The Price of a 'Bad Man's' Temper

It is so difficult to convict anybody of murder in this state, provided the accused is a white man and has money or friends, that we suppose this community ought to feel grateful that the jury did not acquit James Murphy, who has been found guilty of murder in the second degree. Murphy committed a most foul murder; there was no evidence that he had any provocation that even palliated his frightful crime. Murphy was a man made moody and ugly in temper by his circumstances; he was a gambler and a bad man generally out of luck in consequence of his depraved habits. He was in the habit of 'standing up' his old friends among the saloonkeepers for his drinks; he wore out his welcome as all such bankrupt 'bums' do, and the chilly treatment he received made him surly. His steady drinking of alcohol doubtless made him morbidly morose and vindictive, and in a fit of alcoholic ugliness he drew his pistol and murdered Philip Dawe because of some real or fancied cause of resentment. The Murphy type of murderer, the 'bad man,' too poor to play, too lazy to work, thirsty without a dime to get a drink, a loaded gun in his pocket, is a familiar shape all over the Northwest. It is proper to say that it is difficult to get policemen to testify to the truth when, as in the Murphy case, the mayor of the city, the head of the police department, was a leading counsel for the murderer.