The Gallows Awaits a Pullman Murderer
A jury in Colfax has returned a guilty verdict for the cold-blooded murder of William T. Higgins, leading to a stark final judgment from the bench.
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.
The trial of Louis A. Knott, for the cold-blooded, deliberate murder of William T. Higgins, near Pullman, a few months ago, has just been concluded at Colfax. After being out an hour and a half the jury returned with a verdict of murder in the first degree. In passing sentence of death on the prisoner, Judge Wingard said: 'The court thinks you have had a fair trial; that you have been ably defended, and every advantage has been taken for you by your attorneys. The court is not aware of anything in which your trial has not been fair, and the jury have determined you guilty, and it is now an unpleasant, solemn and painful duty to pass sentence upon you. The sentence of the court is that you be taken hence to the jail from whence you came and there confined, and at the time of execution, which will be fixed in the death warrant, that you be taken forth to the place of execution and hanged by the neck until you are dead.' The prisoner took his sentence as a matter of fact, and in this unfeeling way sat down and commenced conversation with his attorney, betraying a stubborn disposition.
“The sentence of the court is that you be taken hence to the jail from whence you came and there confined... and hanged by the neck until you are dead.”
This brutal public accounting of crime in early Pullman contrasts sharply with modern judicial reporting. It highlights the frontier-era reliance on capital punishment as a primary tool for maintaining public order in the growing territory.
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