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we showed I told the old man, Aaron Wharton, that we was U. S. marshals and we needed to talk to his boys. He picked up a ax and commenced to cussing us and blackguarding this court.
MR. BARLOW : What did you do?
MR. COGBURN : I started backing away from the ax and tried to talk some sense to him. While this was going on C. C. Wharton edged over by the wash pot behind that steam and picked up a shotgun that was laying up against a saw-log. Potter seen him but it was too late. Before he could get off a shot C. C. Wharton pulled down on him with one barrel and then turned to do the same for me with the other barrel. I shot him and when the old man swung the ax I shot him. Odus lit out for the creek and I shot him. Aaron Wharton and C. C. Wharton was dead when they hit the ground. Odus Wharton was just winged.
MR. BARLOW : Then what happened?
MR. COGBURN : Well, it was all over. I dragged Odus Wharton over to a blackjack tree and cuffed his arms and legs around it with him setting down. I tended to Potter's wound with my handkerchief as best I could. He was in a bad way. I went up to the shack and Aaron Wharton's squaw was there but she would not talk. I searched the premises and found a quart jar under some stove wood that had banknotes in it to the tune of four hundred and twenty dollars.
MR. BARLOW : What happened to Marshal Potter?
MR. COGBURN : He died in this city six days later of septic fever. Leaves a wife and six babies.
MR. GOUDY : An objection.
JUDGE PARKER : Strike the comment.
MR. BARLOW : What became of Odus Wharton?
MR. COGBURN : There he sets.
MR. BARLOW : You may ask, Mr. Goudy.
MR. GOUDY : Thank you, Mr. Barlow . How long did you say you have been a deputy marshal, Mr. Cogburn.?
MR. COGBURN : Going on four years.
MR. GOUDY : How many men have you shot in that time?
MR. BARLOW : An objection.
MR. GOUDY : There is more to this shooting than meets the eye, your honor. I am trying to establish the bias of the witness.
JUDGE PARKER : The objection is overruled.
MR. GOUDY : How many, Mr. Cogburn?
MR. COGBURN : I never shot nobody I didn't have to.
MR. GOUDY : That was not the question. How many?
MR. COGBURN : Shot or killed?
MR. GOUDY : Let us restrict it to "killed" so that we may have a manageable figure. How many people have you killed since you became a marshal for this court?
MR. COGBURN : Around twelve or fifteen, stopping men in flight and defending myself.
MR. GOUDY : Around twelve or fifteen. So many that you cannot keep a precise count. Remember that you are under oath. I have examined the records and a more accurate figure is readily available. Come now, how many?
MR. COGBURN : I believe them two Whartons made twenty-three.
MR. GOUDY : I felt sure it would come to you with a little effort. Now let us see. Twenty-three dead men in four years. That comes to about six men a year.
MR. COGBURN : It is dangerous work.
MR. GOUDY : So it would seem. And yet how much more dangerous for those luckless individuals who find themselves being arrested by you. How many members of this one family, the Wharton family, have you killed?
MR. BARLOW : Your honor, I think counsel should be advised that the marshal is not the defendant in this action.
MR. GOUDY : Your honor, my client and his deceased father and brother were provoked into a gun battle by this man Cogburn. Last spring he shot and killed Aaron Wharton's oldest son and on November second he fairly leaped at the chance to massacre the rest of the family. I will prove that. This assassin Cogburn has too long been clothed with the authority of an honorable court. The only way I can prove my client's innocence is by bringing out the facts of these two related shootings, together with a searching review of Cogburn's methods. All the other principals, including Marshal Potter, are conveniently dead --
JUDGE PARKER : That will do, Mr. Goudy, Restrain yourself. We shall hear your argument later. The defense will be given every latitude. I do not think the indiscriminate