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expose her would be to blast her
reputation.

"So the only decent thing for
me to do," the condemned man
told the court, "is to keep my
mouth shut and die game."

Hillstrum stoutly maintains his innocence.
The evidence upon which he was
convicted of murder was slight. It all
hinged upon a bullet wound he suffered
in his chest. The prosecution asserted he
received the wound in battle with a grocer
who was found dead in his store. Hillstrum
said he was wounded in a quarrel
over a woman. No pressure the court
could bring to bear could make him divulge
this woman's name. He clung resolutely
to his habitual silence, even when
the matter of a new trial came up.

CONDEMNED MAN CHOOSES
DEATH BY SHOOTING.
The convicted man chose death by
shooting, as the Utah statutes permit condemned
prisoners to say whether they
shall be hanged or shot.

Attorney O. N. Hilton of Denver has
become interested in the case and will go
to Salt Lake City tomorrow to make
a plea for commutation of Hillstrum's
sentence.

"There is more than a reasonable doubt
as to Hillstrum's guilt," said Attorney
Hilton this morning. "I did not defend
him, but intended doing so if he received
a new trial. The circumstances of the
murder are these:

"A man named Morgan, and his son,
were killed in their grocery store in Salt
Lake City by two bandits. The motive
apparently was not robbery, but revenge.
They said to Morgan before they shot
him:

"'We've got you now.'

"No attempt was made to rob the store.

"The bandits ran out of the store and
escaped, but as they were leaving young
Morgan fired at them, and there is reason
to believe that he hit one of the two men.
The crime was commmitted in October,
1913. Snow was on the ground and blood
stains were found in the snow and there
was a trail of blood in the direction in
which they fled.

PHYSICIAN DRESSES WOUND
AND THEN CALLS POLICE.

"Three hours later, about three miles
from the scene of the murder, Hillstrum
called on a physician to have a wound in
his breast treated. The physician treated
him, and then, having heard of the murder,
telephoned the police. Hillstrum
made no attempt to escape. He was arrested
and locked up. The evidence
against him was circumstantial. One
witness attempted to identify him by his
height. He is only medium in height and
there are thousands of men in Salt Lake
City of the same height.

"One woman witness said she identified
him by his bushy hair and a scar on his
face, but she had first been taken to the
police station to look at him.

"Before the jury was obtained, Hillstrum,
who had two attorneys, stood up
in his place at the lawyers' table and,
in a dramatic manner, objected to the
case proceeding any futher because, he
said, there were too many prosecutors.
He told the court that his own lawyers
were working with the other side.
" 'You get out of that door,' " he said
to the two attorneys.

COURT NAMES ATTORNEY
HE HAD DISCHARGED.

"The court conceded his right to discharge
his attorneys, but the case had
been started, so the court appointed them
as 'friends of the court' to defend Hillstrum.
The trial went on, the prisoner
being defended by the two layers he
had discharged. After a dramatic trial
he was convicted and sentenced to death.

"An application was made for a new
trial and arguments heard June 1, but
the supreme court affirmed the judgment
of the lower court because Hillstrum
would not disclose the name of the
woman over whom he had been shot."