St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1905-02-11
Imaginary. against

y |
My own story was incredible to tn
point OF absurdity, and my counse
. strongly advised me to rely solely o.
the plea of insarity-insanity induce,
= by the intolerable wrong I had sui
tered at the hands of the dead man.
+ n the end I was found guilty, witt
a recommendation to mercy.
! l was sentenced to death, and tn,
governor, in spite of the rider to thu
!, Jury's verdict, refused to see any rea
L son why the sentence should not b.
} carried out. / cannot honestly sa,
that those days of waiting for deatl
by the hangman's rope which followed
my sentence were the most wretche6
OF my life. During the 25 years whe1
, l had worked for revenge and my
soul filled with hate, had many
, worse times.
Now l knew my enemy was dead
} and somehow the reason for my OWE
continued existence seemed to have
passed away also.
II I did not welcome the awful end
awaiting me, at any rate I did not
dread it.
/ However, fate-which has played
such queer tricks with me in my time
seemed reluctant to lose such an
amusing toy, and SO, at almost the last
moment, interviewed and saved me,
4 doubtless for further experiments.
! was to die on Friday. On the pre-
vlous Monday, at about two in the
afternoon, l was taken to the room OF
the warden. That gentleman Informed
me that was reprieyed for one week,
and at the same time warned me to
build no false hopes on this temporary
respite.
What had happened was this:
On the night of the murder Arnold
Grange was believed to have in his
possession banknotes to the amount
of 1900. OF these only the $500 found
upon me had been accounted for. 1t
was supposed that the banker had
| sent off the remainder in payment of
| his secretary.
Now, however, man had been
caught trying to pass one of the miss
ing notes. He proved to be a man
well known to the police-Sol Prior,
a daring swindler of the flash type.
He could give no satisfactory ex-
PLANTATION of how he came into posses
sion of the notes, and he was detained
by the police.
One day l was taken into the prison
yard, where 4 score of men were
ranged up in a line. was asked if
/ knew any Of them.
l had no difficulty in picking out my
man. His mustache and beard were
less carefully trimmed, and his face
was even whittier than when he had
faced me in the bankers room, but ]
should have known him among thou
sand.
From that moment events moved
quickly, and a fortnight later l re-
ceived a pardon.
The wretched man Prior stood his |
trial and was duly hanged, but before |
the end he left callous confession. |
1t was a brief document and may be |
given here.
ION July IA l was down on my luck,
promising piece of business having |
gone wrong l was walking across
Hammond square when noticed a
window of one Of the houses wide
open. A light was burning inside, but
the room seemed to be- empty. No
one was about, so climbed on to the
stone coping and got into the room.
Then I pulled down the blind. AS did
SO a man appeared from behind the
screen and confronted me- l pre-
tended to be drunk, but he was too
shrewd. He said nothing, but caught
me by the throat and stretched out
his left hand to ring the electric bell
on his desk. / forced him away from
it and then struck him as hard as /
could on the point of the jaw. He
staggered back and fell and his head
struck on the marble curb in front of
the fireplace. I thought he was only
but as knelt down by him
he just gave one groan and expired.
dragged the body behind the screen
and made for the window, but just
then the door opened and some one
said that a Mr.. Phil Mason desired
to see me. The servant, an old man.
did not recognize me as stood back
in the shadow. To get rid of him I
said show him in AS luck would
have it my voice did not betray me to
he old man and he went out. went
% the window again, but a policeman
was standing just outside talking to a
servant girl. Not knowing what to do
turned back to the room and at the
same moment that maniac, Phil Ma
'on, came in. Again luck helped me.
He took me for the banker at once
saw my only chance was to bluff it.
tried all I could to get rid of the fell
ow, but he would not go. At last, on
he pTetext Of fetching my secretary,
,ot away and went int. the anteroom,
tut the window was locked l came
Jack and found Mason walking up
md down the room. While his back !
vas turned / E-anaged to get to the
window without icing saen. l hid te.' {
lind the curtain and he came within Z
yard of me. Then, when his back
vas again turned slipped out Of the ]
7indow. The policeman was gone ane
got away without being seen. It in s
rue I killed Arnold Grange, but t
wear it was an accident t
The medical evidence declared that t
lrnold Grange could not have met his +
cath in the manner described in the
bove confession. Y
For my own part, having good rea- "
on to look with suspicion on circum-
~ - - l
he poor wretch the benefit of the c