The Topeka state journal., 1900-01-15

be allowed to hear the instructions of
the court again, and at 500 they an
nounced that they had reached YER
dict. The prisoner had been kept in the
court room all the afternoon, and ten
minutes later he heard the words read
which sealed his fate for life.
AS the jurors took their places in the
jury box Leach hastily scanned their
faces. Then in his accustomed atti-
tude, his right elbow resting on the ta-
Bile and his hand supporting his chin,
he watched George F. Sharitt, clerk Of
the court, as the verdict was read. 9th
erwise he manifested the same spirit of
Indifference that has characterized him
throughout the entire trial.
Near him sat Mrs. Bessie Earhart, a
distant relative, who has Sympathized
with him during the trial more than
anyone else. 1t was she whom Leach
once tried to kill, and twice he had at
tempted to kill her babe. She has
shown a sisterly sOlicitude for him
throughout the trial, and was more af-
fected by the verdict than the prisoner
himself.
Immediately after the verdict and the
adjournment of court Leach was taken
back to the county Jail by BailiR D. F.
wyatt, and Mrs. Earhart accompanied
them On the way to the jail she could
scarcely restrain her feelings
Don't make a scene" said the pris-
a new trial"
This remark shows that no matter
how crazy Leach may have been at
times past he is sane enough now
During the afternoon while waiting
Tor the verdict Leach sat with a num-
Der of his friends inside the railing in
the court room, talking and laughing
with them. He appeared to be the most
hghthearted of the group, although he
was very pale. This however, may have
been due to his long confinement in the
county Jail. To show his Indifference as
TO which way the trial went he told
BalllH Wyatt on one OF the trips to and
from the jail toward the close of the
trial, that he did not care whether he
was convicted or turned loose.
The testimony which convicted Leach
was the admissions of the physicians
who were placed on the stand as experts
when they said that no person who eXer-
clsed memory was in an epileptic state
This, coupled with the circumstances
of Leach's going back for his gloves
after he left the saloon, asking the hack
driver to help him find his knife which
he had lost in the fight, and referring to
the fight in Junction City Immediately
after he dubbed Fennell at the fort
led the jury to believe that he was sane
a the time and that he acted purely
from motive of revenge. 1t is said
that the principal thing which kept the
jury out so long was difference of
opinion as to whether the law should
be permitted to take it's course and
Leach should be hanged, or whether the
death penalty should be suspended and
he should be imprisoned for life The
sentiment against capital punishment
at last prevailed and the death SEN
tence was suspended.
Some of those who have followed the
trial closely claim that the verdict was
not only just, but that it was the most
merciful one that could have been rem
dered as well. If Leach is a degenerate
and epileptie it is urged that he is bet
ter off confined in a penitentiary thsa
he would be in an asylum. If he had
been freed he could not have been sent
to an asylum until he had another out
break, which is claimed would only be
a question of time. The attack which
he made in the county jail on a Ger
man prisoner last spring is pointed to