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Two lined sheets with writing on both sides. Very good with both lightly worn and creased from being mailed; one letter separated at the horizontal folds and missing the top of the sheet. Two Autograph Letters from Raymond W. Shuck who died on the electric chair at Trenton State Prison in 1921 to a Mr. Wood. Shuck s murder trial was featured heavily in the*New Jersey Mirror*, and what a story it was. It began when bank courier David S. Paul of Burlington, New Jersey went missing with $45,000 in cash. After a weeks-long manhunt, his body was found by hunters in a wooded area near his home. The body appeared to have first been placed in a nearby stream before being retrieved and buried in a shallow grave. The coroner initially ruled Paul died in the last 24 hours from either a blow to the head or a gunshot wound. Immediately police suspected two local men, Raymond W. Shuck and Frank J. James, both from Paul s neighborhood and who had been spotting spending large sums of money the week since his disappearance. The problem was both had ironclad alibis for their whereabouts for the last two days. That is, until investigators discovered a tannery just upstream from where Paul's body was found. Apparently the waste water it emptied into the stream contained enough tannic acid to arrest the body's decomposition and affect the coroner s estimated time of death. Confronted with the new evidence, James confesses to luring Paul into a car, killing him and then throwing his body off a bridge. Only later while drunk did the pair retrieve the body and bury it in the shallow grave. Unlike James, Shuck played it cool and denied everything. In one letter he tells a friend: "I had never planned to rob or murder David S. Paul. I never met the man until that day and I didn t know he was a bank runner until after Frank had delivered the fatal blow. He certainly did take advantage of my sincere friendship and under his threats to incriminate me if I squealed, I was placed in such a position that I didn t know what to do for the best, and who wants to get mixed up in murder if they can prevent it." Shuck s denial failed to convince the jury of his innocent, though to be fair the $35,000 dollar police found buried in his own mother s grave certainly didn t help. Both men were ultimately found guilty and sentenced to the electric chair. While the *New Jersey Mirror* reported James took the verdict badly, Shuck didn t seem to mind the attention. Even after time on death row he continued to take everything in stride: "This death house is certainly a great place, on the 15th of this month one man [Stephen Carrigan] was executed. My cell is next to the death chamber and when the door opened I saw the electric chair all wired up and in readiness … the guards open the man s cell door and then the march to death. I was the last inmate he said good-bye too, oh boy, words will never explain my feelings, everybody was nervous and excited and Frank was so nervous he had to go to bed or he would have fallen down. I held up good only it was a mighty uncomfortable feeling and I would say if I ever survive this experience, I will certainly be an interesting talker or entertainer on my life s past experiences. … I am more determined now for success than ever before in my life, and all hell won t stop me . even with things looking as bad as they do, I am not discouraged and study right on. I will surely catch up with Mr. Success someday." For Schuck that day never came. He, along with James, were executed on August 30, 1921. A compelling letter from an unrepentant killer who almost got away with murder.
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