The trial of William Freeman : for the murder of John G. Van Nest, including the evidence and the arguments of counsel, with the decision of the Supreme Court granting a new trial, and an account of the death of the prisoner, and of the post-mortem examination of his body by Amariah Brigham, M.D., and others / reported by Benjamin F. Hall.

Freeman, William, 1824-1847

Date:: 1848

Credit: The trial of William Freeman : for the murder of John G. Van Nest, including the evidence and the arguments of counsel, with the decision of the Supreme Court granting a new trial, and an account of the death of the prisoner, and of the post-mortem examination of his body by Amariah Brigham, M.D., and others / reported by Benjamin F. Hall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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counted it over, and said it was right. I think he worked one day after that, for which I paid him half a dollar. After he left work, he came up one day and asked if my cattle had not got away. lie said he saw some cattle in Clarksville, which he thought were mine. That was two or three weeks before he committed the murder. I next saw him the first week in June, in his cell. I went into the cell and asked him if he knew me. He said, Yes. I asked him when he lived with me. He said when he was quite a small boy. I then asked him about the murder, and who he killed first. He said the man. I asked him who he killed next. He said he saw a woman coming in, and he stabbed her. I asked him who he stabbed next. He said he saw a person lying on the bed as he came in, and stabbed it. I asked him who he stabbed next. He said he went up to the head of the stairs, and met a man, and stabbed him. I asked him where. He pointed to his own breast and said, Somewhere about here. I asked him what he did then. He said the man threw a candlestick and hit him; then his feet slipped a little; the man got the candlestick, hit him again, and he went clear down to the bottom of the stairs. I asked what he did then. He said he thought he would stab him again, but did not know but it was enough. He said the man got a broom-stick, and that he went into the hall and then he broke his knife. A woman followed him and he stabbed her. He gave a different relation at other times. He said he stabbed the old lady with the knife in a club. I asked him how he could kill the little child. He said he thought he would kill all there was in the house. I have not, in what I have seen, discovered that he is insane. My opinion is, that he is sane, but of weak intellect. [Witness further testified as upon the traverse. See post] Thomas R. Townsend, called and sworn, testified: I was chaplain of the Prison three and a half years; from '40 to '43. During that time I knew the prisoner. My impression is that he was in Sabbath School. Think his teacher told me his prospect of learning was very small. I had conversations with him. He was usually taciturn ; talked a little ; answered questions readily, and threw the burthen of •conversation mainly upon me. Saw him in jail first week of trial of Wyatt; had a short conversation with him there, by questions and answers. I asked him but few questions. I discovered a difference, from my previous acquaintance with him. His in- creased deafness, brevity of his answers, not the same freedom of remark as formerly, and some questions he answered in reference to the outrage; he answered that he had been unjustly imprisoned. Cross Examination.—My visits were made to the cells in prison. I went in and asked him if he knew me. He said he did. Can't say, but think I inquired whether they had injured him. He said No. Said he wanted his pay. I found him more deaf and taciturn than before. Don't think he asked me any questions. [Witness further testified, in substance, as upon the traverse. See post.]

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