occasional tear as she talked, but had
not been deeply affected, at least visibly,
She had said the boy was i'll, and while l
have no sympathy with the instinct that
prompts people to take flowers and deli
cacies to murderers or accused murder
ers / determined to take her son some .
thing to eat
so the next day went to the jail in
Topeka with a basket of food which
asked to be allowed to give him.
Sheriff Kepley and Jailer Sheehan
kindly brought the boy out of the main
corridor and into the cell alone, where l
was allowed to talk to him.
l had heard of his apparent indiffer-
ence to his crime las it is put by others,
accident" as he himself speaks of il) as
well as to everything else, so l wanted
to see if he could be emotionally moved
at all.
As the men went to bring him over,
one of them had remarked ''the boy is
either an idiot or a cold blooded muir
| derer."
am not an expert on idiocy, imbecil-
ity CT insanity, but he did not appear to
me 10 be afflicted with any OF these
troubles.
l took the cover off the basket l had
was at Valley Falls last mig 1t and l saw
your mother" watching ham as spoke