--On the twenty-eighth of March, 1894, at noon, in
the open street in Chicago, Guy T. Olmstead fired a revolver at a
letter-carrier named William L. Clifford. He came up from behind,
and deliberately fired four shots, the first entering Clifford's
loins, the other three penetrating the back of his head, so that
the man fell and was supposed to be fatally wounded. Olmstead
made little attempt to escape, as a crowd rushed up with the
usual cry of "Lynch him!" but waved his revolver, exclaiming:
"I'll never be taken alive!" and when a police-officer disarmed
him: "Don't take my gun; let me finish what I have to do." This
was evidently an allusion, as will be seen later on, to an
intention to destroy himself. He eagerly entered the prison-van,
however, to escape the threatening mob.
Olmstead, who was 30 years of age, was born near Danville, Ill.,
in which city he lived for many years. Both parents were born in
Illinois. His father, some twenty years ago, shot and nearly
killed a wealthy coal operator, induced to commit the crime, it
is said, by a secret organization of a hundred prominent citizens
to whom the victim had made himself obnoxious by bringing suits
against them for trivial causes.
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