Sidney Rigdon, Testimony, 1 July 1843 [Extradition of JS for Treason]
Source Note
, Testimony, [, Hancock Co., IL], 1 July 1843, Extradition of JS for Treason (Nauvoo, IL, Municipal Court 1843). Copied [between 3 and 6 July 1843]; handwriting of ; docket by unidentified scribe, [, Hancock Co., IL], ca. [6] July 1843; notation by unidentified scribe, ca. [6] July 1843; twenty-four pages; Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL.
before with consumption had been brutally violated by a gang of them and died in their hands leaving three little children in whose presence the scene of brutalty took place, after I got out of prison and had arived in Illinois, I met a strange man in the street who was inquiring and inquired of me respecting a circumstance of this kind, saying he had heard of it and was on his way going to to get the children if he could find them. He said the woman thus murdered was his sister or his wife’s sister I am <not> positive which, the man was in great agitation. What success the man <he> had I know not
The trial at last ended, and Joseph Smith Sen and myslf were sent to in the villiage <of> Clay county missouri.
We were kept there from three to four months after which time we were bought out on before one of the judges. During the hearing under the Habeas Corpus I had for the first time an oppertunity of hearing the evidence as it was all written and read before the court It appeared from the evidence, that they attempted to prove us guilty of treason in consequence of the militia of being under arms at the time army came to . This calling out of the militia was what the<y> founded they charge of treason upon. a discription an account of which I have given above. The charge of murder was founded on the fact that a man of their number they said was killed in the Bogard battle. The other charges were founded on things which took place in . As <I> was not in at the time I cannot testify any thing about them.
This trial lasted for a length of time the number days I have forgott
A few words about this written testimony I do not now recollect of one single point about which testimony was given with which I was acquainted, but was misrepresinted nor one solitary witness whose testimony was there written that did not [p. [22]]