The state herald., 1907-04-19
TRAIL OF BLOOD
AFTER TWENTY.oNE YEARS Will.
LIE SELL is FREE.
AN AWFUL 1RA,L OF BLOOD
Boy Convicted Of Numbering Entire
Family in Most Brutal Manner
Pardoned by the Governor,

Topeka, Kan.-Willie Sell, who has
spent twenty-one years in prison
charged with the slaughter of his
father end mother and brother and
sister in Neosho county, has been
given an unconditional pardon by Gov
ernor Hoch. By arrangement Sell will
go to Nortonville, Kansas, and accept
position in State Senator GriiIin's
drug store.
The murder of the Sell family was
done in the home near Erie, Neosho
county in March, 1883. 1t was one Of
the worst examples of human butchery
in the history of the state. The muir
ders were committed at night, when
the victims were in bed. The killing
was done with hatchet and knife,
and the victims heads were crushed In
or split open and their throats cut. The
only one in the family to escape was
Willie Sell, at that time an understood
sixteen-year-old boy.
Willie Sell claims that he was awak-
ened about / a. M. March Sth, and saw
man standing In the doorway be-
tween the room where he and his
brother slept and the room where his
father, mother and sister slept. He
: saw the man go outdoors, and followed
him for quarter of mile, where the
man was Joined by another man with
two horses, and the two men rode
away. Willie then went to the
home of Farmer Mendell and gave the
alarm.
The boy was put into the peniten-
tiary twenty-one years ago. He is now
thirty-seven years old and has been a
model prisoner for twenty-one years.
Every warden of the penitentiary has
favored his pardon and during the ad-
ministration of Governor Leedy the
pardon board recommended an un-
conditional pardon. Leedy refused to
comply with the recommendation.
On the night OF the murder, Willie
Sell had slept in his underclothes. The
front of his shirt was spattered with
blood. There was also blood upon one
knee, as II he had knelt in a pool Of
blood. His feet were bloody, where he
had stepped in pool of his fathers
blood. The creases about the knuckles
of his hands showed blood stains, as
did the finger nails. A basin of water
red with blood indicated that some one
had washed his bloody hands there.
In spite of the hideousness of the
tragedy Willie failed to show the
slightest emotion over his loss. He
did not weep, but showed the calmness
that person would II he had been
told his parents and brother and sis.
ter were asleep instead Of dead. He
stood beside the bodies Of his parents
and identified a butcher knife which
lay near his fathers head as one which
his mother had brought into the house
the night before with which to cut of
. button.
The following July Willie was tried
and convicted and sentenced to hang,
which was equivalent to life imprison'
ment In the penitentiary.
Regarding the blood on his hands
Willie at first could give no explana'
tion, as he at that time said that he
had touched neither Of his parents as
they lay there dead. Later. however
he said that he believed that he had
knelt by his fathers side when he first
went into the room. and had lifted his
head. He denied that he had washed
his hands. OF the blood on his shirt
he said II must have spurted there
when his brothers throat was cut.
Apparently there never was more
clear case Of circumstantial evidence
pointing to guilt than confronted WI
lie Sell. Yet those who long worked
for his pardon made 1t appear quite
plausible that some one else did the
deed and that the boy was the victim
Of unfortunate circumstances.