The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-09-06

's'I don't believe now that I will ever
hang. If l don't get a, new trial, I
think my sentence will be changed to
life imprisonment declared G. D.
Crawford, the man sentenced to be
hanged for the box-car murder of Heine
Lundeen, but recently granted a stay
pending an appeal of his case to the
supreme court.
1t is nearly year since Lundeen was
shot and Crawford and Lossee, alias
Palmer, were arrested. Since that time
the former has been a closely guarded |
prisoner. Since his conviction in April
he has occupied the murderer's cell in
under continual SURVEILLANCE by a death
watch, and until he talked with a
Journal representative yesterday, has
not seen or talked with anyone but |
his guards and his lawyers. The long
confinement has told upon the man, and
his cheeks are pale and sunken, altho
his eyes have lost none Of their bright
"When my execution was only five
days away and there seemed to be
nothing between me and the rope, l
wasn't exactly happy. he said, with
a smile: How doe; it feel to expect
Explain it. Personally, I don care Hec for
it, but, you see, | had grown used to
it. From the time of the beginning of
my trial I saw they were trying to
throw it into me, and | was sure that
I would stretch rope. I had grown &C
customed to the sensation and the
nearness of the day didn It keep me
from eating and sleeping some, even
had guard ask me one day if didn It
ever think about what I had done. The
fool! Of course [ thought about it,
but what good did that do. I was
ready to take what was coming to me,
and I am yet, but I have some hope
now. The fact that Palmer told me to
shoot and he is now serv ing term
in the penitentiary seems to me to be
reason enough why I should get no
more than life sentence. never in
tended to hit Lundeen, anyway
"Were you ever mixed up in any
thing of that kind before' asked the
reporter. 49,; NJ o.o 49,, ,,uoro +na+ T
was ever arrested before.'
Needed the Money.
"How did you happen to hold up
those men in the boxcarR'
The murdere looked out of the win
dow Of his cell, smiled a quizzical
smile and finally said: "Oh, I don't
know how it was.'
"Did you do it just because you
| nGeueu the money
81 suppose 500
The prisoner is very "sore' at his
pal, who, he claims, "threw him.
down. at every stage of the game.
Asked as to his parents, whom he
Crawford replied: "Oh, 1 don't know
where they are, and they don't know
anything about me. If they think, of
me at all they think I am still in the
nj. r H. h. ho,S
they would not. be any the wiser, and
if I gets life sentence they need
never know. What's the use Of both
ering them?'
Alone Since Years Old.
The prisoner s name is BERTHE Claud
Devell Crawford. His father and moth
er separated when he was only years
| old, and since that he has not lived
with them. He thinks his father is q
doctor, living in Denver, COL, but is
not certain. He has one sister, but
does not know where. Crawford has
lived rowing life, and until he en-
tered the army, in 1898, he lived ir
different places in Missouri, Kansas ant
Nebraska. He went to Manila will
the Fourteenth United States infantry
and later was transferred to the Eighth
I Since his return to the United States
] he has been in San Francisco, Portland
and other western cities. At the tim
of the murder he says he was on hi
way east for the first time since hi
4 enlistment.