The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-08-12
GAPI. SHANE
WRITES BOOK
Explains Why He Killed Uni
versity Students.
ENTITLED mot GUILTY"
Claims He Was Not Given a
Fair Trial.
ENTITLED "NOT GUILTY.

Abilene, Kan, Aug I--Captaln j. D.
Shane, who is in the penitentiary al
Lansing. serving life sentence for the
shooting of Edgar Katherman, a univer-
sity student at Lawrence. in February
1902. has write ma book TO be published
in few days and entitled Not Guilty
Capt. Shane was a photographer and
shot Katherman as the young man and a
friend passed. mis- gallery one morning
killing him instantly. Shane claims, and
his book is written TO demonstrate his
contention, that he was not given a fair
trial and fun hearing in the trial that
followed The trial was q brief one and
the only defense made was that of in
sanity He claims that his act was pure
ly accidental and gives the following de-
scription of the sad happening:
''On this morning while standing here,
two young men passed the door going
south. 1 had not noticed them until they
were passing the door, walking as close
in as it was possible to walk. They had
not been in sight more than a step or
two before they were passing the door.
The inner one was so close under me
that could look down on top of his head
but could not see his face, the outer one
! could see the lower part of his face
as he was not so close TO me. just
as they passed the door one Of them
yelled just as some of them had been do
ing for years. On the swife impulse of the
moment 1 thought I could fire over them
to scare them and as a warning that il
would not be safe to keep up the old prac-
ms M ola
southeast over them to see if the street
and park were clear Of people, at the
same time turning my shoulders to the
northeast so as to throw my right arm
outside of the door jam and at the same
time throwing the gun and ar mupward TO
shoot over them and toward the park.
The gun arm in its rapid upward swing
came in contact with the iron awning bar
above mentioned. The sudden jar and
checking Of the gum arm caused the
gun to be discharged prematurely, as I
learned later. I had just the faintest
feeling that the gun had gone off a tride
sooner than 1 had expected but it was
very faint. 1 was just conscious of that
impression. I never once thought of the
awning bar which was four inches lower
the. arm just above the elbow and jar
of a gun that was so near the point Of
discharge anyway. BY the time the gun
was discharged as above described the
inner one was entirely behind the door
Jam save just a glimpse of his left ell
bow. The outer would be still in view for
about two steps. 1 saw him jump and
run looking back over his shoulder, two
quick steps and he was out of sight also
AS TO the one inside, from the glimpse
I had of his left elbow. I thought he
Jumped and ran also. and tnat they were
both gone. l did not lean forward to look
down the walk to see where they went.
and therefore saw nothing Of what had
taken place An this gun movement was
very swift. There could not have been
more than two seconds between the yell
and the shot. They were walking rapidly
and had probably not taken the third
step when the gun went off as above de-
scribed There was no time for me TO
think Of more tina ntwo things. To scare
them to Not hit anyone beyond II
thought any other thing in that brief two
seconds l have never. at any time. been
conscious Of it. I stepped back one step
and closed the door slowly but did not
fasten II. The door was never fastened
at any time. From back in the room
could see only what was out directly in
front OF the door. I saw few persons
come across the street hurriedly. There
not being many over IN front Of the gal
lery. I supposed they had come over TO
see what the shot was fired for. but they
saw more than l knew about at that time.
I had put the gun back in my pocket
where il had been before. After the lapse
of several minutes. Karl Shane came In
the gallery and askd. Did you have any
thing to do with that?' That was the first
animation I received that the shot had
struck anyone as I had fully supposed
both of them had run away
None of this story was brought out I'm
the testimony and the object Of the
books publication is 10 present it TO the
public. The story is a long one, covering
his entire life and fills 10 pages II is
dedicated 10 the governor of Kansas.