The Twin Hells: A Thrilling Narrative of Life in the Kansas and Missouri PenitentiariesReynolds, John N. (John Newton)
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The Twin Hells: A Thrilling Narrative of Life in the Kansas and Missouri Penitentiaries
Reynolds, John N. (John Newton)
Prisons -- Kansas; Prisons -- Missouri
His wife is one of the most highly respected ladies of Atchison;
is true, faithful and devoted to her husband. She has enlisted the
sympathies of the entire community in her behalf, because of her youth
and great bereavement. His aged mother, who has been called upon to wade
through deep waters of affliction because of the great calamity that
has befallen her son and daughter, will also exert great influence in
getting signers to a petition for his pardon.
The question has often been asked me, because of my intimate relation
with Baldwin in the penitentiary, whether I believed that he is guilty.
I can answer as to my own belief. I have watched him carefully as I have
the other fifty-five lifetime convicts, and I am free to say that I do
not believe that William Baldwin ever committed the crime of killing his
sister for the malicious desire of obtaining filthy lucre, or the estate
of his sister. He does not conduct himself as scores of other criminals
who have confessed their guilt. In conversation with him, while I was
"in stripes," he has time and again told me, with tears rolling down his
cheeks, that he was innocent of the terrible crime of which he stands
accused, and that there was no brother had greater love for his sister
than he, and that he had such faith in an overruling Providence that
eventually he would be exonerated from the crime; and that the real
perpetrator would be made known. If he is innocent and it should ever
be clearly proven, his will be one of the saddest and most mysterious
events ever recorded. There is beyond doubt an unsolved mystery hanging
over this remarkable case.
CHAPTER IX. FORTY-EIGHT HOURS IN HELL
One of the most interesting cases of resuscitation that ever came to
my knowledge was that of George Lennox, a notorious horse-thief of
Jefferson County. He was serving his second term. Sedgwick County
sent him to the prison, the first time for a similar offense--stealing
horses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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