THE DOOM OF A CALIFORNIAN MURDERER.

Colonist, Volume VII, Issue 664, 8 March 1864, Page 4

THE DOOM OF A CALIFORNIAN MURDERER.

The Los Angelos correspondent of the San Francisco Times, writing on the 17th De-

comber, says:—

Yesterday, Charles Wilkins was indicted for the murder of John Sanford, by a special Grand Jury. _ This morning the prisoner was brought into the District Court for arraignment and plea. He pleaded guilty to the charge of murder, and sentence was to be pronounced against him to-morrow morning, at nine o'clock, when the Vigilantes in large numbers entered the court-room aiid took the prisoner from the custody of the Sheriff and hung him. "Wilkins seems, from his own confession, to have been a very fiend in human shape. He avowed that he killed Sanford, who was an entire stranger to him, to see if he had money; he did not know that he had any; took the chances, he said, and killed him to find out. He began to make confession of his crimes soon after he was taken prisoner in Santa Barbara by Mr. Bartlett, his confessions to whom, the latter said, if taken down would fill a volume. He said that he was English born; that his parents were living at Salt Lake City and were Mormons; that he had a sister living at Goshen, about sixty miles from Salt Lake ; that he has committed nine murders; that he killed his first man when seventeen years old, coming to this country; that he was in the "Mountain Meadows massacre," where he got 5,000 or 6,000 dollars, and that with that money he and others went to the States and had a spree on it; that-he killed Blackburn on the Mohave, when he got 300 dollars in money, and a lot of mules, &c. Wilkins said also that "Wilburn was not killed .by the' Indians, as reported, but by the Mormons. Two years ago a party from here and from San Bernardino went out through the Cajon Pass after horse thieves. Near Eock Creek they recovered over forty horses, and caught two of the thieves, who were sent to the State Prison; but the third man escaped to the mountains. "We now learn, by his own confession, that this Wilkins was that third man of that band. From there he afterwards made his way to Salt Lake. He said he was one of the prisoners, having been sentenced from San Louis Obispo for stealing, who made the break from the State Prison a year or so ago, and that he was the one who helped to hold Lieutenant-Governor Chellis before the cannon to save themselves from being fired upon. He says that about a year ago he killed a drover named Carr, near Yreka— doubtless many will remember the murder. He says that he and a Mexican who escaped from the State Prison at the same time that he did, agreed to kill the drover and another man; that he killed Carr; that he generally made sure of his man, he said; but the Mexican, though he fired four or five shots at the other man, did not get him, and he got away, Wilkins said he got, I think, about 300 dollars this time. From Sanford he only got his pistol and knife, and about twenty dollars in money. "When asked if conscience did not trouble him for having killed Sanford and others, Wilkius replied " No, that he thought no more of killing a man than he would a dog."