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REGRETS HIS CRIME
It
is too late, but I would
like to live, says Czolgosz.
DENIES
ANY CONSPIRACY
Had
nothing Personal against
President McKinley-
Assassin
in Auburn.
Special
to The Buffalo Express.
Rochester,
Sept. 26.-"I wish the people to know I am sorry for what I
did. It was a mistake and it was wrong. It I had it to do over again
I never would (10 it. But it is too late now to talk of that. I
am sorry I killed the President. I was all stirred up. I was alone
In what I did and, honestly, there was no conspiracy. No one else
urged or told me to do it. I did it myself. There was one mistake
about the trial. It was that I did not go to Niagara Falls to kill
the President. I only thought of killing him for about one day before
I did lt. But I was all alone. No one else had anything to do with
it and I have nothing to say to any who may think that what I did
was a wise or good thing. It was not. I don't know anyone in Paterson.
I don't know Count Malatesta or Mme. Brusigloli.
"It is an awful thing to feel you killed
someone. You do not feel the same after you kill them. It is hard
and much different. You are not the same person after you do the
crime. I wish I was my same old person again. You never can be the
same. I wish I was the same for the little time left. I have nothing
more to say to all the people. My mind was stirred up and I don't
know what was in it or what influenced it. Some ask where I was
between August 29th and September 1st. I was in Buffalo on August
29th and went to Cleveland for two days. No, I do not know Hippolyte
Havel. My two Toledo references to Mr. Nowak were not anarchists.
When I dhot the President I had nothing against him personally.
"My trial was fair. It was more than
I thought. The judge could not help doing what he did. The jury
could not. The law made them do it. I do not want to say now that
the law is wrong. It was fair to me and it was right. It seems too
late now, but I am sorry for Mrs. McKinley. I hope she does not
die."
So spoke Leon F. Czolgosz, the assassin,
as he rode in the special car that is taking him to Auburn. He sat
in a seat beside Jailer George N. Mitchell and talked with The Express
man freely. He smoked as he talked and looked out the window as
the traln passed Batavia and other stations. He said he hoped his
brother Waldeck would not suffer by his act as no one knew of it,
but. himself. He said it was not true that he was married to someone
down in West Virginia. He repeated again and again that there was
no conspiracy. He talked freely of his visits to Chicago and Cleveland.
As the train neared Rochester he stopped
talking suddenly, looked out and then said, slowly: "It is
too late, but I would like to live."
The party with Czolgosz was headed by Sheriff
Caldwell. The talk of Czolgosz with The Express reporter was in
the presence of Louis Selbold of the New York World and Jailer Mitchell.
Czolgosz also talked to Deputy-Sheriff Metzler's
presence and it was not true that anyone had tied the handkerchief
over his hand. "The handkerchief was not tied," he said.
"I put it over my hand and held the pistol with my finger on
the trigger. I felt nervous all the time and thought someone would
catch me. I held my hand against my body to keep the handkerchief
from falling or rubbing off."
Czolgosz was asked by The Express
man about dying and whether he feared it. "I don't want to
be ashamed of myself," said Czolgosz. "It is worse than
I knew before I did it. I hope I don't make myself ashamed."
He referred to his desire not to weaken when he faced the death
chair,
"Will you see a priest or minister
before you die?" he was asked.
He hesitated, then answered: "Yes,
I think so. Maybe, a priest."
Source:
Buffalo Express,
September 27, 1901.
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