A 'Beast' in the Courtroom Says Only 'Not a Word'
McGee, convicted of assaulting his wife with intent to murder, drew ten years in Walla Walla—but his appeal kept him in the King County jail while Seattle read about his courtroom act.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
McGee, the wife slasher, was sentenced yesterday to ten years at hard labor in the penitentiary at Walla Walla for assaulting Mrs. McGee with intent to commit murder. His counsel moved for a new trial but failed, and an appeal was taken immediately after sentence, so the prisoner—described in court as a beast—will remain in the county jail for a considerable period.
McGee presented the same soft, lifeless appearance he has shown to the public ever since his arrest, never taking his eyes from the floor. Judge Humes asked whether he had anything to say why sentence should not be pronounced. McGee slowly rose, limped forward, raised one hand and mechanically lowered it, staring vacantly at the carpet. He answered in a weak voice: “Not a word.”
The slasher’s studied effort to feign sickness has not deceived anyone. He went to bed in his cell after sentence was pronounced and lay as though life were a burden. A few days ago, on being visited, he engaged in a whispered conversation lasting more than an hour and showed extreme animation. Jail officials say McGee is one of the shrewdest men ever to enter the county jail; prisoners have given him a nickname because he drags himself about with a humpback whenever he deigns to move at all.
“Not a word.”
Domestic violence was rarely treated as a serious public crime in 1893, and the language used here—'wife slasher,' 'a beast'—shows how the press framed such violence as spectacle. Seattle still struggles with intimate-partner violence today, but the courtroom is no longer the only public stage for it.
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