Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1905-08-18
ono EVIDENCE"
Just a few Interesting Notes
Relative to the Celebrated
Sharratt Case. =

The assertion is still being made by
few deeply interested persons that in
the Sharratt case there was no evidence
TO warrant holding the Greens on the
charge of murder Let lie discuss this
matter without prejudice or partiality.
1t is fact that E. G. Sharratt was
shot at Luliens, Or, on or about the
2lst day of January, 1907, and was
found so shot in the dwelling house of
the Greens on the morning of that day.
The only occupants OF the house that
fatal night we're the Greens and Z. q.
Sharratt. The first intimation that
Sharratt was shot was given by Mrs.
Green to the Stantons, Henry Nice and
Jacob Holgate, who Immediately went
to the Green house and found Sharratt
lying on his back in bed, with bullet
wound IN mis- neck. Sharratt mad on an
undershrt and night shirt buttoned
up close to the wound In his neck
there were no blood stains on his shirt
or on the bed clothes the bed covers
were spread evenly and smoothly over
Sharratt, being turned back from the
top on line with his shoulders, and
tucked down at the sides between the
mattress and the bed rall-all of which
must have been done by some person
other than Sharratt; his right hand
was under the covers, while his left lay
on top of the covers; his head was
resting upon two pillows; he was
breathing rapidly and with great diff
Guilty.
Now, as to Mrs. Green's statements
most of winch were made in Green's
presence and by him not contradicted -
as to how Sharratt was shot: When
Messrs. Holgate, Nice and Stanton ar
rived at the Green house, which was
immediately after the alarm given by
Mrs. Green, they asked her how Shar-
raft was Shot, and she said: "Mr. Shar-
rattshot himself; he didn't understand
gun; told him moi to play with the
gun; he went out on the porch to shoot
at something on the bay he played
with the gun and shot himself" Sew
eral hours afterward, when questioned
about how Sharratt was shot, she said
she knew nothing about it until Satur-
day morning between and o'clock,
when she entered his bedroom for the
purpose OF calling him to breakfast and
found him lying in the bed, shot. She
first claimed that when she entered the
bedroom to call him to breakfast she
found the "little gun" on top OF the
bed covering, with the muzzle pointed
toward his face, and she fled from the
room Immediately to give the alarm. A
day or two later she declared she found
the gun lying across the foot of the bed
when she first discovered that Sharratt
was shot aud picked it up and threw it
In the corner of the room on the floor.
She made this last statement after she
learned that Charles Stanton would
swear that the gun was lying ON the
floor near the foot Of the bed and near
the corner of the bedroom. Mrs.
Green also swore that she, Green and
Sharratt all retired Friday night, pre-
ceding the shooting of Sharratt, not
later than o'clock. When Mrs. Coin
and another lady who was with her at
the time called to sec Sharratt after he
was shot, Mrs. Green toll them that
she, Green and Sharratt all sat up that
night the shooting took place until IL
O'Clock. The bedrooms in which
the Greens slept and the one occupied
by Sharratt adjoined each other, with
only wall between them composed of
inch boards, with no cloth or paper over
the same, so that any sound in one
room could be easily heard in The
other.
Green stated that he had seen neither
his own nor Sharratt's revolver around
the house for more than year past,
while Mrs. Green said: "Why did Shar.
ratt use the little gun when his revol-
yer laid there'-pointing to Il shelf in
Sharratt's ed-room-'and Mr.. Green's
was in the other room?" Now, there
was no powder burns or powder smoke
on or around the wound in Sharratt's
neck-nothing to show that the weapon
was near his neck when the fatal shot
was fired. IT Sharratt had fired that
shot himself he would have been COM
PEELED to have held the muzzle of the
gan within a few inches OF his neck,
and rs a result his neck would hare