The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1925-05-25
BY ROY J. GIBBONS
NEA Service Writer

ponderous door. A key turned and
the thing swung back on its hinges.
Liberty was left behind and / be-
came a prisoner in the same Jail, in
the same tier and in the next cell
to William Darling Shepherd.
NEA Service and The Tribune as
signed me to the task so that you
could learn by first hand informa-
ton and under natural conditions
just what sort of person this man
Shepherd is. During the next week
he will go on trial for numbering
his millionaire ward by inoculating
the youth with typhoid germs.
He is under indictment for admin
istering deadly bacilli to young Billy
McClintock. And a coroner's jury
has just voted that he and his wife
be held for the grand jury for STAY
ing Billy's mother.
Avoids Newspapermen
But since he has been arrested no
one has been able to really observe
and talk to Shepherd, the man. They
saw only Shepherd, the actor. For
he is an actor and consummate
one. The history of the fiction he
has built up about himself proves
that. He has persistently avoided
newspapermen. But Shepherd talked
to me as fellow prisoner
you're one of the three out of
forty who come here he said to NE,
"who are capable Of understanding.
This Jail is the hell of everything.
They're good to me, but | want to
be out and free"
1t was just two minutes after the
jail guard had searched. weighed
and measured me that | saw Shep-
herd. The same hands that went
through my pockets for possible
concealed weapons had helped q
condemned men to the gallows in
the same Jail, the owner told me.
was down in the bull pen waiting to
be put to work. l looked up and
there, bulked out against his cell in
the first tier up, rocked Shepherd
in his tilted chair. He was leaning
out to better catch the light that
fell on his paper. He was reading
the days story about himself topped
off in big black headline. Even
from where | stood ! could see the
veins and muscles on the mans neck
and jaw stand out like whipcords.
That alone betrayed his anger with
the story.
A guard put me to work. was
to sweep out the cell block. By the
time / reached Shepherds cell, he
had stopped reading. His face was
flushed and the paper had fallen to
the floor. He seemed to be dreaming
with his large dubious eyes fastened
on the sooty walls.
"May look at your paper?" | ask
ed him. 81 want to see if those re-
porters wrote up my case"
We started talking. ! gave him a
magazine.
"You must get lonesome in here"
said.
"Yes," Shepherd replied, "but it
will soon be over. I'll go free and
the ones who are prosecuting me
will be sorry"
Then. he launched into bitter
TRADE against Chief Justice Harry
Olson Of Chicago's municipal court.
Olson is the man primarily respon-
sible for having Shepherd indicted.
"Olson will get his" Shepherd
said. "He will be repaid and be
sorry"
Erased Lewd Inscriptions
On one wall Of Shepherds cell,
printed in large type, with a pencil.
were the words, "God is love-"
pointed to the motto.
EYES," said Shepherd, "those words
give me courage. When l came here
the walls were covered with vile
words. l rubbed them all out and
put those up instead.
While talking Shepherd picked, up
q crossword puzzle. "I never liked
these things" he said, until came
here. l. tried sleeping all day a.
first but that made me loggy. Now
! do anything to pass away the time.