Mother-Fucking Citation

[Fred Shapiro]

OK, here are the citations for "mother-fucking," verified from the
original books.  I give citations from both the published versions of
the case, because there is a significant difference between them:

1897 _Southwestern Reporter_ 38: 809  Some of the witnesses say deceased
called defendant a "mother f----g son of a bitch" first.

1898 _Texas Criminal Reports_ 37: 22  The charge was further excepted to,
because it failed specifically to instruct the jury upon insulting words
towards a female relative; and defendant requested a special instruction
upon this point, as follows: "You are instruceted, that if prior to the
shooting of deceased by defendant, the deceased called the defendant a
'mother-fucking son-of-a-bitch,' and the defendant, on account of such
said language and under the immediate influence of sudden passion caused
thereby, if any, shot and killed the deceased, then you are instructed, in
such a case, the defendant could not be guilty of a higher offense than
manslaughter, if guilty of anything."

_Id._ 23  "Didn't you make this statement on the examining trial:  'I
didn't hear Allen call the defendant a mother-fucking son-of-a-bitch, nor
did I hear any voices from the poker room use that term.  I could hear
Allen say, you are another.'"

_Id._ 25  The deceased called the defendant a mother-fucking
son-of-a-bitch just preceeding [_sic_] the fatal shot.

***

It should be noted that the first two citations from the _Texas Criminal
Reports_ version of the decision come from the 1896 trial of the case, and
can be regarded as 1896 citations.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Public Services     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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