Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1901 — DOOM SLAYER OF DAY. [ARTICLE]

DOOM SLAYER OF DAY.

Jlrynen Find Frank H. Hamilton Guilty of Manslaaghter. The jury in the Hamilton-Day murder case at Minneapolis returned a verdict of guilty of manslaughter in the first degree, after having been out forty hours. The jury recommended mercy in their verdict. ]<eonard A. Day, son of a millionaire lumberman, a social leader in Minneapolis, a young man with plenty of money and a lack of serious purpose, was stabbed to death in the billiard room of the West Hotel at 2 o’clock in the morning. Nov. 25. Frank Hamilton, sporting editor of the Minneapolis Times, was immediately arrested, afterward indicted for the murder and was placed on trial Feb. 4. The murder, the strange stories of social degeneracy that caused a quarrel, the prominence of all parties, caused a tremendous sensation and for months there has been an exclusion of all other topics oT discussion in the circles in •Which these young men were prominent. Following the arrest cathe rumors that perhaps Hamilton was not the guilty one after nil, and from circumstances and events the friends of the accused sought to weave a web of mystery for the confusion of tlie prosecution. Hamilton denied that he had killed Day. although at the trial a policeman testified that Hamilton had confessed the ; murder to him. The cause of the quarrel was jealousy. Stories growing out of the affair connected several society men and women with unspeakable scandal, and for a time it was feared that the trial would reveal a hideous condition of social life iu Minneapolis. Several young people hastily left the city. The forecast of sensational evidence as to Minneapolis society was not made good at the trial. —The prisoner was dazed with speechlessness when the foreman of the jury announced tho finding, and the prisoner's lips moved silently in mute protest as he looked despairingly nt his attorneys. No one, it is said, expected anything but a verdict of not guilty, or, at the most, a disagreement. The seventy-of the decision is tempered somewhat by the recommendation of court clemency. The penalty for manslaughter is imprisonment for not more than twenty or fewer than five years.