Justice in the Old West
 

I don't know if this is true!!! I sure do like the Judge's sentenance.

BMT

The following is a verbatim sentence imposed upon a defendant convicted of murder in the Federal District Court of the Territory of New Mexico many years ago by a United States Judge, sitting at Taos in an adobe stable used as a temporary courtroom.

Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, in a few short weeks, it will be spring. The snows of winter will flee away, the ice will vanish, and the annual miracle of the years will awaken and come to pass, but you won't be there. The rivulet will run its course to the sea, the timid desert flowers will put forth their tender shoots, the glorious valleys of this imperial domain will blossom as the rose. Still, you won't be there to see.


From every treetop some wild woods songster will carol his mating song, butterflies will sport in the sunshine, the busy bee will hum happy as it pursues its accustomed vocation. The gentle breeze will tease the tassels of the wild grasses and all nature, Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, will be glad, but you.

You won't be there to enjoy it because I command the sheriff, or some officers of the country, to lead you out to some remote spot, swing you by the neck from a knotting bough of a sturdy oak, a nd let you hang until you are dead. And then, Jose Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, I further command that such officer or officers retire quickly from your dangling corpse, that vultures may descend from the heavens upon your filthy body until nothing shall remain but the bare bleached bones of a cold-blooded, copper-colored, blood-thirsty, throat-cutting, chili-eating, sheep-herding, murdering son-of-a-bitch.

United States of America v. Gonzales (1881) United States District Court, New Mexico Territory sessions

Wow, just wow. Now that is real justice. If only they were allowed to speak to criminals like that nowadays. One could only dream.

BMT


Pretty clear the court did not like this guy!

I've heard several versions of this over the years but, the origional is the best!!

Pehaps in time PC will fall away, and we can return to speaking ones' mind.

RF 1

Speak to them?? I kinda liked the part about Oak Trees and

That's justice...

From the October 1977 issue of American Heritage:

We have no information about the frustrated bard of a judge who composed this, or of the unfortunate José Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales. We asked the editors of Antaeus magazine, in whose Autumn, 1976, issue we found the sentence, but they had no information other than that the case was United States of America v. Gonzales (1881), United States District Court, New Mexico Territory Sessions. We couldn’t find it, but perhaps some of our readers might know of it.

http://www.americanheritage.com/arti...10_print.shtml

Here's another good one:

Take, for example, a diatribe said to have been delivered by Judge M. B. Gerry when sentencing Alferd E. Packer to death for having killed and eaten five companions while caught in a Colorado blizzard in 1873. (See “Postscripts” for the April, 1977, issue.) “Stand up, you man-eating son-of-a-bitch, and receive your sentence!” Judge Gerry reportedly began. “There were seven Democrats in Hinsdale County, but you, you voracious, maneating son-of-a-bitch, you ate five of them. I sentence you to be hanged by the neck until you’re dead, dead, dead, as a warning against reducing the Democratic population of the state.”

We could use a few Alfred Packers in this country today. :p

Richard :munchin

And in his memory - In 1968, students at the University of Colorado at Boulder named their new cafeteria grill the Alferd G. Packer Memorial Grill with the slogan "Have a friend for lunch!" Even today students can enjoy the meat-filled "El Canibal" underneath a giant wall map outlining his travels through Colorado.

I'm surprised that anti-US and phoney UofC professor Ward Churchill (the victims of 9-11 were "little Eichman's" and deserved to be attacked :mad:) ever allowed that to go unchallenged!

Richard :munchin

Even the CU Board of Regents get a little hide-bound about some traditions...:D