The Hammer in the Woodshed: Henry Creamer's Death Sentence

Henry Creamer was found guilty of murder in the first degree at 1:10 this morning in Judge Humes's court room. The words that consigned him to the scaffold fell on his ears, and his face blanched perceptibly, though not a muscle moved; his eyes remained riveted on the clerk as if doubting the correctness of his senses.

Judge Humes ordered Creamer to stand, then to face the jury. He stood squarely, head thrown back, almost defiant. The clerk called the roll, and each juror answered 'Yes' when asked if that was his verdict. The jury had gone out at 9:24. Judge Humes went home at 10, leaving word to be called if a verdict was reached. At 12:15 the jury announced a verdict, and it took until 1 o'clock to get judge, clerk and prisoner's attorney to the courthouse. Creamer was brought from his cell without uttering a word. The general opinion in the court room had been 'guilty.'

Earlier, defense attorney Soderberg had begged the jury to set Creamer free. 'The man is innocent, and the whole community now realizes it,' he said. He warned against a community sentiment that, because an unspeakable murder had been committed, someone must be hanged. He argued that a foreign-born resident without money could not search out witnesses or fairly present his case. The evidence was purely circumstantial: Creamer owned the hammer, the saw, the bit of wood; money had been found in his woodshed; $240 was taken from the Meller house. But none of it, Soderberg insisted, connected Creamer to the murder. He asked why Rother, a man who knew about the hammer and woodshed and whose name was on the information, was not on the stand. He attacked Harry Guyer's identification as the link that completed the chain, calling Guyer a witness no jury would convict on. He suggested detectives had manufactured evidence.

Prosecuting Attorney John P. Miller answered that every link in the chain was present. He defended the state's witnesses, stressed the flaws in Creamer's testimony, and noted that a Booth on the Tacoma boat had heard the music and said Creamer was not aboard. 'Every link in this chain of evidence is here,' Miller said. The only thing that would assist him further, he told the jury, would be the prisoner's own confession—which they would never get, for to confess would be to put the noose about his own neck.

Judge Humes instructed the jury that the verdict must be either murder in the first degree or acquittal, refusing a manslaughter instruction. He explained that circumstantial evidence was legal and could convict if it excluded every reasonable hypothesis but guilt. The jury retired that evening and returned its verdict at 12:15. After the verdict, Attorney Soderberg shook Creamer's hand and told him to keep up a good heart; he would move for a new trial. Creamer was taken back to his cell. There had been talk that, if acquitted, he would need to be closely guarded to prevent lynching, though no concerted movement was thought to have been made.