Watters' Confession.
Watters' Confession.

Watters' Confession.
______

    We yesterday published the written confession of this unfortunate man. Since then another has been detailed to us, which to some or all of our readers will seem more truthful, in at least one particular--the act of killing.
    The particulars which we propose to narrate were given verbally to one who had befriended Watters in his last days. He told his story as follows, on Thursday, the day before his execution, with the assurance that it was his true confession.
    He engaged to go with Freeman to find and purchase hay, for which service the latter agreed to pay him one dollar per day.
    The first night after their departure, they had some conversation about a certain claim near Fahay's, which Watters represented that he had taken up, and which Freeman wished to purchase or hold. Some ill-natured words ensued between them, but nothing like a violent quarrel. After lying down to sleep, Watters pondered it over, thought of his family; and the pitiable wages for which he was working--the coming winter and his discouraging prospects, and then and there determined to kill Freeman the next day. The next day his courage failed him on one or two occasions, when he had determined to commit the deed.--Thursday night they staid at Fahay's, and the next morning they started up the river a couple of miles to cross over, and when driving along the road, and with no one in sight, he struck Freeman over the top of the head from behind.
    Freeman fell down in the wagon struggling, and he struck him again on the side of the head. The wounded man then turned over on his face and continued to groan pitifully.
    Watters seized the gun which lay in the wagon, but it was not loaded. He hastily turned out a charge of powder, but in pouring it into the gun spilled a part of it, so that the load was very light. He put in four buck shot, and on top a wad--capped the gun--placed the muzzle to the back of Freeman's head as he lay face downward in the wagon, and fired. The wounded man was not dead when he fired, but was still groaning and struggling. The shot killed him instantly. After that the statement differed but little from his written confession.
    Watters did not state what he struck the blows with, nor was the question asked, as it was expected that his written confession would be the same, and give the full details. The probability is, that the blows were struck with the end board or seat board of the wagon which lay near Freeman's body when it was found.
    The fact was before learned at the house of Mr. Fahay, that Freeman had, in the morning before starting, fired off one barrel of his gun at a prairie chicken, and it is probable that the other barrel was empty.
    Watters denied having been an accomplice in the murder of Brown near Leavenworth, during the Kansas troubles, but says he was sick and unable to be out of his house at the time of that outrage. So that the Herald's "sensation story" of this morning is in all probability a sheer fabrication.


Source:

Unknown, "Watters' Confession," Daily Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colorado, Saturday, 22 December, 1860, page 2.

Created November 3, 2006; Revised November 3, 2006
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