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Show H A Dope Fiend Murderer and the Sycophancy of a Jury H ' Twelve Men, Without the Courage of their Convictions, Hearken to the Claims of Maudlin Sympathy for the Yenshee Soaked H Yegg Man Who Shot Down a Policeman in Cold Blood and Give Him for the Rest of His Life Warmth and Hf Food, a Few Hours' Work a Day and a Chance to Kill a Guard or Two Before He Escapes or H Dies While Every Thug in Ear Shot Throws Up His Hat in Glee. f In the progress of the varied work of Utah's K courts many farces, in their day, have had their E exits and their entrances. Justice has come up i over a harder path here than elsewhere, perhaps, Hi for the partisan religion that dominates politically i long ago crept into the judiciary and the unrelent- H- ing throb of religious antagonism has times with- H' out number swayed men in the jury box to H decisions that under ordinary conditions of court H procedure and evidence would never have been H' made, a condition peculiar alone to Utah and for H, a reason that needs no review at this time. H Nor is this reason a matter that has anything B to do with the fact that for the fifth or sixth time Hi within a year or so another professional crook H and hop-head has deliberately shot to death a H man, confessed to the crime, voluntarily given its H details, then, under legal advice, taken his statu- H tory right to plead not guilty, fought his convic- H tion with lies, "aged mother" pleas for sympathy, H cleverness in getting on the jury men dogmatical- H ly opposed to capital punishment or who haven't H nerve enough to do their duty when it lies clear H before them, and with, the thread-bare, worn-out H story of "third degree" methods having been used H to secure his confession of the killing, with the re- H suit that instead of swinging at the end of a rope H he has betaken himself to the penitentiary, there H to mingle with others of his kind for many days, H watching and waiting for the chance to knife H down a guard and break for liberty and failing, H to go back and watch and wait again. H On the night of Tuesday, October G, Special H Policeman C. C. Riley of the local force arrested H two thugs, L. E. Driskell and a man named Ken- H nedy in front of the Grand theatre. The two H men had a few moments before held up and H robbed Frank Nebeker, 958 East First South M street, at the corner of Second South and Second H East streets. Riley, immediately upon arresting m the crooks, searched them about as thoroughly m as the average police officer searches a man whom H he has arrested on the street, before taking him B to the police station. Driskell managed to slip H a big pistol from his outside pocket down inside H of the waistband of his trousers and in his search H Riley missed the gun. Stepping between the H ; two men, with Driskell on the inside of the walk, H ' Riley marched them west on Second South to H State street and north on State street toward the B station. Just as the three reached the southern H side of the Utah Implement company's building, m directly opposite the Orpheum theatre, and at H a moment or two after nine o'clock, Driskell sud- M denly whipped tho gun from the waistband of B j his trousers, pressed its muzzle into Riley's side, H and fired. Riley fell in a death swoon to the slde- H walk. Driskell looked at him a moment and de- H liberately put another bullet into the writhing Hj figure of the dying officer. H Riley passed away a few hours later, leaving M a widow and six-months-old baby. M Driskell was caught and in the presence of 1 the following business men, confessed to the shooting, stating implicitly again and again that he was confessing freely, of his own accord, and H j as the result of no duress or so called third degree H police methods: A. H. Woolley, general man- Hj j ager of the grocery department of the Z. C. M. I.; H Ezra Thompson, former mayor of Salt Lake; H George Morgan, proprietor of the Vienna Cafe; H ! r. w. Nicol, president of the Salt Lake Electric H Supply company; C. J. Collins, manager of the H ! Eclipse Grocery company; and A. W. Cowan, president and manager of the Western Arms and Sporting Goods company. And here is DriskelPs confession: "Yes, I shot Police Officer Riley. "He had searched me when he arrested me, but I had slipped my gun down in front of my pants under the waistband and he overlooked it. "When we were going toward the station house I stepped off the curbing and accidentally pulled loose from Riley, which caused him to move as if reaching for his gun, which I believed to be in his overcoat Docket. I then went for my gun, which was in front of my pants, and beat him to it, shooting immediately as I drew the gun from my pants. "I knew I got him with this shot, but I shot again before he fell, making sure I had him before be-fore I left." This is the general, all 'round tough, confirmed yenshee fiend, foot-pad and confessed murderer for whom a jury of twelve last week asked clemency clem-ency and mercy, after finding from the evidence every word of the story of his crime true and declaring de-claring him guilty of murder in the first degree, for which under ordinary circumstances, the penalty in Utah is death by hanging or shooting. It is doubtful if a more cowardly thing has been done in a jury room in this state in many years. Spineless with sickish sentiment, the Driskell jury declared in effect we find that a professional profession-al foot-pad wantonly and in cold blood shot a police officer to death, confessed to it, and that he is guilty of murder in the first degree, but believe, be-lieve, however, that clemency should be shown him and recommend life imprisonment as the punishment. Men with the courage of their convictions these! Men with a splendid sense of their duty to city and neighbors. Strange, wasn't it, that Driskell, thinking better bet-ter of his decision to throw himself on the mercy of the court, decided to plead not ffuilty and see what effect he could make on a jury and, doing so, dragged forth first of all the old skeleton of his confession having been forced from him by the police third degree fiction known by heart to every crook from the Atlantic to the sun down rim of the continent and used invariably by them as a sort of first aid to the injured when they discover their confessions will not save them from the maximum penalty for their crimes. Few outside those whose work brings or has bi ought them in contact with the various classes of criminals and the effect on them of the punishment punish-ment or non-punishment of crime, particularly the evident reluctance of juries in certain communities communi-ties to permit capital punishment to follow convictions con-victions for first degree murders, wiU realize the influence on crime and the actions of crooks generally of such a fiasco as that just participated partici-pated in by the Driskell jury. It spells to the more desperate criminals this, that in Salt Lake they can, if necessary or by accident, shoot down their victim and stand better than an average chance of escaping the death penalty for the act. Particularly is this true since the Driskell conviction con-viction disgrace follows on the heels of fifteen other convictions for first degree murder In Salt Lake county courts within the last few years, wherein not one of the murderers has paid the penalty with his life. BIHiiHIiiiHviiBiii J Eternal vigilance is the price of a guard's safety at the Utah penitentiary. Joe Sullivan, the desperado and degenerate who shot Policeman Police-man Ford to death, is there. So is Abe Majors, the murderer of Captain Brown of the Ogden Police Po-lice force. Shockley, the bandit, who killed two street car men when they resisted his efforts to hold them up, is there too. He pleaded self-defense and escaped hanging. Frank Connors murdered mur-dered an officer at Provo. There are others there for similar crimes. All living on the fat of the land, putting in a few hours every day at ordinarily or-dinarily hard work and waiting for what? For the opportunity that Majors, Sullivan and the j others have taken advantage of time and again. n A moment's relaxation of the discipline over them, a guard's carelessness and swish a knife made from a file goes home, a spoon handle sharpened to razor edge cuts its nasty gash, a guard or two goes to the hospital more or less badly hurt, a jail break is nipped and the vigilance is resumed. re-sumed. It has happened a dozen times out at the east bench institution and will probably recur as many more times before the end comes. The plans Sullivan and Majors have concocted for escaping escap-ing are almost too numerous and varied to mention. men-tion. The last one discovered was a scheme of three wheels on a broom handle, a sling attached to the handle in which one of them could sit or hang from, the gaining of the roof of the prison cell house, to the ridge of which is attached three telephone and light wires which come in from a ' pole outside the prison and with this trolley ar- 1 rangement made a slide for life across the wall, taking their chances of escaping Injury from the fusllade of rifle and revolver shots sure to be directed di-rected against them by the guards. Both Majors and Sullivan had contrived to fashion and attach the necessary wheels to their broomsticks and make the slings to hold them, when the apparatus was discovered in the cell of each. Where they secured se-cured their materials and when they did the work are still among the mysteries at the penitentiary. And yet the scheme was but one of many. Richard Rich-ard Deming Is out there, too he who, while confined con-fined in the county jail, feigned sickness so well that after the most painful and severe tests possible pos-sible three doctors ordered him sent to a local hospital, from the ward of which, while his guard slept, he escaped in his night clothes in the dead of winter and eluded capture for weeks, finally , ' being taken into custody in another state. These are the men Driskell will probably soon join. A week ago tonight Harry Thorne, an eighteen-year-old desperado and professional crook, shot a grocery man to death in his store on East Fourth South street. James Hays was with him, both members of a gang of yegg men who have been operating all over the western states. Thorne has confessed to the shooting and Hays to being present. The latter declined to sign his confession, confes-sion, as "he didn't see how it would shorten his term in the penitentiary any." From which it is very evident that both men entertain small idea of paying with their lives for the murder of Fassell, basing their hope of only a prison sentence, probably, prob-ably, on to splendid record the Driskell jury has made, a . jll as the illustrious examples of mushy-hearted mushy-hearted jury justice of the Driskell stamp that have filled Utah's state prison with tho worst gang of confessed murderers confined in any penitentiary in the country. An enviable record that and one any man ought to be proud of having contributed to. Meanwhile it will be interesting and instructive instruc-tive to watch the course of action of the nonchalant non-chalant young man confined in the city jail for the murder of Fassell, the groceryman, once he has decided on the easiest route to the hearts of the class of gullible, fear-ridden gentlemen from which, unfortunately, the juries in local murder cases seem to be selected. |