We Who Are About to Die, William Fleming

Life is unfair. This is just a fact, some people get more in life. Some people are smarter, more talented or have more money. This is just something we have to deal with. When I saw this piece, I put together that someone is in jail and is facing the death sentence. As I looked further into this piece I was intrigued by the artist's story. What he explained was that the piece was about David and Allene, a newly married couple who had just moved in together. On Memorial Day, 1933, Julia knocked on their door asking for Allene. David was the one who answered and went upstairs to tell his wife there was someone at the door. A minute later, Julia heard a scream from the front porch. David soon came back with blood on his shirt saying “my wife is dead, she’s dead.” The cops were called and once they arrived on the scene they found David clutching his dead wife in the bathroom of their house, his shirt was covered in blood and being the only one in the house when this happened, he was taken into custody. He faced 3 criminal trials. His story was that he had returned from his friend's house at 11 pm the night before. Allene mentioned to him that she felt sick so he planned on sleeping in the guest bedroom so as to not get sick. He went outside, started a fire and later came back in to give his wife a bath. He returned back outside for about an hour and put out the fire when he went inside and went straight to bed after this. His story and trial were posted in the paper and it got lots of attention throughout the summer. The defense tried to argue that she had just slipped while she was getting out of the bath, hit her head, and instantly died. One of David’s friends later said that a couple nights before, he had seen a strange man lurking around their home. However, both of these reasons were overlooked and David was found guilty and was hanged about a year later. I think that he didn’t kill his wife, even though they were fighting and his friends said that there would be no real reason for him to kill his wife. I also think the fact that there was a suspicious man outside their house could have been a possibility. I think they should have at least looked more into other ways she could have died. This is Iya with another Bulldog Art Tour.