The Washington herald., 1913-12-28
HOW HENRY M. FLAGLER FINALLY AGREED
TO ALLOW INTERVIEW TO BE PUBLISHED
All Of the Fifty-6ve Persons
Whom Senator Lewis De-
Tended at Murder Trials
Escaped Death Penalty.

was a sensationally successful crimina
lawyer, both on the Pacific Coast and ir
the Middle West. His first client stole
| a box of cigars. stole" was vulgar
| word and a guilty word besides. Young
| Lewis, he was scarcely more than twenty
at the time, argued the jury into the
theory that the cigars were merely taken
Nand safely held against a vagrant and
possible thief until the owner should ap-
pear and claim his property. The fee
man had at the time.
AN old soldier killed a scoundrel for
breaking up his home" Senator Lewis
said to me when I asked him to par
ticularize some of his most unique eX-
periences. Il showed that an injury he
had received while fighting to save his
country made II impossible for him TO
know whether a person was approach
him or going in the other direction.
had to study the anatomy of the human
eye and post myself with respect to
Bunshot wounds.
las a matter of fact, the murdered
man was running away. 1 claimed that
my client. suffering from the wound he
sustained on the firing line of human
freedom, imagined that the man was
coming toward him with felonious in
tent. The jury accepted that view of
the case
Two Irishmen killed a German in the
public road" Senator Lewis continued
without breaking his narrative. They
were Catholics: he was a member of the
a. p. A. an anti-Cstholic organization
There had been violent talk in the COM
munlty. Some buildings. too, as l re-
member. had been burned. The German
was a free-spoken man. l pictured the
conditions prevailing in the vicinity. The
religion Of good citizens was being at
tackled, ] said. There were these who
sought even to pull 1t down. l claimed
that a mans church was his habitation.
spiritually. He had right to defend
his physical home. The statutes made
that plain. IL was the castle for his body
and sacred in the eye Of the law. How
much more sacred, l asked. was the
castle of his soul. The jury said my
philosophy was sound. Legal periodicals
thought II was a straight case of homi-
cide,and said that my argument was
moonshine. but ! didn't take the time 10
bother with them.
shot n Man In the back.
"A young fellow came down from
father was the mayor of a large Western
city. The young man got into a gambling
establishment. Realizing that he was
being robbed, he began pulling the trigger
of his gun. Two cf the gamblers fell
to the floor. One OF them had a bullet
in his back. Cases with wounds in the
back raise up difficulties hard to over
come.
Il showed that the gamblers had put
in the liquor of my client
While Supply sitting in his chair. l said
and proved, so the jury declared, he be-
came conscious that a hand was pulling his
pccketbOok from the inside OF his vest
The Young man, drugged almost into in
had slipped low in his chair
The robber. leaning over. had lost his
talanCe aud fallen on the young mans
breast While in that position, he thrust
his hand into the young mans vest. The
Young man drew his revolver swung
his arm upward and inward and fired !
Necessarily. the Dall had to go into the |
robbers back.
The widow of a rich gambler shot a |
man through the heart She was a beau !
uful creature with moon eyes and an |
olive complexion. / showed that she kept |
a fancy revolver and a jewelIed dagger |
On the mantel OF her parlor as ornaments. |!
She was standing with her back against |
the mantel, ! said. when the man. her
lover, entered the room. He walked to-
ward her. caught up the dagger and was
about to stab her in the throat, when |
she seized the revolver and put a bullet
nto his breast l received 81, 900 in that
;ase, besides $1,000 for expenses.
Nordstrom was an unnaturalized |
Swede. He was charged with murder A
Swedish consul got me interested in the
'ase. The evidence was entirely circum-
tantial. but painfully conclusive. l took
he case through eleven State courts and
TX Federal courts, and brought it five
lines to the United States Supreme Court,
lere in Washington. While it was still
ending, Nordstrom beat his brains out
gainst the bars Of his cell. Some per-
ons said l had worn him out-That was
ot so. He had gone crazy. a physical
efficiency I might have used in his de-
ense had / known il sooner"
Any more?" l asked.
Plenty of them" Senator Lewis an
wered, but 1 have talked enough
bout murders for the present"