The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-04-09


that a person would If he had been
told that his parents and brother and
sister 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 the one
which his mother had brought into
the house the night before with which
to cut off a button.
The following July Willie was tried
and convicted and sentenced to hang,
which was equivalent to life imprison-
ment in the penitentiary.
The court records show that Mr..
Mendell went back to the Sell home
with the boy. Finding the dead
bodies, Mr.. Mendell told Willie that
they were all dead. Willie showed no
emotion. Another neighbor, a Mr..
Rice, was notified and Willie was sent
there to go to bed. He did so and, ac-
cording to one witness, slept calmly
while another witness testified that he
"peeked" at her from beneath the bed
Clothes.
Regarding the blood on his hands,
Willie at first could give no explana-
ton, 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 faith er's side when he first
went into the room and had lifted his
head He denied that he had washed
his hands. He could in no way &C
count for the blood on his drawers.
Regarding the blood on his shirt he
said that that must have Spurted there
when his brothers throat was cut.
Clear CircumstantiaI Evidence.
Apparently there never was a more
clear case of circumstantial evidence
pointing to guilt than confronted VIII
lie Sell. Yet those who long worked
for his pardon made it appear quite
plausible that someone else did the
deed and that the boy was the victim
of the most unfortunate circumstances.
N.
were killed while out of bed and in the
midst of a fierce struggle; that Willie
was not strong enough to successfully
combat with either one Of them sim
gle handed; that it was evident that
the fathers throat had been cut while
he was standing and that that could
not possibly have been done by one
of Willie'S small stature; that the
throa&s were all cut with a knife, the
edge of which was as keen as a razor
and that the butcher knife found, be-
ing dull, had not been used The sells
were not known to have had any
sharp knife. While blood was spat-
tered over the pillow where Willie
slept, there was not a drop of blood
where an indention in the pillow show
ed that his head had been. 1t was as
serted that the entire family had been
chloroformed, but that Willie, being
the weakest of all, was slower coming
out from under the influence and that
when he did revive he was in stupor
actions and that it was absolutely i'm
possible for a 16-year-old, understood
boy to have dealt the blows with the
hatchet, every one of which not only
crushed the victims skull, but sank
the Ratchet into the brain
Evidence Against Two HOrsemen.
To carry out the theory of chloro-
form having been used druggist at
Erie testified that the night of the
murder he had sold chloroform to two
men on horseback and that they had
ridden on the road in the direction of
the Sell home.
At a hearing before Governor Leedy
in 1897 for a pardon ]. NJ. Skinner
stated that he was at the Sell home
Just after sunrise the morning after
the murder and he had discovered the
being pigeon toed." The horses, he
said, that had made these imprints in
the mud had been ridden slowly from
Erie and then they had been ridden at
a gallop toward the town again. Skin
ner, all the time of Willie's trial, was
In Texas and did not testify.
The petitioners for pardon always
insisted that Willie had no motive to
cause him to commit the crime, as he
was too inexperienced and too young
to have reasoned that he would be his
fathers sole heir. They argued that
the murderers were intent upon rob-
berry, as it was generally understood
that the elder Sell had considerable
Why was Willie left as the sole sur
vivor? is asked His defenders reply |
that this was done Intentionally in or
der to shift the suspicion as to the real |
perpetrators. Willie was not harmed |
they say. because they wished to leave !
the weakest of the family and the one |
least capable of resistance, should he |
or they be compelled to fight their
way out.
The defenders Of Willie Sell made |
the point in his favor that at his trial |
the evidence given by witnesses both |
for and against him was that from |
earliest childhood he had been |
obedient and affectionate boy. |
He was of a cheerful and religious dis |
position. 1t has been the uniform I
testimony of all the chapIains and |
wsrdens at the penitentiary since he |
was confined there that the same |
character and disposition was main
tanned by him through all his prison |
Life.