Having murdered my mother under circumstances of
singular atrocity, I was arrested and put upon trial, which lasted seven
years. In summing up, the judge of the Court of Acquittal remarked that
it was one of the most ghastly crimes that he had ever been called upon
to explain away.
At this my counsel rose and said:
"May it please your honour, crimes are ghastly or agreeable only by
comparison. If you were familiar with the details of my client's
previous murder of his uncle, you would discern in his later offence
something in the nature of tender forbearance and filial consideration
for the feelings of the victim. The appalling ferocity of the former
assassination was indeed inconsistent with any hypothesis but that of
guilt; and had it not been for the fact that the honourable judge before
whom he was tried was the president of a life insurance company which
took risks on hanging, and in which my client held a policy, it is
impossible to see how he could have been decently acquitted. If your
honour would like to hear about it for the instruction and guidance of
your honour's mind, this unfortunate man, my client, will consent to
give himself the pain of relating it under oath."
The district attorney said: "Your honour, I object. Such a statement
would be in the nature of evidence, and the testimony in this case is
closed. The prisoner's statement should have been introduced three years
ago, in the spring of 1881."
"In a statutory sense," said the judge, "you are right, and in the Court
of Objections and Technicalities you would get a ruling in your favour.
But not in a Court of Acquittal. The objection is overruled."
"I except," said the district attorney.
"You cannot do that," the judge said. "I must remind you that in order
to take an exception you must first get this case transferred for a time
to the Court of Exceptions upon a formal motion duly supported by
affidavits. A motion to that effect by your predecessor in office was
denied by me during the first year of this trial.
"Mr. Clerk, swear the prisoner."
The customary oath having been administered, I made the following
statement, which impressed the judge with so strong a sense of the
comparative triviality of the offence for which I was on trial that he
made no further search for mitigating circumstances, but simply
instructed the jury to acquit, and I left the court without a stain upon
my reputation:
"I was born in 1856 in Kalamakee, Mich., of honest and reputable
parents, one of whom Heaven has mercifully spared to comfort me in my
later years. In 1867 the family came to California and settled near
Nigger Head, where my father opened a road agency and prospered beyond
the dreams of avarice. He was a silent, saturnine man then, though his
increasing years have now somewhat relaxed the austerity of his
disposition, and I believe that nothing but his memory of the sad event
for which I am now on trial prevents him from manifesting a genuine
hilarity.
"Four years after we had set up the road agency an itinerant preacher
came along, and having no other way to pay for the night's lodging which
we gave him, favoured us with an exhortation of such power that, praise
God, we were all converted to religion. My father at once sent for his
brother, the Hon. William Ridley of Stockton, and on his arrival turned
over the agency to him, charging him nothing for the franchise or
plant--the latter consisting of a Winchester rifle, a sawn-off shot gun
and an assortment of masks made out of flour sacks. The family then
moved to Ghost Rock and opened a dance house. It was called ‘The Saints'
Rest Hurdy-Gurdy,' and the proceedings each night began with a prayer.
It was there that my now sainted mother, by her grace in the dance,
acquired the sobriquet of ‘The Bucking Walrus.'
"In the fall of '75 I had occasion to visit Coyote, on the road to
Mahala, and took the stage at Ghost Rock. There were four other
passengers. About three miles beyond Nigger Head, persons whom I
identified as my Uncle William and his two sons, held up the stage.
Finding nothing in the express box, they went through the passengers. I
acted a most honourable part in the affair, placing myself in line with
the others, holding up my hands and permitting myself to be deprived of
forty dollars and a gold watch. From my behaviour no one could have
suspected that I knew the gentlemen who gave the entertainment. A few
days later, when I went to Nigger Head and asked for the return of my
money and watch, my uncle and cousins swore they knew nothing of the
matter, and they affected a belief that my father and I had done the job
ourselves in dishonest violation of commercial good faith. Uncle William
even threatened to retaliate by starting an opposition dance house at
Ghost Rock. As ‘The Saints' Rest' had become rather unpopular, I saw
that this would assuredly ruin it and prove a paying enterprise, so I
told my uncle that I was willing to overlook the past if he would take
me into the scheme and keep the partnership a secret from my father.
This fair offer he rejected, and I then perceived that it would be
better and more satisfactory if he were dead.
"My plans to that end were soon perfected, and communicating them to my
dear parents, I had the gratification of receiving their approval. My
father said he was proud of me, and my mother promised that, although
her religion forbade her to assist in taking human life, I should have
the advantage of her prayers for my success. As a preliminary measure,
looking to my security in case of detection, I made an application for
membership in that powerful order, the Knights of Murder, and in due
course was received as a member of the Ghost Rock Commandery. On the day
that my probation ended I was for the first time permitted to inspect
the records of the order and learn who belonged to it--all the rites of
initiation having been conducted in masks. Fancy my delight, when, in
looking over the roll of membership, I found the third name to be that
of my uncle, who indeed was junior vice-chancellor of the order! Here
was an opportunity exceeding my wildest dreams--to murder I could add
insubordination and treachery. It was what my good mother would have
called ‘a special Providence.'
"At about this time something occurred which caused my cup of joy,
already full, to overflow on all sides, a circular cataract of bliss.
Three men, strangers in that locality, were arrested for the stage
robbery in which I had lost my money and watch. They were brought to
trial and, despite my efforts to clear them and fasten the guilt upon
three of the most respectable and worthy citizens of Ghost Rock,
convicted on the clearest proof. The murder would now be as wanton and
reasonless as I could wish.
"One morning I shouldered my Winchester rifle and, going over to my
uncle's house, near Nigger Head, asked my Aunt Mary, his wife, if he
were at home, adding that I had come to kill him. My aunt replied with a
peculiar smile that so many gentlemen called on the same errand and were
afterward carried away without having performed it that I must excuse
her for doubting my good faith in the matter. She said it did not look
as if I would kill anybody, so, as a guarantee of good faith, I levelled
my rifle and wounded a Chinaman who happened to be passing the house.
She said she knew whole families who could do a thing of that kind, but
Bill Ridley was a horse of another colour. She said, however, that I
would find him over on the other side of the creek in the sheep lot; and
she added that she hoped the best man would win.
"My Aunt Mary was one of the most fair-minded women whom I have ever
met.
"I found my uncle down on his knees engaged in skinning a sheep. Seeing
that he had neither gun nor pistol handy, I had not the heart to shoot
him, so I approached him, greeted him pleasantly, and struck him a
powerful blow on the head with the butt of my rifle. I have a very good
delivery, and Uncle William lay down on his side, then rolled over on
his back, spread out his fingers, and shivered. Before he could recover
the use of his limbs I seized the knife that he had been using and cut
his ham strings. You know, doubtless, that when you sever the tendon
Achillis the patient has no further use of his leg; it is just the same
as if he had no leg. Well, I parted them both, and when he revived he
was at my service. As soon as he comprehended the situation, he said:
" ‘Samuel, you have got the drop on me, and can afford to be liberal
about this thing. I have only one thing to ask of you, and that is that
you carry me to the house and finish me in the bosom of my family.'
"I told him I thought that a pretty reasonable request, and I would do
so if he would let me put him in a wheat sack; he would be easier to
carry that way, and if we were seen by the neighbours en route it would
cause less remark. He agreed to that, and, going to the barn, I got a
sack. This, however, did not fit him; it was too short and much wider
than he was; so I bent his legs, forced his knees up against his breast,
and got him into it that way, tying the sack above his head. He was a
heavy man, and I had all I could do to get him on my back, but I
staggered along for some distance until I came to a swing which some of
the children had suspended to the branch of an oak. Here I had laid him
down and sat upon him to rest, and the sight of the rope gave me a happy
inspiration. In twenty minutes my uncle, still in the sack, swung free
to the sport of the wind. I had taken down the rope, tied one end
tightly about the mouth of the bag, thrown the other across the limb,
and hauled him up about five feet from the ground. Fastening the other
end of the rope also to the mouth of the sack, I had the satisfaction to
see my uncle converted into a huge pendulum. I must add that he was not
himself entirely aware of the nature of the change which he had
undergone in his relation to the exterior world, though in justice to a
brave man's memory I ought to say that I do not think he would in any
case have wasted much of my time in vain remonstrance.
"Uncle William had a ram which was famous in all that region as a
fighter. It was in a state of chronic constitutional indignation.
Some deep disappointment in early life had soured its disposition, and
it had declared war upon the whole world. To say that it would butt
anything accessible is but faintly to express the nature and scope of
its military activity; the universe was its antagonist; its method was
that of a projectile. It fought, like the angels and devils, in mid-air,
cleaving the atmosphere like a bird, describing a parabolic curve and
descending upon its victim at just the exact angle of incidence to make
the most of its velocity and weight. Its momentum, calculated in
foot-tons, was something incredible. It had been seen to destroy a
four-year-old bull by a single impact upon that animal's gnarly
forehead. No stone wall had ever been known to resist its downward
swoop; there were no trees tough enough to stay it; it would splinter
them into matchwood and defile their leafy honours in the dust. This
irrascible and implacable brute--this incarnate thunderbolt--this
monster of the upper deep, I had seen reposing in the shade of an
adjacent tree, dreaming dreams of conquest and glory. It was with a view
of summoning it forth to the field of honour that I suspended its master
in the manner described.
"Having completed my preparations, I imparted to the avuncular pendulum
a gentle oscillation, and retiring to cover behind a contiguous rock,
lifted up my voice in a long, rasping cry, whose diminishing final note
was drowned in a noise like that of a swearing cat, which emanated from
the sack. Instantly that formidable sheep was upon its feet and had
taken in the military situation at a glance. In a few moments it had
approached, stamping, to within fifty yards of the swinging foeman who,
now retreating and anon advancing, seemed to invite the fray. Suddenly I
saw the beast's head drop earthward as if depressed by the weight of its
enormous horns; then a dim, white, wavy streak of sheep prolonged itself
from that spot in a generally horizontal direction to within about four
yards of a point immediately beneath the enemy. There it struck sharply
upward, and before it had faded from my gaze at the place whence it had
set out I heard a horrible thump and a piercing scream, and my poor
uncle shot forward with a slack rope, higher than the limb to which he
was attached. Here the rope tautened with a jerk, arresting his flight,
and back he swung in a breathless curve to the other end of his arc. The
ram had fallen, a head of indistinguishable legs, wool, and horns, but,
pulling itself together and dodging as its antagonist swept downward, it
retired at random, alternately shaking its head and stamping its
fore-feet. When it had backed about the same distance as that from which
it had delivered the assault, it paused again, bowed its head as if in
prayer for victory, and again shot forward dimly visibly as before--a
prolonging white streak with monstrous undulations, ending with a sharp
ascension. Its course this time was at a right angle to its former one,
and its impatience so great that it struck the enemy before he had
nearly reached the lowest point of his arc. In consequence he went
flying around and around in a horizontal circle, whose radius was about
equal to half the length of the rope, which I forgot to say was nearly
twenty feet long. His shrieks, crescendo in approach and diminuendo in
recession, made the rapidity of his revolution more obvious to the ear
than to the eye. He had evidently not yet been struck in a vital spot.
His posture in the sack and the distance from the ground at which he
hung compelled the ram to operate upon his lower extremities and the end
of his back. Like a plant that has struck its root into some poisonous
mineral, my poor uncle was dying slowly upward.
"After delivering its second blow the ram had not again retired. The
fever of battle burned hot in its heart; its brain was intoxicated with
the wine of strife. Like a pugilist who in his rage forgets his skill
and fights ineffectively at half-arm's length, the angry beast
endeavoured to reach its fleeting foe by awkward vertical leaps as he
passed overhead, sometimes, indeed, succeeding in striking him feebly,
but more frequently overthrown by its own misguided eagerness. But as
the impetus was exhausted and the man's circles narrowed in scope and
diminished in speed, bringing him nearer to the ground, these tactics
produced better results and elicited a superior quality of screams,
which I greatly enjoyed.
"Suddenly, as if the bugles had sung truce, the ram suspended
hostilities and walked away, thoughtfully wrinkling and smoothing its
great aquiline nose, and occasionally cropping a bunch of grass and
slowly munching it. It seems to have tired of war's alarms and resolved
to beat the sword into a ploughshare and cultivate the arts of peace.
Steadily it held its course away from the field of fame until it had
gained a distance of nearly a quarter of a mile. There it stopped and
stood with its rear to the foe, chewing its cud and apparently half
asleep. I observed, however, an occasional slight turn of its head, as
if its apathy were more affected than real.
"Meanwhile, Uncle William's shrieks had abated with his emotion, and
nothing was heard from him but long, low moans, and at long intervals my
name, uttered in pleading tones exceedingly grateful to my ear.
Evidently the man had not the faintest notion of what was being done to
him, and was inexpressibly terrified. When Death comes cloaked in
mystery he is terrible indeed. Little by little my uncle's oscillations
diminished, and finally he hung motionless. I went to him and was about
to give him the coup de grâce, when I heard and felt a succession of
smart shocks which shook the ground like a series of light earthquakes,
and turning in the direction of the ram, saw a cloud of dust approaching
me with inconceivable rapidity and alarming effect. At a distance of
some thirty yards away it stopped short, and from the near end of it
rose into the air what I at first thought a great white bird. Its ascent
was so smooth and easy and regular that I could not realise its
extraordinary celerity, and was lost in admiration of its grace. To this
day the impression remains that it was a slow, deliberate movement, the
ram--for it was that animal--being upborne by some power other than its
own impetus, and supported through the successive stages of its flight
with infinite tenderness and care. My eyes followed its progress through
the air with unspeakable pleasure, all the greater by contrast with my
former terror of its approach by land. Onward and upward the noble
animal sailed, its head bent down almost between its knees, its
fore-feet thrown back, its hinder legs trailing to rear like the legs of
a soaring heron. At a height of forty or fifty feet, as near as I could
judge, it attained its zenith and appeared to remain an instant
stationary; then, tilting suddenly forward without altering the relative
position of its parts, it shot downward on a steeper and steeper course
with augmenting velocity, passed immediately above me with a noise like
the rush of a cannon shot, and struck my poor uncle almost squarely on
top of the head! So frightful was the impact that not only the neck was
broken, but the rope, too; and the body of the deceased, forced against
the earth, was crushed to pulp beneath the awful front of that meteoric
sheep. The concussion stopped all the clocks between Lone Hand and Dutch
Dan's, and professor Davidson, who happened to be in the vicinity,
promptly explained that the vibrations were from the north to south."
Altogether, I cannot help thinking that in point of atrocity my murder
of Uncle William has seldom been excelled.
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