Plumas County CA Archives History - Books .....Historical Reminiscences -  Fredonyer's Talk Against Time 1882
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 4, 2006, 8:58 pm

Book Title: Illustrated History Of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties

FREDONYER'S TALK AGAINST TIME.

   Atlas Fredonyer was indicted May 7, 1862, for an incestuous and criminal
assault upon the person of his own daughter. His case came to trial May 12,
before the court of sessions, Judge E. T. Hogan presiding. Patrick O. Hundley,
being then district attorney, prosecuted the case; while the prisoner
volunteered to conduct his own defense. The evidence was conclusive and damning.
Mr. Hundley made a strong argument, which carried conviction to the mind of
every juror. Fredonyer then opened his case, and by subterfuge and windy
argument, endeavored to prolong the trial and gain time. All this while a young
man from Honey Lake valley, who was confined in Fredonyer's cell for
horse-stealing, was making a laborious effort for liberty. Fredonyer held the
court for four days, while the young man sank a shaft and tunnel under the floor
of the jail. Just as he got the avenue of escape completed, and while Fredonyer
was still talking against time in the courtroom, three other prisoners, confined
in different cells, told the sheriff that a fresh, earthy smell came from
Fredonyer's apartment. An examination proved the correctness of their
impressions, and the plot was frustrated just in the nick of time, for the birds
would have flown that night. When the matter was related in the court-room
Fredonyer closed his argument very suddenly, and for his pains received a
sentence of six years in the state prison. Subsequently, James Duesler, always
interceding for the good, bad, or indifferent, started a petition, and had
Fredonyer pardoned; but he never returned to Plumas county. The jail used at the
time of the trial was the old log house standing at the head of Bradley street
in Quincy, which was built in 1855.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen & Sierra Counties

San Francisco: Fariss & Smith
(1882)


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