Hope H. Slatter II

Being the commanding officer of the battalion at the time of the sad occurrence, the deponent [Price Williams Jr. of Mobile, Alabama] made this statement in justice to the character of the living and the dead.

"[3] On August 6, 1873, while attending the Schuetzenfest "annual shooting competition and beer bash"[4] at Schuetzen Park in Washington, D.C., Slatter stabbed and killed one Michael Hussey.

[5] Slatter fled the scene of the crime but was captured in Virginia; when the police caught up with him he had with him a spring-back dagger and was sitting under a tree with a picnic basket that had been packed with "a lot of crackers, three fresh boiled spring chickens on toast, a bottle of fine brandy, and a box of matches.

[6] During his fewer than three years in prison for murder,[4] Slatter apparently did not enjoy the hospitality of the Albany Penitentiary and "told a piteous tale of the severity of the discipline, by which the convicts are compelled to keep their eyes on the ground and not allowed to utter a syllable under pain of punishment by the shower bath, dark dungeon, flogging, etc.

[8] (Back in November 1857, federal marshals had arrested freelance imperialist William Walker; politician Pierre Soulé and "Col. Slatter" posted the $2,000 bond for the standard bearer of the planned Golden Circle greater pro-slavery prosperity sphere.