Ladies & Gentlemen

When John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln it was not possible to accord him the privilege of explaining his deed to the ladies and gentlemen of a radio audience.

Pertinent in this connection is the fact that last week the Mexican Ministry of Education put on the air* from Station XFX the notorious assassin Jose de Leon Toral, who recently shot General Alvaro Obregon, national hero and President-Elect of Mexico (TIME, July 30).

When captured the assassin was of uncouth appearance, ragged of shirt, scrubby of beard. But when he stepped before the microphone, last week, Jose de Leon Toral was not only clean shaven, but clad in black sack coat, double-breasted vest, and trousers of smart pin stripe. Speaking deliberately for two full hours, he explained to the caballeros and senoras of the radio audience minutely how and why he assassinated the President-Elect:

". . . My shots were put into the General Obregon at point blank range. I fire 1 my first bullet squarely into the middle of his face. . . .

"... I killed him hoping to put an end to the persecution of Catholics in Mexico. . . ."

Above the microphone hung a large poster picture of Alvaro Obregon, and upon the further wall a photograph of his widow, children. Everyone in the room smoked incessantly, the audience, the reporters, the nine jurymen and the judge. For what was being broadcast was the trial of Jose de Leon Toral and the nun, who is charged with being his "intellectual accomplice," Madre Concepcion.

Radio listeners thrilled as the assassin said, "Madre Concepcion was merely the final drop of water which caused the overflow of my cup of intention. She had no inkling that I was preparing for my mission. . .

"... My sole instigation was from God. I am ready to die. He who lives by the sword shall perish by the sword. My only thought now is the saving of my soul. ..."

Cheers and much pelting of flowers by the populace greeted the arrival of Mexico's most popular criminal lawyer, peerless Demetrio Sodi. In defense of the self confessed assassin Lawyer Sodi argued that his crime was purely political, and as such is punishable by imprisonment only.

Came then the smash-sensation. "My client has been foully tortured," said Demetrio Sodi in a low tense voice. "When he revealed to me what the police had done, I was as nauseated as though I were beholding Dore's depiction of the infernal cycles of Dante's Inferno! I will put my client on the stand."

Then over Station XFX and probably for the first time in history a prisoner described to thousands his sensations under "third degree." Jose de Leon Toral said tonelessly that he was suspended, swung and jerked by a rope binding his wrists and ankles behind his back, while policemen kicked him and predicted, "He'll soon sing now!"

"... I had already and freely said that I shot the General Obregon. All this was merely to make me tell them who I was, that they might track down my supposed accomplices. . . . Finally, I told them my name," thus ending the torture.

Within 24 hours after Jose de Leon Toral had broadcast his "third degree," Prosecutor General Correa Nieto received 17 anonymous threats of death. Thereupon broadcasting was stopped by order of President Calles. Soon afterwards a group of parliamentary deputies burst into the court with shouts of "Death to "Soldi! Death to the jury if they fail to convict!"

*The broadcasting was abruptly terminated.