Transcript Number Eleven

Please state your name for the record.

My name is Randolph Emmett Mason.

I understand you are here to confess a crime.

Yes. I am a murderer.

When did you kill this person, Randolph?

People.

People?

I killed six people.

I see. When did you kill these people, Randolph?

A couple of years ago. December. Right at the end of the War.

Please tell me exactly what happened.

I needed money. Lots of ex-soldiers walking around with scraps of metal floating in their bodies, in pain morning to night, I figured I could scrape up cash with minor surgeries. Digging out mini-balls and shrapnel. Didn't seem real hard at the time.

Have you had any medical training, Randolph?

No.

How long did you masquerade as a doctor?

Month and change. I didn't try to cheat anyone, honest I didn't, but I guess seeing how I never stayed in one place for long there might be unflattering stories about me. Anyway I want to get to the killing. I feel real bad about it.

Tears are not recorded on this transcript, Mr. Mason. Only words.

Sorry, I'll get a hold of myself. Sorry. Anyway I did some toothaches and finger-splints and I don't know what the hell, and then back somewhere in the root-cellars of Pennsylvania I came across this family with a man who got something bad in his leg. Maybe didn't seem so serious when they discharged him, but the longer he worked his farm the worse it got. When I came by there was this great black spot on his thigh like oak blight. The smell was unbelievable. He told me he'd seen other men die of leg-rot. He wanted me to amputate.

You thought there was money to be had in that part of the country?

Maybe not dollars, but barter was good.

You mean, if you cut off his leg he'd give you some butter, or apples, or some such.

Haunch of pork in this case. I didn't know what I'd do with it but I felt so bad I said yes.

So you amputated?

Yeah. I had them fetch me a saw from the barn. I'd seen it done once or twice. I figured with some good strong boys to hold him down we'd get through all right.

Did you?

We--

Randolph, I can't record weeping. You have to speak if you want this in the transcript.

We got through. He died on the table. I've never seen so much blood. He screamed and flailed right to the end. I can't get it out of my mind. He was terrified. He didn't want to die. He kept begging someone to help him. I didn't know what to do, he just kept bleeding and bleeding. In the end I had to stand there and watch him fade away. His crying and mumbling got weaker and softer and then his eyes rolled up in the back of his head and he was dead. We stood a long time quiet and then the family came over and thanked me for doing my best. They said that sometimes it was just God's will and I did what I could. They said they still wanted to pay me for my time. I said I didn't want anything but they said they wouldn't feel right without giving me something. I took that haunch of pork in my bag and I left. I walked and walked until I was sure I'd never see those people again.

You said you killed six people, Randolph.

Couldn't stand the weight of that pork on my shoulder. Felt like I was carrying the dead man's leg with me everywhere. Couldn't even bring myself to cook it and eat a single bite. In the end I stopped at this rundown hut with a dirty family of sharecroppers and I gave it to them. They cooked and ate it that very night. I wouldn't have any, said I was fasting. Only, there was something bad in the haunch. I don't know if it was there to begin with or maybe it grew in there when I spent all that time packing it around or what, but the whole family starting puking and swelling up, one after another. They turned purple-green, a like the color of that leg-rot. Once I saw that I got the hell out of there, I don't know what happened to them but if they're not dead you go ahead and shoot me right here.

I see.

So, that's it. That's what I wanted to tell you.

You have nothing more to add?

No, I told it all. I had to get it off my chest, it's given me nightmares for over a year now. I can't stand it any more. I got to get a good night's sleep.

Thank you, Randolph. As you can see I've written it all down. You can return to your room now.

ADDENDUM: Let the record show that Randolph Emmett Mason has confessed to eleven murders now since he was admitted to this facility in the Year of Our Lord 1869. So far none of them have born the slightest resemblance to the strangling of his wife Laura Ann Mason in April of that year. Unfortunately his periods of lucidity are decreasing and the board of examiners has come to believe that Mr. Mason will probably never achieve a level of recovery permitting discharge. Signed this 7th day of November 1879 Lawrence M. Harriman, physician attending.