T LISTER
(In a slow, labored, uncouth hand.)
I know one thing and that is that they didn't make any headway in killing me when they hung me nor even when they scooped my brains out afterward—damn the doctors—damn the preachers—I hate them all they lied to me preachers priests and all they told me it was all right but I have found out its all wrong. I havent seen Mrs Reed nor do I want to I never was sorry that I killed her, it don't make a saint out of a man to send him out the way I had to go—its only killing—they were as bad as I was—I cant see—its dark
MC GINNIS.[A]
[Footnote A: McGinnis was a murderer recently hung for the brutal killing of his mother-in-law. Particulars of the murder, execution and autopsy were in all the local papers.]
(In an ordinary feminine hand.)
Put a piece of paper on a stand place a pencil on it and I will try to make the scale for you at home there is a power that is growing on you that will enable me to do this in a few times of trying I could write my own hand this is my first time of coming here so that makes it harder for me to get control
B
(This doggerel came in answer to a question whether the Spirits could write poetry, and is in a hand not dissimilar to the preceding communication, although the signatures differ.)
When the clear bright sun was shining
Then they took my cherished form
And they bore it to the church yard
To consign it to the worm