John Ward or the Victimized Assassin, A Narrative of Facts Connected with the Crime, Arrest, Trial, Imprisonment, and Execution of the Williston Murderer, Who was Hung in the State Prison at Windsor, Friday, March 20, 1868; Together with his Confession, Intercepted Correspondence, and the Chaplain's Diary of Visits, &c
Windsor, VT: 1869.
138 pp, with 1 portrait, in original wrappers. Light dust soiling, previous owner's name on front wrap; very good. John Ward was convicted of carrying out a murder for hire on behalf of Charles H. Potter, who allegedly wanted his mother-in-law dead so his wife would inherit her susbtantial property. Butler, who was Chaplain of the prison where Ward ultimately hung, gives only a brief account of the murder itself, focusing instead on the investigation and trial, and recounting his own conversations with the prisoner as he awaited execution. The phrase "victimized assassin" relates to Ward's insistance that various misfortunes and the actions of others had led him to commit the crime. Butler concludes that "Alas! He destroyed himself! No man made him a murderer--not even they who duped him into the part he bore in the horrible work....the victim himself was his own destroyer." McDade 1041.
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