They merely showed what despicable
things murders were.
As to the reasons for the killings, they were as diverse as
those which Mr. Nott had prosecuted, save that there were more
of an ultra blood-thirsty character, due probably to the fact
that the young lady who did the clipping wanted (after one
rebuff) to make sure that I was satisfied with the goods she
sent me. And this suggests a reason for the large percentage
of cold-blooded killings prosecuted by my friend--namely, that
Mr. Nott being the most astute prosecutor available, the
district attorney, whenever the latter had a particularly
atrocious case, sent it to him in order that the defendant
might surely get his full deserts.
The reasons for these homicides were of every sort; police
officers and citizens were shot and killed by criminals trying
to make "get-aways," and by negroes and others "running
amuck"; despondent young men shot their unresponsive
sweethearts and then either blew out their own brains of
pretended to try to do so; two stable-men had a duel with
revolvers, and each killed the other; several men were shot
for being too attentive to young women residing in the same
hotels; an Italian, whose wife had left him and gone to her
mother, went to the house and killed her, her sister, her
sister's husband, his mother-in-law, two children, and finally
himself; the "Gopher Gang" started a riot at a "benefit" dance
given to a widow and killed a man, after which they fled to
the woods and fired from cover upon the police until eighteen
were overpowered and arrested; a young girl and her fiance,
sitting in the parlor, planning their honeymoon, were
unexpectedly interrupted by a rejected suitor of the girl's,
who shot and killed both of them; an Italian who peeked into a
bedroom, just for fun, afterward rushed in and cut off two
persons' heads with an ax--one of them was his wife; a gang of
white ruffians shot and then burned a negro family of three
peacefully working in the fields; a man who went to the front
door to see who had tapped on his window was shot through the
heart; a striker was killed by a twenty-five-pound piece of
flagging thrown from a roof; there was a gun fight of colored
men at Madison, Wisconsin, at which three were shot; a gang of
negro ruffians killed and mutilated a white woman (with a baby
in her arms) and her husband; masked robbers called a man to
his barn at Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and cut his throat;
an Italian was found with his head split in two by a butcher's
cleaver; a negress in Lafayette, Louisiana, killed a family of
six with a hatchet; a negro farmer and his two daughters were
lynched and their bodies burned by four white men (who will
probably also be lynched if caught); a girl of eleven shot her
girl friend of about the same age and killed her; several
persons were found stabbed to death; a plumber killed his
brother (also a plumber) for saying that he stole two dollars;
a murderer was shot by a posse of militia in a cornfield; a
card game at Bayonne, New Jersey, resulted in a revolver fight
on the street in which one of the players was killed; bank
robbers killed a cashier at twelve o'clock noon; a jealous
lover in Butte, Montana, shot and killed his sweetheart, her
father, and mother; a deputy sheriff was murdered; burglars
killed several persons in the course of their business;
Kokolosski, a Pole, kicked his child to death; and a couple of
dozen people were incidentally shot, stabbed, or otherwise
disposed of in the course of quarrels over the most trivial
matters.
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