Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-01
NJ 'CLURE WILL
ESCAPE GALL0WS
DEATH SENTENCE COMMITTED
TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT
Man Who Shot One and Stabbed An
other Is Reprleved at Eleventh
Hour by Governor
Pardee

Through the intervention Of the
Judges of the supreme court the sem
tence of death recently passed upon
John Mcclure Of Los Angeles was yes
terday commuted to life imprisonment
Mcclure was to have been hanged at
San Quentin, May s.
Just why the change was made Is
rot fully stated by the supreme court
judges except that the old miner had
always borne a reputation for gentle-
ness and did not kill Zodcof and
Jerry O'Shea until after he had been
jeered and made sport of and had been
driven to the rash deed.
Mcclure was a peculiar type of the
old western school. He spent his time
quietly and finally started away to the
mines Before he went he sold a
horse and wagon to Zodicoff livery
stable keeper. In an argument over
the halter the old miner shot and killed
the stableman and his assistant Nc
Clure surrendered himself, escape be-
ing impossible because of his being a
cripple.
The following dispatch from sacra-
mento received late last night tells the
change of sentence in detail:
Judges Recommend Change
Upon the recommendation of Chief
Justice Beatty and Associate Justice
Shaw, Governor Pardee has commuted
to life imprisonment the death penalty
of John Mcclure. the crippled old
prospector who, in December 1904, at
Los Angeles; shot and killed two sta
blemen, Zodicoff and O'Shea.
The shooting grew out of a dispute
over a halter which Mcclure claimed
was not included in the sale to Zodicoff
of his horse and wagon. The old man
visited the stable several times to de-
mand his halter. but was put off and
@-A of IL, l,,rH
and O'Shea. On his last visit, smart
ing under the supposed wrong done
him and goaded to frenzy by the treat
ment received at the hands of the sta
blemen, he shot both his tormenters.
In a letter to the governor Judge
Beatty reviews the facts of the crime
and concludes that the case is not one
in which the extreme penalty should
be meted out
Says Crime Provoked
Judge Shaw strongly urges the COM
mutation. In his letter to the COVER
nor he says:
THE shooting of Zodicoff was very
much palliated by the fact that it was
done under extreme provocation by
Zodicoff himself; that as O'Shea had
previously joined in the jeering at the
old man, he naturally supposed that
O'Shea was assisting Zodicoff and at
attack, and being still controlled by
the rage into which he had been
thrown by Zodicoff's goadings and in
the frenzy to which human nature is
subject when once so aroused he
turned his weapons upon OShea His
subsequent stabbing of O'Shea, while
they were down, may or may not have
been done in resisting O'Shea's attack.
but the most that can be said is that
1t was done In the heat of passion pre-
viously provoked in him, in the anger
of battle, so to speak, and not coolly
or deliberately
Bears Good Reputation
"But the crime of murder so commit
ted is not the kind that calls for the
inf1iction of the dealth penalty The
only recourse to correct the error of
the jury is the pardoning power. I
most earnestly urge the commuta ton
of his sentence so that he he impris-
oned for life. I am informed that he
has previously borne a good reputa-
ton for peace and quietness and is not
the brutal and vicious person who
would commit a double murder without t
provocation or compunctions of con-
science There was certainly nothing
In the evidence to indicate such
viciousness."
There were filed with the governor
affidavits by trustworthy persons in
Arizona and in Los Angeles to the ef-
feet that before the shooting of Zodi-
coff and O'Shea Mcclure had never
been in any trouble, but had always
been peaceable. kindly old man.