The Man Who Couldn't Sleep: A Murderer's Five-Year Nightmare Ends in Seattle

AMURDERER'S REMORSE.

The murderer's remorse and the terrors that haunt his troubled slumbers have furnished the theme for many an exciting sketch, but the free surrender and unsought acknowledgment of a self-confessed man-slayer rarely appears in police annals. The regular hearing at the Central Station yesterday afternoon had been concluded, the audience had dispersed, and Alderman Carpenter was about leaving, when a blue-coated and brass-buttoned patrolman, nervously grasping a man of peculiar appearance, hurried into the hearing-room and announced that he had a murderer in custody.

The prisoner gave his name as William Devitt, and his residence as "nowhere." Officer Smith, of the Nineteenth Police district, testified that on Sunday evening, while he was standing at Twenty-third and Booth streets, the prisoner approached him and said "I want to give myself up. I have committed murder." The officer then questioned him, and subsequently at the station-house, in regard to the matter, and learned the following particulars:

About five years ago Devitt was employed as a laborer on a railroad near Uniontown, Fayette county, Pa., about eight miles from Connellsville. Together with three or four companions, all of whom, as well as himself, were intoxicated, he was passing through the woods. They met a stranger, who Devitt thinks was a railroad "boss." Being in a quarrelsome humor, Devitt, and a man whom he terms his "partner," had a controversy with the stranger about some trifling matter. The argument advanced to a war of words, when Devitt and his "partner" seized a large log of wood, and striking the man on the chest, crushed in his breast, causing almost instant death.

Devitt's "partner" ran through a corn-field, but had not proceeded far before he was captured. Devitt himself was arrested the following day, and the two men were lodged in jail, though in separate cells. Devitt succeeded in forcing open the window of his prison apartment, and lowering himself to the ground by means of the blankets cut into strips, effected his escape. In subsequent conversation with Alderman Carpenter and with the Times man, Devitt stated since his escape, five years ago, he had wandered about the country, mainly through the Southern States, working upon various railroads.

His companion in crime was convicted of man-slaughter, and is now in the Western Penitentiary, Pittsburg. "I have not had a night's rest nor a day's luck since that time," said Devitt, in earnest tones. "Everywhere I go the murdered man is before me; everything I do his blood-stained corpse distracts my attention and grants me not a moment's peace. We were all intoxicated, but I want to go back and be tried, as I would then feel far more satisfied."

The unfortunate man was accordingly committed to await the action of the authorities of Fayette county. Devitt is twenty-eight years of age and a native of Ireland. His countenance is a peculiar one. It bears a look both of hardened criminality and firm determination. At first glance he appears but a boy in years, but upon closer inspection lines that tell a tale of daily torment and a look of premature age are plainly discerned.

In talking he has a careless, unconcerned way of expressing himself, leading to the inference that he either was of unsound mind or was narrating a false tale for the furtherance of a private scheme. The man who, in San Francisco, announced himself as the Nathan murderer, when brought to New York admitted that his sole purpose was to obtain a free pass to the latter city. At the Central Station, however, two years ago last Christmas day, an individual delivered himself up to Turnkey Holloway as the murderer of a man in Maryland and was subsequently sentenced to eighteen years imprisonment.

The police authorities yesterday rather mistrusted Devitt's tale, and accordingly telegraphed the authorities at Uniontown. A reply was received last night stating that a murder of the character that Devitt describes had been committed about five years ago and one of the accused parties had managed to escape. Officers from Fayette county will probably arrive here to-day, and Devitt's wish will be gratified.