Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 88, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1907 — WHY ORCHARD CONFESSED, [ARTICLE]

WHY ORCHARD CONFESSED,

■e Claims It Was tor Relief of Ce»> ■denee and Not tor Reward. Of no less absorbing interest than the story of his crimes was the testimony which Orchard, the multi-assassin, gave In the final stage of his cross-examina-tion at Boise, Idaho. He wept when he told how he came to confess. In opening this part of the cross-examina-tion Richardson tried to show that coercion had been attempted by the penitentiary authorities to obtain a confession from Orchard after his arrest for the Steunenberg assassination. Orchard testified that he was placed In a new cell house, In a steel cage, with ■olid walls and steel-barred doors. He was taken to the penitentiary without his consent and not advised as to his rights. He was permitted to speak only to the guard and to the man in the next cell, who was Bob Wetter, a condemned murderer. His meals were served in the cell. He was not allowed to exercise nor leave his cell, nor was he permitted to read books or papers. After about ten days Detective MePartland visited the penitentiary and Orchard was taken to the clerk’s office to talk with him. He did not know who he was, until he was told that the visitor was a Pinkerton detective. He complained to McPartland about the treatment he was receiving and they had a mutual talk about their past lives, McPartland telling him about his part in the Molly Maguire affair. Later McPartland talked about the Bible, telling how King David was a murderer and had repented and how St. Paul had been transformed from a bad man Into a good one. McPartland told -him about- “Kelly, the Bum,” who was Implicated in the Molly Maguire outrages and was permitted to leave the country after turning State’s evidence. Orchard said McPartland had not been the first to turn him to thoughts of religion ; he had been thinking about them himself. McPartland told Orchard that he believed he had something to do with the Steunneberg murder and that he was aided by officers of the Western Federation of Miners, but made no promise to him If he would confess. Richardson took Orchard back to his boyhood in Canada and hud him tell that he went to a Methodist Sunday school when a boy and to church with his mother and his first wife. He attended Quaker meetings with his mother and had also gone to Christian Endeavor meetings. He never belonged to the Salvation Army. Returning to the first visit with McPartland he said the detective upon leaving told him to think over his past life. The next time the detective came he told Orchard be could do the State and country a great deal of good and that the State usually acted fair with Its witnesses. Orchard said he knew what McPartland was after and had no faith In what he said about the State’s treatment of its witnesses. On the third visit Orchard commenced to tell the detective some of.his wrong doings. McPartland then told Orchard he was a tool of the Western Federation. About this time he had made up Ills mind to tell all, as he did not _are to live any longer. In fact he was tempted to kill himself. He did not want to put the crime on anybody else, but had thought of his past life and what a monster he had been. He did not care much what happened to him and yet he was afraid to die, for he believed the grave did not end it all. A Bible was sent to him by a missionary society In Chicago, and after reading in it he came to the conelu-sion-that he would be forgiven if he repented and made a clean bfeskst of his crimes. Since that time be has never been in doubt. He had told Steve Adams, who by this time had Ween brought to the penitentiary also and occupied the same cell as Orchard, that he Intended to kill himself with the crystal of his watch, by cutting an artery. He said he belonged to Colburn Lodge of Masons and knew that Peabody, Bell, Goddard and others whose lives he sought to take were high degree Masons, but did not know that Steunenberg was. Even after he confessed be contemplated suicide. His confession he believed to be a duty to God, country, society and himself. He did not get this language from McPartland. Steve Adams was arrested on the strength of Orchard’s confession. Upon his promise to the penitentiary authorities he urged Adams to make a confession and said that the truth would come out some time. He told Adams then that If he ever got out he would “cross the pond,” meaning that he would go to Europe. He did not say this because any promise of escape had been held out to him. lie bad never received a promise of immunity.