The Galveston Daily News
Saturday, December 17, 1892
pg. 3

SUPPOSED MURDERER ARRESTED
W.E. Hunt Charged With Killing the Woman Found at Denison

Denison, Tex., Dec. 16 - A telegram received in this city to-night stating that W.E. Hunt, the supposed murderer of the woman whose dead body was found under a pile of thorn brush in west Denison yesterday, had been arrested at Walnur Springs, Bosque county, and that he would be held subject the Grayson county officers.  The woman was fully identified as the person who lived in the tent with Hunt.  The body was buried this morning in the strangers' burial ground in Oakwood Cemetery.  Constable J.P. Loving left Denison to-night for Walnut Springs and will return with the prisoner on Sunday.  Monday morning the inquest will be opened in Justice Mixon's court and an exhaustive investigation will be made.


The Sunday Gazetteer
Denison, Texas
Sunday, December 18, 1892
pg 4

AN INHUMAN MAN   
The Body of a Young Woman Found Under a Pile of Thorn Brush.
W.E. Hunt Under Arrest, and His Guilt Reasonably Certain.

Thursday morning about 10 o'clock a man came in from the new yards west of Denison and reported the finding of the dead body of a woman south of the track of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railway and near where a laborer's tent had been located. This was all the courier knew. The finding of the body produced great excitement among the hundreds of men in and around the construction camps and the first thought was to send to the city and notify the officers. Constable Loving and Undertaker Lindsey were not long in fitting up a conveyance and before noon quite a crowd of men were at the scene of the tragedy. The locality is on the south side of the railway track and near the west end of the new yard. When found a few thorn bushes and a quantity of weeds had been thrown over the body which lay on the ground face downward with the hands and arms extended as it having been dragged along and then carelessly dumped down. The feet were bare and on the body was a night gown of coarse white material and a bodice of blue worsted goods. A few paces away was found an old axe, the poll and blade of which was covered with blood. The body was that of a white woman apparently 25 or 30 years of age. Over the right eye and across the bridge of the nose were deep and ugly wounds, either of which would have produced instant death. The hair was clotted with blood. An examination of the premises showed tracks and traces of blood back toward the camps for 60 or 70 yards to a point where the tent had been pitched.
Here, scattered around promiscuously were old rags, parts of garments, broken plates and over against the butt of a tree was found an old bag in which were found a telegram and a letter. The telegram was from Walnut Springs, Texas, and addressed to W. E. Hunt, Denison, Texas. It reads as follows: "How is sister. Answer at once." Signed, H. E. Fry. The letter was from a point in the Indian Territory. Aside from this the surroundings offer no evidence of the tragedy so recently enacted. The body was taken from under its thorny cover, placed in a wagon and brought into the city. It was dressed for burial at Mr. Lindsey's undertaking house and here the most horrible part of the horrible crime unfolds - the woman was soon to become a mother. During the afternoon hundreds of people called in to view the remains. Dr. Glover, who was present in the afternoon, stated that he recognized the body as that of a lady whom he had seen several times within the past week. On Monday she called at his office and complained of having the rheumatism. He gave her some medicine. She had a child with her and that was the last seen of her.
The body is evidently that of Mrs. W. E. Hunt. The family arrived at the new yards a month or six weeks ago and since that time Hunt has been employed on the works. On Monday last he was at the contractor's headquarters where he was given his time and pay. He was carrying a child a year or two old. Tuesday evening he called at the cabin of Robert Gross, colored, which is not far from the site of the Hunt tent, and asked for lodging for himself and little girl. He stated that he and his family had been en route to Hot Springs and that his wife had died at Pottsboro. Hunt did not remain over at the cabin but returned on the following morning and wanted to employ Gross to move his tent and things out of the yard. The Negro had no team and Hunt then applied to the stableman at the contractors' for a team to move out his plumper. He failed again and this is the last trace that could be found of the man or the child. Hunt is described as being about 35 years of age, 5 feet 6 or 7 inches tall, rather dark complected, heavy, mustache and quick spoken with slight nasal accent.
Mr. J. J. Prater, who resides near the scene of the murder and in whose pasture the Hunt tent was pitched, states that something near a month ago he was on the south side of the railway track in the pasture and saw the woman near the tent. She was carrying a child which, apparently, was 18 months or two years old. At his, Prater's request the tent was moved over the fence a few yards. He did not see the man but the woman killed was the same person he saw at the tent.
Friday morning the remains of the murdered woman were placed in a plain, pine board coffin and interred in the strangers burial grounds at Oakwood cemetery. It would have been well could the body have been held out longer but further delay in the matter was out of the question under the circumstances, and in the event of further identification the body will have to be exhumed.
Conductor Scanlan, who carried out the Missouri, Kansas and Texas southbound passenger train Wednesday evening, returned to the city at noon Friday. He states that a man who appeared to be 30 to 35 years of age, rather low, with heavy mustache, wearing a slouch hat and working man's clothes, in company with a child apparently about two years old, went south on his train Wednesday evening. His ticket was to Morgan, to which place the man stated he was carrying his child to his mother. Nothing was known of the murder at that time and the man with the child excited no suspicion. Conductor Scanlan does not remember how far down the road the man went. Morgan is in Bosque county on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe and the most direct route to that place from Denison is to change cars at Fort Worth.
Between three and four o'clock Friday evening a telegram was received by Constable Loving from Walnut Springs,
Bosque county, stating that E. W. Hunt had been arrested and that he would be held subject to the order of the
Grayson county officers. When the telegram was received the train for the south had departed, but this, Saturday
morning at 4:30 o'clock Officer Loving left for Fort Worth where he will change cars to the Santa Fe which passes
near Walnut Springs. He will return to the city with the prisoner Sunday noon.


The Austin Weekly Statesman
Austin, Texas
Thursday, December 22, 1892
pg 1

INQUEST OVER MRS. HUNT

Special to the Statesman
Denison, Tex., Dec. 20 - The inquest over the body of the woman who was murdered west of the city was concluded today. The coroner found that deceased, supposed to be Mrs. E. W. Hunt, was murdered by her husband. The examination trail was set for this afternoon but was continued till Thursday. The mother and
relatives of the dead woman have been sent for from Walnut Springs, and the body will be taken up for identification. Hunt was taken down the alleys to the train for Sherman. A large crowd had collected to see
the prisoner, and it was feared they might attempt to lynch him.


The Sunday Gazetteer
Denison, Texas
Sunday, December 25, 1892
pg 4

E. W. HUNT THE MAN WHO MURDERED HIS WIFE WITH AN AXE.

Arrested at Walnut Springs, Tex., and Now Behind the Bars at Sherman.

Constable J. P. Loving, in charge of E. W. Hunt, arrested for the murder of his wife in this city on Tuesday night of
last week, arrived from Walnut Springs, Bosque county, Sunday night. The prisoner was placed in the steel cage
in the city jail, and Monday morning, in the presence of the jailer and the representatives of the press, made the following statement:
"I am 26 years of age. I was born and raised in Wilson county, Texas. I was arrested in that county on a charge of
murder and remained in jail two years. I proved my innocence and was discharged. My wife was a Miss Fry. She was raised in Somerville county, Texas. I do not remember how long I worked in the railroad yards in West Denison. My wife died near Pottsboro and I, in company with Ben Mumford, buried her in a graveyard near that town. She died in the morning and I buried her that evening. I do not remember the name of the doctor whom I called in to see her. Mumford was a stranger. He made the coffin. I knew nothing about the murder of the woman until I was arrested at Walnut Springs, charged with the killing. I did not live in a tent with any woman in the railroad yards. My wife died on Dec. 4, and I took our little girl down to her grandmother at Walnut Springs. I have a brother, John Hunt. I have not seen him in over two years. My wife has a sister. I do not remember the name.  I sold my tent and outfit to a white man and left Denison Wednesday evening." In answer to inquire he said that Mumford, the man who assisted in the burial, had gone over into the territory and that it would be impossible to find him. Neither could he identify the physician who rendered medical assistance. That Hunt is the man who murdered his wife no one who sees and talks with him will doubt for a moment. Justice Mixson opened the inquest trail Monday evening and continued his investigations up to Tuesday noon and the verdict rendered is as follows:
"I find that the body of the woman found west of Denison is that of Mrs. May Hunt. She appeared to be about 23 years of age, five feet and six to eight inches tall, weight about 120 pounds, dark or brown hair. She came to her death by a blow from an axe in the hands of her husband, E. W. Hunt."
"Signed" A. W. Mixson, J.P
During the day Tuesday many of his fellow workmen visited the city jail and identified Hunt. In nearly every case he was recognized, and in some instances acknowledged his callers as being acquaintances while at the yards.
The first witness examined at inquest was Thomas L. Ellis. He said: "I am a citizen of Denison, and was working on a boiler for McDonald and Penfield, on the morning of December 15, out west of the city. I was informed of the murder and went to the place where the body was found, when I examined the body and found blood on her head. It was a woman.  I never saw her before that I remember. She was a white woman."
Hank Harrington: "I am in the employ of McDonald and Penfield as stable boss, and knew Hunt, who worked as a teamster. On several occasions I visited Hunt's camp to wake him up. I saw a woman there twice. Hunt said it was his wife. I saw a child there also. Have not seen Hunt or his wife since he quit work. Did not identify the corpse. Went to see it, but it had already been buried."
Louis Filiroe: "I live west of the city of Denison about two miles and a half, near the new switch yards. A  man came to my father's house on the night of the 13th of December and stopped at the gate. He hallowed. I went to the door and he asked me if I could drive him to the depot. I told him I could not go then but would drive him the next morning. This was near eleven o'clock. He said he would wait but would rather go then. I took him the next  morning. He said he wanted to catch the local going south, but we got there too late. He had a child with him and said he was going to Fort Worth, and then to Morgan and then to Walnut Springs. He gave me his tent. I never saw a woman about his camp."
Franklin Conway: "I am at present stopping near Ray switch, west of the city. I saw the corpse and recognized it as
being the woman who lived in the tent near the spot where the body was found. I saw her on two occasions, where she lived, while I was passing by. I found the axe in the brush about two rods from where the tent stood. Blood was on it."
The examining trial for Hunt was set for Tuesday morning, 9 o'clock, but as none of the relatives of the woman were here it was postponed to Thursday. The inquest trial developed the fact that the body was buried without proper or legal identification, and that a loophole would be left through which Hunt might escape. Deputy Sheriff Scott Creager was dispatched to Walnut Springs for Mrs. Fry, the mother of the murdered woman, and other relatives, the object being that of exhuming the body for positive identification.
Deputy Sheriff Scott Creager, in company with Mrs. N. M. Fry and her daughter, M. S. Fry, mother and sister to Mrs. W. E. Hunt, the murdered woman, arrived in the city at noon Thursday. County Attorney Rice Maxey was in the city, and he, in company with a number of officers and the ladies, repaired to the undertaking house of I. Lindsey. The body of Mrs. Hunt had been exhumed and as soon as the face of the dead woman was exposed it was recognized by Mrs. Fry and her daughter. "That is my child," said Mrs. Fry.
Later in the day Hunt was taken from jail and escorted to the undertakers. He looked at the body but refused to talk. He was as pale as death, and his eyes and face betrayed the terrible emotion within. The muscles of his neck quivered and jerked. His breathing was labored and loud, but his tongue was as silent as the form of the dead woman in the coffin in front of him. The matter created quite a breeze of excitement along Main street, and while Hunt was at the undertaker's a crowd of two or three hundred men and boys gathered about the building. At 2:30 the prisoner was returned to the city hall, at which place Judge Mixson had opened court for the preliminary trial. The building was not long in filling up. At 3 o'clock Assistant Attorney Smith read the indictment charging Hunt with the murder of his wife. The defendant sat silent for a moment. He was chewing tobacco during the reading of the indictment. Judge Mixson said: "Mr. Hunt, you have heard the reading of the charge, what is your plea, guilty, or, not guilty." Hunt's eyes filled up, his frame quivered, his throat was full and in a voice choking with emotion said, "yes, sir."  A moment later he said, "I am guilty." The crowd, the officers and the court were breathless and as something terrible pervaded the room. Assistant Attorney Smith arose from his seat, went around to Hunt's side and asked him if he knew what he was doing. The defendant nodded his head, and then Justice Mixson asked him if that was his plea. Attorney Smith stated to him the law and then Hunt said: "I plead, not guilty." At this he brightened up, began chewing on his tobacco and, during the remainder of the evening, he sat motionless in his chair, spitting the ambier under the table.
The testimony of Mr. J. J. Prater was virtually the same as this conversation reported in the Gazetteer last week. He saw the woman and child in his pasture two or three weeks before the murder. The body of the woman was the same as that seen by him. The testimony of Hand Harrington, the stable boss at McDonald and Penfield's camp was the same as that given in at the inquest trial and which appears above.
At 4:30 o'clock court adjourned to 9 a.m. Friday. The prisoner was conveyed to Sherman for safe keeping.
Friday morning the trail was opened in Justice Mixson's court room and as a matter of necessity the general public was excluded. Al the officers of the court, representatives of the press, witnesses and parties otherwise interested in the suit were present. The first witness to take the stand was Mrs. Fry, mother to the murdered woman. She stated that her home was at Walnut Springs, Bosque county, Tex., and that Hunt and her daughter Mary were married two years ago.
Since that time they had lived in two or three different counties. Hunt arrived in Walnut Springs from Denison on
December 15. He had his child with him. He said his wife was dead ant that he had two doctors with her in her
sickness and the night she died he had three. One of the doctors said the woman died of meningitis, the other said it was congestion. Mrs. Fry said: "I did not ask him when his wife died nor when she was buried because I thought
I knew, having received letters from him concerning her death. He said she was sick three or four days. He said he had a good house with two rooms and that another family lived in the same house. She was well cared for and did not want for anything during her sickness. He further said that three ladies came during his wife's sickness and waited on her. He said the doctors bill was $50, that of burial $45. Didn't suffer any pain and died easy. All these statements were made by defendant at my home in Walnut Springs, Bosque county, Tex., on about Dec. 15. I am
46 years of age. I cannot read writing." A pair of pants and a coat were shown the witness in open court. She said, "I know them, they belong to defendant, E. W. Hunt. He was married in that suit. E. W. Hunt and my daughter were married at my house four miles from Glen Rose in Somervell county, Tex., on Dec. 4, 1890.
Frank Conoway - I have lived in Denison since Oct. 26, 1892. I came from Louisiana. I have been at work for Penfield & McDonald in Denison. Am not permanently located in Texas. I examined the corpse of a woman yesterday at Lindsey's undertaking house. I had seen the woman during her life two times. The body was the same as that found near the railway yards west of Denison on Dec. 15. I saw her at the tent located on or near Mr. J. J. Prater's pasture near the woods. I am positive that the corpse is the same as the woman I saw at the tent."
An axe was produced in court and witness identified it as the same as that found about 150 steps from where the body of the woman was found and about 30 steps from the tent. The axe was found in a brush pile. I examined the ground where the tent stood and found fresh blood on a pile of straw also on a flour sack. There was no bedstead
in the house. I saw a pile of straw in the tent and I suppose, that was the bed. I found blood on the straw where the tent stood.
The trial was concluded at noon and the prisoner was remanded to jail without bail. In the afternoon he was returned to Sherman and locked up in the criminal palace to await the spring term of the district court.


The Galveston Daily News
Galveston, Texas
Saturday April 15, 1893
pg 6

RAILROAD YARD HORROR

Testimony in the Hunt Case, Charged with Murdering His Wife.

Sherman, Tex., April 13 - The jury in the case of Elisha W. Hunt, charged with the murder of his wife in the new railroad yards at Denison some months since, was secured shortly after 10 o'clock this morning. The evidence for the state is in substance that Hunt, who was employed about the works, lived in almost destitution with his wife and child in a tent near his work. One day the horribly butchered body of a woman was found near the tent, which was deserted. Hunt had been seen to leave the union depot with a child in his arms. Suspicion resting on him, he was followed to southwest Texas and arrested. He denied that the dead woman was his wife, but her exhumed body was recognized by her mother and sister.
Over objection by the defense the testimony of Deputy Sheriff Rich was admitted. He had confessed to Rich that he killed his wife with the ax now in possession of the officers.
The mother of the defendant was placed on the stand this afternoon and testified that since her son was 10 years
of age, when he was very badly injured by being thrown from a horse, he had been mentally deranged. She cited many instances of his irrational actions and said that his father had attended to most of his affairs.
His cousin, a young man named Williams, who stated he had been intimately associated with him for ten years, stated he considered him of unsound mind, and said he very often talked of his stock in Mexico and of building railroads there and of other things calculated to make the witness consider his mind to be unbalanced.
Other witnesses from Wilson county and the vicinity of Floresville were introduced and testified about in the same strain.
W. S. Kreeger, for whom the defendant worked before he was hurt by the horse, testified to the difference between his actions before and after the accident, and gave it as his opinion that the accident had upset his mind to such an extent that he often committed irrational acts.
In answer to a question from the state if he believed after the hurt that the defendant would have known it was wrong to take an ax and kill a woman, he replied that he believed he would.
Other witnesses for the defense being absent and out of the immediate reach of the court, proceedings were adjourned until morning at 8 o'clock. Interest is the case is increasing.


The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, April 16, 1893
pg.4

LOCAL CONDENSATIONS
Wednesday, April 12 - E.W. Hunt, the man who murdered his wife a few months since, was on trial before Judge Brown at Sherman to-day.  I.R. Smith will assist the state's attorney in the prosecution.


The Sunday Gazetteer
Denison, Texas
Sunday, April 23, 1893
pg 3

Will Pay the Death Penalty

Saturday at noon, last week, the jury in the W. E. Hunt case, on trial in the district court in Sherman, returned a
verdict of "guilty of murder in the first degree and assess his punishment at death." The case was given to the jury
at 9 o'clock Friday night but the verdict was not ready for delivery to the court until the time indicated above. Hunt
is the man who killed his wife with an axe last winter west of Denison near the east end of Ray siding. Particulars
of the crime, the arrest and preliminary trial of the murderer appeared in the Gazetteer at the time and it is not
now necessary to reproduce it.


The Galveston Daily News
Galveston, Texas
Sunday April 29, 1894
pg 5

COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS

Austin, Tex., April 28 - In the court of criminal appeals the following cases were decided:
Affirmed: E. W. Hunt vs. state from Grayson, . . .


The Galveston Daily News
Galveston, Texas
Friday December 14, 1894
pg 5

Tyler Tex., Dec 12 - The following opinion were to-day rendered in the court of criminal appeals:
Motions for rehearing were overruled in the following cases without comment to-wit: E. W. Hunt vs. State from Grayson county,  . . .


Fort Worth Daily Gazette
Fort Worth, Texas
Saturday February 23, 1895
pg 1, 2

HUNT'S CASE

He Escapes the Gallows on the Insanity Dodge.

Austin, Tex., Feb. 22 - Below will be found Gov. Culberson's reasons for the commutation of E. W. Hunt, the wife murderer:
The defendant in this case was indicted March 18, 1892 (sic), by a grand jury from Grayson county, for the murder of his wife, May Hunt, and on April 15 was convicted and his punishment assessed at death. A new trial having been denied, he prosecuted an appeal to the court of criminal appeals, by which the judgment of the district court was affirmed April 23, 1894. In passing upon this application, two considerations suggest themselves:
1. The defendant was born and reared in Wilson county, in this state. The testimony shows that when quite young he was thrown from a horse and seriously injured about the head and after this injury was inflicted his character and conduct were gravely changed. In 1886 he was tried for lunacy in the county court of Wilson county, the jury finding that he had been insane for many years, and that it was necessary that he should be placed under restraint.
A judgment was accordingly entered in that court declaring him insane, and he was confined in the state lunatic asylum at Austin from July 13, 1886 to September 24, 1886, when he was discharged as restored. The record did not specifically show what his conduct was subsequent to his discharge from the asylum up to a short-time preceding the homicide, but his relatives in Wilson county and some other persons there state that his mind was still affected, particularly at intervals. He was married on the 4th day of December 1890, and after his marriage, it appears that he conducted a farm in Wilson county belonging to his father for some time. In the fall of 1893 he left the farm in Wilson county, leaving part of his crop ungathered and part penned up, without giving notice to any of his family or other persons of his intention to do so, and went to Walnut Springs in Bosque county, where his wife's family reside. Members of his family in Wilson county testified that they did not know what had become of him from the time he left Wilson county until they had noticed of the homicide.
It seems that after this he left Walnut Springs in search of work, and afterwards returned for his wife and carried
her to Grayson county, where he engaged as a teamster in the grading of a railroad a few miles from Denison. As showing his conduct towards his wife, her mother, Mrs. Fry, testified as follows: "During the time Hunt and wife lived at my house no trouble ever occurred between them. She thought a great deal of him and he of her. I never heard a cross word between them while they lived with me. They seemed affectionate toward each other while in my house."  This testimony was fully corroborated by an unmarried sister of the deceased, who resided with her mother. While engaged in the work near Denison, he and his wife and child occupied a tent, which, besides being surrounded by many other tents similarly occupied by persons engaged in the same work, was situated in a populous neighborhood. There is no testimony which shows or tends to show that the relationship between him and his wife was changed after they left Walnut Springs. On the 28th day of November, he wrote a letter to the sister of his wife, before mentioned, stating that his wife was very near death, and he did not believe she would recover. Soon after this it appears that the sister telegraphed and wrote him, stating that he had delayed answering until then in order that he might give a full answer, which was to the effect that his wife had died that day, and would be buried on the following afternoon, and that he would be in Bosque county in two or three weeks. About
6 o'clock in the afternoon of December 13, 1893, he endeavored to have one of the railway employees near where he was working flag a train for him that night in order that he might go to Fort Worth. Failing in this, that evening he employed a teamster in the neighborhood to carry him to Denison next morning, so as to take the train which left Denison for Fort Worth at 7:30 a.m. This teamster, the next morning, carried him and his child to Denison, for which Hunt gave him the tent he had occupied but he missed the train he desired to take and left there later in the day on another train, stating to several people that he was going to Fort Worth and thence to Walnut Springs in Bosque county. He did in fact go to the home of his wife's people in Walnut Springs, carrying his child, and stopped at their house, until the subsequent day, when he was arrested on a telegram from Denison. While in Walnut Springs, he stated to the mother and sister of his wife that she had died on December 4, without a struggle, stating at one time that she died of meningitis, and at another of pneumonia. About 8 o'clock on the morning of the 14th day of December, 1893, the dead body of his wife was found about 150 yards from the place where the tent had been pitched, inside a wire fenced field, and close by a well traveled road and in full view of the passers by. Her skull had been crushed in front by blows over and near her right eye and ear, and blood was traced from the body to a straw pile where the tent had been pitched, and which had been used by them as a bed, and beneath the straw was a large pool of blood.
While there is no direct testimony of an eye witness to the killing, it is certain that he killed her with an axe that was found near the tent the next morning covered with blood, and in all probability the act was committed while she was asleep. There appears therefore no doubt that he was guilty of the homicide, and the facts detailed, as well as the further fact that his wife was pregnant, shows that it was inflicted in the most cruel manner. On the trial in the district court, as well as on appeal, it was insisted by counsel for defendant that he was insane. But it appears from all the testimony that in all probability, speaking in a strictly technical and legal sense, that he was sane. Notwithstanding this, there is some doubt of his sanity both at the time of the commission of the offense and at the present time. Whether he be sane or insane, however, the proof is clear, concerning his previous confinement in the asylum, that his mind is weak, and incapable of fully appreciating the atrocious deed committed by him. Admitting that the letters written by him previous to the homicide, tend to show sanity and deliberation as well as
a purpose to prepare the family of his wife for the falsehood as to the cause of her death, the record is absolutely silent as to any motive on his part for taking her life and it is unreasonable to suppose that a man with full mental faculties, would have voluntarily visited the mother and sister of his victim with her blood fresh on his hands. Nor is it reasonable that such a person after committing the crime and leaving the body of deceased in full view of the neighboring public, would have subjected himself to certain detection and arrest by telling his neighbors un-reservedly that he was going to Walnut Springs. On the subject of his sanity the court of appeals declare in their opinion, "that there is very cogent evidence of insanity." Judge T. J. Brown, now associate justice of the supreme court, who tried the case as district judge, has stated to me in writing that "there was in my judgment sufficient evidence to sustain a verdict finding him insane to that degree to render him irresponsible." In the same statement he also says, "I believe that Hunt is a man of very weak mind, a very low grade of intelligence and moral sensibility." The county attorney of Grayson county, who prosecuted the case, in a letter to me, dated the 16th instant, says that "defendant: is a very weak minded man. In other words that his mind is disordered from disease, and in my mind there is serious doubt whether he was capable of the offense committed at the time it was committed or at the present time."
2. This is not an application for pardon, and if granted will not reduce the grade of homicide. It will still remain murder in the first degree, and will simply change the punishment from death to imprisonment in the penitentiary for life. Under our code murder in the first degree is punishable by death or confinement in the penitentiary for life in the discretion of the jury. Since the case was tried and affirmed by the court of criminal appeals, eight of the jurors, including the foreman, T. V. Munson, of Denison, have written me that "under the circumstances we now believe that imprisonment in the penitentiary for life would be adequate punishment for his crime, and we therefore recommend that his sentence be commuted to life imprisonment." The county attorney who prosecuted the case, in a letter to me dated the 15th instant, says: "Without solicitation from any one, but solely for the reason that I did not make my letter to you a few days ago in reference to the commutation of E. W. Hunt as strong as I now feel, (after giving the matter a great deal of thought), that my duty demands of me. I do not think any influence could induce me to recommend the slightest mercy for any man about whose sanity I have no doubt, who would brutally murder his wife; on the other hand I would dislike to feel that I had been in any way instrumental in the death of one whose mind is in such condition as I am now thoroughly convinced that Hunt's is and for years has been. I believe it is a case in which this unfortunate man should have the benefit of the doubt that must exist in
the mind of any man who has studied him as I have, and that his sentence ought to be commuted. I have had nearly seven years experience in prosecuting; have been engaged in the prosecution of two other cases in which the verdict was death and the parties executed and have never before asked or recommended that the verdict of the jury be disturbed. I merely mention this to show that in my action in this case, I am not controlled by what is frequently called chicken-heartedness, but purely and simply because I believe it to be my duty to present this case to you or rather my conclusion on the case as it is from serious and long consideration of it." Besides this,
the senator and the three representatives from Grayson county, one of whom resides in Denison, and a large number of reputable citizens, in view of this doubt as to the mental condition of the defendant, also recommend that the punishment be commuted to imprisonment for life.
For the reasons stated the punishment of E. W. Hunt is commuted to imprisonment for life in the penitentiary, as provided by law, and the sheriff of Grayson county and other officers of the state to whom the same shall be applicable are directed to observe and execute this order.
C. A. Culberson, Governor of Texas
Austin, Tex., Feb. 21, 1895.