In the records of the American criminal courts, we might expect to find stirring stories of human conflict.
And indeed, in the official files of the criminal court of Illinois, there is such a story.
It appears in the verbatim report of the case of the state versus Carl Wanderer.
In the year 1915, the Wanderer family, mother, son and daughter, were living together in a small Midwestern town.
On a certain winter night in that year, the house was plunged in darkness and heavy silence.
And then suddenly, a blood-curdling scream came from Mrs. Wanderer's room.
It's all right, Carl. Nothing to worry about. Mother had a bad dream. You're going back to bed.
She insists she's got to tell me all about it.
Even before Carl Wanderer had reached his bedroom door, he could hear his mother's voice.
Her words were unintelligible. And so, his curiosity aroused, he sat on the edge of his bed,
waiting until his sister came back down the hall.
What was it all about, Mary?
I'd rather not tell you, Carl.
It was only a dream, wasn't it?
Yes, but, well, I'd still rather not.
The next morning, Carl waited rather impatiently for his mother to come down to breakfast.
But she failed to appear at the usual time.
And finally, both he and his sister went up to her room to awaken her.
When there was no answer to their knocking, they opened the door and stepped into the room together.
Good Lord! She's dead!
In 1920, five years later, Carl had married and was living with his wife in Chicago.
But it was a marriage doomed from the beginning.
On the night of June 21st, his wife came home to find him waiting for her at the door.
Don't tell me where you've been or what you've been doing. I don't want any explanations.
I'm fed up with you! I hate you! I'll tell you I hate you!
Ah!
The Next Day
Carl Wanderer was charged with murder in the first degree.
Among the witnesses who appeared in his defense was his sister, Mary.
Carl was a wonderful boy. That's why Mother's dream didn't make any sense.
Mary described how on that night five years before, she had found her mother crying bitterly in her sleep.
Mother, you're having a bad dream.
Oh, what?
Oh, it was only a dream.
Of course, darling.
It was horrible.
Mary, I thought...
I thought Carl was being hanged.
Mother!
It's all right, Mary.
They led him from his cell and...
and he stood on the scaffold and they put a black cap over his face and then...
and then the trap door opened and he dropped through.
Carl Wanderer was led from the cell to the scaffold.
A black cap was placed over his face.
The trap door opened and he plunged downward to his death.
His mother's prophetic dream had been fulfilled.
A dream incredible, but true.