7. BOVINE TROUBLE.
Woodward R. Lopeman was sent up from Neosho County for murder in the
first degree. Under his sentence he was to be hanged at the close of
the first year. This part of the sentence is never carried out in
Kansas. The particulars of his crime are as follows: He was a well-to-do
farmer residing in Neosho County, and never had any difficulty to amount
to anything before this time. He was an old soldier
and served his country faithfully and bravely for four years. For some
trivial cause he and one of his neighbors had a little difficulty, but
it was thought nothing would ever come of it, as each of them had been
advised by their friends to bury their animosity before it should lead
to graver results. Lopeman seemed willing to do this, but his irate
neighbor would not meet him half way. One day a calf of Lopeman's, worth
but a few dollars, got through the fence and over into his neighbor's
pasture. Word was sent to the owner of the calf that if he would come
over and pay damages for the trouble of penning it up he could have his
property. This had a tendency to arouse a bad feeling in the heart of
Lopeman; so, placing his revolver in his pocket, and asking his grown up
son to accompany him, they went to the house of the neighbor and
directly to the lot where the calf was shut in and commenced to lay down
the bars to let it out, when the neighbor came from the house with his
son, and Lopeman was ordered to leave the bars alone. The neighbor, who
was a strong, muscular man, proceeded to chastise Lopeman; the two sons
also got ready for an encounter. Lopeman, being by far the smaller man
of the two, began to
retreat slowly as his enemy advanced brandishing a club. When almost
near enough Lopeman to strike him with the uplifted club, Lopeman, in
self-defense, as he claims, drew his revolver and shot him. He fell
lifeless to the ground. The son of the murdered man perceiving what was
done, ran quickly into the house, and getting a double-barreled shotgun,
came out and fired twice at Lopeman and his son. The shots did not take
effect. Lopeman fired two shots at him. At this the son retired into the
house, and Lopeman and son taking the almost worthless calf, which had
been the cause of so much trouble, went to their home. Lopeman then went
to the county seat and gave himself up to the authorities. As soon as
the news spread over the neighborhood, excitement ran high and there was
loud talk of lynching. The murdered man was very popular. His old
neighbors smelled blood, and it was with some difficulty that they were
prevented from taking the law into their own hands. Better judgment
prevailed, however, and after six months the trial came off and the
murderer was convicted and sentenced as aforesaid.
This man was my
cell mate. He is something over sixty years of age, of medium
height, and during
his younger days must have been very hard to handle. The first evening
we occupied the cell together he told me of all his troubles, and I
learned from his own lips that I was to room with a murderer. I felt I
would much rather be at home, than locked in that 4x7 cell with a man
whose hands were dyed with the blood of his neighbor. My alarm somewhat
subsided when the time came for retiring. The old man, as solemnly as
the Apostle Paul would have done, took down the Bible, read a few
verses, and then knelt down and prayed. I sat there in mute
astonishment at the proceedings of this gray haired criminal. How was it
possible for a man who was guilty of such a grave crime to be devout. He
often told me that he had no consciousness whatever of guilt, nor the
fear and dread of a murderer. I asked him if in his dreams he could not
often see the face of his victim. With a shrug of the shoulders he
admitted that he could. For six months this old man and myself occupied
that small cell together, so small that it was very difficult for us to
get by each other when the sleeping bunks were down. We never had the
least trouble during the entire time. A kinder hearted man I never met.
Whenever
he received any little delicacies from home he would always divide with
me, and in such a cheerful spirit that I soon came to think a good deal
of the old man. If we had both been on the outside world I would not
have desired a kinder neighbor. His son, later on, was convicted as an
accomplice, and sent up for two years. The old man has hopes of a pardon
in a few years. He has a wife and several children who are highly
respected and much beloved in the neighborhood where they reside. They
have the sympathy of all their neighbors in this affliction and
bereavement.
