Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 November 1880 — “ Couldn’t Help It.” [ARTICLE]

“ Couldn’t Help It.”

William B. Barrington, of San Francisco, was possessed by a desire to take life. He went before the Lunacy Commissioners and asked to be sent to an asylum; but they decided that his mental trouble if he had any, was brought on by drink, and refused to incarcerate him. He declared that he had murder in his heart, and some day he would l>e unable to resist it. One evening he was drinking amicably at a bar with an intimate friend. Without warning he drew a revolver and killed his companion. “I couldn’t help it,” he said; “ I had to take somebody’s life.” A military guard accompanies every train on the Mexico and Vera Cruz railroad, and at every station a guard is drawn up under arms on the arrival of every train. A young man died of heart disease at St. Paid while asking a girl to marry him,