Medical expert testimony in the Kelley murder trial / by Walter Channing.

  • Channing, Walter, 1786-1876.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical expert testimony in the Kelley murder trial / by Walter Channing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    1898] I WALTER CHANNING 399 written carefully and in a handsome hand. They were probably all seen before being mailed, which may account for their cor- rectness and carefulness. They were nearly all written to mem- bers of his family, and chiefly to a sister. He refers in several of them to his relations with the devil and of the impossibility of his doing right while under his influence. In a letter written May 14, 1897, he says: I am a child of the devil, and you need have no fear for what I have done. I am not as bad as you think, and know God knows the trouble I am in. I expected to live until I was fifty, and half of my life was for the devil and half for God. In a letter written on the 30th of April, 1897, he says: I don't feel as though I have done anything, but of course I have, but it does not make me feel as bad as I ought to feel. May 22, 1897, he writes that Life on earth was hell to me, but here I am at ease and happy. . . . About five years ago my Guardian Angel told me to go to see Bishop Bradey and he would drive the devil off, and now I am going to write him and ask him to bless me and I shall feel safe. In several letters he says he is very happy, and that prison is heaven to what the outside world is, meaning probably that he feels that he will be prevented in prison from yielding to the devil's influence and doing wrong. There is one letter written about three weeks before the murder which appears to be in every way a common, plain, direct letter. In several of the letters severe remarks are made about the experts' visits. One dated August 4, 1897, is written to Dr. Bancroft, and is as follows: My lawyers lied to me; don't come any more, for I am all right. You are a man that likes to see justice done, and so am I. Will be in Concord in October and will tell you something good at that time. (He refers to going to the State prison when he speaks of being in Concord in October.) In estimating the value of the letters as evidence, it must be remembered that they were written while he was under the watchful observation of his counsel and a number of experts, and he might (had he been feigning) have been cunning enough to make use of them to express his irrational ideas. It is more probable, however, that he expressed himself as he really felt, and hence they tend to corroborate the statements he made in conversation. Such is a partial report of the investigation at the jail into Kelley's mental condition. At its close the writer was strongly impressed with the feeling that he was not plaving a role for the