The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1897-08-28
THE INNOCENT CONVICTED.
Shot While Defending His Master
and Hanged as u Murderer.

Shot While Defending His Master
and Hanged as IA Murderer.
appearances are deceiving," said an
old lawyer the other day. The strong
est case of circumstantiai evidence l
ever knew was against am innocent man.
My father was a lawyer, and in h
criminal practice. One of his clients
w~ashanged for n murder which he never
committed.
Just at the edge of our town lived a
rich old man in u grand old house. He
had no family, and was alone with his
servants. Cne night there was a fear
full disturbance in his house, and neigh
bors hurried in. Several pistol shots
had been fired. The rich old man was
dead. with a bullet in his brain, and
the butler lay, with his hands full of
jewelry and watches. right in the door-
way of the old mans % with a bull
let somewhere in his head, but he was
not dead.
His revolver lay by his side, and, SO
far as could be seen, the whole story
was told right there. The butler, who
had been in the house only about six
months, had attempted to rob his mas
ter, had been caught in the act and
shot, but had killed the old man in the
fight. That was the only translation
of it, and there was no o&ler for several
days, because the butler had a very
serious wound and was delirious for n
week. However. it was not fatal, and
as soon as he was himself, he made a
statement to the effect thai he had been
awakened in the night by footsteps,
and had taken his pistol, which had
only two loads in it out of five, and
gone down in the hall below TO see what
the noise was.
""He noticed that his masters door
was partly open, ut the far end of the
hall, and hurried toward it. As he APP
proached it, he heard his master speak
to some one, asking who was there.
and with that there was a pistol shot
and he jumped into the room, grab
bling q burglar as he did so, and at the
same time getting u shot in the head
from his masters pistol. Beyond that
he remembered nothing more. His
story was generally disbelieved, for
there was no evidence of any person in
the house with evil designs, and all the
plumber that he had not caught in his
hands was lying on the floor about him,
so tina there was no apparent reason
why a burglar should be there. All
the doors were found locked by those
who came in response to the alarm,
and there was absolutely no signs of
any burglarizing from the outside.
another strong point was that the
bullet which was found in the buffers
head exactly fitted the pistol of his
master, showing, conclusively that 1t
was the master and not the burglar
who shot him.. This was the condition
of the affair when my father took
charge of it, and, though he really be-
lieved the buffers story and tried to
prove it, he could not do it, and the man
was finally hanged. A year later q
burglar was shot by a policeman in
the city nearest us, and he confessed
on his deathbed hat he was the muir
derer of our rich man. He had hidden
in the house early in the evening, had
collected all he could of jewelry and
other portable vaIuables, and was about
getting out when he was caught both
by the old man and the butler, and that
the butler had got the bullet intended
for him, as he had run into the room
just as the old man fired. Dropping
everything in his sudden surprise, he
had rushed downstairs and hidden in
the hallway, fiom where he had slipped
out as soon as the front door was
opened. In the excitement he was not
observed, and he got away without any
trouble at all, as the nearnesS to the
city made strangers SO ommon that
their presence excited no suspicion. I'll
never forget that incident. and I'll never
be in favor of the death penalty on cir
cumstantial evidence, / don't care how
strong it is. Even lynch law is less
unjust."-Chicago Post.