Printed in: The Capital Journal, Feb 5, 1900, p4
STATEMENT OF MAGERS’ ATTORNEY.
EDITOR OF THE JOURNAL:—In handing you the statement of Magers, written by himself during the night before he was executed, I must say that it was with some hesitation as to the propriety of the course. However, as usual, the morning daily paper made a statement, to the effect that he had torn up what “popular opinion believed to be a confession.” The statement which I have given you was prepared by Magers, as before stated, and by him sealed and handed to his brother, and he handed it to me without opening the envelope or reading it; I opened and read it in his presence, and in the presence of Manning. There are some things which he says that in all probability had better have been left unsaid, and it was not until I had consulted with the district attorney that I finally concluded to give it to the public. The trend of his entire statement is in accordance with his assertions to me when I first consulted with him the day after his arrest.
Very respectfully,
W. H. HOLMES.
MAGERS’ LETTER.
DALLAS, ORE., Feb. 1, 1900.
TO THE EDITOR: Will you kindly permit me to say a few words through the columns of your paper in my behalf.
I told the truth when I was arrested, and no one would listen to me. Then I told it again at the trial, the whole thing, absolutely, without so much as a word added. I set it all out truly, so help me God.
I told you when and where I saw Ray Sink last, and all that I had said and done, just as it occurred the last time I saw my friend, and what did I get for it? —convicted of murder.
I am as innocent of it as any man who sat upon the jury that tried me. I am not going to argue to make out a case for myself, but I beg the kind readers to bear all the facts in their minds, and ask themselves whether a man could get a fair trial. When a man with a previous conviction, and when once the black mark is against his name, you know that he cannot get justice, or really fair trial. They will convict him on general principles and public sentiment.
I will tell you, before my God, I had nothing to do with it, and that I am innocent of the crime I am charged with. I pray to God that those who convicted me by false swearing, I pray that there may no night pass that they are not haunted by the thought of the man they sent to the gallows by their notoriously lying tongues.
I have very much to tell you, and I shall do it the best way I can, but as all friends know that my pen is unaccustomed to public writing, I crave special indulgence for all short comings. May God’s hand strike me down if I go one inch over the truth.
We will discuss the money matter first, because I want your readers to know that I know that Ray Sink did not or could not have money, as John Hall and Sam Hayden sanctioned the report that Sink was a man of great wealth. It is not true, for he told me himself that his place was mortgaged for a large sum. He, (Ray Sink) said with good crops by Jan. 1, 1899, that he could get out of debt, and he would mortgage his place again and get the money and come down to the valley and buy a livery stable. And Mr. Sink told D. Manning of Gervais, in my presence, Sept. 10, 1898, that he would have to go home first and make arrangements before he could buy the stable. I am giving you these facts so you can honestly judge and see for yourself, that I know Ray Sink did not have money when he was down here last, as he had not harvested his crop yet and could not have had money. Hayden tried to stuff it into the people.
Anybody with fair sense can see that I didn’t murder Sink. Prosecuting Attorney Hayden knows that I did not do the crime that I was charged with, as Hayden told a friend in Salem that he did not believe that Magers murdered Sink. But still he prosecuted an innocent man for that $1000 that old man Sink promised him. I hope that Sam Hayden will enjoy that blood money in this world, as he will not have any use for it in the next world.
Sam Hayden stated before the jury, and every word that he uttered was false. Nobody but a man like Hayden, with a heart blacker than the depths of hell, could utter such false words to a jury. He stated that I brought Ray Sink from his home down to the valley. I done no such thing. Sink came down here on his own accord. Ray Sink came down first in May and spent a day or two with me, and then he went down to Newberg to see some of his old friends, (as he told me when he left) and then he again came down in July and spent a week with me, as we went to the coast for a pleasure trip, and in September he came down again. I did not know that he was coming in September, as he was down here two or three days before I knew that he was here. I was in Portland at the time, when I got a letter from him to meet him in Gervais, as he wanted to have a good time in hoppicking.
A word on those detectives in Portland. You all know them and what they are. Take that bulldog face of Jim Barry. He is a cowardly villain and every word that he uttered on the witness stand, I tell him is a lie. I never told Barry any such stuff. Take that Cordano, he would hang his own father for a $100 bill. He knows that he perjured himself. And that Ford, you all know him, and he knows that he was paid for swearing false. I will not say anything more about those three detectives. They are all villains, and perjured themselves for money. If they had their dues they would be behind prison bars long ago.
Take that Walter Williams, of Dallas, what is he? Listen to this talk for a moment and you can tell that he is not a man. Williams goes about the town boasting to the little boys that he has been before the grand jury for the last six years. When a man will go on the witness stand and swear away a man’s life falsely, yes that kind of a man can always get before a grand jury. Williams knows that he swore false, and that he misrepresented what I said. May his dreams haunt him forever.
Take that man Sparr, no wonder the cold sweat poured out on his face while he was on the witness stand. Poor man, he knows that he perjured himself. Nobody but a villain would sell his life for a few dollars like Sparr did. When Hall and Hayden went down to see that man Sparr, they knew that he was a weak man and could be bought to do anything for a dollar. Hall and Hayden know that every word that man uttered was false. God have mercy on him.
Jim Skipton, one of Hayden’s star witnesses, he knows as well as heaven above him that he swore false and perjured himself. Skipton knows that when he swore that I left Salem at 11 o’clock that he lied. I left the old Minto stable a little before 10 o’clock, as I was near Mill creek when the town clock struck 10 o’clock, and it took me one hour and a half to drive to E. W. Manning’s place, at which place I was seen at half past 11 o’clock, driving in at his gate, and after I had taken care of the team that I was driving I was seen at the hop house near 12 o’clock, midnight, by one of the hopdryers, and by common sense, how could I be in Salem at that time? God pity that poor man, Skipton. He is a murderer in sight of God.
Take that man Downs, the boarding house man, he sold himself to Sam Hayden and the Devil, and Downs willfully and deliberately swore false and perjured himself on the witness stand. When Downs said I came back to his place after a valise he (Downs) knows that I did nothing of the kind. Ray Sink or I did not take a valise into his house when we went there, or anything else whatever. I was not in the house after supper at six o’clock, Downs knows that he wilfully lied and sold himself to Sam Hayden. I hope Downs will enjoy the blood money that Hayden paid him.
That Al Sink knows very well that he wilfully lied and misrepresented what he swore on the witness stand. I met Al Sink in Portland, and he asked me if I knew where his brother was. I told him that the last time I saw Ray was in Salem, and that Ray told me that he was going down to Newberg with a friend of his. I did not tell Al Sink that his brother was going with a school ma’am, but what I said was that Ray was going with a friend. When I met Al Sink in Portland, I spent about two hours with him. When we parted we were on the corner of Meier & Frank’s new store. He, Al Sink, asked me where the Portland Business College was. I told him and showed the college to him. I asked him if he (Al Sink) were going up to see some school ma’am? He said no. And that is where Al Sink took his school ma’am from. Al Sink knows that he made up lies and swore to them as truth. I feel sorry for Al Sink; he shall surely have to meet his God.
Last, but not least, J. G. Van Orsdel, sheriff of Polk county, in name, but still not sheriff. Van Orsdel had ought to be today back on his farm selling milk. He is a more suitable man for his farm than he is as sheriff. Half the people in Polk county today run the sheriff as it suits them. Van Orsdel will do anything his so-called friends tell him to do. He has not the manhood to stand up for what is honest and right. He will and has broken all laws of man and God. Van Orsdel has sold his body and soul to a gang of villainous cut-throats. They have got Van Orsdel under their thumb. They tell Van Orsdel to do this and that, and he goes and does it as he is ordered to do by the gang. God have mercy on such a weak man.
The night before Van Orsdel went on the witness stand and perjured himself before man and God, Chief McLaughlin and those detectives of Portland had Van Orsdel in a room and had him drunk. McLaughlin and the detectives went by the order of John Hall and Sam Hayden. They got Van Orsdel to promise that he would do as they wanted him to do. They gave Van Orsdel taffy, and told him that he (Van Orsdel) had to do just as they told him. If he did not do as they bid him he could not get office again.
Van Orsdel perjured himself when he swore that his hands were tied and a gag in his mouth and that I was on his breast (night of the break). Van Orsdel had not a gag in his mouth, but he had a towel held over his mouth, but not as a gag, but his hands were not tied at all. I did not choke Van Orsdel, and I was not on his breast. As Van Orsdel swore that I was on him, it was a man named Larned that choked him and was on his breast. Van Orsdel has got me to thank, in place of condemn, as Van Orsdel knows, and as told already, that I kept him from getting hurt that night. But he turns around and misrepresents the whole thing. When Sam Hayden and the gang got hold of Van Orsdel they had him to lie and tell it as they wanted him to do. Indeed, you cannot expect anything more from a man like Van Orsdel when he is in the hands of a man like Sam Hayden. I feel sorry for Van Orsdel, because I believe that he was a man before he went into politics; but he is a hypocrite before God, and an enormous liar before man. Van Orsdel goes to church on Sunday and gloats himself with whisky during the week, as he has told me many a time that he had to drink and do what his friends wanted him to do, because he said that he wanted to run for office again.
Kind reader, I have not the time to go over all of my case but I wish I could, but it will take too much time to do so. I only wanted to state to you those witnesses that wilfully and deliberately perjured themselves and lied for money. There are a few other witnesses that testified against me that got hearsay and rumors mixed pretty much but I believe that they tried to be honest at least. But those witnesses I have named above, they are in the name of God a set of infamous scoundrels that has ever been organized in any civilized country. Any intelligent person, especially without prejudice, can see that my conviction was based on suspicion without a scrap of tangible evidence, and the whole nation ought to be shocked at the injustice that a poor man gets in the courts. It is impossible for a poor man without money to get justice any more. They will convict a poor man on general principles and public sentiment, and prosecuting attorney’s made-up evidence.
The people were sharpened against me and poisoned by incredible stories which sprung up from nowhere and spread like wildfire, and were eagerly accepted and implicitly believed. It bore no marks of authorship, it was accompanied by no proof. Yet intelligent people drank it in eagerly and loaded their tongues with falsehood, and spread it to everybody that they could get to listen to them with their heart’s content.
I feel sorry for those people that will sit around their firesides with their children and pick their neighbors to pieces, with rumors that they hear and stories without a foundation for their truth. No wonder a man with money nowadays can convict an innocent man’s life away with their lying tongues. Yes, for only a few dollars. Indeed you can find such people all around you with ease if you will only look for them.
The people of the United States seem shocked over the Dreyfus conviction in France, but they would act with more common sense if they would only look after the injustice that a poor man gets in their own courts and God free country.
I have given you the truth, and the names of the parties that have taken an innocent man’s life away, and the day will come when the sons and daughters of the persecutors will have cause to blush.
I ask the people in the name of God never again to hang a man on circumstantial evidence. For God’s sake, avoid hasty decisions and errors. I have today as much right to have my liberty as any man that ever walked upon this beautiful earth, but I am cut down in the prime of life on circumstance and hasty public sentiment.
I honestly believe that the murderer of Ray Sink will come to light some day, and my name shall be clear of the false charges that have been placed against me. My heart aches for those people who have wronged me falsely, and I ask them in the name of God to go on their knees and ask God to forgive them of their sins. You can have my sympathy, and I forgive you, but God can only help you, and not mankind. God have mercy on your poor souls. You stand in a worse place today than I do. I can die with a clear conscience, and I am ready to meet my God, but you false witnesses are not. You are murderers in the sight of God and justice. I can easily forgive you, but I beg of you to make your peace with God.
’Tis hard to bear unmerited reproof,
To live a life misjudged, misunderstood,
To see our once warm friends now stand aloof
More credulous of whispered ill than good.
‘Tis hard when fate environs us with wrong
And slander speaks untouched by sense of truth,
And those that blamed us know but half the truth.
This we must bear, dissembling with the fear
That holds the same subdued in patient thrall,
And trusting time to make the darkness clear.
We’ll dream of sunshine though the shadows fall,
The light must shine at last; be of good cheer.
Our wrongs shall righted be, for God is over all.
Kind reader, I wish to God that I had time to go over all of my case, but I have only a few more hours to live and have letters to write, so I haven’t time to write more. I have tried to make what I have written clear to you, and have given the names of false witnesses, and when the murderer of Ray Sink comes to light, you shall know the men who are responsible for an innocent life.
Kind reader, I am not afraid to die. I can walk to the gallows, but I believe it is my duty as an innocent man to defend my life before man and God. I have done no crime to die for. I am innocent of the charge that has been placed against me. I know nothing whatever of that crime and I thank our Heavenly Father and that I am innocent of such a deed. And I believe it is my duty to man and God to allow no man to take my life as long as I can help it. I am innocent before justice and God, and I ask the people in the name of God never to hang another innocent man. I forgive you all, but go to God on your knees and ask forgiveness for taking my life. I remain an innocent man before man and God. Very truly yours,
W. G. MAGERS.
LETTER TO THE LADIES.
The following letter was written to two of the leading ladies of Dallas who had evidently called upon the prisoner. The letter was enclosed in the sealed envelope with the above to the press, and has been forwarded by THE JOURNAL to the ladies addressed. It is a most praiseworthy effort upon the part of the unfortunate Magers, and shows to the world that he had not entirely lost refining influences of good early training at home:
CITY, 11:30 p.m., Feb. 1, 1900.
I take this last honor upon myself to drop you a few of my last words upon this earth. I could not thank you last night, indeed my heart was so full of gratitude, and I felt that I could not thank you in my humble words for your great kindness and sympathy which you have shown me in the last hours of my great trial in this rugged jail. I highly appreciated your kindness in thus shedding sunshine upon my last moments of life. May the Lord reward you a thousandfold for your kind words of sympathy that you have spoken to me. And I assure you that by your kindness you have greatly cheered me and strengthened me more than I can express in words. But what I cannot put into language I can breathe in heart at the heavenly throne, and I pray to God for his blessing to descend upon you. Though we may never meet on earth, my prayers ascend to God for you all, and we shall assuredly meet where partings are unknown. I trust you will accept my sincere thanks, and God bless you all.
’Tis hard to bear unmerited reproof,
To live a life misjudged, misunderstood,
To see our once warm friends now stand aloof,
More credulous of whispered ill than good.
‘Tis hard when fate environs us with wrong
And slander speaks untouched by sense of truth,
And those who blamed us know but half the truth.
This we must bear, dissembling with the fear
That holds the same subdued in patient thrall,
And trusting time to make the darkness clear.
We’ll dream of sunshine though the shadows fall,
The light must shine at last; be of good cheer,
Our wrongs shall righted be, for God is over all.
Good bye.
Yours very truly,
W. G. M.
P.S. Please excuse this writing. I am so tired, and I have so much more to write. Good bye.
