Pulitzer_ A Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris [112]
“Well, I’m here, sir,” Slayback said. Then, spotting Cockerill’s weapon on the desk, he asked, “Is that for me?”
“No, it’s for me to use only to defend myself,” replied Cockerill.
“You are prepared to draw, then draw,” Slayback said.
By this time Clopton had managed to gain entrance to the room and found that the confrontation had developed into a physical struggle between the men. Cockerill pulled the trigger of his gun as Clopton rushed to disarm him. The single shot met its target, traversing both of Slayback’s lungs. He slumped to the floor with blood frothing at his mouth. In a moment, Slayback was dead.
When word spread through town that Cockerill had killed Slayback, a mob of detractors of the Post-Dispatch gathered in front of its building. The crowd grew angry and might have stormed the building had the police not held the people back. Meanwhile, Cockerill stole away to the Lindell Hotel. Pulitzer’s old friend Charles Johnson, who had defended Pulitzer when he shot Augustine, was summoned. In Johnson’s company, Cockerill surrendered to the police that night.
News of the shooting was reported across the country. Reporters found Pulitzer in New York. He strongly defended Cockerill, calling him “one of the quietest persons you ever knew.” Even though he admitted he did not know that his editor packed a pistol, Pulitzer said Cockerill must have done so solely for self-defense. He immediately caught a train back to St. Louis.
Upon arriving in St. Louis, Pulitzer went directly to Cockerill’s cell and assured his editor that he would stand by him. In the paper’s office, Pulitzer scrawled a short editorial, in his large, loopy handwriting, asking readers to withhold judgment until the police and the courts had completed their work. It was doubtful that any official report would please both sides. The only witnesses to the shooting each had a motive to lie. Nor was the prosecutor likely to be considered objective, since the Post-Dispatch had supported his election.
Slayback’s friend Clopton told the police the victim had been unarmed. The Post-Dispatch employees in the room stood by their claim that he had been armed. The gun found on Slayback seemed to corroborate Cockerill’s claim of self-defense, but some people believed the gun had been planted. In fact, years later a Post-Dispatch employee confessed that he had planted it, to help Cockerill’s plea of self-defense. But whether St. Louisans believed the killing was self-defense or murder depended less on evidence and more on their attitude toward the paper. Few sat on the fence, and those who were vindictive were vocal. “If this closes the career of that scandalous sheet it will be a life well spent,” one woman wrote to her son.
On October 18, Pulitzer and McCullagh, the Globe-Democrat editor who had once been Cockerill’s boss, persuaded a judge to release Cockerill on $10,000 bail. A grand jury was convened to determine if Cockerill would be indicted for murder. Pulitzer knew that more than Cockerill’s fate hung in the balance. His enemies, particularly those at the Missouri Republican, struck at him and the Post-Dispatch, claiming that Slayback’s death was a direct result of his sensational journalism. For once, it seemed, Hyde had the upper hand. The Post-Dispatch’s average daily circulation fell by 2,015, and several national publications joined the chorus of critics. Harper’s Weekly, for instance, said the killing was “a direct result of personal journalism.”
Pulitzer brushed off the Republican’s daily attacks and offered a spirited defense of Cockerill in the Post-Dispatch. He accepted responsibility for the content of the paper leading up to the shooting and wrote that Cockerill’s conduct—in print, not with the gun—had been justified by Slayback’s provocation.
But, watching the circulation plummet, Pulitzer knew he had to disassociate the paper from Cockerill. He turned to John Dillon for help. In the three years since they had parted company, Dillon had spent some time writing for the Globe-Democrat, had gone to work in Mexico,