The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1903-11-17
Sebastian. the Murderer of His
Wife is Pardoned.
PROTEST FROM GREAT FALLS
against the Governors Pardon Be.
ing Endorsed by the Board of Par
dons-Sebastian Should Have Been
Hanged-Crime Committed Seven
Years Ago.

III Ireat rails IN 1896. Yesterday
governor Toole granted him an un-
conditional pardon from the state
penltentiary. to which he was COM
nitted for life.
There have been several brutal
murders comr,,i.+ "a in Cascade conn
ty, but there has never been another
80 cold blooded as that committed
by Sebastian. For weeks he had been
contemplating the crime. He spent
TWO days or more in nerving himself
10 the deed, and then, just as terms
OF endearment had passed his lips,
he killed his wife.
The crime was committed October
IL, 1895. in a shack on the river bank
near the pumping station. The vic
tim, Frances Sebastian, also known
as Mrs. Frost, lived there. In the
morning of that day, her husband,
who had travelled afoot from Kalis-
Dell, for the purpose of killing her,
called at the house, and the woman,
after brief conversation with him,
in which she refused to give him GER
tain guns, he then having in his pos
session rifle, told him that she
knew he was going to shoot her and
that he might as we'll do it then as
later
mo, my dear, we have lived to-
gether IS years without trouble.
and l could not kill you,' replied the
man, and as his wife turned away,
he raised the rifle that he held in his
hands and fired at the woman. The
bullet crashed through the woman's
ribs, tearing out one wall of the heart
and Tending to shreds the lungs.
The mortally wounded woman stag
gered across the room to bed, up
on which she fell dead.
Sebastian left the house. To the
hrst person he met he said:
We'll, I've done it,
Done what?"
"killed that woman We had lived
together IL years without a mo-
ment's peace, and l could not stand
it any longer"
Sebastian was at once arrested.
There was strong public sentiment
in favor of lynching him, but better
consel prevailed, and the following
March the murderer was brought to
trial in the district court, Judge C.
H. Benton presiding, James w.
Freeman, county attorney, prosecut-
ing, and Geo. H. Stanton, defend
ing.
The evidence showed that defend
ant and his wife were married in
1882. They lived at various section
houses along the Great Northern Of
which they had charge, until 1892,
when they came to Great Falls. AT
ter brief residence here, they went
to Poplar, returning to this city early
lr, 7SQE
ment as a laundress in sporting
houses. with the consent of the hus.
band, their friends believed, and thu
husband went to Bolton, Flathead
county, where he remained until
October, when he and his brother,
Keith, then aged Is years, came over.
land to Great Falls. Arriving here
in the evening of October II, Seoas-
tan strapped a gun to his side and
called at his wife's house. She was
not at home. OF woman theTa, he
demanded two guns that he had left
with his wife. The woman said she
did not have them and Sebastian left.
Later that evening he returned. His
wife was at home. He demanded of
her the glins. She said she had sold
them. They talked for some time
and after" he had gone she told a
friend that he had come here to kill
her and she knew he would do it.
The gun that Sebastian had III his
possession was an old one. During
the night he tried to secure another,
but failed. In the morning he again
called at his wife's house. They con-
versed in low tones, apparently hot
angrily. Suddenly the wife vas
heard to exclaim that she knew he
was going to kill her. With terms
of endearment, he protested that his
love for her was so great that he
could not do such thing. AS she
turned away, he said. "Now. we will
die together." He raised his gun and
fired into the woman 5 side. She
STAGGERED across the room and fell
dead, a CHASTITY hole in her side Sc
hastian left the house, and to the
first person he met made the remarks
quoted above.
After he had been arrested. he held
a gun to his head and said he would
kill himself. but made no effort to
pull the trigger. The gun was taken
away from him. There was no con-
tradiction Of the facts.
The defense was three-fold-that
the defendant was insane, that the
defendant was aneered because he
believed his wife had committed adul-
terry and that the crime was only muir
der in the second degree. An effort
was made to show that the defend
ant came to Great Falls not to kill
his wife. but to persuade her to re-
turn to him, but the evidence along
that line was confessedlv weak. as
was that tending to show adultery
on the part of the wife. There was
sufficient evidence, however, to show
that she was not above suspicion.
but none to show that the discovery
wae so sudden or surprising as to
urha1ance the defendants mind.
The chief reliance of the defense
was upon the insanity theory. and Nd
on that Mr.. Stanton made a splendid
fight. He showed insanity in the de-
fond 0fsS family for several ppnpra-