Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1883 — KILLING OF CARET. [ARTICLE]

KILLING OF CARET.

Inside Facts Regarding the Assassination* u- - One of the Avenger’s Counsel Reveals the Motive for the Crime. [From the Chicago Daily News] The following extract from a letter written by one of O’Donnell’s counsel will bo read with Interest. In connection with the trial there are facts given which have not heretofore been published: At last the jruth may be told of the killing of James Carey. It was- not to be told as long as a shadow of a chance remained to prevent the sacrifice of a patriot’s life for that of tho infamous wretch whom he deliberately swept off the earth. For Patrick if Donnell did kill James Carey, and he deliberately killed Mm because he was James Carey. There was no struggle. Carey made no attack on O’Donnell. O’DonneU never set up the plea of self-defense. Had he been permitted to tell the truth the flimsy subterfuge of self-defense would nsver have detracted from an act he considered meritorious in toe sight of God and man. He knew toe consequences of the act and would have manfully accepted them. Had Judge Denman permitted him to speak before pronouncing sentence, as he was bound by toe law to do, OUonneß would then have told the whole truth and vindicated himself. His savage denunciation of the British crown while the officers of the court stided his words and dragged him from the dock to his cell, were not the furious whining fit a coward, but the frenzy of a batted and honest man, who, having deliberately done what, he considered atfdnty, and for which he was perfectly indifferent to death, had been compelled, against his will, to oocupy an ignoble attitude, and a ho burned to escape from mistaken advisers. I convey to toe Daily Kews, on toe highest possible authority, the tone story of the killing of Carey and toe events whioh have made up the train of its consequences. O’DonneU did not know Carey on the voyage from England to the Cape. He was not a member of any society. .He was merely a rolling stone. He had wandered restlessly over many parte of the American States, incapable of peaceful residence. He had moved about in Ireland, and spent some time in England. With no definite aim he was going to Australia. Nervous and restless, almost to the verge of insanity, indiflerentto natural ties, and reckless of his actions, he took with him for companion an ujrfortanate who was neither maid nor wife, a tact suffieient to show that he had not gone on a commission I of vengeance whose fulfillment would fill the world with his name aqd turn the fiercest ! glare of notoriety on his character and hobite. ! He had an unascertained constij tutional disease which at times de- ! prived him of some mental faculties ; and all but paralyzed his will. The circulation of his blood was so uneven in his left side that the left arm was frequently palsied, and he had learned the use of on electrio battery which, when found in his possession after the tragedy, was promptly thrown overboard as an infernal machine. Go unstrung i was his nervous system that it was absolutely neeessary for him to abstain from alcoholic l liquors, which he had not tasted for two ! years. He was a Boancgal peasant, tall and strapping, but feeble nervously, rude, and doable to read or write. But he had learned the truth thatevery peasant in Ireland knows —the troth of the ruin of his native land and the degradation of its people by England. He knew that the latest instrument of that rain and degradation was the L monster James Carey. He had no sua- ; pieion that toe man with whom he had played cards and drank an occasional glass of beer was this monster. But the news was ahead of the ship, and a local paper at the Cape contained an excited-article' denouncing the government for polluting Australia with the wretch. O’Donnell heard this article read and was shown a wood-cut of Carey, wham he at once reoognized. He instantly resolved to kill Carey, out of toeer Instiuctivesense of duty as an Irishman. On toe Impulse of the resolution he said to the man who had shown him the wood-cut. “l’il kill him!” as was sworn on the trial. O’DonneU forgot the man and incident, and Cubbitt’s appearance was a surprise. From toe moment ho formed his purpose he never wavered in it. But he knew it would not be easy to kill Carey.and he could not afford to make the attempt and fail. Carey was well armed, vigilant, and suspicious. O'Donnell determined to ship with him to Port Elizabeth, go with to tho farm Oarey had told him he was going to take, and then, without concealment of purpose or motive, show that there was no spot on which an Irish informer would be safe. O’Donnell became nervous and excited. In a reckless hope of calming himself he dranfe the morning of the fatal day, a glass of whisky. It robbed him of self-control. He was not intoxicated, but his discretion was gone. Finding himself suddenly alone with Carey and his traveling companion he could not resist the desire to kiU him at onoe. Carey, with lightning quickness, perceived his danger. The two Irishmen glow- | ered at each other. Carey hissed: “Do you j know me?” O’Donnell hissed back: .“I do. You aro Carey, the informer. 4*o hell with youl” The bullet sped with toe words, and toe deed was done. Carey clutched his own revolver, but it was too late. O’Donnell discharged a second shot and a third to make sure of his work, and Carey rolled to the deck. No human eyes saw toe encounter except O’Donnell’s companion, who threw her arms around him and tilled the ship with her cries. He had weakly told her that morning i his determination to kill Carey, and that he would be hanged sor 1 it. When Mrs. Carey reached the scene O’Donnell said to her: “I had to do it.” meaning simply that he felt ttto bo his duty as an Irishman to Mil the I wretch who had sworn away Innocent lives I and enticed honest men to the gallows. His silence remained thereafter unbroken.