Murder
When the appointment did not come, Prendergast visited Harrison at his home on October 28, 1893, admitted by a maid who went to wake the mayor. As Harrison was leaving the room where he had been sleeping, Prendergast approached and shot the mayor three times with a .38 revolver and escaped, firing once at a coachman whom he encountered. Harrison did not know who Prendergast was.
Prendergast surrendered at Des Plaines Street police station 30 minutes later. He still had the gun in his possession. When interviewed by police, he gave varying stories as to his motive, including the failed appointment and the mayor's failure to elevate train track crossings. The smell of burned powder and empty chambers reaffirmed the police department of his actions.
In his first trial, Prendergast's attorney tried to have him found insane. Several doctors testified that while Prendergast was paranoid, he knew right from wrong and was capable of standing trial for the murder. Clarence Darrow later won a hearing on Prendergast's sanity, but it also failed. Prendergast was hanged on July 14, 1894 in Chicago.
Read more about this topic: Patrick Eugene Prendergast
Famous quotes containing the word murder:
“Chinese do not repay friendship with death.”
—Joseph O’Donnell, and Clifford Sanforth. Ah Ling, Murder by Television, when he is accused of Perry’s murder (1935)
“Arrive in the afternoon, the late light slanting
In diluted gold bars across the boulevard brag
Of proud, seamed faces with mercy and murder hinting
here, there, interrupting, all deep and debonair,
The pink paint on the innocence of fear;
Walk in a gingerly manner up the hall.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)
“Suddenly, she wasn’t drunk anymore. Her hand was steady and she was cool. Like somebody making funeral arrangements for a murder not yet committed.”
—John Paxton (1911–1985)