I
witnessed the execution of the paper shown to me - as the statement of
deceased - at his request; and at the time of signing the same he was in
his perfect senses. It was taken down in my presence by Jacobs, the
Assistant District-Attorney of Placer County, and read over to the
deceased before he affixed his signature. I was not present when he
breathed his last, having been called away by my patients in the town of
Auburn, but I reached his bedside shortly afterward. In my judgment, no
amount of care or medical attention could have prolonged his life more
than a few days.
(Signed) Karl Liebner, M. D.
The statement of the deceased was then introduced to the jury as
follows:
People of the State of California, }
vs. }
Bartholomew Graham. }
Statement and Dying Confession of Charles P. Gillson, taken in articulo
mortis by George Simpson, Notary Public.
On the morning of Sunday, the 14th day of May, 1871, I left Auburn alone
in search of the body of the late Gregory Summerfield, who was reported
to have been pushed from the cars at Cape Horn, in this county, by one
Leonidas Parker, since deceased. It was not fully light when I reached
the track of the Central Pacific Railroad. Having mined at an early day
on Thompson's Flat, at the foot of the rocky promontory now called Cape
Horn, I was familiar with the zigzag paths leading down that steep
precipice. One was generally used as a descent, the other as an ascent
from the ca?on below.
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