The following pages are written under peculiar circumstances, perhaps
the most peculiar that ever attended the birth of a literary work.
Incarcerated in prison and awaiting trial for the most serious offense
known to the law, it has been written only after mature deliberation,
against the advice of my friends, and in direct opposition to the
positive instructions of my counsel, who have attempted in every way to
dissuade me from its publication; but the circumstances under which I
am placed, in my judgment, make it imperative that I should disregard
all of these considerations.
For months I have been vilified by the public press, held up to
the world as the most atrocious criminal of the age, directly and
indirectly accused of the murder of at least a score of victims, many
of whom have been my closest personal friends.
The object of this extended and continuous enumeration of alleged
crimes has been apparently to create a public sentiment so prejudiced
against me as to make a fair and impartial trial impossible. My friends
have been alienated, my nearest kindred plunged in grief, and the world
horrified by the bloody recital of imaginary crimes.
I feel therefore justified in the course I am now pursuing, and
am impelled by an imperative sense of duty to publicly deny these
atrocious calumnies. The following pages will therefore be found to
contain a simple and complete narrative of my entire life, and a full
history of my associations and dealings with Mr. and Mrs. B. F. Pitezel
and their children, the alleged disappearance of Minnie Williams and
the tragic death of her sister Nannie.
My sole object in this publication is to vindicate my name from the
horrible aspersions cast upon it, and to appeal to a fair-minded
American public for a suspension of judgment, and for that free and
fair trial which is the birthright of every American citizen, and the
pride and bulwark of our American Constitution.