Rube Burrow, king of outlaws, and his band of train robbers : $b An accurate and faithful history of their exploits and adventuresAgee, George W. (George Washington)
History
Rube Burrow, king of outlaws, and his band of train robbers : $b An accurate and faithful history of their exploits and adventures
Agee, George W. (George Washington)
Burrow, Rube, 1854-1890
To all who may read this, I write this to inform you that my name
is L. C. Brock; was born and raised in Coffee county, southeast
Ala. and I am not guilty of the crime for which I am imprisoned. I
am innocent, the God of Heaven knows it. I have suffered all the
while for the crime of some one else. On the 29th of September I
wrote to L. B. Moseley, Deputy U. S. Marshal, Jackson Miss. to
come and get the names of my witnesses. he has not come yet. I do
not believe the letter was mailed to him at all. through August I
had fever and nothing to lay on up stairs (daytime) but the floor,
fainted 25 or 35 times from weakness. I am telling this to show or
give you an idea of how I have been treated. They entend to force
me to a trial without my witnesses. You show this to any and all if
you wish.
Respectfully,
L. C. BROCK.
The officer, unlocking the room door, announced that he had come to
take him to the sergeant’s office, where the marshal and Detective
Jackson were in waiting to take him to the courtroom. “All right,” said
Brock, and immediately followed the officer out.
The penitentiary cells are four deep, one above the other, around a
large corridor, eighty feet long, making an open court sixty feet deep.
When the prisoner reached the head of the stair-way, in front of the
door of his room, instead of descending with the officer he turned
down the hall-way and commenced to ascend the stair-way leading to the
fourth floor. At the same time he drew a murderous looking knife, which
he had secured and secreted in some unaccountable manner, and bade
the guard stand back or he would cut him. Sergeant Montgomery was at
once notified of the unusual conduct of the prisoner, and, in company
with Detective Jackson and Marshal Mathews, immediately repaired to
the rotunda of the court and inquired of the prisoner what he meant
by such conduct. Brock was then calmly walking to and fro along the
floor of the fourth story brandishing his knife, and at once declared
his intention to jump to the ground beneath and kill himself. Meantime
the note thrown from the window had been handed to the officers of the
prison, and Brock was asked to name the party to whom he had given
letters, asking that witnesses be summoned. This he refused to do, but
stated that the Southern Express Company intended to “railroad” him
either to the gallows or to life imprisonment without giving him even
the shadow of a showing, whereupon Marshal Mathews assured him that
he should not go to trial without counsel, and further stated that he
would see that all the witnesses he desired should be summoned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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