Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1898-02-03
THE INNOCENT CONVICTED
Shot While Defending His Master AM
Hanged as u Murderer.


Shot While Defending His Master AM
Hanged as Murderer.
Appearances are deceiving, said
an old lawyer the other day. 1.-THE
strongest case of circumstantial evi
dence l ever knew was against an
innocent man. My father was q
lawyer, and in the criminal prac
itice. One of his clients was hanged
for a murder which he never com
mitted.
Just at the edge of our tow,
lived a rich old man in grand 6
house. He had no family and W.
alone with his servants. One night
there was a fearful disturbance in
his house. and neighbors 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 doorway
OF the old man 'sroom, with bullet
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 at
tempted to rob his master, 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 other for several
days, because the butler had very
serious wound and was delirious for
week. However, it was not fatal,
and as soon as he was himself he
made a statement to the effect that
he had been awakened in the night
by footsteps and had taken his pis-
tol, which had only two loads in it
out OF five, and gone down into the
hall below to see what the noise
was
He noticed that his masters door
was partly open, at the far end of
the hall and hurried toward it. As
he approached it he heard his mas
ter speak to some one, asking who
was there, and with that there was
pistol shot, and he jumped into
the room grabbing burglar as he
did so and at the same time getting
shot in the head from his masters
pistol. Beyond that he remembered
nothing more. His story was gen
orally 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
that there was no apparent reason
why burglar should be there. All
the doors were found locked by
those who came in response to the
alarm, and there were 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 pis-
tol of his master, showing conc'n
sively that it was the master ana
not the burglar who shot him. This
was the condition of the affair when
my father took charge of it, and,
though he really believed the but.
ler's story and tried to prove it, he
could not do it, and the man was
finally hanged. A year later bur-
glar was shot by policeman in the
city nearest us, and he confessed on
his deathbed that he was the muir.
derer of our rich man. He had hid.
den in the house early in the even
ing, had collected all he could Of
jewelry and other portable valu-
ables 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 down stairs and hid.
den in the hallway, from where he
had slipped out as soon as the front
door was opened. In the excite
ment he was not observed, and he
got away without any trouble at
all, as the nearness to the city made
strangers SO common that their
presence excited no suspicion. I'll
never forget that incident, and I'll
never DO in favor of the death pen
atty on circumstantial evidence, l
don't care how strong it is. Even
lynch law is less unjust. - Chicago
Post
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