The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-06-13
TOPEKA STRIPED MEN.
What David Coulter and Babe
Murderer Mclean Are Doing.
Though Mclean Was Sentenced
For Life He Hopes.
Thinks e Pardon win be Granted TO
Him Some Day-What the New
Prisoners DO When They First
Arrive.


Arrive
Topeka and Shawnee county are rep
resented at the Kansas state peniten-
tiary by 81 convicts.
When a man goes to the big prison
he drops cut of the life of his comnun-
ity. He is buried for so long, so to
speak He is no longer David Coulter,
Benjamin Mclean. Rev John T. Long
don. lie is no. 374, a21sl24.
no matter how much his name mas
flied the public ear NO dl1Eerenee now
many days or weeks or months the
noted criminal and his deeds have
thrilled the public pulsei there comes
time when Die is forgotten lt IS men
the gates of the penirentiar-y clang ne
hind him and he is surrounded by lm-
uassible iron bars. and guards and the
high. gray. weather beaten stone walls
lie reappears TO the public mind when
he leaves this place of labor, by break
ing out, by being pardoned or serving
his time or by death.
A Journal reporter who visited Ian
sing with Sheriff Kepley on his trip
with prisoners last Wednesday reds
covered number OF Topeka celebrities
The only man from Topeka in the
penitentiary for life is the child muir
derer, Benjamin II. Mclean.
lit was on November 30, 1891. that Nc
Lean was arrested and placed in the
Shawnee county jail The high feeling
at that time, the attempt to lynch the
murderer, how he was disguised as q
woman and his face BACKED with shoe
backing and he walked out of the city
prison with the late DOG" Ward, and
was taken to Lansing for safe keep
ing. the trial and conviction of murder
in the first degree, and the sentence
to hang. have all been told in the Jour
nal
Mclean was a resident of Parkdale.
lie had but recently married a woman
who had an infant child by a former
marriage when the little one died 1t
died from neglect and terrible cruelty.
1t developed at the trial that Mclean
used to take the child by the leg and
throw 1T across the room
The murderer is now in the crank
house" or insane ward. But he is not
insane He is a crank This ward is
presided over by a Topeka man. IA. @.
Wolfe formerly of North Topeka who
is known at the penitentiaTy as an eX-
cellent Official
It seems that one doomed to spend
All his days in confinement would try
to make the best of it, and try. by
working and giving as little trouble IS
possible, to some day secure a pardon.
Not so with Mclean. He has a grudge
against the world which he must wipe
cut before he dies. He refuses To work
and makes all the trouble possible. The
law mas hourrded him to his living
death, and he proposes to die fighting
back Nevertheless, he expects to be
pardoned
Hope springs eternal in the inhu-
man, as we'll as the human breast, i'll
seems, for pardon and Innocence of the
crime are AcLean's two themes.
When the Parkdale garbage hauler
was put inside the penitentiary on Feb
ruary q, 1892, by Sheriff Nilkerson, he
was e22imparativeiy q youung looking
the penitentiary break down the hui
man frame. Now Mclean leans heav-
liy upon cane as he walks stOOpingly
aiong. Speetacles are upon his nose to
DO YOU expect to ever get out of
here2" asked the reporter of Mclean.
Yes. I shall get a pardon" replied
the man fn stripes.
don't know I have written the
folks at home about it, and I think
shall get out soon"
rs your family still in Topeka2"
mo; it is scattered. The last heard
81 nay vile she was around Topeka
DO you ever expect to set out2'
don't know how that is" he said:
"A was sentenced to be hung" he went
on cOouy.
You see. when I came here I didn't
expect to stay long I thought thew
would look the thing up and see how
u was ana / would set out"
What do you mean2"
didn't know how the child got
nufL ne began rapidly IT was away
from home all day, and the first knew
Of it was when went home and saw q
red spot on its leg, and when asked
wat -A-eAF 10 she asAl4 a uea
had bitten it,
It was evident that the convict was
talking for pardon.
Then who did kill that baby2"
mats what Il never could ind out
always thought it funny that she (his
WlIe) would never tell me what made
the marks on the child Why. she tes-
tined in court that she told me that a
11ea mad bitten its leg when 4 asked her
about it,"
For four years here I worked in
the collar department, making horse
collars have been in here since
January Ny eyes got bad. and I have
the rheumatic and can't work. I never
knew what it was to have the rheu-
matism before I came here2''
Then YOU still expect to be par
doned2"
es. I don't know just how soon. %
was McLean's parting reply as the
guards led him away
1t viii be strange if he is pardoned
Half way back i'm the long file led
by the finely formed desperate, Emmett
Dalton, marching with rhythmic ragu-
larIty in lock-step ON their way to dim
ner- with their heavy shoes scrapfng
along i'm q sort of half shuttle ON the
rock floor of the prison yard. David
Coulter, the young murderer of 15-year-
old Edward TllstOn. marched aI0ng