The Topeka state journal., 1906-05-14
HANG, SAYS JUDGE
Oliver Smith Hears the Dread
Sentence Today.
Sister Raises Her Voice in
Pathetic Protest.
PRISONER is CALM.
Tries in Vain TO Quiet Weeping
Relative.
Tells Judge Dana He Didn't In
tend to Kill Bair.

you shall suffer death by hanging by
the neck for your said crime of muir
der in the first degree as charged
against you in the information filed In
this case and as shown by the verdict
of the jury heretofore inpanelled
herein, and that the sheriff Of Shaw
nee county convey you to the state
penitentiary at Lansing and deliver
you to the warden thereof to be safely
kept by said warden, until such time
as the governor Of the state of Kansas
shall issue his warrant fixing the time
of your execution. at which time you
shall be executed as provided by law
As these words were pronounced
solemnly by Judge Dana in the Shaw
nee county district court this morning,
against Oliver Smith, recently con-
victed of murder in the first degree for
the murder of Thomas Bair in North
Topeka joint on March 2, the defend
ants sister, Mrs. w. A. Rambo of Kan
sas City, sitting by him, half rose in
her chair, and with a voice filed un-
describably with pain, anguish and
sorrow, shrieked out:
Oh-judge- -don'ti''
Smith, like a man rousing from a
stunning blow, laid a restraining hand
upon her arm, and gently asked her in
broken voice to desist. Tears were
in his eyes, and he sank down into his
chair, crushed and overcome, ap-
parently almost an inert mass No
outward emotion expressed itself, no
scry or tremb bling hand as if to ward off
the sentence, only an inner battle and
a collapse.
The sheriff had to prod him on the
shoulder several times before he arose.
Then he silently, with doWncast head
and tear brimmed eyes. shuf17ed out of
the room His feet dragged over the
floor as if they we're lead. He was
travelling deep through the Slough of
His sister, Mrs. Rambo of Kansas
City, faithfully clung to him as only q
sister can She took his arm and
walked with him to the jail, and went
inside of the cell in which the Taller
confined him Smiths wife was not
with him. She did not come to the
court to hear the sentence of death
pronounced over her husband. 1.-THE
grief is too great for her to bear said
Smith in explanation, and the rush of
tears to his eyes. told more than was
said and told 1t eIoquently.
Inside the cell his sister conforted
him. She believed through all the trial
that her brother had a. right to kill the
man who they believed ruined his
daughter Her faith in him has multi
piled constantly, and this morning as
she sat in the cell with him she said:
1T was all wrong; it was all wrong.
Ollie has always been good boy. He
has no murder in his heart. The evil
dence against him was untrue. I be-
lieve in him. It is an awful blow"
And then she burst out crying.
THE evidence was a lie, q damnable
lie." said Smith, rousing himself to
almost a pitch of frenzy. The smile
of a maddened man stole over his fea-
lures. the bitter smile of being re-
lentlessly overtaken and pinned down.
''It was untrue" he continued. "They
manufactured evidence against me.
That man Gennett lied on the stand.
He knew that he lied. 1t is a terrible
thing -terrible He, too. was over
come, as tears again filed his eyes
and choked his throat.
There lies the tragedy Of con-
demned men-right there in the cell
to which they are taken after the SEN
tence has been pronounced. The final
chapter is over then, a chapter that
death or, as the law has it in Kansas,
until death comes at the end of a life
behind prison walls.
The circumstances surrounding the
act of pronouncing the sentence were
few. A H. Case, the defendants at
torney, asked that a transcript of the
! record be prepared at the county's eX-
pense, for the use in filing an appeal
with the supreme court. But that
contention was denied, for the courts
not long ago made a specific ruling on
the matter Mr.. Case says that the
appeal to the highest tribunal Of the
/ state will be made anyway.
Smith arose when the court asked
I why the sentence should not be pro-
nounced and said that he had not had
/ his mind made up to kill Bair before
/ the murder actually occurred. "I mis-
understood the county attorneys ques-
/ ton on that score in the trial. That
was all he said, and it was Of no con-
! sequence.
smith will be taken TO the peniten-
tiary at Lansing with a number of 9TH
/ er prisons in few days. His sentence
means life imprisonment, for in Kansas
/ execution for murder in the first degree
is optional with the governor. Smith IS
( almost fifty years old. That period of
I his life now, when the hair turns 70
snowy white, the eye diIns and the body
breaks must be spent behind prison
walls. at hard labor. Freedom is for
ever denied to him.
The murder of which he was convict
ed occurred on March 2 in a North To-
peka joint. Tom Bair, the victim, and
Smith. sat dSzSn to a game of pitch, and
/ Bair won a dole which had been bet.
| They ouarreled over the matter. and
| Smith followed Bair into another joint
and there stabbed him twice in the
| bowels with a ''skinning" knife Bair
4 died four days later at Christ hospital
! Smith set up as his defense that Bair
had ruined his daughter, who receat tly
/ gave birth to child at Crittendon
4 home But the story was incoherent
4 and had no weight with the jury.
He Fought a Prairie Fire.
Mound City. Kan. May III. Q. Nc