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Kansas Charlie's attorney attempts to get the jury's sympathy. Charley admits his guilt on the witness stand.
Defence Attorney Gives Poor ShowingAs the Kansas Charley double murder trial proceeded, it was now time for Charley to give the performance of his life, a performance much greater than any Dime Novel hero had ever made. Charley Miller must now take the witness stand. Frank Taggart, Charlie's attorney, began questioning Charley by bringing out the sad facts of the boy's past life. However, Taggart failed to draw sympathy from the court by never revealing that Charley had repeatedly been whipped for wetting the bed. Taggart did not show Charley as a serious, hardworking boy. Instead, he queried him as to why he repeatedly moved from one location to another. When Taggart asked Charley what had happened in Sidney on the way to Cheyenne Charley answered that he had met these "two young fellows." "The ones that I killed." Taggart asked if there had been any bad words between Charley and the two boys. Charley answered that there hadn't been, thus ruling out a plea of self defense. As Charlie's attorney presented questions to the boy, Charley answered them in his usual unemotional manner. What surely seemed cold and uncaring to judge and jury may have been a case of one small, impoverished youth having had considerable feeling belittled and beaten out of him. Besides, Dime Novel heroes don't cry. The Prosecution Takes its TurnWhen Prosecutor Walter Stoll's turn to question Charley came he wasted no time in showing that many children were poor and became orphans but did not become murderers and that many children are whipped for bed-wetting. With each point Stoll made it clear that Charlie's life had been no worse than thousands of other children in similar situations. Stoll also attempted to show that Charley Miller had taken on the nickname of Kansas Charley only after he had committed the murders. Stoll stressed that this was done as a way for Charley to brag about his "bloodthirsty deed." Charley corrected the prosecutor but the damage was done. Newspapers Damn Kansas CharleyThe Denver Rocky Mountain News stated that Charley showed no emotion while on the witness stand. Far away in Missouri, the St. Joseph Daily News said that Miller "talked of the double murder 'as though it were a petty offense.' " A Plea For InsanityAttorney Taggart never presented to the court any sense of morality and duty that Charley showed by coming forward on his own to confess to the murders. What Charlie's attorney did do on the third day of the trial was to make an attempt to prove that Kansas Charley was insane. Does Masturbation Cause Insanity?Attorney Taggart asked Charley if he had ever been guilty of an "unclean practice," as masturbation was then referred to, on himself? He then asked Charley to state that if he had done so, to what extent? Taggart's ploy stemmed from the theory of the time that excessive masturbation could cause insanity. Charley admitted that, yes, he did such a thing and had done it three or four times a day since he was about the age of ten. For several hours more this line of questioning continued, not only of Charley but also of several doctors in Taggart's attempt to establish that masturbation had indeed caused insanity in the boy and that he was still insane. But once again, just as Taggart failed in what he did not bring to light in his client's defense, he failed in what he sincerely attempted to prove. Kansas Charley Takes the Stand continues with Death Sentence for Kansas Charley Previous: Kansas Charley Tried for Murder
The copyright of the article Kansas Charley Admits Murder in American History is owned by Mary Trotter Kion. Permission to republish Kansas Charley Admits Murder in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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