Federal, H, J-M, 1860-1994, Undated

632 XIV. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

of them we can only judge by those circumstances which are
thrown around by the appearance of the vessel and by the
conduct of the prisoner, and other circumstances connected
with him. Whether their bodies be in the sands of the lower
bay, or floated out to sea, and are tossed by the waves there,
we do not know. The prisoner fails to give an account of
them, and we can only suppose that they were murdered by
him and thrown into the sea. Next morning,. Wednesday,
the 21st, the prisoner appeared upon Staten Island, with the
yawl-boat of this sloop. Except, as I say, by implication,
nothing is known in the meantime. The circumstances to
which I refer are these: The schooner J. R. Mather, Captain
Nickerson, was going from this city to Philadelphia, clearing
from here March 20, and running down the bay. Some time
during the night, between twelve and two o’clock, the vessel,
then being down off Coney Island, had a eollision with a
vessel coming in. It appeared that the vessel going out saw

this sloop coming in, and on going within three or four hun-

dred feet, the course of that other vessel was changed, and
she run down directly to this schooner, as if to run across
its bow. That seemed to fail, and the course of that vessel
was again changed; but instead of running across the bow
of the schooner Mather, it seemed to fail, and struck the bow
itself, cutting it down within six or eight inches of the water’s
edge, and rendering the schooner incapable of proceeding to
sea, and it returned for repairs. There was the finger of
Providence again in that. On coming into this port the
captain of the schooner J. R. Mather found that the sloop
E. A. Johnson had come in, and by a comparison of the
rigging of her bowsprit, found on the bow of his boat, with
the rigging of the E. A. Johnson, that that was the vessel
which caused the collision. Further than this, nothing is
known of that night. There was no ery from the deck of
the E. A. Johnson when it encountered the schooner; there
was no hail, no attempt to disentangle themselves, and
nothing was known of what was going on upon the deck of
that vessel—whether there was a human being on it or not.
The captain of the sloop saw a dark form aft, but could not

ALBERT W. HICKS. 633

say whether it was one man or two men. He knew that some
person must have been on board, from the fact of her chang-
ing her course as I have described. On the morning of
Wednesday, the 21st of March, about six o’clock, the prisoner
came on shore at Staten Island, a little below Fort Richmond,
which is in the Narrows, opposite Fort Hamilton. He was
seen very soon afterward, coming on shore, by a Mr. Neil-
dinger, whom he addressed, inquiring if his boat would be
safe, designating where he had left her, to which Neildinger
replied it would be all right, and the prisoner drew it upon
shore, where it would be a little safer. The prisoner had with
him a large canvas bag, which he carried upon his shoulders.
After leaving Neildinger, he passed up Staten Island, en-
countering one or more persons, whom he addressed, and
came to Vanderbilt’s landing, arriving there shortly before
seven o’clock. He there inquired of the boat tender where
he could procure some breakfast, and was directed to a shop,
where he ate breakfast, and in payment offered to the boy
who served him a $10 piece, which the boy could not and did
not change, and he afterward gave him some silver. After-
ward, in conversation with Mr. Egbert, in charge of the sta-
tion there, he said he was a seafaring man; that he had been
on the vessel William Tell in the lower bay; had ‘had a col-
lision with another vessel; that the captain had been killed
against the mast, another person had been knocked overboard,
and he had merely time to escape from the vessel with the
money. He is described by that witness as being excited.
He took the ferry-boat Southfield, left there at seven 0’clock,
and came up to the city. On the way up he entered into con-
versation with Francis McCaffrey, a deck hand. He pro-
duced before him a bag of money, and asked him to count it.
It was a canvas bag, and contained $30 in silver and a large
quantity of gold. McCaffrey counted it, and the prisoner
took possession of it again, and during the passage up had
some more general conversation with him.

On the arrival of the Southfield. at the Battery, between
seven and eight o’clock, the prisoner, took some refreshment—
a cup of coffee, I think, and then hired a small boy to take

628 XIV. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

James J. Roosevelt,? U. S. District Attorney; Charles I.
Hunt and James F. Dwight,* Assist. Dist. Attys. for the
Prosecution.

Henry B. Graves and George W. Sayles for the Prisoner.

The following jurors were selected and sworn: Bernard McElroy,
Owen Foley, John Coulter, Geo. W. Jackson, Jas. C. Rhodes, Isaac
Jerome, Andrew Brady, Robert W. Allen, John Farrell, James N.
Fuller, John McCalvey, Benjamin Sherman.

MR. DWIGHT’S OPENING FOR THE PROSECUTION.

Mr. Dwight. You are empannelled, gentlemen of the jury,
to try the issue between the United States and the prisoner
at the bar, charged with robbery upon the high seas. Robbery
committed upon the high seas, or in any basin or bay within
the admiralty maritime jurisdiction of the United States, is
declared by the act of Congress passed in 1820 to be piracy,

and punishable with death. The indictment against the,

prisoner charges him in the first count with having on the
21st of March last, on the sloop Edwin A. Johnson, committed
the crime of robbery upon George H. Burr, master and com-
mander of that vessel, and with having feloniously and vio-
lently taken from him a watch, a large sum of money, and
some wearing apparel. Robbery is the felonious and forcible
taking the property of another from his person or in his pres-
ence against his will, by violence or by putting him in fear.

3 ROOSEVELT, JAMES JOHN (1795-1875). Born New York City; son
of Jacobus J., Jurist, Hardware Merchant; lived at No. 99 Maiden
Lane, later 45 Broadway, N. Y. Graduated Columbia Coll. 1815; ad-
mitted to Bar (1818); became partner of Peter Jay. Retired tem-
porarily from profession 1830; resumed practice 1831. Member
Legislature 1835-1839 and 1840. Member of Congress 1841-3. Jus-
tice State Supreme Court 1851-1859; resigned 1859. U. S. Dist.
Att. 1859-1860. Married May 30, 1831, in Paris, Cornelia Van Ness.
General Lafayette gave away the bride.

#Dwicnt, JAMES Fowrer (1830). Grad. Williams Coll. 1849.
Studied and practiced law in New York 1858-1860. Left legal prac-
tice 1861 and joined Union Army as See. Lieut. of Cavalry. Provost
Marshal Geneyal, Depart. Mo. 1863. Mustered out as Col. of Cavalry
1865 at New Orleans. Ap. Register in Bankruptcy N. Y. See “De-
scendants of Henry Dwight (1874) pp. 753-4,

ALBERT W. HICKS. _ 629

It is lareeny accompanied by violence. The punishment, as
you will perceive, for the offense committed upon the high
seas, is different from its punishment when committed upon
land. It is to protect more effectually and punish more
thoroughly offenses occurring upon vessels upon the high seas,
where the protection for person and property is not so great
as it can be on land, where individuals are so much sur-
rounded by the police regulations to protect them and their
property. In this case, the prosecution will show to you,
gentlemen, that on the morning of Wednesday, the 21st of
March last, there was found floating in the Lower Bay of
New York a deserted vessel. Her strange appearance at-
tracted the attention of several vessels in that vicinity—
among others the steam tug Ceres, which bore down to her,
and the captain of which boarded this vessel. On reaching
the deck there was presented a most unexpected and fearful
sight. A state of great confusion appeared. The bowsprit
of the vessel was broken off, and its rigging was trailing in
the water. The sails were down, and the boom of the vessel,
which had been set, was over the side of the vessel. There
was no human being found on the vessel, and no light. For-
ward of the mast appeared a large pool of blood, which had
run down to some cordage and sticks at the back of the mast,
and also down the side of the vessel into the sea. This was
just aft the forecastle hatch, on which, or near which was
found some hair—a lock of hair. Amidships, and totally dis-
connected with this appearance of blood on the foredeck, there
was another large patch of blood, showing signs as if a body
had lain there; this also ran down the side of the vessel. Still
further aft, just back of the small companionway, they found
traces of blood again, also disconnected with that in the
middle or forepart of the ship. Aft there appeared signs of
a bloody body having been dragged from the entrance to
the cabin. There was blood upon the rail and over the side,
and it seemed as if an endeavor had been made to wash it
off. On descending into the cabin, a state of still greater
confusion appeared there. The few articles of furniture
were disarranged. The companion-way steps were pulled


630 VIV. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

down and some of the sails which lay on the companion-way
were pulled out. The floor was wet and bloody, and bore
signs of having been covered in its entire extent with blood,
which had been washed off with water, probably brought in
the pail which was found there. Upon the handle of the
pail there was found some hairs, where the hand would
naturally hold it. These haits were of different color to
those found in the other parts of the vessel.

The appearance on the floor and the disposition of the
articles lying in the eabin, together with the two auger holes
found bored in the lower part of the cabin, where the floor
slanted down, showed that an endeavor had been made in
washing the floor of the cabin to let the water run down.
The auger with which these holes were bored was found
there, and also some little chips which had been bored out of
the floor. It seemed as if the attempt had been given up in
the cabin, and the vessel had been abandoned afterwards.
There was a small stove in the cabin and a pile of wood
under which the blood had run. On the wood was lying a
coffee-pot or a tea-pot with fresh tea leaves in it. The side
of the tea-pot was indented and covered with human hair,
which was likewise black like that found on the pail. There
was nothing further than this to direct suspicion, and the
vessel was taken in tow by the Ceres and brought up on the
morning of Wednesday, the 21st of March, to the slip at the
foot of Fulton Market. On the affair being noised about the
town, the sloop was visited by a large number of persons ;
among others by persons acquainted with the vessel and those
belonging upon her. It was found that this was the sloop
K. A. Johnson, owned at Islip, Long Island—a vessel be-
longing in this district, and commanded by George H. Burr,
who was also part owner. The sloop had been engaged in the
oyster trade in Virginia, and had recently come in, and had
on the 13th of March, a week previous, cleared from here to
go to Virginia for another cargo of oysters. The erew con-
sisted, when she cleared from here, on the 15th of March,
of Geo. H. Burr, master, two sailors—Oliver Watts and
Smith Watts—young men, brothers, residing at Islip, and

ALBERT W. HICKS. 631

the defendant, who, under the name of William Johnson,
had shipped as first mate. During the day a great number
of persons visited the vessel, and the daily press of the after-
noon and the following morning scattered broadcast all over
the city and its vicinity information concerning this affair.
The attention of the public finally addressed to this fact was
the cause of developing many slight circumstances, which
gradually formed themselves into a chain of circumstantial
proof directing the attention of the officers of justice to the
offender, and resulting in the arrest of this prisoner. It was
found that on Thursday, the 15th of March, the vessel sailed

from here, being chartered by one Daniel Simmons, an oyster .

merchant of this place, living at Keyport, and one Edward
Barnes, living at Keyport, to go to Virginia for a cargo of
oysters; that it went out for a cargo as I have described, and
that the captain had a large quantity of money in his posses-
sion to purchase oysters. The vessel went that week to Key-
port, lay there some time, and in the last part of the weck
ran to Coney Island, and lay in Gravesend bay, waiting for
a favorable tide and wind till Tuesday afternoon. During
the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday that the vessel lay there,
the captain, crew, and others went on shore at different times,
and one of the Watts boys had gone to Brooklyn on Monday
or Tuesday, and returned on Tuesday, and on his return the
vessel immediately proceeded to sea. The vessel had waited
with its sails up, if I remember correctly, for the arrival of
young Watts. He was taken off the beach in a yawl-boat
which was on board the vessel, and then she proceeded on her
Virginia voyage. It was watched by persons who belonged
to Coney Island, and also by two vessels lying at anchor at
the same time, some distance from Coney Island. This was
the close of the day—-Tuesday about six or seven o’clock, if I
remember rightly.. From that time until the next morning
only one thing is known of that vessel, and that by a connec-
tion of peculiar circumstances.

What was done upon that vessel during the night no mortal
man save the prisoner knows. Oliver Watts and Smith
Watts have never since that been seen in life, What became

634 XIV. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

his bag—a small canvas bag—filled with clothing and other
articles, up to his house; it was taken up to his house in
Cedar street, and left there. The prisoner lived at 129 Cedar
street, with his wife; the other occupants of the house were
Mr. and Mrs. Burke. They had various conversations with
him during the day. During the morning the prisoner went
out, and at the shop of Mr. James, on South street, exchanged
the most of the money which he had (about $150), part gold
and part silver, and received in exchange bills on the
Farmers’ and Citizens’ Bank of Williamsburg. He made
the remark to Mr. James at the time, that he came honestly
by the money. Through the day he packed up his clothing,
and in the afternoon, with his wife and child, took the Fall
River boat, running from here up the Sound, and went up
to Fall River, telling the carman who took his baggage, if
any inquiries were made for him, to throw the inquirers off
the scent. From Fall River he went to Providence. The

whole or most of these facts coming to the knowledge of the ™

officers of justice, two persons followed on his track, and very
soon traced him from Fall River to Providence, and after
some search were enabled to find him there. He was arrested
on Friday night, the 22d or 23d March. They traced him
to a small house in the outskirts of the city, and at one
o’elock midnight obtained an entrance into the house, where
they found him in a back room in bed. The windows and
doors of the house were closed, and the defendant was found
concealed under the clothes of the bed, with his head covered
up. The officers withdrew the clothes, and found the de-
fendant there in a profuse perspiration and feigning sleep.
He was awakened, or pretended to be awakened, by the
officers. They said that they wanted to see him on a charge
of passing counterfeit money on the hackman who had
brought him to the house; he arose, and was asked to point
out his baggage. He described two trunks, which they took
with them. There were found on him a watch and a quantity
of money—among the rest, about $120 in bills on the
Farmers’ and Citizens’ Bank of Williamsburg, correspond-
ing with those exchanged for him by Mr. James of this city.

ALBERT W. HICKS. 635

The clothes were returned to this city, and next morning the
prisoner was brought here and lodged in the Second District
station-house. On his arrival, he was told that the charge
of counterfeit money was a mere feint, and that that was
not the real charge against him; to which he very coolly re-
plied that ‘‘he supposed so,’’ or something to that effect. To
Mr. George Nevins and Mr. Elias Smith, the persons who
pursued and discovered him, he said he had no knowledge
whatever of the sloop E. A. Johnson; had never known her or
Captain Burr, and had not been on Staten Island for many
months. These statements he has maintained to the present
time, constantly refusing to give any account of himself in
connection with this vessel, or of anything which transpired °
on board of her after she left her anchor in Gravesend bay.
That denial, contrary to the truth, that he had ever known
Captain Burr, or ever been on the vessel E. A. Johnson, or
had been on Staten Island when he was charged with being
there, shows a full consciousness of the fatal effects of any
evidence tending to establish that fact if uncontradicted,
and in that contradiction he persisted. On being brought to
this city, he was confronted with various persons that he had
known before; with the man who earried his baggage; with
the deck hand of the Southfield, and with various persons
who saw him on the sloop Johnson; the watch found upon
him was, through the hand of Providence, identified as the
watch of Captain Burr, worn by him on the day of his
leaving this port. That watch the prisoner stated he had
had in his possesion for a long time; that he bought it from
his brother, and paid a certain sum of money for it; and to
the other articles, he claimed that they were his, and gave
various accounts concerning them.

On the Monday following his being brought here he was
examined before a United States magistrate, was indicted,
and is now brought before you for the offense of robbery on
the high seas. I have thus briefly gone over the various
circumstances of this case as they will be produced to you
by the evidence. I deemed it necessary to state to you the
line of evidence that is intended to be pursued by the prose-

644 XIV. AMERICAN

STATE TRIALS,

hankerchief was his, I hemmed
it myself.
May 24.

Catherine Dickenson (re-
called). Have had hair from
Oliver Watts in my possession;
it was in his daguerreotype
which I gave to some one in the
ttation-house; this daguerreo-
type and hair now handed to me
are the same; knew this to be
Oliver’s hair because I cut it off
myself.

The daguerreotype and hair
of Oliver Watts were submitted
to the jury to compare with the
hair found in the blood on the
deck of the sloop.

George Washburn. Took some
riggings from the J. R. Mathew

compared exactly with what
was still left on the bow of the
vessel; the schooner was said to
have come in collision with the
E. A. Johnson.

Mr. Hunt stated that the gov-
ernment had no further testi-
mony to offer with the excep-
tion of that of Captain Nicker-
son of the Mather which he
deemed highly important and
material. He thought that the
reading of the testimony of Mr.
Nickerson taken before’ the
Commissioner would be suffi-
cient, if assented to by the
other side.

Mr. Graves said they had not
been able to agree with the
counsel for the government as

and fitted it to the broken bow- to the evidence of Captain
sprit of the E. A. Johnson; it Nickerson.

May 25.

Mr. C. H. Hunt. We have to inform the Court that Capt. Nicker-
son, whose testimony we were anxious to obtain, has not arrived,
and we do not- suppose we shall have his testimony today. It is
proper I should state, also, that we have never regarded his testi-
mony as indispensable in any sense, for if we had we would not
have consented to proceed with the trial without his being present.
We have, however, regarded his testimony as very important, as
giving completeness to the chain of facts which we had it in our
power to present to the Court and jury; and in this view of the
case perhaps we were anxious that the testimony should not be sub-
mitted on the part of the government without that link in the
chain. We now feel that we have done all we could to procure this
testimony, in order to give the evidence such completeness as is in
our power, and we do not now feel like asking the Court for any
further delay in order to procure the testimony of Capt. Nickerson.5

THE SPEECHES TO THE JURY.

Mr. Sayles said they had no witness for the defense, and
then proceeded to address the Court and jury on behalf of

5 Captain Nickerson would have testified that the ill-fated sloop
had run into his sloop. the John B. Mathew, early on Wednesday
morning, at which time only one man was seen on board, and this
man was subsequently observed to lower the boat from the stern,
and leave the sloop. This collision took place just off Staten Island,
and was so severe as to render the John B. Mathew unfit for sea.

ALBERT W. HICKS. 645

the prisoner. He commenced by describing the sensation
created in this city by the intelligence of this transaction,
and that the public press had given a description of and
direeted the eye of the community to this one man. He
then suggested that this tragedy may have been perpetrated
by river thieves who have been driven to the lower bay by
the Harbor Police, and who, perhaps, committed a similar
one on another sloop on the same night. Counsel said, in
eases of admiralty this court had a limited and special juris-
diction, derived from the laws of Congress passed under the
Constitution of our country, which gives power to define and
punish felony and piracy on the high seas. This court, there-
fore, had so much power, and no more. It had no common
law jurisdiction. (He then cited several authorities.) He
claimed that a portion of that act of Congress was uncon-
stitutional; that Congress had no right to define and punish
felonies on the high seas; it has no power to take away the
rights of individual States to punish the erime for which
this man stands charged. It was committed beyond the juris-
diction of the court, and it had no power to punish for this
felony. He then read a reported case where an act of piracy
had been committed in Boston harbor, and in which it was
held that it should be tried in the courts of that State.

THE Court. This was not a question for the jury, but —

should have been on demurrer, or might be brought up on a
motion in arrest of judgment.

Mr. Sayles. The jury were the judges of the law and the
facts. _

THE Court. Not on questions of jurisdiction. Those ques-
tions are always for the Court—for its decision.

Mr. Sayles. ‘‘On the high seas’’ meant either in the har-
bor of some foreign country, or beyond any portion of a coast
where the sea ebbs and flows.

Tue Court. This was the opinion of English lawyers, but
did not apply to American laws.

Mr. Sayles said—We have adopted the English common
law. . |

TuE Court. Only to a limited extent.

Mr. Sayles cited from Chitty’s Criminal Law, ‘‘that the


648 XIV. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

there be no hesitation in your rendering in your jury box a
verdict against him. There cries from the sands of Islip,
‘“justice;’’? from that widow and from that mother. There
comes up from the depths of the Atlantic, ‘‘from all the ships
that float on it, and all that go down in the great deep’’—
there comes the ery of ‘‘justice.’’ The prisoner equally calls
upon you to do justice; and gentlemen, I ask you, in the
name of the government, if you believe him guilty of this
crime, which he committed speedily, summarily and devil-
ishly, that you will let your verdict be speedy, summary and

just.

THE JUDGE’S CHARGE, VERDICT AND SENTENCE.
May 26.

Jupce Smauuey told the jury that the case was clearly
within the jurisdiction of the court, the occurrence having

taken place in the harbor.

The Jury retired and after an absence of seven minutes *

returned with a verdict of Guilty.

Several days later a motion for a new trial was argued and denied
and sentence to death pronounced, the day fixed for the execution

being Friday, July 13 on Bedloe’s Island.

THE CONFESSION.

he continued for some time to deny his

er his conviction,
bee Marshal Angelis that he was

guilt but on June 13 he told Deputy

ready to confess the crime.
Accordingly an amanuensis wa

tated his story. He said he was

s procured and to him Hicks dic:
porn in Foster, R. I., on a farm,

that he had no taste for work and as a boy often stole things for
which he spent several terms in jail. He ran away from home,
worked a while in a shoe factory and then went to sea on a whale-
ship. On the voyage the crew mutinied, left the ship at Wahoo and
engaged in the robbery and murder of the natives. Captured and
imprisoned, after his release, he shipped on a Dutch vessel where
he led another mutiny and reached lower California where he be-
came a guerilla and freebooter and a frequent robber and mur-
derer. He then went to the gold mines where he ran a gambling
house, shipped again on another vessel and again became a muti-
neer and a pirate; came back to America, got on another ship
which he and his companions took from the officers and started on
new piracies, which lasted for several years. He then (about four

ALBERT W. HICKS. 649

years ago) returned to New York where he engaged in numerous
robberies at the docks and elsewhere. His last crime he describes
as follows:

“In New York, I was careful of doing much, and was all the
while on the lookout for some enterprise in my favorite field of
action—the sea. I kept a sharp lookout for all small craft outward
bound for cargoes of fruit, oysters, etc., and in a quiet way gathered
all the information I could in regard to the number of hands they
shipped, and the amount of money they generally carried. During
my searches I came across the sloop E. A. Johnson, Captain Burr,
and in making application was engaged on board of her.

I come now to the closing acts of my life, to the last scenes in my
wicked and bloody career. From my youth up I lived by crime.
I have steeled my heart against every good impulse. I have con-
sidered mankind my natural prey and have never hesitated to grat-
ify my appetites, passions, and desires, no matter how dear the
sacrifice paid by others for their gratification, and now society ~
which I have so long outraged claims the only recompense I can
make for all the wrongs I have committed; the law, which to me
has ever been a subject of scorn and derision, now exerts its ma-
jesty, and calls on me to pay the penalty due for breaking it; man-
kind, against whom I have so long waged a bloody and resistless
war, now clamors for my blood, in compensation for the innocent
blood I have so often shed. Justice at last asserts her sway, and a
dreadful punishment awaits me. But let me go on to the end.

The sloop E. A. Johnson offered an easy prey. She had on board,
I supposed, from all information I could gather, something over a
thousand dollars, and the entire crew consisted of but two boys and
myself. I had never known or seen Captain Burr before I shipped
with him. He had never done me injury or wrong, so that I had no
revenge to gratify, no grudge to pay. He seemed a kind and amia-
ble man, and would, I have no doubt. awakened kindly feelings in
any heart but mine, and even I liked him. Yet I engaged myself
to him solely, and only for the cruel purpose of taking his life,
the lives of the two young men, and making myself master of the
money I supposed he had on board.

I calculated to do this as calmly as you would contemplate doing
any of the usual duties in the ordinary transactions of life. I had
killed men, yes, and boys, too, many a time before, for far less
inducement than the sum I supposed I should gain by killing them;
and I had too often dyed my murderous hands in blood in days
gone by to feel the slightest compunctions or qualms of conscience
then. I never thought of the consequences of such a crime. The
fear of detection néver once crossed my mind. I had too often
done the same thing with impunity to believe that a day of reckon-
ing would ever come, in this world at least, and I never gave a
thought to the world to come.

After engaging with Captain Burr I went home to my wife at 129
Cedar street, and lying down on the bed, told her not to disturb me,
as I wanted to take a long sleep, and if any one came for me,

650 XIV. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

to say that I was not in. She left me alone, and I then deliberately
matured all my plans. I marked out the course I intended to pur-
sue exactly, and after I had decided upon everything, I went to
sleep and slept as soundly as ever I slept in my life, my mind was
so much at ease, and I felt so contented at the idea of having at last
an opportunity of making some money in an easy way. The next
day I went on board and commenced my duties, and in order to in-
gratiate myself into the good graces of the captain, I did even more
than could have been expected of me. We sailed on the sixteenth of
March from the foot of Spring street, and proceeded to Keyport,
where we remained till Sunday. While here, I scraped the mast of
the sloop, did a lot of carpenter work, and evidently pleased Captain
Burr very much by my earnestness in trying to make everything
look ship-shape. We arrived at Gravesend on Saturday afternoon,
and waited there for a fair wind. At last we put to sea, and when
we were off the Ocean House, I went to the forecastle, and got an
axe, which I put in the boat hanging to the davit aft. The younger
Watts was at the helm. and I asked him to allow me to steer a little
while. He consented, and went forward.

In a few minutes I left the helm, and taking the axe, went to him,
and asked him if he saw Barnegat Light. He said he did not. I
told him to look again, and pointed with my hand. He turned round

and looked in my face a moment, but even if he had suspected .

my cruel purpose, he would have read no indication of it there,
for I was as calm as though I were going to do the simplest and
most innocent thing in life. Had I been under human influences,
the confident and trusty way in which he turned his eyes to mine,
would have made me hesitate, but no such thought entered my
heart, and I pointed again and told him to “Look there; ain’t that
it?” He turned his head, and peered through the darkness in the
direction I pointed, and as he did so, I struck him on the back of
the head with the axe, and knocked him down. He fell! Thinking
I had not killed him, I struck him again with the axe as he lay
upon the deck.

His fall and the sound of the axe made some noise, which,
added to that caused by my running across the deck, attracted
the attention of the captain, who came up the companionway,
and putting out his head, asked what was the matter? I replied,
“nothing,” and then asked him, as I had the younger Watts, “is that
Barnegat light?” Captain Burr replied, “No, you will not see it for
two hours;” and as he spoke he turned his head from me. The axe
swung in the air, and, guided by my sinewy and murderous arm,
came down. The edge crunched through his neck, nearly severing
his head from his body, and killing him instantly. The body fell
down the companionway.

As I turned to leap after it, and dispatch my remaining victim, I
looked forward, and—Oh, God, how I shudder to think of it now!
—he whom I thought I had already killed had risen and was com-
ing aft, his hand outstretched toward me, and the blood running
in two dark streams over his pale face, from two ghastly wounds on

ALBERT W. HICKS. 651

his head. For a moment I stood undecided, but as he still came on,
I ran toward him, but ere I reached him he fell about midships, and
rushing on him, I struck once! twice! thrice! with the axe, and fin-
ished him. Running aft, I jumped down the companionway with
the bloody axe in my hand.

There lay the elder Watts in his berth, and close beside him the
ghastly, bloody corpse of the captain. I stood a moment looking
at him, and dashed at him and struck out with the axe. He leaped
out of his berth and sprang at me, all red with the blood of the
captain, whose body had fallen past him, covering him with gore in
its fall. He tried to grapple with me, but stepping back, I gave the
fatal axe a full swing, and struck him again, again, and again, once
upon the head, once on the back and once more upon the head,
which felled him to the floor, and he lay dead at my feet, side by
side with the captain.

My bloody work was done! Dead men tell no tales. I was alone.
No eye had seen me, and now I was free to reap the reward of my ~
work. I did not feel the slightest regret for what I had done, and
went about removing the bodies, as coolly as though they had been
so much old lumber. I took a rope and bent it on to the feet of the
elder Watts, hauled him on deck, and threw him over the quarter.
I then hauled the captain out in the same manner, and threw him
over; and then going to mid-ships, I lifted the body of the younger
Watts from the deck and plunged him into the sea by the starboard
side. I then threw the axe overboard, and soon as I had done this,
I changed the course of the sloop, and ran in close to the Hook. My
intention was to run the sloop up the North River, and then fire her,
but I came near running her on the Dog Beacon, abreast of Coney
Island and Staten Island lighthouse, after which I fouled with a
schooner, and carried away the bowsprit, so I put the money and
such other articles of value as I could pick up, into the yawl, and
then sculled ashore three miles, landing just below the fort on
Staten Island.

My movements after landing are well known; and when I
look back upon the fatality which seemed to dog my steps, it seems
as though the fiend, who so long had stood by me in every emerg-
ency, had deserted me at last, and had left me to my own weak-
ness. But I never thought of this until after my arrest. I had no
shadow of a presentiment that I should be checked so suddenly and
brought to justice, and on my return to New York, made arrange-
ments to go away with my family as coolly as if nothing had oc-
curred which should counsel me to use caution. But on that fatal
night when I awoke from a deep sleep to find the officers of the law
standing by my bed, for the first time fear overcame me, and I
grew faint and weak as a baby. Great drops of sweat started out
on my forehead and all over my body, and then I realized that at
last the master whom I had served so long had really deserted me
and abandoned me to my fate. But to all outward appearance I
choked these feelings down, and none who saw me dreamed of
what was passing within.


646 XIV. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

piracy must be distinctly proved to have been committed on
the high seas, or the defendant is entitled to an acquittal.’’
According to that law the admiralty had no jurisdiction
within the limits of any county or city. The counsel then
proceeded to appeal to the reason of the jury, and lay the
facts before them. It was a case of great importance, not
only to the federal government and to the community, but
also to the unfortunate prisoner at the bar, and he called
upon the jury to elevate their minds above outside prejudices.
A supposed tragedy had been committed in the lower bay,
and the government had undertaken to show, by cireumstan-
tial evidence, that this is the man who perpetrated it. Coun-
sel referred to the nature of circumstantial evidence, and
alluded to the recent ease in this court where some half dozen
witnesses swore positively to a man named Williams for post-
office robbery, and subsequently swore as positively against
another man, who was convicted.

Mr. Graves referred to the case of the two Bournes, (Am.
St. Tr.,) in Vermont, who confessed to the crime of murder,
but were afterward proved to be innocent. The evidence
against Hicks was entirely circumstantial, and of such a char-
acter as to render it very uncertain; but the most astonishing
thing about the prosecution was the charge that this one
man should kill these three men, powerful as they were, and
not reccive a single scratch. There must have been a terrible
struggle; blood was spattered over the ceiling, blood every-
where, but no blood on him, no mark of violence on his
person.

Mr. Hunt. The only questions of law upon which there
had been any dispute, were ruled upon by the Court, and I
have nothing further to say.

Mr. Dwight had hoped that there might have been some
chance of the innocence of the prisoner found in the course
of the trial. But he had been disappointed; nothing which
had been asserted by the witnesses for the prosecution had
been contradicted. No attempt had been made to break
any one link in the chain of the evidenee. The defense
would endeavor.to induce the jury to believe that Capt. Burr

ALBERT W. HICKS. 647

parted with his watch, which he had carried for nine years,
to a pawnbroker; that Smith Watts had parted with the
clothes which his aged mother had put up for him; that
Oliver Watts had parted with the daguerreotype of the girl
he loved. The time had not yet come when Yankee sailor
boys gave up the pictures of ‘‘the girls they left behind
them’’ without a struggle.

Mr. Dwight reviewed the whole case and the testimony,
giving a graphic description of that dread night when this
triple deed of blood was perpetrated, and concluded: Gen-
tlemen, I have occupied your time longer than I intended,
and I have but one word further to say. If this prisoner is
not proven guilty of the crime against him, he is of course
an innocent man. If there is in the breast of any of you one
doubt concerning his guilt—one reasonable doubt as to his
having committed this robbery of George H. Burr, as set
forth in the indictment, in God’s name give him the benefit
of that doubt. It is his sacred privilege, and it is just as
much his right as he has a right to his life or his liberty.
If you have any doubt upon considering the evidence, give
him the benefit of that doubt, or any which you may have.
But, gentlemen, if through the five days of this trial there
has crept into your minds a conviction that he is the man,
and if that conviction has been strengthened by the evidence
which has been adduced and placed before you—that no
other but he had committed this crime, then I say that his
conviction is the property of the government, and I charge
you to give it to the government. Here, in your seats, where
you have sat during these five days listening to the opening
and the testimony, and the closing upon the part of the
government—here, in your very seats, I charge you to give
the benefit of your conviction to the government, and I
charge you to do this in your jury box without any hesita-
tion. Gentlemen, there was no hesitation on his part; with
that sharp axe he cut down the fair-haired boy, Watts; and
then returned and felled the other: and then the death
struggle with the captain occurred. Gentlemen, there was no
hesitation there; and if you are convinced of his guilt, let

652 XIV. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

My task is done. I have related all the awful details of my life
with as much minuteness as I can, and now nothing is left me but
to prepare to die.

I ask no sympathy and expect none. I shall go to the gallows
cursed by all who know the causes which will bring me there, and
my only hope is that God will, in his infinite mercy, grant me that
spirit of true repentance which may lead to pardon and forgiveness
in the world to come.

THE EXECUTION.
July 13.

The scaffold which was sent from The Tombs to Bedloe’s
Island was erected upon a green sloping terrace on the
north east side, giving upon the East River and Brooklyn.

Last night about midnight after an hour spent with Father
Duranquet Hicks fell asleep and was awakened at four by
one of the keepers.

At nine Marshal Rynders, accompanied by Sheriff Kelly
and other city officials, entered the cell. Hicks was reclin-
ing on his bed at the time, and quietly arose as the officers
entered the apartment. The Marshal then read the death
warrant to the prisoner, and at its conclusion told the con-
demned to prepare himself for the approaching execution.
Hicks immediately proceeded to array himself in a suit of
blue cottonade, got up for the occasion. His coat was rather
faney, being ornamented with two rows of gilt navy buttons,
and a couple of anchors in needlework. A white shirt, a pair
of blue pants, a pair of light pumps, and the old Kossuth hat
he wore when he was arrested, completed the attire. Hicks
was exceedingly cool while engaged in arraying himself in
this fancy suit, and unconcerned about his approaching doom.
Questioned as to how he felt regarding the future world, he
replied, as if fearing to express any hope, ‘‘that is a matter I
would rather leave to him,’’ referring to Father Duranquet,
who sat at his side. ‘‘I am resigned,’’ he said. ‘‘The Mar-
shal has treated me very kindly: I will not say anything on
the island.’’

At 9:30 the culprit marched out of prison attended by
Father Duranquet, Marshal Rynders, Deputy Marshal
Thompson and Sheriff Kelly, and took his seat in the first

ALBERT W. HICKS. 653

carriage. The second carriage was filled with deputy sher-
iffs, and the third and fourth ones by the police and repre-
sentatives of the press.

The journey from the Tombs to the pier at the foot of
Canal St. occupied but a few minutes. The steamboat Red
Jacket had been chartered by the United States authorities
for the occasion. On it was already assembled a crowd of
more than 1500. On the lower deck was a refreshment
saloon and bar room; the day was warm and beer proved an
excellent and cooling beverage. With considerable pushing
and squeezing, the officers managed to convey their prisoner
to the saloon in the after part of the boat, where he was free
for a time from the gaze of the rabble. Hicks seated himself
on a settee near the cabin window, and burying his face in
his hands, apparently became engaged in deep meditation.
Having expressed a desire to be left alone with the priest °
for a few moments, the officers and representatives of the
press retired from the apartment, and proceeded to the saloon
above. During all this time Hicks maintained his usual self-

possession. He told Marshal Rynders that he wanted every-

thing to be done as quickly as possible; that he did not intend
to make any remarks on the scaffold. Subsequently he came
from the eabin and looked from the windows on the river,
evincing no show of feeling. :

Steamboats, barges, oyster sloops, yachts and row-boats,
swarmed everywhere in view of the gallows. They had come
from all parts. From Connecticut, where the murdered cap-
tain and the brothers Watts belonged; from Long Island,
where they were well known. Large steamers, such as carry
hundreds of people away on pleasure excursions, were there,
so laden with a living freight of curious people, that it seemed
almost a wonder that they did not sink. There were barges
there with awnings spread, under which those who were
thirsty imbibed lager-beer. There were row-boats, with fe-
males of some sort, in them, shielding their complexion from
the sun with their parasols, while from beneath the fringes
and the tassels they viewed the dying agonies of the choking
murderer. But most conspicuous of all, and most regarded,

654 XIV. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

was the sloop E. A. Johnson, on which the murders were com-
mitted. Newly painted, she stood well into shore, her stern
not three hundred feet from the gallows, with a huge burgee
flying from her top-mast head, on which her name was
painted in large red letters. Her deck was crowded, her
masts and spars were alive with human beings. '

The small boats on the water crowded with men and boys
covered several acres; the steamboats with their spectators
crowding to the island side seemed to sink to the water’s
edge, the masts of all the vessels were black with sailors.

As the boat neared the pier, Marshal Rynders impressed
upon the crowd the necessity of preserving order and obeying
the instructions of his officers. The police, he stated, were
to go ashore first and take up their position at the scaffold,
and then the crowd were to follow four abreast. Finally, all
being in readiness, the procession started from the boat in the
following order: The culprit, supported on either side by
Father Duranquet and Deputy Sheriff Isaacs, Marshal Ryn-
ders, Deputy Marshal Thompson and Sheriff Kelly, Deputy
Marshals De- Angelis, O’Keefe, Theodore Rynders, Thomp-
son, Donnell, Wilson, Dugan, Clackner. The physician’s staff
consisting of Doctors Woodward, Thompson Weltje, Bell,
Phelps, Barry, Kennedy and Church. The representatives
of the press, numbering about fifty. Deputy sheriffs, city
officials, and spectators. Police.

As the procession passed to the pier, Major John B. Hall,
who had charge of the military arrangements, advanced with
a platoon of marines, and forming a line on each side of the
pier, allowed the procession to pass up to the shore. Here the
cortege was flanked on each side by troops which had been
sent from Fort Hamilton and Governor’s Island for the
purpose; and as the end of the procession passed over the
side of the boat the military closed in behind and formed a
hollow square all the way up to the foot of the scaffold.

The procession reached the foot of the scaffold at ten
minutes past eleven o’clock. The culprit immediately knelt
on the grass, and for a moment or two was engaged in prayer.
He then rose slowly, and, facing the fleet of vessels which

ALBERT W. HICKS. 655

were anchored within a few feet of the shore, gazed intently
on the vast throng. While thus engaged in surveying the
exciting scene, his eye caught the burgee of the identical
oyster-sloop E. A. Johnson. He gazed at the flag for a
moment, as if in recognition, and then, lowering his eyes,
looked long and earnestly upon the vessel and its crew. The
sight did not seem to shake him in the least, however, for he
remained firm and indifferent to the very last. At length
the fatal moment arrived, the executioner is observed to
place the rope around the culprit’s neck, the black cap is
drawn over the unfortunate wretch’s face, the Marshal takes
his position beside the criminal, sword in hand, the fatal sig-
nal, the waving of a handkerchief, is given, the axe descends,
and the next moment the body of the pirate is seen dangling
between earth and heaven.

For the first three minutes the culprit struggled severely, °
but after that he appeared to suffer little or no pain, and
died comparatively an easy death. At eighteen minutes past
eleven his limbs began to relax, and the absence of any muscu-
lar contraction denoted that the executioner’s work was well-
nigh over.

A moment afteward there was a short convulsive twitch of
the shoulders, all was still, and the body becomes perfectly
motionless, except when moved to and fro by the wind.

Eleven minutes after the rope had been cut, the body was
lowered and the doctors pronounced life to be extinct. It
was deemed advisable to let the body remain suspended for
some time longer; so the corpse was raised again to its
original position, and allowed to remain there until a quarter
to twelve.

Hicks made no speech on the gallows. His only words
were ‘‘Hang me quick: make haste.’’

The body was lowered and placed in a coffin and landed at
the Custom House dock. His widow through some mistake
waited for it at another place accompanied by a priest, so
it was interred in Calvary Cemetery, without her knowledge.

Before the body was taken down, most of the excursion
boats had started home.

656 XIV. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

——,

The collection of smal] boats also began soon to break up,
and immediately after the body was removed, the sails were
unfurled, the rowers took their oars and the fleet quietly
dispersed. The Red Jacket, with the policemen and the
same crowd of passengers it brought up, was one of the last
to leave.

The Red Jacket made a short excursion up the river as
far as Spring St., and returning, down stream, landed her
passengers at Pier No, 1,


DETECTIVE MAGAZI)

NIZ Street where Paula Menezes.
= had operated a rooming house ~~
was in the heart of East Lisbon with
its maze of narrow winding lanes,
damp, dark iuls-de-sac, steep twist-
ing flights of steps, strange arches, an-
cient overhanging houses with balco- —
nies and old terraces. Streets so nar- —

Ia Lae et bee i Fe a

"You don't think | killed
~=my_own wife do you? I
= loved. Pauia.”. Terror and
anguish overcame the be-
3 = : wien ee : d man as he spoke. =
“One look at the exotic Senhore yee 2 reave
: allanyone needed . ee : sy :

ing house was dark and

“The rooming

— its boarders consisting of
office workers, and a num-~

ber of individuals whose modus vi-

band. ts

- Going through a number of pho-

~ tographs of the deceased he asked,
“How long have you been married?”
“It would have been six years this
fall,” Menezes replied in a low voice,
rn : senlaaabes?

at
1H

Test tubes, microscopes .and
“ultra violet rays in the
skilled, deft hands of
- keen-eyed, sharp-witted
police laboratory workers
xamining the corpse. : 4 ; 5 Sa ore blended masterfully with
Lote gr Nigpes Pierre as Po = “5 oe the quick action, crack
comed | Y ; “Sees deduction and brilliant
‘ pee &. a ‘ maneuvering of Lisbon’s
; with her cldthes.” For a few a Roe a : homicide squad to select
ne Tepenehily satafiod with the esult: he 3 aS oe ¥ yi % one man from a city of
Sseeed thet Echo to. Sergei : oe i Lae / 3 teeming masses — one
man whose name was
“KILLERE”

= : _— SPECIAL DETECTIVE

wnat shat ‘dualashs

T=ET-2 (Tetepey) AYTD yaox mon pesuey feqgtum ‘queqty ‘syoIH

|
‘

m
(Padenh
LL eager wh

Qliver, Watts was™one of the victims of the
murderous, shanghaied sailor who with slashing
*ax seized a’ship single-handed.

‘ YIOLENT death stalked the New
York waterfront during the decade
preceding the Civil War and the
one immediately following it. Countless
men, good and bad, died by the knife,
the gun and the vicious sock of the slug-
shot, or were made victims of unscrup-
ulous crimps, doped and shanghaied afar.
In the end the majority of those who
were bad and who still lived, wound up
behind the bars of a dreary cell in the
city’s Tombs, America’s most famous
prison, now doomed and soon to be
replaced by a modern, towering combi-
nation court-and-jail building. Some
lived but a short time longer, for the
shadow of the gibbet in the yard of the
mausoleuni-like prison was upon them.
Others endured the living death of long
jail sentences.

No other period of its notorious history
saw the Tombs housing such an aggrega-
tion of cutthroat males and butchering
Amazons as this one,

There Albert E. Hicks waited his end
for his fiendish slaughter of three at sea.

There Nicholas Saul and William How-


April. I didn’t come on

twenty-one
could find no
at Eureka, a little
of the Hot Creek moun’
miles from the Frenchman’

‘et was working the night shift in

- o'clock,” s
_. because we
_ they all aie it. I

and the waitress

- tion you had given me fits McKinney

ed.

to ask the officer to look up Joe and later Floyd McKinney
trapped.
During

lice wired that

on.a bad check charge.
When he reached his office, he was
surprised to find the Lunning chief
of police waiting for him.

“Did McKinney have any-idea who--

i i be?” the -sheriff this lead, the sheriff
was presently living in

‘a family man with six

fornia.
this information. They

too bad.”
“But I have found that the descrip-

like a glove. He’s thirty-four years
old, six feet three inches tall, weighs
202 pounds, blue eyes, brown hair,

Vannoy discovered

mistake
he had gathered? Could McKinney on this angle.

prove he had come by the Ford in-
nocently?

All the sheriff's wisdom argued that
the big man who had di of the
maroon Ford in Reno was the slayer.
But if he was McKinney, why had he
used his right name? Why had he
signed his name to the bill of sale?

‘McKinney's been in trouble be-
fore,” the Lunning officer continued.
“Pm sure they had him in Reno ona

Jet-up.

“the nerve.” - Se : the interim, w
3 Ge ee Vannoy delved into McKinne

‘o Fallon.
seen in

Vannoy learned that Mi

ity +0
learned
the fugitive killer had visited his wife
on June 15th, and that when he left,
he had told her he had intended
seek work in the lettuce fields near
Salinas.

Police officials in Bishop
to cooperate and placed the
home under surveillance.

The weeks dragged by.

that the fugitive
- had failed to report to his board.
The FBI was contacted for a check

of McKinney as
: ‘ clothes who had
= -,.~ been traveling with the lieutenant and

“= his wife. Thus, the mystery . was

help but Sheriff Vannoy dispatched follow-
up bulletins om the murder to every

peace officer in the West. Sooner or
i would be

hen ‘Sheriff
y's past,

da. Fran po-

McKinney had worked - Clark J. Guild in-Fallon on August
in a shipyard there. Winnemucca,
Nevada, police wanted the fugitive

-wife had at one time been a waitress
in a Fallon restaurant, and, following -
learned —

Sheriff Vannoy and Supt. Heap
visited the California ¢ check

promised
McKinney

Sheriff

Gradually, the excitement created
by the double tragedy quieted down
and the citizens of Fallon went about
their business. But at headquarters
in Courthouse Square there was no

The hunt for the fugitive killer con-
tinued. Late in the afternoon of Fri-
day, July 30, 1943, W. M. Pearce, 2
i standing in

othe highway. The driver gave
e. He admitted
“he was Floyd McKinney. The long

“: turned to Churchill County, the Cal- ss

that

“As Pi wi
small sedan

out om a side road and : “ yok
agricultural quarantine stop. It wasa - ‘ ES . 2
deliberate action and aro suspi- a i ee
cion. Somebody was trying to avoid : :
inspection. Pearce cut swiftly across -
the ’adjacent field, intent upon secur-_~
ing the license number of the car as ©
it passed. But when he espied the
driver, he understood the reason for
the dodge. Pearce recognized the man
at the wheel as Floyd McKinney! He
the wanted man casually
in the past, and he knew that the

i wanted for mur-—

ae

~ gave her own skin to be grafted on

ut

safely. An appeal was.

general public, When word of this

reached the prison, twenty-five con-
id,

—
ere,” told
2S gone, ae

cident in the years that followed. It
was all part of the debt he was pay”

for the life he took years before.
oni

that

- manhunt was at an end.
Before the wanted killer was re-

ifornia officers charged him with

During the long and intensive inter-
rogation by Sheriff Vannoy and Dis-
trict Attorney Winters, McKinney
denied the double murder, but he
could not explain his possession of the
maroon Ford, nor could he say why
he was traveling with the Fishers.

USTICE moved fast for the double
killer. He stood trial before Judge

i
i
eB
i
E

i
|
Ba
hat
E
:
:

30, 1943. Attorney General Alan Bible

el
é

came from Carson City to assist Dis-
trict Attorney Winters in the prose-__- : doctors decided that a skin- that ever ha to me .
to” have been of service,

~ cution.
- Three days after the trial opened,
McKinney took the stand and denied
He claimed he. had sold

od
“f

m
ld’s lawyer pointed

het ke d The Sta of Pennsyl.
lo so. te of Pi -
ia had decided Caul-

vania
field’s debt was paid <=. . and so was
Judy Rosen’s. Oe ete

S

was on the boat, and he’s living in
New York now on Cedar Street.”

Nevada to Frenchman’s Station.

_ On the afternoon of September 2nd,
McKinney’s fate was placed -in the
hands of the jury. Two hours and
seventeen minutes later, court was
reconvened, and the clerk of the court
received the sealed envelope from the
foreman of the jury.

In the hushed silence of the court-
room, the clerk tore open the ed
envelope and read the verdict. Mc-
Kinney was found guilty of murder
in the first degree and sentenced to
die in Nevada’s gas chamber at Car-
son City.

A last minute plea to the State
Board of Pardons and Paroles had
been in vain,
1943, Floyd McKinney was sealed in

Johnson was the_murderer and had
made his escape from the death ship-
in the cutter.

‘In less than a week the Wanted man
wag arrested in Providence, then
brought back to New York where he
was lodged in the Tombs: “I swear
that I'm not Johnson,” the prisoner
declared volubly “My name is Hicks.
I never heard of Captain Burr and I

Seaman William Johnson
youths, Smith Watts, and his Brother.
Oliver.

For months detectives were unable
to understand what had happened on
the oyster smack. Newspapers sug-
gested piracy and mutiny. was never on any boat.” However,

a watch identified as Captain Burr’s
and some belongings of the other
seamen were found in the accused
man’s coat pocket. What was more,
witnesses appeared who swore that
Hicks had often assumed the name of

As time went on it seemed that
the tragedy would remain an ever-
lasting mystery. But one day John
Burke and a friend, Andrew Kelly,
visited Police Captain Weed, who was
in charge of the case.

the eae cee Sie seconds
ms he acid beneath his ci phy- “Why don’t you ask Will Johnson Johnson and that he had recently
sicians Pp’ killer dead. what heopened?” they asked. He been spending huge sums of money in

> SPECIAL-DETECTIVE

- crimes.

spite of the fact that he had never
been known to have had a well-pay-
ing job. Officials were satisfied that
Hicks had killed the captain and
others in order to obtain money.
Hicks was intlicted for murder but

he laughed at the authorities. “You'll -

never hang me,” he sneered. “How
can you find me guilty of killing any-
one? Where are the bodies?”

Hicks was hanged on Bedloes
Island, New York. A few moments
before he died he confessed his brutal
“Now I die in peace.” he
shouted as he plunged into eternity.

‘ : 39

A SUES 3 me wren


\
ft } lett, leaders of the Daybreak Boys mob of river thugs, and with
pment : more than one murder on their consciences, died on the gibbet at
.d then | the ages of 20 and 19, respectively.
of the In the same prison yard Capt. Nathaniel Gordon was hanged.
tepped There is historical importance to his execution that few such
door. events possess. He was the only man ever tried for the offense
of slaving in the United States who died on the gallows.
i\ There John Allen, who studied for the ministry, but who left
the path of God for the paths of wickedness, and advertised him-
Sa self on his business cards as “‘the wickedest man in New York,”
paced a jail cell awaiting trial. His offenses were many and
iss jars j serious, but it was a petty $15 lush job on a drunken sailor that
ked up } finally landed him in the Tombs.
below, And there, also, were incarcerated the two most notorious female
Sheriff bruisers ever known to the New York police: “Sadie the Goat,”
renin and “Gallus Mag,” a giant of a woman well over six feet, who bit
-author, off the ears of her victims and kept them as trophies in a Jar
Jones. of alcohol. :

These are just a few of the unsavory aggregation the Tombs
of the period sheltered.

It was an era of evil in New York. Water street, paralleling
the East river, was the scene of more violent crimes than any
other thoroughfare in the United States. Virtually every house
contained a saloon, dance hall or brothel, and many all three.

In these smoke-filled dives, murderous river pirates who plagued
ships and wharves all the way around the Battery and up the
Hudson, hatched their sinister plots, and shifty-
eyed junkmen haggled over the price for fencing
the loot of nocturnal thievery. :

New York had no harbor police in those days,
and the river thugs carried on their nefarious
operations with a brazenness unequaled in the
history of crime. In a report to the mayor in
September, 1850, Supt. of Police George
Matzell estimated there were between 400 and 500
river pirates. in the old Fourth Ward alone,

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organized into some 50 active gangs.

Cherry street, where George Wash-
ington lived when president, had become
in this period the runner-up to Water
street in wickedness. In its dreary
dwellings crimps thrived and murder
and robbery occurred. Many a hovel
passing as a rooming house had a trap-
door through which the bodies of victims
were dumped into underground passages
and then carted to the docks. Police
figured that 15,000 sailors were robbed
there of some $2,000,000 annually, but
authorities would not hazard a guess as
to the number who were killed or shang-
haied. Their estiniate might have been
too modest.

T WAS along this street of sin that

New York’s first Jack-the-Ripper
murder occurred, when an old hag,
known as “Shakespeare,” was slashed
to pieces while she slept, booze soddened.

This character claimed descent from
the bard of Avon, and insisted as well that
she was once a celebrated English actréss.
All that the tough neighborhood knew
was that in. return for a slug or two of
gin, she would recite any desired female
role from Hamlet, Wacbeth or the Mer-
chant of Venice, and that the more the
liquor whirled her brain the more dra-
matic were her portrayals,

A half-witted bar fly, called Frenchy,
was seized by the police, charged with
the gory crime, and pitched intc the grim
confines of the Tombs to await trial.

He loudly protested his innocence, and
set up a cry that he had been framed.
There was widespread belief throughout
the city too, that he had been, and that
the bloody slashing of old Shakespeare
was the handiwork of none other than
the original Jack-the-Ripper who was
then operating in London.

Considerable jealousy existed at the
time between the New York and London
police. Chief Byrnes of the former had
publicly proclaimed that the Ripper
would have been speedily caught had his
crimes been committed in New York. In

ct. Byrnes went so far as to defy the
t ‘lish killer to come over and try his
kn wielding in Manhattan.

It w - shortly after the challenge was
issued that old Shakespeare’s body was
found ripped and blood-drenched in a
shoddy rooming house on Cherry street.
Many expert investigators of the period
held to the theory that Jack-the-Ripper,
who was a sailor, had accepted the chal-
lenge and come to America, and that the
police had arrested Frenchy to save face.

Whether true or not, the half-wit
missed the gibbet in the Tombs’ yard.
He languished there in a cell for several
months and then was given his freedom.
There was not enough evidence to bring
him to trial.

Another character of the infamous
period was Albert E. Hicks, lone-wolf
gangster from Cedar street, who was
known to the underworld as Hicksy.
Shanghaied aboard the oyster sloop
E. A. Johnson from the dive of a Cherry
street crimp, he plotted and carried out
his own revenge.

26

Hicks was known to the Fourth Ward.
but the fact did not Prevent a Cherry
street crimp from dosing Hicksy’s night-
cap of rum with laudanum and Jater
bashing him over the head with a slug-
shot, when, on March 16, 1860, after a
night of boozing he reeled into a water
street dive in search of a bed in which
to sleep off his drunk.

When he came to he was aboard the
E. A, Johnson, under command of short,
thick-set Capt. Burr, bound for Deep
Creek, Va., and a load of oysters. Hicks
had been shanghaied and shipped as a
member of the crew under the name of
William Johnson, The other members
of the crew were two brothers, Smith
and Oliver Watts, 3

That night the devil took possession
of Hicks, as he himself later expressed it
when he recited the gory details of the
slaughter at sea, :

He was at the wheel of the sloop, with
Capt. Burr and Smith Watts asleep in
the cabin below, and the other Watts boy
on lookout in the bow, Seeing an oppor-
tunity, Hicks lashed the wheel, snatched
up an iron bar, and crept stealthily for-
ward. He was almost upon Oliver Watts,
with the bar upraised to strike, when the
boy heard him and turned,

Hicks sprang and Watts screamed
once. Then the bar smashed against his
skull. His knees buckled and he crumpled
to the deck. But his cry had awakened
his brother, Smith. He jumped out of
bed and rushed up the companfonway to
find out what was the matter,

He never learned. As he emerged
Hicks struck him down with an ax, de-
capitating him and flooding the deck
with blood. :

Crazed with homicidal fury, Hicks
then went below after Capt. Burr. In
the,cabin, with the eerie light of a swing-
ing‘ lantern the only illumination, a vici-
ous fight ensued,

Hicks leaped, swinging the blood-
drenched ax, but the skipper rolled with
the blow and tumbled from his bunk to
the floor in time to save his neck. He
seized the killer’s legs and toppled him,
striving desperately to get strong hands
on Hicks’ throat. All the time the assas-
sin was maneuvering frantically to bring
his ax into play again.

Burr was the heavier of the two and
was getting the better of the struggle
when Hicks suddenly wrenched himself
loose, and kicked out savagely. His feet
caught the skipper in the stomach, and
he sprawled back against the red-hot
cabin stove.

It was an opening for Hicks.’ With
an oath, he swept in. The ax split the
air and then half of Burr’s skull. He
was dead in an instant.

Back on deck again, Hicks found
Oliver Watts struggling dazedly to his
feet, ahd struck him down a second time.

. Then he carried the body to the deck and

hoisted it to the rail. He was about to
drop it overboard when the boy regained
consciousness, grabbed wildly for the rail
and caught hold,

But there was no mercy in Albert
Hicks’ heart. Coolly and cruelly, he
raised his murderous ax. When he

Albert E. Hicks, notorious bruiser of old
New York, exacted a horrible revenge
after he was shanghaied aboard a sloop.

brought it down its keen blade severed
the thumb and fingers of Watts’ hand
and he dropped into the sea.

The lifeless body of his brother and
that of Capt. Burr followed him. Then
Hicks rifled the skipper’s money bags and
headed the sloop toward shore, Off
Staten Island, he took to the yawl and
made his escape from the scene of the
slaughter,

FOUR days later, toward dusk of
March 21, the sloop, her bowsprit and
cutwater badly damaged, apparently from
a collision with another vessel, and her
sails loose upon her deck, was sighted
and boarded by sailors from the schooner
Telegraph, out of New London.

They found a horrible and ghastly
Spectacle aboard. The floor, ceiling,
benches and furniture of the cabin were
stained with blood, as well as the cloth-
ing, bedding and papers scattered over
the floor, Along the companionway and
across the deck to the rail were the vivid
marks of gore, showing where Hicks
had dragged the lifeless bodies of two
of his victims.

The ill-fated E. 4. Johnson was towed
into the Fulton Market whart by the
steam tug Ceres, and the following day
the police had a clue to the one who had
committed the ghastly crime.

Andrew Kelly and John Burke, two
roomers in the Cedar street house, where
Hicks lived with his wife and small
daughter, reported to Capt. Weed that
24 hours before, Hicks had returned with
a large sum of money and evasive replies
as to where he had obtained it. That

DARING

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DETECTY)

he brawls,
were once
iterfront.

the new suit was shoddy
and not nearly as good as
the old one he had given
up for the morbidly curious
to pay 25 cents each to see.

The execution of the
pirate was a gala occasion,
and New York took to it
with a holiday spirit.
Deputy United States Mar-
shal Rynders, in whose

Gilded and gas-lit pleasure spots in old New York became the breeding place of vice and
crime that kept the cells of the Tombs filled with brazen Amazons and sullen thugs.

,.stody Hicks was placed as soon as he emerged from the

\grim prison walls, wore the sword of his office and plug hat

jand frock coat. The sheriff and his deputies were likewise

jdressed in formal attire. A fife and drum corps escorted: the

condemned man from the Tombs to the foot of Canal street,

“here the steamer Yellow Jacket was boarded for the trip
n the river to death.

h which to please
- crime a drawing
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icks called for the
- the object of the
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» to pay Hicks $25
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DARING A

ore than 1,500 persons crowded aboard the Yellow Jacket
the junket, while other excursion boats gaily decorated
flags and bunting and packed to the rails, anchored off
sland in full view of the scaffold where the grim spectacle
to be enacted. On Bedloe Island, where more than
0 spectators gathered, hawkers did a land office business
g candy, pop and hot corn. ;
was 11 o’clock when the Yellow Jacket reached the island,
Deputy Marshal Rynders led his prisoner down the gang-
between two lines of United States Marines, under
and of Capt. John B. Hamilton. Beyond the pier a
iment of United States Infantry from Fort Hamilton
‘d to escort the doomed slayer to the scene of his
tion.
in reaching the scaffold the soldiers formed themselves in
pw square around it. At 11:30 o’clock Hicks, his lips
x in prayer and his hands crossed on his breast, mounted
| gallows. Fifteen minutes later the trap was sprung.
jree minutes he struggled crazily and then went limp.
r allowed his body to dangle for another half hour and

TIVE

then cut it down. Back to the Yellow Jacket it was carried, and
on to New York.

Late that afternoon Hicks was buried in Calvary cemetery
but the dirt had scarcely settled on the coffin than the grave
was robbed by ghouls. The corpse was sold to medical students
to the College of Physicians and Surgeons. It was probably
the only time Hicksy contributed anything to mankind.

Hicks was a free lance, but not so Saul and Howlett, who
joined the Daybreak Boys when they were 16 and 15 vears of
age, respectively, and had the blood of murder on their hands
and the leadership of the mob before they were 12 months
older.

The gang, which had its rendezvous in the low gin-mill of
Pete Williams at Slaughter House Point, as the police called
intersection of James and Water streets, was one of the first
organized mobs to go in for river thievery. They won their
name from the fact they usually ventured forth on their most
hazardous undertakings just at daybreak. Hardly a day passed
when the rising sun did not find them stalking the waterfront
or out among the river boats.

They were a hardened lot, Slobbery Jim, Sow Madden, Cow-
legged Sam McCarthy, Patsy the Barber and others. Each
had at least one murder to his credit but they walked the
chalk line for the youngsters, Saul and Howlett.

Under these two, who were always ready to scuttle a ship,
crack a watchman’s head or murder for the sheer joy of it,
the Daybreak Boys terrorized the East river and occasionally
carried their plundering down the bay and up the Hudson.

In the two years they ruled with a ruthless hand, the police
estimated the gang accounted for $100,000 worth of stolen loot
and a score of murders. Both figures are probably conservative
for rarely a week passed in those days when one or more dead
men were not found floating in the river or stretched out on
some lonely dock. But there was never any evidence to point
to the murderer.

And then, on Aug. 25, 1852, a detective passing Pete Williams’
saloon saw Saul, Howlett and Bill Johnson, a lesser and none-

[Continued on page 56]

29


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too-daring member of the mob, with their
heads together in earnest conversation.
He thought they were plotting a crime
and when he saw that Johnson was drink-
ing heavily he was positive of it. He
knew it was something the mobster in-
variably did when there was plundering
to be done. He needed artificial stimula-
tion to perk up his courage.

An hour later when the detective again
passed the gin-mill the trio were gone.
But he did not forget what he had seen.

It was just about the same time that.a
boat, with greased oar locks, was easing
out into the East river toward the brig
William Watson, anchored between Oliver
street and James street slip. It contained
three mobsters but Johnson was to be of
no value in the plundering ahead. He
was dead drunk in the bottom of the skiff.

They made fast to the William Watson,
and Saul and Howlett clambered aboard
and made for the ship’s cabin. Their plan

was to seize the captain’s sea chest, bring .

it on deck and drop it into their rowboat.

As they were tugging at the chest,
Charles Baxter, the watchman aboard,
burst in upon them. He was unarmed
but the fact did not deter him. He sailed
into the two mobsters, his fists clenched,
his arms flailing. They could have knocked
him unconscious easily, with a club or a
slug-shot, but one of them lost his head.

A single shot broke the stillness of the
night and echoed out across the dark
waters of the East river. Baxter pitched
forward on his face, a bullet through his
heart.

On the Oliver street dock a policeman
heard the shot, for the William Watson was
anchored close in toward shore. His eyes
immediately sought the river. For a time
he saw nothing, and then a rowboat with
three shadowy figures loomed out of the
fog which had now settled over the water.
Hiding behind a bulkhead, he saw the trio
land, recognized Saul and Howlett, and
saw them half-carry the drunken John-
son off to Pete Williams’ saloon.

Several hours later Baxter’s lifeless
body was discovered aboard the brig, and
the authorities for the first time had
something tangible to go on, They knew
what the detective and the policeman had
seen, and that was enough. A squad
swooped down.on the Slaughterhouse
Point dive and after a fight with a score
of thugs, Saul, Howlett and Johnson were
arrested. The latter turned state’s evi-
dence, and when he did the jig was up for
the two youthful, murderous leaders of
the Daybreak Boys. ’

They were sentenced to be hanged Jan.
28, 1853 in the courtyard of the Tombs.

It was during this period that the dis-
covery of gold in California caused many
a man to throw up his job in the East and
hurry overland in search of the precious
yellow metal. Among them was_ the
hangman of the Tombs. His going left

Sheriff O’Brien in a spot, for in the con-,

demned cell of the Tombs was a Port au
Prince negro and others awaiting execu-
tion, and the sheriff's hand was the death
warrant, duly signed, and commanding
“You, the sheriff of said city and county
of New York, to take him, the said culprit,
to the place of execution, and between the
hours of 10 a. m. and 2 p. m,, hang him, the
said culprit, by the neck until he is dead.”

Those were the orders, but the sheriff
had no heart for doing the job himself and
all of his deputies refused to act as hang-

wy Aye

Tales of the Tombs

[Continued from page 29]

man. Only two courses, it seemed, were
open to O’Brien, either do it himself or
resign.

It wag a decision which had to be made
but the: sheriff could not make it in a
hurry. He repaired to Matt Gordonson’s
saloon on Chatham street, opposite City
Hall, ordered a hot Scotch and thought
the matter over.

He was in the midst of his deliberations
when a voice roused him. He looked up
and saw a short, ruddy-complexioned
young fellow in his early thirties standing
beside him.

“Sheriff,” he said, “I hear you're looking
for a chap to do a little job next Friday.

O’Brien nodded...

“How d’ye think I'll do?” the stranger
asked.

The sheriff thought he was fooling, but
nevertheless he answered, “I'll give you a
chance,”

“T’'ll do my best, sheriff,” the fellow:said,
earnestly,

He was a butcher’s assistant in Wash-
ington Market but the next day he be-
came a deputy sheriff, and. for 30 years
thereafter was the Jack Ketch of the
Tombs.

There had been several hangings in the

oreo)

ata BER Tee. de ee

vicinity of New York within the past few
months at which there had been awkward
work and the condemned men subjected
to terrible torture. The butcher boy from
Washington Market wanted none of that
in the Tombs yard.

He wanted to become a master at his
ghastly art, so he studied hanging seri-
ously. Then he had an idea. His daily

_ visits to the slaughter house had made

him familiar with the windlass then used
for hoisting cattle. Why not apply the
principle of the windlass to the gallows,
he asked himself. He set about doing
precisely that.

Assisted by a carpenter, he built a gal-
lows, known as the New York Gallows,
which brought into play a type of ma-
chinery which, to use his own language,
“was unsurpassed in simplicity of con-
struction by any machine on the market.”
Actually, it used a counterweight that
snapped the condemned man up, instead
of having a trap door opening beneath
his feet, and dropping him to doom.

It worked on the Port au Prince negro
and after that the reputation of the new
Tombs hangman was made.

But he never cut the rope that pitched
the doomed man into eternity. Instead

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DARING

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Police sought clues in the boat in which the murdering
slasher escaped with his plunder from the oyster sloop
and made his way to Staten Island, N. Y.

Murderers’ Row in New York’s Tombs prison, at right,
sketched years ago on visitors’ day, is where Hicks and
other notorious criminals were held for trial.

night he had vanished, taking his family
and household effects with him.

Traced to Providence, R. I., he was
brought back to New York, charged with
the fiendish crime, and lodged in the
Tombs. He denied any connection with
the slaughter aboard the sloop. But
among his possessions the police found
a gold watch belonging to Capt. Burr,
and a daguerreotype which a young
woman had given Oliver Watts.

It was a web of circumstantial evidence
which the killer could not escape. Fur-
thermore, a deckhand aboard one of the
Staten Island boats came forward and
identified him as the man he had met
coming from the island and had helped
count two bags of money.

When Hicks went on trial in the
United States circuit court in May, 1860,
he was cool and unconcerned about his
fate. His manner showed no change
when the jury, after deliberating seven
minutes, returned a verdict of guilty. He
was sentenced to be hanged on July 13
on Bedloe Island, where the famed
Statue of Liberty was later erected. The
government island was selected for: his
end because his crime, murder on the
high seas, was a federal offense, and not
one against the laws of the city of New
York.

Hicks remained a prisoner in the
Tombs, his hands shackled and ball and
chain dragging at his ankles, until the
day of his execution. There a day or
two before he was to die, P. T. Barnum,
the world famous showman, sought him

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out. Always alert for something different with which to please
his public, Barnum saw in Hicks and his gory crime a drawing
card that was certain to “pack ’em in” at his celebrated museum.

Before he would see Barnum, however, Hicks called for the
warden of the Tombs and requested to know the object of the
interview. When informed that Barnum desired to obtain a
plaster cast of Hicks’ head and bust, for exhibition among the
other curiosities in his museum, the murderer said:

“Oh, so Barnum’s on the make, If he’s a mind to pay for it
he can have it. Let him come and I'll make my own bargain
with him.”

They struck a bargain, Barnum agreeing to pay Hicks $25
and two boxes of cigars, and later that day the cast of Hicks
was made. The following day Barnum was back again. His
showmanship had given birth to another idea. He wanted
Hicks’ clothes for exhibit with the plaster cast, and offered a
new suit in exchange.

Hicks accepted, but the next day he was grumbling to the
warden. Barnum had cheated him, he claimed. He insisted

DARING

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DETECTI


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ageont

His human cargo was destined for
Cuba, with Cuban capitalists financing
the unsavory undertaking, But the im-
portation of slaves was against the laws
of the United States and, taken back to
New York for trial, Gordon was adjudged
a pirate and sentenced to hang on Nov. 6,
1861.

Lodged in the Tombs to await his end,
he made a desperate attempt to cheat the
gallows through suicide. He was sched-
uled to go to his death at 2 o’clock in the
afternoon, but at mid-morning he was
found rolling in agony on the floor of his
cell. He had taken poison which in some
mysterious manner had been smuggled
in to him.

But that was not the way the law had
decreed he should die, and the law had to
be obeyed. Two Tombs physicians im-
mediately set to work to save him for a
more fitting end, and the time of the exe-
cution was moved forward to noon. But
it was only brandy that kept Gordon alive
and gave him enough strength to falter
to the gallows.

VEN then he could hardly make it. He
was so weak and trembling when the
procession started that four shots of
brandy had to be poured into him before
he could continue with the fateful march.
Once on the gallows it was evident he
might not even live until the noose was
applied. Fingers worked frantically get-
ting everything in readiness. Then as he
staggered and was about to collapse, the
signal was given and the next instant his
body was dangling in the air.

The law was obeyed. justice was served.
But the execution was one of the most
horrible in all the history of the Tombs.

With the execution of Saul and How-
lett, evil days had fallen upon the Day-
break Boys, with death or the Tombs
ahead for many of them. After seven
murders were committed in Pete Wil-
liams’ dive in the short space of three
months, the police closed the place.

Then Bill Lowrie, one of the mob who,

was taken to a hid@out a mile and a half
north of Shawnee, Kans. There the kid-
napers chained her to the wall and started
negotiations to secure the ransom
money.

The gang mailed two demands to Judge
McElroy for $60,000 for the release of his
daughter. In a subsequent call, the ran-
some demand finally was reduced to
$30,000. The judge, frantic for his daugh-
ter’s safety, paid the sum on May 28, fol-
lowing to the letter the gang’s instructions
for its transmission. Later the same day,
the dazed girl was dumped out of the kid-
nap car near a golf course at Merriam,
Kans. She fell in a faint but several per-
sons came to her aid, and after reviving
her she was returned to her home in
Kansas City.

Despite her blindfolding, Mary Mc-
Elroy was able to identify the hideout
where she had been a chained captive for
24 hours. Investigators learned that the
place had been rented by George McGee
and Clarence Click, Further ipvestiga-

tion rapidly led to the indictment .of these »

two, together with Stevens and Walter
McGee, by a federal grand jury at Kansas

City, Mo., on June 23, 1933, for violation -

%

so rumor had it, killed Bill Johnson after

he was released from the Tombs as re-
ward for his squealing on the two mur-
dering river pirates, opened a dive called
the Rising Sun, on Water street, and tried
to keep the gang together. For a time
he succeeded, Then he was captured in
a dock robbery, thrown into the Tombs to
await trial, and finally sentenced ‘to 15
years imprisonment.

Cowlegged Sam McCarthy then took
over as leader but he quit in a few months’
time and joined a new gang of burglars. It
was a bad move for him, but good for the
law, for he too was soon arrested and
drew. a long term behind the bars.

About this time One-Arm Charley
Monnel became a_ recognized power
among the river pirates and murderers of
the waterfront. With his two lieutenants,
Kate Flannery and “Gallus Mag,” he
opened the infamous “Hole-in-the/Wall,”
at the corner of Dover and Water streets
and soon had it the mecca of pirates,
junkmen and murderers.

When murders became all too frequent
for the public to stomach, the place was
closed-and both One-Arm Charley and
“Gallus Mag” bustled off to the Tombs.

“Gallus Mag” won her name from the
fact she kept her skirt up with suspenders
or galluses. A giant of an English woman,
she was the bouncer in the Hole-in-the-
Wall, stalking about the dive with a pistol
stuck in her waist and a huge bludgeon
strapped to her wrist. She was expert in
the use of both.

No tougher female ever existed in New
York. She was feared by every man
along the waterfront. Police described
her as the most savage female they had
ever encountered. She delighted in knock-
down a drunken customer and then drag-
ging him to the door with one of his ears
clutched between her teeth. If he pro-
tested or struggled, she bit off the ear.
Back of the bar was a jar of alcohol in
which she preserved such sinister tro-
phies. Among them was the ear of “Sadie
the Goat.” -

Sadie was as tough as Amazons come,

Wanted by the FBI

[Continued from page 45]

of the federal kidnaping and extortion
laws. é

Investigation by the FBI, in conjunc-
tion with the police of Kansas City, Mo.,
Amarillo, Tex., and Roanoke, Va., led to
the apprehension of George and Walter
McGee and Clarence Click. Tried in the
state court at Kansas City, Walter McGee
received the death sentence, This was
later commuted to life imprisonment, at
the request of Miss McElroy. George Mc-
Gee received a life sentence and Clarence
Click an eight-year term.

Of the $30,000 ransom payment, $23,-

- 942.65 was recovered from the three ar-

rested, the remainder having vanished
with the fugitive Stevens.

Little could be learned at first con-
cerning Stevens’ life before he embarked
on his one known experiment in crime.
Then Kansas City, Mo., police located
fingerprints that had been taken when
Stevens was arrested on a reckless .driy-
ing charge in August, 1932, Following
up this lead, it was learned that Stevens
was born at Butler, Mo,, Oct. 12, 1903,
and ‘had lived at Kansas City, Kans., for
15 years, working as an automobile sales-
man and occasional insurance agent. Just

but not the equal of Gallus Mag. Sadie
came by her strange name through her
habit, upon encountering a stranger who
appeared to have money, of ducking her
head and butting him in the stomach.
Then when he doubled up, her male con-
federate would use the slug-shot and the
two of them would rob the victim.

It was this none-too-playful method of
robbery that finally landed her behind the
bars of the Tombs and later drew for her
a sentence in Auburn penitentiary.

But before going to prison she had a
savage brawl with Gallus Mag in which
she lost an ear. For safety’s sake she
quit the East river waterfront for that of
the Hudson. There she won her spurs
anew, and the leadership of the Charlton
street gang, a mob of pirates who plagued
the river all the way to Poughkeepsie,
not only robbing boats but farm houses
and mansions, stopping at neither mur-
der nor kidnaping,

It was only when an enraged citizenry
rose up and took matters into its own
hands that Sadie the Goat came back to
the East river and made peace with Gallus
Mag. The legend of the period has it
that Mag was so overwhelmed that she
retrieved Sadie’s ear from the alcohol jug
and returned it to her, and that thereafter
Sadie wore it in a locket around her
plump neck.

There is no record, however, whether
she was still wearing it when she finally
landed behind the bars of the grim old
Tombs.

Another of these amazing
stories of life and death
behind the grim walls of
New York's oldest prison
will be published in the
November issue of DARING
DETECTIVE Magazine. Or-
der your copy now at your
favorite newsstand. .

before the kidnaping, he had deserted his
wife and small children. Immediately

_ following the release of Mary McElroy.

he completely disappeared.

On Oct. 25, 1933, the FBI issued identifi-
cation order No. 1212, carrying all availa-
ble data on Stevens and urging his im-
mediate apprehension if sighted.

Special agents of the FBI have since
carried on an intensive search for the
fugitive but Stevens has managed to es-
cape the law enforcement network. Fol-
lowing subsequent kidnapings or at-
tempts, the search was intensified in the
hope that Stevens had tipped his hand by
participation in another “snatch” like that
of Mary McElroy.

Lacking serial numbers of the ransom
notes, FBI agents have had little more to
work on than the photograph and descrip-
tion accompanying this article, plus
Stevens’ method of operation in the one
case in which he is known to have Partici-
pated.

Engrave these facts and Stevens’ like-
ness in your memory, and if you see the
fugitive who fits the picture and descrip-
tion, notify at once the nearest branch
of the FBI or your local police.


Jast few
wkward
ibjected
oy from
of that

ct at his
1g seri-
's daily
1 made
2=n used
‘ly the
allows,
doing

a gal-
allows,
of ma-
guage
t con-
irket.”
t that
istead
‘neath

negro
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tched
stead

he ‘was the master of ceremonies. He
superintended the erection of the gallows,
adjusted the weights, tested the noose, |
the hooks and the ropes. |
On the day before and the morning of |
an execution, he would be found bustling |
around the prison yard like a theatrical
manager just before the curtain rises on |
opening night. |
When the condemned man had finished
with the minister or priest, the hangman |
with a huge diamond in his snowy shirt- |
front, his hair slicked down, and a black |
satchel in his hand, would enter the pris- |
oner’s cell. |

He would take a neatly worked noose |

from the bag and slip it over the doomed
man’s head in so dexterous a manner that
it was hardly noticed. Then he would
take out a black cap, put it on the head of
the victim and fasten his arms behind
his back with half-inch Manilla rope.

He was always gentle and considerate.
lf the man about to die was nervous and
fidgety, he would console him. “You need
not fear,” he would say softly. “There
will be no pain.” Or “Be a man, my boy.”

Then he would go.

He would be ready and waiting when
the procession reached the gallows, and
to make certain the doomed man did not
attempt to escape while prayers were
said, he would hook the noose to a pully
rope. The rest of the grim ordeal he left ©
to an assistant in the box.

But when the hanging was over and the
body taken down, he would gather up the
pully rope, the pinioning rope, the noose
and the block and put them back in his
satchel. They would be ready for the
next execution.

Saul and Howlett did not believe it
when they heard about the new kind of
gallows being erected for them in the
Tombs courtyard. They wanted to see
for themselves. And so, on the day before
they were to die, they were taken out to
view it.

They studied the gallows closely for
several minutes, and then Howlett ex-
claimed, “We will go up instead of down.”

Saul eyed him sourly, “If the spirit goes
up, it does not matter as to the body,” he
declared.

Whether their souls went up or down,
the two youthful thugs met the end the
law had decreed for them. The butcher’s
new gallows worked efficiently once more
in ending the lives of Saul and Howlett,
leaders of the vicious Daybreak Boys.

It was the same butcher hangman who
also fashioned the noose when Capt.
Nathaniel Gordon, the slaver, went to his
doom in the Tombs yard.

Born at sea and brought up by a sea-
faring father as a native of Portland, Me.,
Gordon, a swarthy little man, was captain
of his own vessel and well embarked in
the slave trade when in his early twenties.
Once he was captured by a British man-
of-war off the African coast, but escaped
disguised as a woman. :

He did not have the same good fortune ©

when the U. S. warship Michigan overhauled
his slave ship Erie off the same coast on
Aug. 5, 1861. There were 897 blacks in the
hold, a quarter of them dead by suffoca-
tion.

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| Name esses aoececceseeencecss Se Ghc REC RW a siwr Reh. e nese rrscecerererereseenee ‘

| AGArOSE vcccceeecceeseseeeeeees VE PSSRTPRORRG C5 9 AMS oA oH eb Sees cone ogee


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Tbs Aecie Bebe dees Pd Lis 3a ke 3i ateh Saal thin seid hc ae

=e 5 ate gt

Tages Scanned Pe

+,

ie a as hie nti
SIRES ARTI TE epee rt

tur GANGS or NEW YORK

GSOSGSSSSSHSSSOOSGSSSSSS SSSSSOSOSS

AN INFORMAL HISTORY OF

THE UNDERWORLD

- BY

HERBERT ASBURY

GOSSSSSOSSSOSOSSVOS OOOO GSI VOSS
CAPRICORN BOOKS


Fda os [Eadkecheaes cdl dace Md aineeas hl atte:

3
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3
34
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TO ORELL

COPYRIGHT 1927, 1928
BY ALFRED: A: KNOPF, INC.

SSSSSSSSOSSS

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in

any form without permission in writing from the publisher, ex-

cept by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce not |

more than three illustrations in a review to be printed in a maga-
zine or newspaper.

Manufactured in the United States
of America

SSOSCOSSSSSS

Capricorn Books Edition 1970

LAN
b4 SA
UT " - ;
Nu | ai GOW NRRY

SSSOSSSS

INTRODUCTION *¥
I THE CRADLE OF THE GANGS*!
Il EARLY GANGS OF THE BOWERY
AND FIVE POINTS-°21
III SIN ALONG THE WATER FRONT * 46
IV RIVER PIRATES: 63
v THE KILLING OF BILL THE BUTCHER: 87
VI THE POLICE AND DEAD RABBIT RIOTS * 101
VII THE DRAFT RIOTS-*:118
VII] THE DRAFT RIOTS (Continued) + 148
IX WHEN NEW YORK WAS REALLY WICKED:174
X THE KING OF THE BANK ROBBERS ° 203
XI THE WHYOS AND THEIR TIMES * 2725
XII KINGDOMS OF THE GANGS ey
XIII THE PRINCE OF GANGSTERS ° 27?
XIV THE WARS OF THE TONGS*< 299
XV THE LAST OF THE GANG WARS-~ 325
XVI THE PASSING OF THE GANGSTER* 344
APPENDIX * 375
BIBLIOGRAPHY * 381

INDEX ° 383

ices tial * : z + :
i aS ng eee Ee ee. ee a ee ae


hy uh cannibal fe ects a fale. Vee Matis oan tgs | ALS ibe ale Ge

PUSS

wh git,

THE GANGS OF NEW YORK

_Feurth Ward water front, and although a member of none
of the great gangs, occasionally enlisted under the banner of
a captain whose activities promised excitement and loot. O;
a night in March, 1860, having imbibed too deepl i j
Water street dance hall, Hicks sought lodging at te bo
of a Cherry street crimp, trusting that his reputation would
protect him. But the crimp was no respecter of persons He
put laudanum in Hicks’ nightcap of rum, and te déid of
night crept into the sleeping chamber and deepened his
oe with a slung-shot. When Hicks awakened
ning he was on board the sloop E. A. Johnson
bound for Deep Creek, Virginia, for a cargo of oysters aad
had been regularly shipped as a member of the crew Peder
the name of William Johnson. Besides the shanghaied gan
ster, the vessel’s complement comprised the master a fan
Burr, and two brothers, Smith and Oliver Watts. ase
The E. A. Johnson sailed out of New York harbor
with Hicks lying in the forecastle trying to collect his scat
tered senses. Five days later the sloop was found abandened
at sea, only a few miles off Staten Island, by the schooner
Telegraph of New London, Connecticut. The schooner
spoke the steam tug Ceres, which towed the Johnson into
the Fulton Market Slip, at the lower end of Mathattan She
had evidently collided with another vessel, for her baw rit
and cutwater had been badly damaged, and the sailors whe
boarded her long enough to affix a tow line reported that her
decks were in the wildest confusion. After she had been tied
up in the Slip, Coroner Schirmer and Captain Weed of the
Second Precinct police boarded her and made an examina-

-tion. They found the sails loose upon the deck, and the small

boat ordinarily towed at the stern was missing. In the cabin
the ceiling, floor, bunks, chairs, and table were stained with
blood, as were the bedding and the ship’s papers, and various
articles of clothing which had been thrown about the com-
partment. On the floor of the cabin, and on the planking of

re

S

a ES poo a ee re
DEO A eee SIGS eed ee a CER EE eae Sree
Eee AAS 5 cay \ Se "peep = se eS oS

he

RIVER PIRATES

the deck, were marks indicating that a heavy body had been

dragged to the side, and the rail was splotched by blood. On

the deck beneath the rail lay four human fingers anda thumb,
and near them a bloody axe.

The next day Andrew Kelly and John Burke, tenants
of the house in Cedar street, appeared at the police station
and told Captain Weed that twenty-four hours before the
sloop was brought into port Hicks had returned home with
a large sum of money, and had given evasive answers when
asked where he had obtained it. That night Hicks packed his
household goods, and with his wife and child left the city.
Patrolman Nevins traced them to a boarding-house in Prov-
idence, Rhode Island, and with the aid of the Providence
police arrested the entire family. They were brought to New
York, where Mrs. Hicks and her child were released, but
Hicks was held for investigation because he told conflicting
tales about the money. .

A thorough search of the gangster’s belongings dis-
closed a watch which was identified as having belonged to
Captain Burr, and a daguerreotype which a young woman
had given to Oliver Watts before the sloop sailed. Hicks
denied flatly that his name was Johnson or that he had ever
been on board the vessel, but was unable to explain the pos-
session of the watch and picture. Later he was identified by
John Burke as the man who had lived at Cedar street. Then
a deck hand on one of the Staten Island boats identified
Hicks as a man who had accosted him during the run from

the Island to Manhattan, and had asked him to help count
two bags of money. A web of circumstantial evidence was
soon woven around Hicks, and he was transferred to the
custody of Isaiah Rynders, United States Marshal, and
locked up in the Tombs. In May he was tried before the
United States Circuit Court, and after deliberating only
~ seven minutes the jury found him guilty of piracy and mur-
der on the high seas. He was sentenced to be hanged on

7

hy


fH, Chany sang IQS tion

; yee N
Me aie) BRS c eo the a ore

THE GANGS OF NEW YORK

resulted in the police force being permanently uniformed,
Not only did he urge a distinctive dress, but he had his tailor
make such a uniform and himself wore it to a fancy dress
ball, a circumstance which evoked much comment. But it
was not until 1858 that the city authorities consented to the
Organization of a harbor police, and even then the force
consisted of only a few men who patrolled the rivers and
lower harbor in rowboats. The first boat set out on March
15, 1858, and within a few days a dozen others were crujs-
“Ing under command of experienced policemen, who had
orders to overhaul and examine every suspicious looking
craft. |
With the aid of the rowboats, the police started an en-
ergetic campaign against the gangsters of the Fourth Ward,
and concentrated their attack on the Daybreak Boys, who
had already been demoralized by the successive misfortunes
of their leaders and by the defection of Cow-legged Sam.
Roundsman Blair and Patrolmen Spratt and Gilbert killed
twelve of the thugs in 1858, and during that same year De-
tective Sergeant Edwin O’Brien arrested fifty-seven gang-
sters who owed allegiance to the Daybreak Boys, the Short
Tails and the Border Gang. These activities soon scattered
the Daybreak Boys, and by the end of 1859 the gang was
practically extinct. Those members who had survived the
onslaught of the police removed to the Bowery and Five
Points, or to the Corlears’ Hook area, where they joined
various gangs. But the Swamp Angels, who made their ren-
dezvous in the sewer under the Gotham Court tenement in
Cherry street, the Hookers, and the remainder of the Fourth
Ward gangs continued to give the police much trouble, and
shipping men were still uncertain as to the ultimate destina-
tion of a cargo consigned to a merchant who used the East
River docks. Encounters occurred nightly between the police
and the gangsters, and many officers and thugs were killed

and wounded. The gangs of the Brooklyn and New Jersey
70 .

RIVER PIRATES

water fronts also began to make excursions into See
waters, although for the most part the re Kept pretty
ra 5 ortuniti
i there were plenty of opp |
close to their bases, for alas
long the Brooklyn dock. Pp
for theft and murder along — eet
i idi : in the sparsely settled reg
cipal hiding-places were in )
rece Brocka and Williamsburg, then called ee
but now populated almost entirely by Jews and Italians.

2
. S
THE most illustrious thug who came t Plas aan
i 1 i iod was Albert E. Hicks, com
the police during this perio | a!
called Hicksey, a free lance gangster and thief who live

Albert E. Hicks

with his wife and one child at No. 129 Cedar ee
from old Trinity Church and within two blocks | the ; ue
son River. Hicks spent most of his time in the dives of the

70


Piast chtoeraioe eemonedere fecee ent ae

sirens a ascaapm emp eemonaf noone apea aa

THE GANGS OF NEW yorK
Friday, July 13, and the Court specified that

Ne execution
take place on one of the government islands in Nex York
Bay. Less than a week after the trial] Hicks Summoned the

Warden of the Tombs and said that he desired to cunfess.
and thereby ease his soul of sin, With his hands’ hack!
behind his back and a ball] and chain dragging at =is ank

the Sangster paced back and forth before an aus:

MeL . we

Officials and newspaper reporters, and described: in minute
and gory detail the murder of Captain Burr and -he a5

boys, Smith and Oliver Watts. The affair, he sai

“T was steering,” he said, ‘and Captain Burs z-3 o~e
of the Watts boys were asleep in the cabin. The Other Warts
was on lookout at the bows. Suddenly the devil took DOsses
sion of me and J determined to murder the captain 27

that very night.”
Hicks lashed the steering wheel to keep the vesse! on

3 seat
GQ orew

VOI &

her course, and picked up a capstan bar. Creeping forward,
he approached the boy who stood in the box: Watching the

7

Abbiswi: KS haat

seas as they broke over the vessel’s forefoot. But bis 2=:-

~

cast a long shadow in the moonlight which flooded <2 <2:

and Watts turned to see who was coming. He s:rzimed
Once, and then the bar descended upon his head,

his skull. The sound of the blow and the scream he
and he came up the companion-wiv 2)

Py

t- ud:

ened the other lad, 2

learn what had happened. But meanwhile Hicks 422 on

tained an axe, and as the boy climbed onto the deck thz

ster decapitated him. Hicks then went down the com

in search of the skipper. Captain Burr, a short. thickser. bot
very muscular man, was aroused by the entrance of :+= ~—=-

derous thug, and sat up in his bunk to find Hicks in the cence:

of the cabin, leaning upon his axe. The next instant the sirace
leaped forward, the blood-smeared blade glistening in the

74

RIVER PIRATES.

dim light cast by the swinging lantern above the Captain's
i: pallet.

. ; Cae ae
The axe crashed against Captain Burr’s pillow, but the

skipper rolled with the blow and tumbled upon the floor in

i save his neck. He clasped Hicks about the knees, and
Algae plunged to the floor the Captain = des-
perately to grip his throat, while Hicks struggled to ring
his axe into play. The fight continued for several minu “a
but at length Hicks pushed the Captain against the cabin

Interior of the Cabin of the Oyster Sloop, E. A. Johnson

stove, and before the latter could regain his ees =
pirate drove the axe deep into the side of his head, ee
away half of his skull. Hicks then went on deck, where -
found the Watts boy he had first assaulted struggling . me
knees. The gangster knocked him down and then oe _
body to the rail, where he hoisted the lad over side es
the sloop. But young Watts clutched at the rail, nya
Hicks raised his axe and calmly cut off his thumb ~ ng :
and Watts fell into the sea. Hicks then threw the ot .
bodies overboard, rifled the captain’s money Pass hee
headed the vessel for shore. When the coast of Staten Islan

75


THE GANGS OF NEW YORK

came into view he used the small boat to effect a landing, first
starting the sloop out to sea. |
The conviction of Hicks and his subsequent confession
caused a great stir throughout the city, and for several
weeks there was a constant stream of visitors to the Tombs
where they thronged the corridors and stared for hours ae
the cell where Hicks lay shackled to the floor. Among the
first comers was Phineas T. Barnum, the great showman
whose American Museum was then in the heyday of its pop-
ularity. Barnum asked for a private conference with the pris-
oner, which Hicks granted after a consultation with the
Warden of the Tombs. Barnum informed the pirate that he
wished to obtain a plaster cast of his head and bust for ex-
hibition in the Museum along with the other curiosities ad
after an entire day of hageling an arrangement was reached
whereby Hicks agreed to pose in return for $25 in cash and

two boxes of five-cent cigars. Early next morning the cast
was made, and that afternoon Barnum returned to the -

Tombs with a new suit of clothes, which he traded to Hicks
for the one the pirate was then wearing. Later Hicks com-
plained to the Warden that Barnum had cheated him, for
the new garments were shoddy and not nearly so good as
his old ones.

Mrs. Hicks visited her husband at six o’clock on the
evening of Thursday, July 12. Farewells having been said
the woman departed, and the Rev. Father Duranquet then
entered the cell of the condemned man and remained with
him until eleven o’clock, when Hicks drank a cup of tea and
retired. He slept soundly, and at four o’clock next morning
was awakened and told to dress. He manifested no signs of

grief or penitence, but ate heartily of breakfast, and then.

smoked the last of the cigars which he had obtained from
Barnum. He told the Warden that Barnum had asked him
to return the empty boxes for display in the Museum, and
the Warden agreed to see that the showman received them.

76

PE ee eae ee aa ee

eral deputies, all clad in plug hats and black frock coats. In

irons, and was then led from his cell into the main corridor

RIVER PIRATES

A few minutes before nine o’clock Marshal Rynders, girt
with the Sheriff's sword which he had borrowed for the occa-
sion, entered the prison, attended by Sheriff Kelly and sev-

a sonorous voice the Marshal read the death warrant, and
then bade the prisoner prepare for execution, which Hicks
did by arraying himself in a suit of blue cottonade, made ex- ,
pressly for the event. He complained that the suit did not
fit, and that it had not been properly pressed, but the War-
den told him there was no time for alterations.

The gangster was handcuffed and shackled with leg

of the prison, where Marshal Rynders and his party were
drawn up in a solemn group to receive him. Attended by
Father Duranquet and surrounded by the officials marching
in hollow square with their plug hats held across their chests,
Hicks was escorted with great formality through the great
doors and into the street. Thousands of people who had
gathered greeted his appearance with cheers, and both the
prisoner and the United States Marshal bowed in acknowl-
edgment of the ovation. For a few moments the group stood
on the steps of the prison, and then around a corner into
Center street swept a fife and drum corps and a string of
carriages, each drawn by a team of coal black horses and
driven by a coachman clad in black from head to toe. The
procession halted in front of the Tombs amid flourishes and
ruffles from the trumpets and drums, and Marshal Rynders,
carrying his silk hat in the crook of his elbow and with his
sword clanking about his heels, marched ceremoniously down
the steps and ensconced himself in the front seat of the first
carriage. Beside him sat Deputy Marshal Thompson, while
Hicks was placed in the back seat between Father Duranquet
and Sheriff Kelly. In the second carriage were the Deputy
Sheriffs, each carrying his staff of office, and in the others
were policemen, gamblers, pugilists, politicians, doctors and

77


JONES, Thomas, black, hanged New York City, NY, on June 11, 182) (Federal)

"Sam Jones, alias John Robinson, a black man, was tried in the District Court for the
District of New York, a few days ago, for a murder committed on board the brig
HOLKAR, of New York, in the year 1818, Judge Thompson presided, It appears from the
evidence, that the HOLKAR, Captain Brown, sailed from Curracoa, bound to New York.
She wasmanned with several black seaman, and had on board Capt, Humphreys, as a.
passenger, After the vessel had been out a short time, the blacks agreed to mutiny,
and, on arriving in the Mona Passage, they cruelly murdered Captains Brown and Hum-
phreys, and the mate of the HOLKAR, and threw their bodies overboard, They after-
wards scuttled the vessel, and escaped to the shore, After the evidence and the
pleadings had been gone through, Judge Thompson submitted the case to the jury, who
retired, and afterwards came into court with a verdict of guilty. The discovery of
the murderer, after so long a time had elapsed, is singular and extraordinary."

DAILY NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER, Washington, DC, 5=5-182) (5=5.)

"EXECUTION OF JONES. - This unfortunate and guilty black expiated his crimes upon
the gallows this day at 25 minutem past 12 o'clock, The arrangements of the Marshal
were very judiciously made, The culprit was taken from prison this morning before
people were generally stirring, and conveyed with a small marine guard on board a
steamboat, and thence to the place of execution, We have heard nothing of his de-
portment during the morning, He died very hard, Notwithstanding the distance to
the SRRNKXQUXKEXXQK scene of action, and the difficulty and expense of getting
there, curiosity triumphéd over obstacle, and.a great number of boats, filled
with people, were near the scene. No accident, that we have heard of, SAEAAERRAYT
gccurred, = NEW YORK COM, ADV. llth inst," |
COURIER, C,arleston, South Carolina, June 21, 182), (2/6.)

"(From the New-York National Advocate) CONFESSION, It will be recollected that, at

the last sitting of the Circuit Court of the U. States Thomas Jones was found suilty

of piracy and murder, in aiding and assisting to kill the captain, mate and a passenger
on board the brig HOLKAR, on her passage from Curacoa to this port in 1819, The

only witness against him: was a colored man on board, The prisoner was convicted and
sentenced to be executed on the llth of next month, +t will be seen from the following
that he has confessed freely and voluntarily that he is guilty, and that the sentence of
the law is just: 'CITY OF NEW YORK, Thomas Jones, otherwise called John Robinson,

being examined at his own request the 2lth day of May, voluntarily says that he did

sail from New York in the brig HOLKAR, Capt. Brown, the mate's name was Durey, or

some name that sounded like it; the crew were all colored men, except the captain, °

mate and one hand, that man's name was John Williams, a Butchman; the cook s name

was Harry Cook; the names of the others were Charley, Alexander, Cheverence, or some
wsuch names he was a Frenchman, the other Jim, Oliver King, and himself; the brig

went to Curacoa KANXNHH and got a cargo, sailed again from Curacoa, for "New York,

and when he thinks, two or three days out, the dreadful murder happened, and it was
about 8 o'clock, he thinks; the captain and Mr, Humphreys the passenger turned in, the
hands had nots it was the mate! s watch on deck; examinant was at the helm, the mate
sitting on a chicken coop when Alexander called the mate forward and told him the

gammon of the bowspit was gone; it was only an excuse to get him theres the mate

Looked over the bows to see what was the matter, when one of the men, whether Charles, Jim
Oliver or Alexander, he can "s say, but one of them struck him and he fell dead,
Alexander had a hatchet and Charles a crow, but who struck first he can't tell,
"tExaminant remained still at the helm; but before the mate was thrown over, examinant went
forward and Oliver took the helm, Examinant then, with the rest, helped to throw

him over, After that, all went aft, and Alexander told examinant to go into the

cabin after the Captain; but before he got down the steps, he called examinant back,

He came back, and was told to go back to the helm by Alexander. He “did go and took

the helm again, The reason Alexander gave for calling examinant back to the helm was, that
after the Captain might suspect something wrong if he was seen.in the cabin, as the
Captain knew it was examinant's trick at the helm’= he knew it was not Oliver's as

it was not his watch on deck, Alexander then went down and called the Cabtain .,
said the mate wanted him forward. He came up and went forward as far as the ga

d not seeing the mate, he turned back again and said, "Ah} Is that your play?"
Charles then run and catched him to kéep him forward, biiver then run to the helm and

The Snake Pit

[Continued from page 29]

he assist in stealing the horses that morn-

ing, and his subsequent murder were but
part of a plan for the fulfillment of a
desire the two desperadoes had long
cherished. The physical charms of the
beautiful young bride had so aroused their
passions that they had been able to think
of little else, and they were ready to com-
mit any crime to possess her.

Up the mountainside Joseph and the
unsuspecting girl went until they were
joined by Loftus. When near the top of
the ridge, the girl, who had begun to sus-
pect treachery from some base, insinuat-
ing remarks made to her by Joseph, spoke
of the distance they had traveled, and
inquired in a tremulous voice if “we are
there now.”

Joseph answered, “Yes.” He leaped
from his horse and seized the girl in his
arms, throwing her to the ground. There,
in theseclusion of the forest, far away
from any human habitation, both men
committed the foul crime they had
planned.

After they were done with her, and she
sat crying for her husband, the merciless
fiends sent a lethal bullet into her body.

Carrying the dead girl to the top of the
mountain, they entered a narrow cavelike
chamber, product. of a rock formation.
At the back of this den, a fissure descended
with a slant for some distance, ended
with an abrupt drop of 60 feet into the
bowels of the earth. Into this “well,” as
it was afterward called, the double
murderers threw the body of their second
victim, and her saddlebags filled with
clothes, a bed quilt and other articles.
Hurriedly, then, they ran from the place.

Not long after, Henry Loftus, while
intoxicated, told his brother William of
the triple srimes. This caused a row
between him and Joseph, and in the en-
suing violence, Henry Loftus was killed
by Joseph.

After his brother’s murder, - William,
fearful of the bully, kept the terrible secret
until Joseph left the country. Then he,
with his father and mother, visited the
cave in the mountain and, guided by a
piece of the poor girl’s dress which had
caught on the rocks in her fall, found
the spot that secreted her remains and
clothing.

They then searched for the body of
Bud Stephens and found it at the place
described by Henry. Old Mr. Loftus con-
fided in a Mr. Henderson, a merchant,
and guided him to where the bones of
Stephens lay. Henderson immediately
called the attention of Deputy United
States Marshal J. H. Mershon to the
case, and a thorough investigation was
made, resulting in the ferreting out of
the hiding place of Martin Joseph. The
culprit was seized and placed in the fed-
eral jail at Fort Smith, Ark.

Marshal Mershon then walked into the
office of District Attorney William H. H.
Clayton, vigorous prosecutor at the U. S.
Federal Court, and lifting a grain sack
from his shoulder, dropped it to the floor
with the remark, “Here are the bones of
the horse thief.”

To many it would have been a remark
most startling; but to one situated as
was Judge Clayton, it only suggested
another murder case to be tried. Glancing
up. he carelessly inquired, “What horse
thief?”

In a few words the officer explained
the details of the story just related, and
Clayton remarked that the officer ought

42

to get the bones of the murdered woman.

“Great God,” cried the marshal, “that
well is full of rattlesnakes!” A moment’s
pause, and he added, “But I’ll get them.
One of my men”’—he named a ‘gaunt
Pennsylvanian—“wanted to be let down
there with a rope, but I didn’t think it
necessary; however, if you want the
woman's bones, I'll get them in spite of
the rattlers.”

True enough, the deep hole in the
mountain where the bandits had thrown
the body of their victim had been pre-
empted by rattlesnakes, and was a veri-
table den.

The officer at once started back for
the cave, accompanied by a small posse
and equipped only with a strong rope
and a lantern. The brave Pennsylvanian,
John Spencer, without a tremor, allowed
the rope to be placed about his body, and
the men slowly lowered him into the
dismal and foul-smelling sepulcher. No
sooner had his feet touched the bottom
of the well than countless huge snakes

stuck their heads through the crevices

in the rocks, and in she dim light Spencer

could see the gleaming eyes of the reptiles.

as their heads swayed to and fro, darted in
and out, hissing at this unwanted intruder.
“Lift me out, for God’s sake,” the
shaken man shrieked, and in a few
moments he stood on the floor of the cave,
his face as white as chalk.
Stumped, Marshal Mershon was cudgel-

“A TRAGEDY OF OUR
TIMES”

“A tragedy of our times” is the
way J. Edgar Hoover, Director of
the FBI, expresses the shocking
statistics on the upward trend of
crime among our youth today.

In his annual bulletin, Uniform
Crime Reports, Mr. Hoover pub-
lishes the startling information that
a total of 239,947 young men and
women from ages 16 through 24
were arrested during 1951! This
represents more than one quarter
of all the arrests made in the United
States during the year. The crimes
of these young delinquents include
murder, robbery, arson, rape, as-
sault, prostitution and commer-
cialized vice, drunkenness and the
use of narcotics.

More persons aged 23 were ar-
rested than those of any other age
group. Persons under 21 made up
14.4 per cent (119,676) of all per-
sons arrested during 1951.

That more children were becom-
ing wayward is shown by the fact
that there was an increase of 2,660
youngsters under age 18 arrested
in 1951 over last year. In 1950,
34,599 were picked up; in 1951,
37,259.

Of the 26,273 males and females
aged 20 arrested during 1951, the
records show that almost half, or
44.9 per cent, had previous arrest
records.

A tabulation of reports from 376
cities representing nearly 46 million
inhabitants reflects a total of $150,-
136,172 worth of property stolen
during the year. TPC

ing his brains to devise a possible means
of exterminating the snakes when
Spencer, after drawing a few deep breaths
to calm himself, said sternly, between
clenched teeth, “Give me that lantern!”
and without another word, he was again
lowered into the depths.

This time, taking advantage of the
blinding effect of the lantern upon the
reptiles, he held the light beside the
head of the largest and nearest snake,
and with his other hand, placed his pistol
te its eyes and fired.

The explosion put out the light in
Spencer’s lantern and, to his mind, snakes
by the hundreds were crawling all about
him, darting their heads and hissing in
every direction. The snake he had shot
whipped itself around wildly in its dying
throes, and finally wrapped its length
about one of the man’s arms. Spencer,
with grim determination, took a string
from his pocket and, tying it about the
rattler’s throat, he lashed the grisly
burden to his wrist; then, after relighting
his lantern, he commenced calmly, swiftly,
to gather the human bones in the pit,
together with the saddlebags and cloth-
ing, and place them in the sack he carried.
Not until the last piece was secured, did
he give the signal to be hoisted from
as nerve-racking a spot as was ever
visited by a human being. 4

When he appeared above the mouth
of the wall with one end of the great
rattler attached to his wrist, and the
other wrapped about his neck, he caused
a near stampede among the posse—but
the trophy had been secured, the telltale .
bones were in the sack, and they were
returned to Fort Smith to be used finally
in the trial of the murderer and bandit,
Martin “Bully” Joseph.

A brief but exciting scene was wit-
nessed by the few persons who were
sitting in the courtroom during the trial
of Joseph. It was in the second week of
July and the weather was torrid. All the
doors and the windows in the old barracks
courtroom were wide open to admit pos-
sible, but unlikely, breezes. The case was
proceeding languidly, and outside, the bees
hummed lazily. Nature seemed almost to
be at a standstill, as the sun in its fierce-
ness beat dogyn upon the sweltering earth. .

The prisoher, a big and powerful crea-
ture, but quick as a cat, conceived a plan
to escape. Behind him, to the right, were
open windows, but a few deputy marshals
sat conveniently near. In front were a
door and a window—both wide open—
but with Judge Parker’s five-foot-high
desk between him and them. Close in
front of the desk was a table, covered
with a mass of books and papers. The
table served as a steppingstone to the

top of the desk, and from there to the |”

open door was but a flying leap, Martin
Joseph calculated. Judge Parker was

sitting before the window, with his right | 2

hand in line between the prisoner and
the door.

While one of the attorneys indolently
argued a law point, Bully Joseph sud-
denly darted to the table, then to the top
of Judge Parker’s desk, almost over his
head. He was in the very act of diving
for the outside, through the doorway,

when the judge shot out his right arm, a

followed the prisoner’s body with his own.

Ra

The two men fell in a heap at the thresh- “ae

old. Before either could rise, half a dozen
officers were at the spot and Joseph was

securely shackled, after which the trial °—

proceeded. : .

The verdict of the jurymen was that

- Ella Stephens, the pretty Texan, should

be avenged and Bully Joseph hanged.
Before his execution Joseph made a full
confession.

a
;
3

a,

a


said, give me the helm; examinant then went forwardsthe captain then had got as far

aft as the mainmast, and before examinant got to him Charles struck him in the head

with the hatchet and he fell, and never spoke, Examinant said he is not dead yet

and struck him on the face with the flat part of the harpoon, and then they threw

him overboard; then Charles said come, now, let's go. down and fetch out the privat-

eersman; Charles went down and examinanf followed him, and Alexander followed exami-

nant; Jim did not come into the cabin until after “Lexander struck Mr. Humphreys. on

the head. Mr. H. went over to the Captain's berth and got his pistols before he was
struck by Alexander. Mr, Humphreys was going to fire the pisbols when Charles

struck the pistol out of his hand and broke it, and it was after that that Alexander .
struck him down with the the hatchet, Examinant struck at Mr. Humphreys with the |

harpoon, missed him and struck Charles, but Charles knew examinant did not go to do it,

Humphreys was then taken on deck and thrown overboard. The cook did not interfere;

he was in his berth in the cabin all the time, All this took place in sight of St.

Thomas. Examinant took the helm again after all was over, and Oliver went below in

the cabin and got the book, Hamilton Roore, and said what course to steer to get to

St. Domingos and while sitting on the hencoop, told examinant to seer We. by S.

Examinant did steer that course un til they made St. Domingo, first making Porbdd

Rico, which was on the following morning, and the next morning made St. Domingo,

which was about eight o'clock, and about one or two o clock that -day Alexander said we had
better scuttle the brig. Examinant then went in the forecastle and bored two holes

in her bottom, and then went in the run and there bored two holes; then broke a

nole in the jolly boat, put her over, and a ‘kedge anchor in her-and tried to sink

her, but could not, she went adrift; then goisted out the long boat, made her fast
alongside, the rope broke and she went adrift; Charles stripped and went overbaard

after her, but could not get her back; then examinant stripped and went to her, .and
they two got her alongside the brig agains then they took the-captain and mate s~ -
things, some provisions, and they all got into:the boat:and made for the lands; they
rowed and sailed and about 11 o'clock next day they landed at a place between Jackmel
and Benny; there was only one house, and*that on a hill; put all the things on the

beach and pulled up the boats stayed there all that day; then the next day went to the
house and saw the black man who lives in it, and he went to the town called Benny,

to let them know’there were strangers on hhe island; two soldiers came and carried all of
them to towns they were all put under guard and detained until next day, and then they all
went to make a protest, and as Charles and Alexander spoke French they made the pro
test; they then were conducted back to the place where they had left the boat and put
all the things in and took her to town where they remained two or three days and were
then sent to Yackmel by land in charge of one soldiers; then were carried before the
Governor, when they stated that the brig* sprung*a leak, that Captain mate, etc, took

the joolly boat and they the long boat, and they parted tn the night and could not tell
where the jolly boat had got to; that satisfied the Governor, and they were all
discharged; the clothes and‘money that: they took from the brig, which was one hundred and
odd dollarss the Governor did not know they had any money, and the clothes they said
were their‘ own; the same’ day examinant fot a vessel: to go to ane since which
time examinant has hot seen any of the crew except Oliver. = First saw liver in Bancher
Street whichwas about two days before he was brought to the Police; Oliver. had a‘ gold
watch before he sailed from New York and after the vessel sailed he gave it to the
Captain to save for him, and in Curracao he wanted it, but the Captain would not give it
back to him; he intended tod brigg i back to New York, expecting he would find an
owner for it. Examinant was lying in his berth, and Oliver came in the forecastle

and said let’ us rise and take the vessel, and take her into St. Domingo, After that,
Alexander, ‘Cahrles and all came down, and they all agreed to it, and the day after

that the murder was committed, Examinant wishes it to be mentioned again, that Henry
Cook was lying in the cabin all the time and is an innocent man. Examinant has been

but once in New York and that was last summer; came from Philadelphia, and saild out
here in the brig SARAH#HADDOCH, ‘Henry Cook is the only innocent man that was on board.=-
Oliver was the youncest on board, he was about 18 or 19 years of age, On being asked
again who was the first that proposed killing the Captain, says Alexander was the first.
"Taken Mary 2lith, 182). /s/ J. HOPSON," COURIER, C,arleston, SC, Juned, 182), (1/12).


hal taal ors Sg

bs

TRUE POLICE CASES MAGAZINE
November, 1952,

The deputy's task was to bring back the victim's bones.

as evidence. The horror lay in the fact

eae

that they were at the bottom Of............... aaa ee | i

The author of this exciting story is 82 years of age. He
was 22 at the time the events he describes took place. Says
Mr, Logan: “I served as a peace officer in the Indian Ter-
ritory—now the state of Oklahoma. I knew Judge Isaac
Parker, the ‘hanging judge,’ and was in Fort Smith when
they had 55 men in jail there, charged with murder. I knew
Cherokee Bill, one of the most desperate criminals. | have
a picture of him as he stood on the famous scaffold just
before the drop fell. That scaffold was made so that 12 men
could be executed at one time. On two occasions six men
were hanged simultaneously. I have seen the famous Belle
Starr and have often watched her come into Fort Smith,
riding sidesaddle with a big, white-handled .45 Colt hang-
ing to the saddle horn. I’ve woritten man y tales about them.”

A cross the plains of the Indian Territory, riding at full
gallop, came the figure of a tall, muscular cowboy astride
« dappled sorrel pony. A short distance behind him could
be seen a young, pretty girl mounted sidesaddle on a pinto,
her face pleasantly tanned beneath the shadows of a wide
Stetson. The riders were Bud Stephens, 22, and his bride,
Ella, 17. Both were fleeing from their past. They were
headed for refuge amid the fastnesses of the Arbuckle

X

young horse rustler was eagerly dreaming up for them

On the morning of April 20, 1892, Joseph pulled up
before the Stephens cabin and asked the youthful husband
to saddle quickly and join him in the theft of some horses
which, he said, he had discovered grazing in one of the
deep ravines at the foot of the mountains. Stephens readily
consented, blind to the treachery that lay ahead.

As fate would have it, Ella decided that she would ac-
company the men part of the way and set up a picnic
breakfast for them at a site they would select as a corral
for their rustled horses.

At the spot decided upon for the return rendezvous, Ella
waved the men off and set about unpacking the basket of
provisions she had brought along.

Out of hearing distance, Loftus and Joseph wasted no
time in putting their plan into operation. A neatly dis-
patched bullet in the back of Stephens’ head toppled him
from his mount. Then, circling back to the camp, Joseph
told Ella that Bud had suffered injuries when his horse
had stumbled. “He is asking for you, Ella,” the man lied.

Innocent of the least suspicion that she was riding into
a shameful ambush, the girl unhesitatingly accepted
Joseph's suggestion that she “mount up behind” to go to

oe

ee ss

pesuey *yoeTq

APN Pea tee oe

furqaey ‘Haasor

Mountains in the southern section of the Chickasaw Nation,
now the state of Oklahoma.
Bud, a horse thief, had barely outdistanced a posse

The explosion from the gun in the deep pit ,
put out the lantern. The hair-raising events.
of the next minute were fraught with terror. ~

S tN,

across the Texas border. Ella, daughter of respectable par-
ents, had fallen in love with the bandit, had forsaken her
home and all its niceties to follow an uncertain life with
the fugitive.

Despite Ella’s pleas that he start with a clean slate in
the virgin country, Stephens continued to pursue his law-
less course, seizing whatever horse chanced to stray in the
direction of his mountain cabin. In this he was soon aided
and abetted by a neighbor, Henry Loftus, a criminal of his
own ilk, They were joined in their depredations by Martin
“Bully” Joseph, a hulking, amoral desperado,

Stephens had promised his bride that as soon as he
amassed a stake, he would take her West in search of an
honest enterprise, but his companions had no such goal. -
To an outsider, it would have been quickly apparent that
when the trio met at the Stephens’ one-room abode, Joseph
and Loftus devoted more attention to their unsuspecting
and unsympathetic hostess than to the ambitious plans the

de ht


=

Outlaw Marty Joseph lusted after Red’s girl
until he could no longer keep hands off her.

RED
STEPHENS:

‘Joseph was hanged at Fort Sill, convicted of

One count of rape and two counts of murder.

36

\

’ Kansas.

cutting horses,
rest being above average quality cow
horses.

Stephens and the others rode on up
to Dodge for a few days of high living
and white girling, then miey went back
into the Nation.

Enroute to their hideout and their

Indian lovers, Stephens gave gifts of sil-

ver inlaid Colt. .44s to the chiefs
whom hé had bribed on the way to
He always brought them
‘presents’ and it was said they looked
forward to them like children awaiting
Christmas gifts.

Stephens invariably gave them expen-
sive gratuities, never insulting them with
cheap strings of beads or quickrust
knives, hand axes or other trading post
junk. Only the best. “These things cut a
little deep into our take; “the once con-
fined to horsebuyer Murray Doyle, who
wrote of it in “Horses Tamed the West,”
“but it keeps the Indians on our side.”

It wasn’t long before Stephens was
down in Texas again, once more the in-
nocuous appearing drummer who ped-
dled horse medicines. This is the way he
stole and marketed whole herds of
horses, elevating him in the annals of
horse thievery far above the West’s ordi-
nary horse thieves who looked upon a

‘ dingle of three or perhaps five animals

as a considerable fete.

This unscrupulous character was
born in Atchison County, Missouri in
1857, the son of an itinerant horse trad-
er named Burr Stephens who traveled
through northern Missouri and southern
Iowa and his wife and children in a cov-
ered wagon behind which were dallied
his trading stock.

Stephens, who was said to even
squeakier than the usual horse trader,
taught his son the trade.

He did well, having inherited his fa-
ther’s glib tongue, elastic ethics and abil-
ity to look a man straight in the eye
when telling the most outrageous un-
truths.

But greed got the best of him. He
began to steal a horse or mule and then,
including it with his dally of trade
animals and, of course, making a
hundred percent profit on this critter.

He got caught in Pottawattamie
County, Iowa by a farmer who identi-
fied his chestnut saddle horse, even
though Stephens had done a little
barbering and cosmetic work-on the big
gelding.

The sheriff and a hurriedly deputized
posse of angry farmers, including
Stephens’ victim, thought they had the
little thief cornered when they straddle-
chased him to the Missouri River. He
leaped into the booming river city,

“That was as near a time to meeting
my Maker as ever I knew,“Stephens
said later of the incident.

History records several conflicting
versions of Stephens’ activities during

four night horses, the

"life were of the slightest use to anyone |

/you might be sure he would take it. It

the four years between his escape from ]
an Iowa rope and his arrival in northern ©
Texas as head of the West’s bisgest @
horsestealing crowd.

In the meantime he had become al
horse thief with no peers. He was good
at it. It was a business with him. He was j

calculating and cautious.

. But it was a hazardous occupation no
matter how you cut the mstard. In fact 4
at the time just being it Texas was
dangerous. Fred Olmsted, an ‘eastern |
lawyer who visited Texas wrote well of |
its hazards when he penned, “If your ll

Stephens visited Indian tribes like this one to
bribe them into hiding his stolen horses.

was safe only as you were in constant
readiness to defend it. Everybody ap- ”
propriated everything that suited him, ~
no matter what, running the risk of a” 7
penalty..... »
Even in this environment stealing =~
horses was not a sanctioned industry. =
Actually, of all the Texas villains—one ©
might well say of all the frontier villains ~
—the horse thief was considered the ~
lowest of rascals and he was punished 3
more swiftly and more severely when =
caught. In rural areas, which was most |
of the West, he could be expected to be =
hanged immediatley. E4
The reason was obvious. A western @§
man’s dependence on a horse was total.

j
‘


oe

rich bottomlands of the North and Mid-
dle Pease rivers.

Stephens, wearing he-man’s clothes
this time along with a pair of well tied
down .44s, and his thieves, Henry
Loftus and Marty Joseph, slipped out of
the willows along the North Pease’s
south bank and crept up the Double Bar
W’s corral.

Joseph, a hulking psychopath and an
expert with throwing knives, back-
knifed the herd’s two Mexican vaqueros,

author's photos

He dressed like a dude.

He talked like a patent

medicine hawker. But put him in a corral un-
der cover of night and he could rustle a whole
herd right out of the gate without a sound.

Jarvis (Red) Stephens masqueraded as drum-
mer, Operated largest rustler gang in West.

\

killing them instantly and very quietly.
The rest was routine. While Stephens

" opened the corral gate, Loftus and

Joseph swiftly and very silently dallied a
half dozen of the remuda’s horses into a
string then barebacked onto two level
heads and led the string, followed by
the others, out the gate where Stephens
leaped onto a top horse. —

Soon the thieves and the stolen
horses came to their mounts, which
they had concealed in the willows. They
changed to these mounts, all expert
night horses, and with the expertise of
men who had done it before, they swam
the remuda across the Pease River and
well before first light they were over the
Red River into the Chickasaw Nation in
Southern Indian Territory.

They choused the remuda along the
Willitum Hoof Trial cutting off to the
east at Jocelyn Fork until they came to
their hideout in the low, rolling Green
Hills. : ‘ ;

They laid low for two days, sexing
their Indian girl friends, and watching to
be sure that no posse or neck-stretching
lawman came into the Nation after
them which was very risky business for
a white man unless he had a combina-
tion financial and girl friend rapport
with the Indians like Stephens and his
crowd.

Stephens, it was said, had a talent for
‘getting along’ with everi the most recal-
citrant Indians, including Comanches.

e

Ginger Raleigh, daughter of wealthy Kansan,
gave up luxuries to live as Red’s paramour.

“All you got to do,” he bragged up in

Kansas, where it was safe to talk about
his exploits, “is not be stingy with those
redskins and treat them like they are hu-
man beings instead of a bunch of mangy
coyotes.

“T never double-cross them. I never
even look out of the corner of my eye
at a girl that is already spoken for. I
always give them a little something
more than they bargained for. Conse-
quently there isn’t an Indian in the Na-
tion that wouldn’t help me hide out
from the Blue Billies at Fort Sill or law-
men from the states.”

On the third day the Stephens crowd
began to chouse their stolen horses
northward toward Kansas, skirting to
the east around the areas patrolled by
soldiers from Fort Sill.

Stephens paid two horse bribes to
Yellow Rock, the Chickasaw thief, the
Comanche, kills with Fire, who was
Chief Quanah Parker’s lieutenant, and
to Round Head, brother of Santana, the
renegade Kiowa chief.

It wasn’t long before Stephens, who
always did the money talking —being
glib and able to spielspiel smoother than
a traveling snake oil doctor—sold the
rest of the Double Bar W remuda to a
horse buyer who headquarters out of
Jacobs Well up in Kansas. :

He whooped up happy money for
these horses. They were an unusually
good bunch including several expert

35


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boys went and got him.”

They took Tatum, arms lashed
behind his back, to an aspen tree near
his cabin and hanged him. Then they
went to the Kiowa village at Big Springs
and told Chief Big Knife that they had
executed Tatum and asked the chief and
his council, and anyone else who
wanted to come, to see for themselves
that justice had been done.

“He hung from that horsehair rope
for more’n a month, the cold keeping

him from rotting,” Connelly said,
“during which Indians kept coming to
look at him.”

“While the hanging of the cannibal,
Tatum, was in itself a hanging offense,”
Colonel Breckenridge is quoted in ““Men
Who Made Montana,” “I chose not to
arrest the trappers who executed him.”

“Their deed most certainly saved the
lives of an incalculable number on both

sides.”
’ END

THE MOST”

- UNLIKELY HORSE:
“THIEF.OF ALL

Continued from page 37

crevice then went to the hideout and
divided the money from Stephens’

. cache back ofa fireplace stone. “‘I’ll bet

he never knew we knew where he kept
his money,” Joseph said happily but
wearily; even a human stud like this per-
fidious lout could not sex as often as he
had ravished the red head without be-
coming terribly debilitated.

He and Loftus choused the stolen
herd up to Kansas and sold it to Doyle,
telling the horse buyer that Stephens
had stayed. down in the Territory this
time because he was feelin’ puny.

HEN LOFTUS did a stupid thing.
He took Joseph back to Texas

—for a visit with him on his father’s-

Montague County spread. While they
were there Loftus got drunk in a
Nocona saloon and told his brother,
Sanford, about their murders of Red
Stephens and Ginger Raleigh.

This infuriated Joseph who, also
drunk, shot and killed Loftus and tried
to kill Sanford. But Sanford ran out in-

- to the night and Joseph, suddenly real-

izing what he had done, fled out of
town.

Sanford told his father, Galen
Loftus, who reported the murders to
Deputy U.S. Marshal J.H. Mershon—
who worked out of the court of ‘Hang
the Sons-a-Bitches” Judge I.C. Parker—
at Fort Smith, Arkansas.

An expert at tracking criminals and
solving crimes, Mershon soon found*the
coyote-stripped skeleton of Red
Stephens. Then, aided by Galen and
Sanford Loftus, he lowered himself into
the death reeking cave’s deep crevice
and put Ginger Raleigh’s rodent-nibbled
bones into a pillow case.

Now with the evidence he needed for
a conviction, plus promise of Sanford
Loftus’ testimony, he began to search
for Marty Joseph, finally finding him in
the Seminole Nation in a skin lodge

_ with two giggling naked young maidens.

ee!

Confronted in Judge Parker’s court
with the bones of the dead girl, whose
murder could hardly be called self de-
fense, and by Sanford Loftus who told
of his horse thief brother’s account of
the murders, Joseph was convicted of
the murder of Ginger Raleigh. Judge
Parker stopped the trial at this point be-
cause, as he explained, Joseph couldn’t
also be hanged for the murder of Henry
Loftus since hanging for Ginger’s mur-
der would kill him as dead as he would
ever be.

At dawn on June 20, 1883 Marty
Joseph walked up. the gallows steps at
Fort Smith and minutes later the big
horse theif paid the price for his bestial
perfidy with his life.

END

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Without it he could perish from the
elements, die of thirst or starvation or
be caught and scalped by Indians, or
white renegades.

So western men reasoned that unless
rascals who lusted for easy possession of
horses were restrained by fear of pulling
hemp no man could be sure that when
he awoke in the morning his horse
would be around.

Despite all this Stephens chose north-
ern Texas as the source of his stolen
horses, acquiring two of the most ruth-
less hardcores imaginable as his hench-
men in this risky business. Henry

author’s photos

Loftus, a deserter from the Union
Army, a convicted cattle rustler and
rapist, was the renegade son of a re-
spected Montague County, Texas, land
broker. Marty Joseph was a drifter from
everywhere. He was a sadist, a born
thief, and genuine frontier filth. He was
a heavy-mouthed lout whose paunch
dimpled his saddle horn. But he was as
agile as a cougar, twice as cunning and
three times as cruel.

He looked up to Stephens, though,
who was younger and a saint by com-
parison, perhaps because he saw in
Stephens’ leadership money that he
could not acquire by himself for he was,
contemporaries said, basically stupid.

These three, as incongruous a bunch
as once could imagine, became a horse
stealing gang that, according to the Fort

Worth Democrat, “... ..has aroused
the blood of Texas.”

But Stephens, fully aware of the pen-
alties of capture, never relaxed his vigi-
lance and, with the Indian Territory a
virtual sanctuary, continued his dep-
radations upon the Texas horse herds.

T WAS a profitable business pro-

viding you lived long enough to
enjoy the money you made. A stolen
horse cost nothing and if you got him
up north, if he was anything besides a
crock head or a shad belly crowbait,
you got real nice money. Horses were in
short supply in Kansas, western Nebras-
ka and eastern Colorado and brokers
like Doyle could pay Stephens or other
thieves fancy prices and still make a
killing.

Stephens might have continued to
rustle horses indefinitely if he hadn’t
fallen in love with a Crooked Creek,
Kansas cattle feeder’s daughter, Ginger
Raleigh, a vivacious 19 year old red
head who was described as the “most
looksome lass in southern Kansas.”

Stephens, incredibly, persuaded Gin-
ger to leave her wealthy father’s home.
The martial choice of practically every
unmarried man in Kansas, accompanied
him to his hideout in the Indian
Territory.

She must have known he was a horse
thief, or she found out very soon, her
friends later testified, because she was
possessed of superior intelligence and
was certainly no naive backwoods girl
who didn’t know the time of day, for
she had ridden with her shrewd, astute
father on cattle buying trips and had
spent many a week with him and her
mother living it up in the best hotels in
Kansas City and St. Louis.

Taking this winsome maiden into the
wilderness of the Southern Indian Terri-
tory’s Green Hills was an indiscretion
you wouldn’t expect of Red Stephens,
and what happened, considering the
lecherous nature of his colleagues, was
almost predictable.

They wanted to share her charms.
Stephens refused. “She’s not for
passing,” he said. “If you want a white
woman, you can get your own next
time we go up north.”

The morning of May 3, 1882, Loftus
told Stephens that Chickasaws were
stealing the horses the gang had en-
closed in a rope corral below the hide-
out, these horses being the remuda from
a Wichita County, Texas ranch which
Stephens and the others had stolen two
days previously. ‘

Stephens hurried with Loftus to the
grassy draw in which the horses were
kept. “I don’t see where any horses are
missing,’’ Stephens said, his eyes sweep-
ing over the corral.

These were his last words. Joseph,
who had been lurking behind a tree,
shot him between his shoulders.

|

\

Deputy U. S. Marshal J. H. Marshen tracked
down cruel killer, brought him to justice.

The killer and Loftus ran back to the
hideout cabin. They spent most of the
day taking turns at raping Ginger. Then
Joseph shoved the muzzle of his revolv-
er into herstomach and fired its six bul-
lets into her ravished body. :

They carried her mutilated nude
body to a cave at whose rear a granite
crevice descended for more than forty
feet. They dropped her body into the

(Continued on page 73)

Se

Joseph had concealed Ginger’s body in cave.
Marshen found-her bones, pieces of clothing.

4


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to take up the chase and the robbers were
caught.

Krull had barely been taken to police
headquarters in New York, I learned, be-
fore FBI men were there to identify him
as the man they were seeking for the at-
tack on me.

All of this time, little Paul Allen had
been held as a material witness in the U. S.
Public Health Hospital at the Atlanta fed-
eral penitentiary. I guess after telling what
he did, the police were afraid to let him
be at liberty as long as Michael Krull was
still at large.

I thought that the case would go swiftly

to a conclusion now, but I underestimated
the Krulls. Bice pleaded guilty to a charge
of being an accessory after the fact in their
crime, and was sentenced to a term of 5
years.
. ' The Krulls were placed in Fulton Tower
in Chattanooga and were charged with vio-
lating the Lindbergh Law on the kidnaping
charge, which carrics a penalty of death.
Court-appointed lawyers had entered not
guilty pleas for them and were trying to
get a change of venue.

But in the quiet of their cells, George
and Michael Krull were plotting. They took
metal food plates and fashioned rough
types of their favorite weapons—knives.
Then, with two other prisoners, they made
their bid for freedom on January 14th,
1956. Suddenly flashing their knives, they
overpowered two deputies, grabbed their
keys and broke out of their cells.

They got as far as the rear basement door
of the prison before the alarm rang and
other deputies opened fire. Then they sur-
rendered. I was frightened when I heard
how close they had come to freedom. I
would not have put it past them to come
after me and try to kill me before the trial.
Already threatened with the death penalty,
they would hardly have hesitated at my
murder. But this was the last chance they
got because federal officers took the Krulls
out of the local prison and moved them to
the federal penitentiary for safekeeping.

I still had one ordeal to endure. That was
the trial which opened February 2nd, 1956,
in Atlanta, Georgia, before a jury and U. S.
Judge Frank A. Hooper. I had to live over
again those long terrible hours when I was
their prisoner.

Little Paul Allen told what he had seen,

and then I had to take the witness stand
and repeat everything that -had happened
to me. The Krulls sat staring at me all of
the time, not a spark of remorse on their
faces. ,

In the two days of trial, a weak attempt
to offer a defense for those men was made.
Relatives testified that they had been wild
from boyhood and they never thought
George, especially, was “quite right.” That
was an understatement if I ever heard one.

But the cruelest and most unfair thing of
all was when the Krulls tried to claim that
I had consented to the terrible things they
did to me. Of course, nothing could be fur-
ther from the truth. I did beg them to kill
me—that I admit—to release me ‘from their
tortures. But that was all.

Twenty witnesses for the government
backed up my story and piled up evidence
against the Krulls. Psychiatrists said that
they were legally sane, and Assistant U. S.
Attorney Robert Sparks demanded the
death penalty in the electric chair as the
only proper penalty.

Because of their viciousness, the Krulls
came to court in handcuffs fastened to belts
about their waists, but even so I was glad
to know that officers were in the room
when I had to be within four walls with
them. *

Their crimes caught up with George and
Michael Krull on Saturday morning, Feb-
ruary 4th, 1956. They rose and faced the
jury and heard the foreman declare them
guilty without recommendation of mercy.
That meant that they must die for what
they did to me and the judge immediately
sentenced them to the electric chair. They
did not say a word, but as they were led
from the courtroom to cells in death row,
George Krull for the first time walked with
his head low on his chest.

I feel no satisfaction in the fact that they
will die. The law must take its course and
I only know that I was an innocent victim
throughout. They selected me as the target
for their savagery and I hope that no other
woman will ever have to go through what
I did.

Yes, I begged them to kill me but I am
alive with a memory that will never be
blotted out and it is for the Krulls that
death awaits. It is the way the Lord must
have willed it. o¢¢

The Lone Raider
at Port Chester

(Continued from page 25)

let you have it. I mean exactly what I say.”
Mary began to weep, but she tried to
control the sound. The gunman prodded
her in the back with his pistol. “Shut up,”
he said. “I don’t want no noise.”
The sounds became a muffled sobbing.
The gunman ordered his victims to lie

down on the washroom floor. He looped

the wires into a lead which he fastened to
the doorknob once again.

At 7:57 a key scraped in the lock and
the door opened. J. Purdy Ungemack, 45,
the assistant treasurer of the bank, pulled
his key out of the lock and stepped over
the threshold. He frowned and looked
around, wondering why there were no
lights on in the tellers’ cages. Suddenly he
saw the desperado covering him with the
gun. He froze in his tracks.

“Let’s close the door,” the bandit said.
“We got work to do.”

Ungemack let the door slam shut behind

him. He listened to the lock click as if it
were the last sound he would hear in the
world.

“Open the vault,” the gunman. said.
“And give me a straight answer. Is it a
time lock?”

Ungemack flirted with the possibility of
carrying off a lie.

“I want it straight,” the bandit growled.
“Don’t think about it. Talk.”

“It’s a time lock.”

“What happens if you don’t wait between
doors?”

“It rings the police.”

“How long a wait?”

“Fifteen minutes,” Ungemack said. .

“Okay,” the bandit said. “Let’s get to
the vault.”

The bandit jabbed his gun into the bank
Official’s side. Ungemack moved forward
to the paneling which concealed the cash
vault. He started to swing it open, then
he hesitated.

“Do it,” the gunman said. “Don’t stall.
And don’t touch an alarm button or you
won't live to regret it.” ’

Ungemack opened the paneled door and
revealed the heavy 4 by 5 foot safe door.
He bent down and turned the dial of the
combination lock. Behind him, the bandit
kicked over a cardboard carton and an
office waste basket. “Fill them up,” he said.

“And work fast. D
The heavy door s\
considerable amoun
and the vault’s inne
“I’m counting off
dit said. “When it’s
inner door, right?”
Ungemack nodded
“Start loading the
With nerveless fir
transferred the bun
the safe to the wast:
about to dump in so
the gunman stoppe
that stuff,” the ban
the long green.”
The coins were le:
ed tensely for the re
tick by.
“Is it time?” the
what seemed a long
“A minute to go
clicks at the end of
They listened wo
Finally it came. U
inner dial and tur:
numbers. The inner
reveal well over $10
greenbacks,
“Load the carton.
“Make it fast.”
It took two minut
box. During this tir
his victim. “We're ta

MA:

DETE

June iss

NOW «at

he said. “Don’t mak
helping me _ transi
branch if anybody <
the eyes if you ac‘
Ungemack noddec
packed into the pa
wastebasket. It or
daring bandit to g:
“Tll carry the bas
carton,” the bandi
other end. We’re
anything happens, i
The official gri;
carton. His captor
as the basket. The.
Outside, the ban}
starting to line u
Detective Jack Mul
the opening of th:
his cruiser three c:
On the far corner,
was directing traffi
School English te:
a bus at the curb. -
truck driver was p:
street. The driver
leave the bank’s f
their load to the g:
at that,” the truck
worker. “They’re


“I Begged Them
to Kill Me”

(Continued from page 19)

doors. Every husband should impress on
his wife the importance of it.

But unsuspecting, unprepared, I drove
to the 1100 block of Market Street, arriving
there at 1:15. The wholesale drug firm was
on the other side of the street. In order to
get over there, I drove past to the service
station at 1143 Market Street. I swung into
the station and waited for traffic to clear so
that I could make a U-turn and go back on
the proper side of the street.

I did not even see.him. approach—the |,

man I now know as George Krull. One

moment I was watching the traffic, waiting |

for my chance to pull out, the next instant
the door beside me was opened anda man
was pushing his way in, shoving me, across
the seat before him. I looked at. him ‘in ab-
solute amazement, first expecting to recog-
nize some friend playing a joke on me. But
I had never seen the hard eyes, the strange-
ly shrunken cheeks before. The thought
flashed into my mind, he’s making a mis-
take. He’ll be embarrassed when he realizes
that he doesn’t know me. ;

It was then that I saw the wicked-looking
knife in his left hand. I couldn’t believe
this was happening. My heart began to
pound madly. Now the knife was against
my left side, the sharp point pricking
through my dress, into my skin.

“Be quiet,” the man snarled menacingly.
“If you scream, I’ll kill you.” a yt he

I believed that he would do it and,° at
that moment, I wanted to live. How I was
to wish later that I had just opened my

mouth and screamed my lungs out. Then :
he might have killed me and I would have

been better off.

It’s strange how alert your mind can be
in a sudden emergency. I could see this
stranger, feel his knife in my side, still hear
his threat. Yet I was wondering what I
could do, how I could escape. From the
corner of my right eye, I saw another man
at the right side door of the car.

He took hold of the door handle, tried to
open it, but it was locked. I thought, he’s
coming to help me! He’s seen this man with
the knife and he’s“trying to open the door
so that I can jump out and he can;fight him
off. I reached up suddenly and pulled the
handle so that the right: door swung open.
But I didn’t have a chance to leap out of
the car. Before I could move, this second
man was pushing his way in, too! He was
smaller than the other man, about 5 feet
8, and lighter, but wiry and strong.

I felt myself squeezed between the two
of them and I saw that the second man also
held a knife in his right hand. This, I later
learned, was Michael Krull, 31, brother of
the first man. George Krull was 33.

I was too terrified to move. “What is it? °

What do you want?” I managed to:ask.

“We want money, lots of money,” Mich-
ael Krull said, “and we want: the registra-
tion papers for this car.” 3

I heaved an involuntary sigh of relief.
If that was all they wanted, I might. get
off easily. “I don’t have any money with
me,” I confessed, “or the car registration
papers, either.” ‘

Did I think that they would simply take
my word for it? I don’t know. It was a plain
statement of fact. I didn’t have a penny or
the registration. I almost expected them to
get out of the car and walk away.

“You’re lying,” Michael Krull snapped.

George Krull had put the car into gear
and was turning out into the street. I felt
the hard bodies on either side of me, my

arms were pressed very close to my sides.
‘We were going along the street so familiar
to me, passing stores where I had traded,
and yet it seemed weird and bizarre. I felt
almost disembodied, as if this was happen-
ing to someone else, not to me.

But I was brought rudely back to reality.
The moment we were at a place where not
so many people could see us; Michael Krull
tore at the neck of my dress and jammed
his hand into my brassiere. “Where do you
keep the money?” he snarled. “Give it to
me, do you hear?”

I pushed at his hand. “I haven’t any
money,” I cried. “I told you the truth!”

He turned suddenly in the seat and his
hand flashed out, coming back as a fist. It
exploded in my face, so sharp that it didn’t
really hurt at the moment. Lights danced
in my eyes and I had the salty taste in my
mouth that was blood.”

“Then you'll get some,” he said, “or you'll
be: dead.”

It was the cruel force of that blow that
made me realize that these men meant ex-
actly what they said. They were not going
‘to weaken, become sorry for me because I
was a woman. Such fiends would only de-
light in tormenting someone who could not
defend herself.

Michael Krull’s fist thudded into my
body, driving out my breath and I gasped
in pain. Again and again he struck me.
“Please,” I said, “don’t! Don’t! I can get
you some money.”

“Now you're talking,” George Krull said.
He kept his eyes on the road as he drove.
“How much can you get?”

T\thought I would tempt them so that
they would be sure to let me go. And I was
willing to pay any sum and then save up to
pay it back. “I’ll get you $1000,” I said.
“Drive me to my brother’s pharmacy and
T’ll get you the money and the papers for
the car.”

“A grand,” Michael Krull said. “That’s
better.”

All this time we were driving around the
streets of South Chattanooga. When I told
them the address of my brother’s drugstore,
George Krull drove to that neighborhood.
We even drove directly past the store and
I could have cried to see so close the place
that represented security and protection to
me. But with those men and their knives
at each side of me, the store might just as
well have been on the moon for all the
good it could do me.

They were talking across me. “You go
in the store and tell them we have her and
get the money,” George Krull said. “T’ll
keep her out in the car in case they try
any funny business.”

“Okay,” Michael Krull said.

“You're going past it,” I said. I knew my
brother and mother would be glad to pay
them to win my release. My heart sank fur-
ther when they kept on going. “Aren’t you
going in?”

“lve changed my mind,” George said.
They were both nervous and excited. I
think that, from one moment to the next,
they did not know what they were going to
‘do. “It’s too risky. We’ll have to think of
something else,” George added.

Now we were heading down Market
Street to Main ‘Street, away from my last
hope. We turned onto Rossville Boulevard.
We kept on driving south and I knew that
we had crossed the state line into Georgia.
Cars were going past us in the opposite
direction and I prayed that someone I
knew would see us—someone who would
know that there was something wrong if
I were riding in a car like that with two
strange men. :

People looked at us, but just as you look,
unsuspecting, at anyone in a passing car.
I didn’t dare make a sound or sign, with
those knives against me. But my mind was
clear. I thought, there must be a way out of
this.

“Look,” I said desperately. “Why don’t
you stop and telephone to my mother?
She’ll arrange to give you the money and
the car papers, if you'll tell her how to
do it.” ;

“That’s a good idea,” George Krull said.
“We'll do that.”

We were on the outskirts of the town
of Rossville, Georgia. They pulled up near
a restaurant or grill of some kind and .~
George Krull stuck his knife back in my
left side. “Bend your head way down so
nobody will notice you,” he commanded.
Then he told his brother, “Go make that
call.”

I sat there, my head down almost to my
knees, barely daring to breathe. Michael
Krull was gone an eternity. How I prayed
that he would get the right answers. But
something went wrong—just what it was
I didn’t learn. When he came back, he and
his brother talked excitedly in a foreign
language. It was the first time they had
done that and I could not understand a
word.

George Krull put the car into gear and
my heart almost stopped beating. He was
not turning around, not taking me back to
Chattanooga. We were going farther south
into Georgia. The men were not planning
to release me. They must have decided that
what I would get was death—or worse.

We had only gone three blocks when I
knew that my most horrible fears were to
be realized. Michael Krull looked at me and
his mouth twisted in a ghastly grin. “I’m
going to throw you in the back seat,” he
said. He grabbed my arms in a steel grip.

I have a vertebra that becomes dislocated
easily and causes excruciating pain. The
force of his grip digging into my arms told
me that he would do what he threatened—
throw me back there so violently that I
might be crippled for life. “Wait! Wait,”
I cried. “You don’t have to do that.”

On legs that shook with fear, I half-
crawled, was half-pushed to the rear of the
car which had no seat. As I sank to the
cold metal floor, numb with revulsion, I saw
Michael Krull’s face swimming before me
and felt his foul breath in my face. The
pain and anguish which I had suffered from
their blows and knife thrusts were nothing
compared with what I endured now.

I don’t know how long I was back there.
Perhaps part of the time I lost conscious-
ness. I seemed to-be floating in a black
night, shot through with lightning flashes of
pain. Once I cried out and Michael Krull
punched me with his fist.

The car stopped but I cquld only lie
there and moan. Michael Krull took the
wheel and George came back and the whole
nightmare started over.

When I screamed, George Krull jabbed
his knife at my throat until it broke
through the skin and blood ran down my
neck. “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!” he kept
saying.

“Kill me,” I begged, and I meant it.
Death would have been sweet deliverance
from the horror that seemed to have no
ending. “Go ahead—please. Kill me!”

But even death was denied me. It was one
threat that they apparently did not intend
to carry out—yet.

Again the car was rolling and I was at
the mercy of this beast who knew no
mercy. I had lost all track of time. Mo-
ments and hours were one long-continued
throbbing horror. At last, George Krull
climbed back to the front seat. I lay there
weeping, wondering why this had happened
to me and praying that death would free
me.

I felt the car stop. George Krull looked
back and said to me, “I’m taking you into
the woods.” Half-consciously I thought,
now I am going to die. That will be best.
It will be the only thing. He seized my
wrist and dragged me from the car. I no-
ticed that it was getting dark. Many hours

- must have elapse

their way into tt
mained in the ca:
I was to see him

I realized that
mauga-Chattanoo
A vast stretch of
deserted. Here w
less fiend could
leisure and bury
never be founc
Krull walked ra
my wrist. I stu:
the dusk, my vt
to hold me up.
embankment. TI
other side, wher
den in a ravine.

Roughly he th
again he assau!
to be scratching
and he laughed
grave,” he said.
quickly.

I did not ever
when rescue suc
peared in the p
Vanous. But of!
dusk, a man’s
first I thought

‘coming to rejoi:

But George !
pressed his kn:
quiet,” he said.

The man stop
I could hear hi
distance. “What
called.

George Krull
me to my feet a
We heard the s!

We were mo\
mained standin
of hopeless de
He thought we
sometimes com:
moved on, he
us further. He!
was going awa}

I tried to ce
closed with fea
make a sound. ’
was pulling mc
weakness savec
able to carry n
rough ground :
stones and thr
at me.”

“Get up! Get
I struggled to
steps and fell

“Hey, there!
shout. He was
let go of my °
face against the
the man callec

“Like hell I
fled swiftly uy
over the bank
the hand of th:
crashed along °
steps thud past

But in a fe
“Got away,” hi
me. “What’s th

I looked up i
derful face of
spilled out of rr
I cried until I
gentle arms r
back to the ro:

I gasped out
and hurt and
worry, that it
get me to a ho:

I shall never
ing of those m
me clean and
And I loved th
of the law offi
story and pro:
had done this


“Why don’t
1y mother?
money and
her how to

Krull said.

f the town
‘ed up near
» kind and
oack in my
y down so
ommanded.
make that

most to my
ie. Michael
w I prayed
swers. But
hat it was
ick, he and
1. a foreign
> they had
derstand a

9 gear and
ig. He was
me back to
cther south
ot planning
ecided that
worse.
‘ks when I
irs were to
di at me and
grin. “I’m
k seat,” he
steel grip.
3 dislocated
pain. The
y arms told
ireatened—
atly, that I
‘ait! Wait,”
that.”
air, I half-
rear of the
ink to the
‘sion, I saw
before me
face. The
fered from
re nothing
now.
ack there.
conscious-
na black
5 flashes of
nael Krull

only lie
took the
the whole

ull jabbed
it broke
down my
‘” he kept

meant it.
eliverance
» have no
ne!”

It was one
not intend

' I was at
knew no
time. Mo-
-continued
rge Krull
lay there
happened
‘ould free

ull looked
: you into

thought,
\l be best.
eized my
car. I no-
any hours

hls

must have elapsed since my captors forced
their way into the car. Michael Krull re-
mained in the car and it was the last time
I was to see him for many weeks.

I realized that we were in the Chicka-
mauga-Chattanooga National Military Park.
A vast stretch of woods and fields, it was
deserted. Here was a place where a heart-
less fiend could murder a woman at his
leisure and bury her where a body might
never be .found to accuse him. George
Krull walked rapidly, never letting go of
my wrist. I stumbled along after him in
the dusk, my unsteady legs barely able
to hold me up. He pulled me up a steep
embankment. Then we stumbled down the
other side, where we were completely hid-
den in a ravine.

Roughly he threw me to the ground and
again he assaulted me. Later he seemed
to be scratching at the ground and bushes
and he laughed harshly. “I’m digging your
grave,” he said. I hoped it would be over
quickly.

I did not even know what was happening
when rescue suddenly and miraculously ap-
peared in the person of Park Ranger Fred
Vanous. But off some little distance in the
dusk, a man’s figure came into view. At
first I thought that it was Michael Krull,

‘coming to rejoin his brother.

But George Krull started abruptly. He
pressed his knife to my side again. “Be
quiet,” he said. “Don’t say a word.”

The man stopped and looked over at us.
I could hear his voice as if from a great
distance. “What’s going on over there?” he
called.

George Krull gave no answer. He pulled
me to my feet and started along the ravine.
We heard the shout again, “Who are you?”

We were moving away and the man re-
mained standing where he was. A feeling
of hopeless desolation overwhelmed me.
He thought we were ordinary petters who
sometimes come to the park. As long as we
moved on, he probably would not bother
us further. Help was within reach—and I
was going away from it!

I tried to call out, but my throat was
closed with fear and exhaustion. I couldn’t
make a sound. The strong grip on my wrist
was pulling me along. And then my very
weakness saved me. My legs collapsed, un-
able to carry me any farther. I fell to the
rough ground and was pulled along, over
stones and through brambles which tore
at me.

“Get up! Get up,” George Krull snarled.
I struggled té my feet, took a few more
steps and fell again.

“Hey, there! Wait!” I heard the ranger
shout. He was running toward us. Krull
let go of my wrist and I lay panting, my
face against the dirt. “You’re under arrest,”
the man called.

“Like hell I am,” Krull yelled back. He
fled swiftly up the ravine and scrambled

‘over the bank. Orange flames came from

the hand of the running ranger and a shot
crashed along the ravine. I heard his foot-
steps thud past me.

But in a few minutes, he came back.
“Got away,” he said. He was bending over
me. “What’s this all about?”

I looked up into that kind face, that won-
derful face of my deliverer, and hot tears
spilled out of my eyes and down my cheeks,
I cried until I shook with relief and I felt
gentle arms raising me and guiding me
back to the road. ‘

I gasped out that I had been kidnaped
and hurt and the ranger told me not to
worry, that it was all over, and he would
get me to a hospital.

I shall never forget the wonderful bless-
ing of those moments when nurses washed
me clean and doctors soothed my injuries,
And I loved the ominous look on the faces

_ of the law officers as they took down my

story and promised me that the men who

' had done this terrible thing to me would

be caught and punished. I thank God.

But it was not to be easy. George and
Michael Krull, I learned, were hardened
criminals with long records. They were
adept at evading the law and they were
able to fight like tigers when it looked as
if they would be called to answer for their
crimes.

Officers of Chattanooga and Georgia and
even the federal government took on the
search for them. Because the Krull brothers
had kidnaped me and taken me across a
state line, I learned that they had violated
the Lindbergh Law. Scott S. Alden, special
FBI agent in charge of the Knoxville dis-
trict, became head of the hunt for my ab-
ductors.

And now other facts came to light. I
learned that Lieutenant Kelso Rice and Pa-
trolman W. M. Mathis of the Chattanooga
police actually had questioned the Krulls
and another man on the night before my
kidnaping. They had noticed three men in
a car bearing Missouri license plates parked
near Main and Market Streets. Because
they looked tough, Lieutenant Rice ordered
Patrolman Mathis to check them.

One of the men, who was identified as
Edward Rufus Bice, 33, said he had just
arrived in Chattanooga after being gone
7 years. He drove there from St. Louis. The
other men in the car were George and
Michael Krull. The Krulls, Rice said, were
hitchhikers he had picked up on the road.
They gave the address of Bice’s mother, in
whose home they said they planned to
spend the night and they were allowed to
go. When I told my story, the officers went
to the Bice home, but the men had fled.

I was told that my brother’s car had been
recovered in the park and would be held
for a few days while fingerprint experts
went over it.

Several days went past with no word of
the fugitives and then one of the strangest
incidents in this strange case occurred. A
tiny, thin man named Paul Leroy Allen, 24,
came up to a policeman at 4 o’clock in the
morning at the bus terminal. Almost every-
one in Chattanooga has seen Allen, an
amputee and paralytic, he weighs only 80
pounds and is 4 feet, 6 inches tall. Propel-
ling himself in a wheel chair, he sells pen-
cils and surgical dressings on the streets
of the city. He rolled himself up to the
policeman and said, “I want to tell the FBI
about a crime.”

According to his story, a second car, in
which Allen and Bice were riding, had been
following the Krulls and me all of the time.
They had even followed us into the park.
Allen said that he had seen George Krull
after his escape from the ranger and that
Krull had told him what had happened.

Allen said that when he “realized the
enormity of the crime” he knew that he
could not keep silent. Shortly after taking
his statement, officers swooped down on a
Peters Street house and arrested Edward
Rufus Bice. He gave them the name of a
hotel, where they arrested George Krull.
For all his vaunted toughness, he was
taken in custody without a fight.

But no one knew or would tell where
Michael Krull was. Weeks went by as FBI
men hunted for him all over the country.
Then, on July 28th, 1955, just as the FBI
was getting ready to put him on its list
of 10 Most Wanted criminals, Michael
Krull tried another crime in New York City
that was to prove his undoing.

Despite the fact that he was being sought,
Michael Krull and another man struck up
a conversation in a New York bar with
Bert Kagan, 22, of Astoria, Queens. After
a few drinks, they induced Kagan to go
with them “to meet some friends” and all
three got into a taxicab. As they were
riding, they suddenly seized Kagan and
robbed him of a $30 wrist watch and $17
in cash. Then they jumped from the cab,
but Kagan’s shouts caused two policemen

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“JIM TATUM !S HOME"

football’s most colorful coach
‘returns to build North Carolina
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“WHAT THE DERBY
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the great Red Smith waxes
sentimental about the
Kentucky classic

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ACROSS THE BRIDGE TO DEATH

(TD Oct., 1957)

Miss Meta Wagner, 75, who looked
and felt much younger than her years,
was a justice of the peace in Oconto
Falls, Wisconsin. On July 4, 1957, she
decided to go fishing. When she did
not return home that evening, friends,
searching for her, found her body near
the place where she had been fishing.
She had been stabbed 14 times. No one
could suggest a motive for the brutal
crime.

On July 7th, Joseph LaCourt, 27, on
parol after serving 60 days, for forging
a check, and who also had served a
sentence on a morals charge, was ques-
tioned. “I killed her,” he said. “I don’t
know why.”

On trial before Judge Arold F.
Murphy in circuit court at Oconto, on
a first-degree murder charge, LaCourt
withdrew his original plea of not guilty
by reason of insanity, after two doctors
had pronounced him sane. He pleaded
guilty and on August 29th he was
sentenced by Judge Murphy to life im-
prisonment.

STARR'S CHOIRBOY KILLER

(TD September, 1957)

The body of Ruth Starr Zeitler, a 15-
year-old Fair Lawn, New Jersey,
schoolgirl, reported missing on May
17th, was found on May 23rd in a glen
near Saddle River. She had been
strangled and sexually assaulted.

Investigation led to the arrest of
Ronald Paul Marrone, 18, young Bible
student and choirboy, who had been
questioned four years earlier in con-
nection with sex assaults on little girls
in Lodi.

Ronnie confessed that on May 17th
he offered Starr a ride home at noon.
Instead he took her to the glen. When
she resisted his advances he strangled
her, then assaulted her. In a pre-trial
examination five alienists ruled that
Ronnie is sane. His trial was sched-
uled for September 9th.

On September 5th, in Bergen County
court in Hackensack, Ronnie entered a
plea of no defense. Judge C. Conrad
Schneider, who was to have presided
at the trial, accepted the plea and at
once sentenced Ronald Paul Marrone
to life imprisonment.

“HE SAVED MY LIFE"

(TD April, 1957)

Joseph Walter Leopold, popular song
writer of the 30s, but recently an in-
vestigator for credit and loan companies,
was shopping in a Hollywood, Cali-
fornia, supermarket the evening of De-
cember 29th, 1956. As he approached a
check-out counter he saw the checker
backed against the wall, a masked gun-
man holding a gun on her while, with
his other hand, he rifled the cash drawer.
Leopold flung a can of beans at the
gunman, who whirled and shot Leopold
through the head, then fled to the park-
ing lot.

Within 12 hours police had in custody
two men charged with murder and
armed robbery. They were _ Charles
Neely, 26, and Norman Golland, 29, both
parolees from San Quentin. On May
23rd, 1957, Charles F. Neely pleaded
guilty before Judge Clement D. Nye
to first-degree murder, was sentenced
to life in prison and taken immediately
to San Quentin. On June 10th Norman
Golland, who denied that he had driven
the getaway. car for Neely, also received
a life sentence.

Of the slain Walter Leopold the store
checker said with grateful emotion, “He
saved my life! I could see the gunman’s
nervous hand twitching on the trigger.
I was sure the next moment would be
my last.”

TERROR ON THE CAMPUS

(TD March, 1957)

During October and November, 1956,
a wave of incendiary fires occurred in
Moscow, Idaho. Four of them were in
dormitories of the University of Idaho.
In one of the fires three students died.
One detail kept secret by the investiga-
tors was the fact that the fires had been
started by copies of a certain Spokane
newspaper soaked in gasoline.

After questioning 1500 students, sus-
picion was directed toward Paul D. Mat-
ovich, 20, a freshman at the university,
when it was learned that he had been
suspected of setting fires while serving
in the air force at Hamilton field, and
as a youngster. Paul was asked to write
a report of the fires for the college
paper. In it he mentioned the undis-
closed fact as to how the fires had been
set.

Report of latest legal developments

on published by TD

On November 20th Paul Matovich
confessed, saying he never had meant
to hurt anyone. He was charged with
first-degree arson, and on November
30th>the charge of first-degree murder
in the deaths of the three students was
added. .

At his trial the state asked for the .

death penalty,- but on April 12th the
jury convicted Matovich of second-de-

gree murder and recommended psychi- |

atric treatment. On April 15th District
Judge Hugh A. Baker sentenced him to
not more than 25 years in the state peni-
tentiary and told the youth that he would
recommend that the prison psychiatrist
“watch you with care.”

ond

“I BEGGED THEM TO KILL ME"

(TD June, 1956)

On. August 2nd, 1957, for the third |
time in little over a year, the Krull |

brothers, George, 36, and Michael, 32,
heard themselves sentenced to die in the
electric chair in Georgia’s state prison

‘at Reidsville. The crime for which

they were sentenced was the kidnaping
and rape of a 53-year-old woman in
Chattanooga, Tennessee, on April 14th,
1955. They forced their way into her
car as she was parking it on a Chatta-
nooga business street, drove her to

Chickamauga National Park and beat |

and raped her,

Appeals delayed the execution of the

sentences, but when their final appeal
to President Eisenhower for clemency
was turned down, U. S. District Judge
Frank A. Hooper, in Atlanta Federal
Court, then resentenced the brothers to
die on August 21st, 1957. George Krull
heard the sentence in silence, but
Michael Krull made an impassioned
plea to Judge Hooper, asserting, “I did
not touch that woman in the govern-
ment park.”

The judge overruled the plea, saying,
“You both were given a fair trial and
were served by able counsel.”

On. learning President Eisenhower
had rejected their appeal for clemency,
the brothers attempted suicide, slash-
ing their wrists with wire from a bed-
spring.

George and Michael Krull died in the
electric chair at Georgia’s Reidsville
prison on August 21st. The double exe-
cution was the first federal electrocu-
tion in the 27-year-old prison.

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aro
WANTED A SILK HAT.

Tucson, Ariz., July 9.-Philip Lash-
By. a Dane, convicted by the United
hates court for killing John Saunders,
United States soldier, at Huachuca
year ago, Was hanged today. He
splayed remarkable nerve. He asked

ra silk hat to wear instead of the
ack cap at the execution, He made
cular remarks, danced a jig on the
affold and just before the drop fell
-erled, “Let her go, Gallagher!" His
ck was broken and he died without
| quiver, .

CRIME OF LASHLEY,

riven to Murder by a Woman's
Smiles.

— + ee

Lashiey’s crime was the murder of
rivate John Saunders at Fort Hua-
wa oon Apri! 18, 1896. . Saunders
as also a colored man and belonged
the same troop. The killing took
ace on the ‘officers’ line” in the ser-
nts’ quarters of the residence of
‘ptain Dodge commanding the post.‘
le motive of the murder was jeal-
sy, Caused by the charms of Mrs.
agezle Jennings, a servant in the fam-.
ot Captain Dodge, and the wife of
other colored soldier, Lashley had:
n supplanted in the affections of,
Jennings by Saunders. Lashley.

ra,

1 a = :
anarters, Lashley was Ising on ae h

Moody and quarrelsume. The sn.;..

of Mra, Jennings were showered 0.
Saunders, Finally she asked him ta
accompany her on a visit to her
mother, tO whom she was going to
take gy f tee cream. Lashley rosea
from th@bed, muttering and was or-
dered Og@ief the quarters by Mrs. Jen-
nings. SBien he drew a revolver and
eit at Saunders, exclaimed:
“Yo’ time is come!’ We fired, the
shot taking effect in Saunders’ right
arm. A second shot caught him tn
the left arm. The third and fatal one
penetrated his breast, passed to his ,
back and was curiously deflected 80,
that it entered his ‘heart from the other.
Bide. He died instantly.

A HAND LALD ON HIM.

Lashley was soon after examined on:
a charge of murder by Court Com-
missioner Duncan at Tombstone, and
was held to the federal] grand jury. It
was hinted at the examination that!
Lashley would plead self-defense, and
something was sald of a large pair of
shears which Saunders was holding!
In his hand at the time he was shot. :
It was shown, however, that he was
carrying a large plate of loe cream at!
the same time. An incident of the
examination was the conduct of Mrs.!
Jennings, who giggled Immoderately
and otherwise expressed satisfaction:
at the prominence she had attained. |
It Is not every woman whose lovel{-/
ness has been the death of one man |
and has put the neck of another jn,
peril.

Lashley was taken to Tucson and:
was Indleted before the next federal’
Srand jury, which convened on June
17. His case went to trial on June
19; he was convicted on the next day |
and sentenced by Judge Bethune to be’
hanged on the next. The date of ex-'
ecution was July 31. ashley was ably
defended by Charles Blenman of Tuc-
son, who inade the most extraordinary |
effort to save his client and whose,
Persevenince was unflagging until
word was rece;ved from the president:
that he would not interfere.


“STRUGGLE FOR LIFE.
The attoriuey fought thé case from
the beginning. He objected to the in-
dietment and to the trial on the ground |
Pewee tA newrt had nrevininely heen RC

; few ;
Heen prevented from inforiping the ©
jnry that the penalty in case of con-{t
viction was death and death alone. The. t
Appeal was taken after the denial of a!
motion for a new trial and Lashley | &
Was tiuken to Yuma where {t was In-} 3
tended then that the sentence should, |
be carried out. The ease came up at; !
the January term of supreme conrt and My
the judgement of the lower court was’
affirmed,
Lashley was taken back to Tucson
and the date of his execution was set |
for April 23. There was still hope.
The prisoner had never believed that!
he could be hanged. He had so much’
faith in his lawyer and the lawyer,
was determined to prove that it was,
well grounded. Having exhausted all |
omer resoniges he made an interna- |
Nonal affair of it. lashley, though a
Neer, was a Danish snbject, having.
heen born at Christianstaed on the
island of St. Crotx, THe had served fn:
the Danish navy on the Tylland and’
the Fordenskiold and had been compli-
mented by his superior officer.

AN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIR. |

The Danish Government Becomes In-)

terested in Lashley,
' These faets werm made known to Mr. !
Constantine Brun, the Danish min-|
ister at Washington. A correspond:

nnce was opened with the state de-
Partment

which communicated with:
| the department of justice. The latter
department strangely misunderstood
the case, Imagining it to be within ter-
ritorial jurisdiction, ‘A copy of all the
Correspondence wag laid before Gov-
ernor Franklin with the request that
if in his opinion the circumstances
Warranted, the Sentence of Lashley
might be commuted to imprisonment
for life, A reprieve was granted and
In the meantime the proper status of
the case was determined, the presi-
dent Signifying hig intention not to in-
terfere, Meanwhile a request had
been received from the state depart-'
ment requesting the opinion of the jus-
tices, the United States attorney and:
the governor regarding the advisabli)-
ity of Commuting the sentence. This’
was within a week of the date of. ex-|
ecution last fixed. At the request of}
the state department Governor Frank-!
lin granted a reprieve until July 9 and
he wired the President, by whom his
action wag affirmed. These compara-
Uvely unimportant details are men-
tloned, because of their legal interest
showing the most curious commingling

SO ee arrestee

(Continued on Elghth Page.)

ye

ace

Cary,

MALONE, James, wh, hanged Yavupai Co., AZ (Federal) March 21, 1878

THE LAST BATTLE OF
— JAMES MALONE —

o one will ever know why
James Malone left his mother
and a brother and a New

York City fireman’s job to head for
California in the mid-1860s. Perhaps
he longed for a better life, but he
never found it. A decade later, the
thirty-year-old Malone
stood accused of mur-

By MARY G. STANO

the Twelfth Infantry, but tragedy ,- Private Richard L. Lawler was absent

destroyed whatever military aspira-
tions he had.

Camp Mohave lay atop a mesa
that overlooked the Colorado River.

The army first established it in 1859
after Mohave Indians attacked a

without leave. Captain Edward C.
Woodruff, commander of Camp
Mohave, found that peculiar, for the
small man, a salesman by trade, had
never broken a rule during his nearly
twenty years of military service.

Because it seemed

der and was fighting
for his life.

Malone probably
arrived in California
with the same high
expectations of wealth
as other immigrants
to the West Coast. By
1867 he was weary of
battling the elements
and poverty and
enlisted in the
United States Army.
He served at Camp
Gaston, a California
outpost on_ the

unlikely the man
would simply walk off
without a pass, sol-
diers began a search
and found Lawler’s
body face down in
the Colorado River.
An examination of
the body revealed a
skull fracture, contu-
sions about the head,
and strangle marks
around the neck.
Further examination
determined Lawler
had been beaten over

Sharlot Hall Historical Society the head with adobe

Colorado River. A The guardhouse at Fort Whipple.

small detachment

that assisted soldiers

at Fort Yuma, across the river, usu-
ally garrisoned Camp Gaston.
Although the soldiers had a few skir-
mishes with local Indians, the inci-
dents were minor.

With a good reputation in the
army, and having no desire to fight
for a job as a civilian, Malone re-
enlisted for five years after being dis-
charged on June 6, 1870. By 1875 he
had decided to remain in the army,
and he re-enlisted at Camp Reynolds
on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay.
The camp was a depot for recruits
being assigned to posts in the West,
and in August 1875 Malone was
assigned to Camp Mohave in Arizona
Territory. He would have served
another five years with Company K of

28

California-bound emigrant train, but
abandoned it in 1861 due to the Civil
War. The army regarrisoned it in
May 1863 to protect miners and set-
tlers from the Indians.

By 1875 the Mohaves were under
control, as were the Walapais to the
east, and were living peacefully near
the military post. The soldiers of
Camp Mohave were left with little to
do, and many of them felt useless.
The heat of summer, the cold of win-
ter, and the hours of boredom began
to wear on their nerves, and the men
began to turn on each other.
Arguments broke out at the slightest
provocation, and in 1876 one of
them turned deadly.

On the morning of January 11,

TRUE WEST, September, 1994

bricks and rocks,

some of which were

found, with blood
stains, near where the body was dis-
covered. Marks in the sand showed
Lawler had been dragged to the
river, where he was choked and then
drowned. The killer probably threw
him into the Colorado River believ-
ing the swift current would carry him
downstream where he would never
be found, but the body washed up on
a sandbar only a short distance from
the post.

Woodruff and a board of officers
assigned to investigate the case inter-
rogated Malone first. They had a
report that Malone, while heavily
intoxicated, bragged to a Corporal
Hale about murdering Lawler.
Although Malone freely admitted he
was drunk that night, he denied see-

TRUE WEST

ee

SOURS EE AEST CA EASIEU GM 88 48 SESE Beet TES

ing Lawle:
He swore h«
with a Moh
later in the «
bakery. At U
eight-year-o|
who corrob
and Private
ing through
D of the Twe
Independen
Authoriti
Malone anc
the barrac
stained shirt
concealed
Malone insis
when he coi
blood on hi:
he and Eith
night, but o
hearing hi
Malone said
the river 1
Henry and
beating Law
bricks.
Mullen w
temper to
threatened
the guardh«
and Henry
First Serg
ignored M
threw him i

The town of
front—was ir

SEPTEMBER |


KE OF
E —

iard L. Lawler was absent
ive. Captain Edward C.
commander of Camp
ind that peculiar, for the
a salesman by trade, had
‘na rule during his nearly
irs Of military service.
Because it seemed
unlikely the man
would simply walk off
without a pass, sol-
diers began a search
and found Lawler’s
body face down in
the Colorado River.

An examination of
the body revealed a
y

eens |

skull fracture, contu-
sions about the head,
and strangle marks
around the neck.
Further examination
determined Lawler
had been beaten over

the head with adobe
bricks and _ rocks,
some of which were
found, with blood
where the body was dis-
arks in the sand showed
d been dragged to the
> he was choked and then
Che killer probably threw
1e Colorado River believ-
t current would carry him
n where he would never
nut the body washed up on
mly a short distance from

ff and a board of officers
investigate the case inter-
alone first. They had a
t Malone, while heavily
\, bragged to a Corporal
ut murdering Lawler.

yne freely admitted he

i night, he denied see-

TRUE WEST

42

DAO HRT FAR Ted ESSE edt 90 SENSO LR PSO EO

ing Lawler or ever talking to Hale.
He swore he spent most of his time
with a Mohave Indian woman and,
later in the evening, went to the post
bakery. At the bakery he met twenty-
eight-year-old Private Leopold Eith,
who corroborated Malone’s story,
and Private John Bray, who was pass-
ing through the camp with Company
D of the Twelfth Infantry from Camp
Independence, California.

Authorities immediately arrested
Malone and Eith when a search of
the barracks uncovered blood-
stained shirts belonging to the men,
concealed beneath other clothes.
Malone insisted he was innocent, but
when he could not fully explain the
blood on his shirt, he confessed that
he and Eith did go to the river that
night, but only to help Lawler after
hearing him yell, “Don’t kill me!”
Malone said that when they reached
the river they saw Private James
Henry and Private George Mullen
beating Lawler with rocks and adobe
bricks.

Mullen was a violent man with a
temper to match. He cursed and
threatened the men who led him to
the guardhouse where Malone, Eith,
and Henry were already confined.
First Sergeant Thomas Conway
ignored Mullen’s outbursts and
threw him into a cell, telling him why

he was under
arrest. Mullen
raised his fist
against the
sergeant and
demanded to
be released,
saying he had
been nowhere
near where
Lawler was
killed and that
he had wit-
nesses to prove
it. Although
witnesses could
substantiate Mullen’s claim of inno-
cence, he remained confined as a wit-
ness against the others. Because the
matter was beyond army jurisdiction,
Woodruff was ordered to hand the
matter to the civil authorities of
Mohave County.

On January 19 the prisoners were
taken forty-five miles over a steep
mountain road and across a valley of
sage and sand to the town of Cerbat,
the county seat. The sheriff there
refused to be responsible for them.
The only jail he had was a hole in a
rock with bars across the front, and
he could not guarantee it would hold
the men. With no other facilities
available, the men were returned to
the guardhouse at Camp Mohave.

SEPTEMBER 1994

, Mohave County Historical Society
The town of Cerbat, where the only jail cell—a hole in a rock with bars across the
front—was inadequate to hold Malone and fellow prisoners.

Mohave County Historical Society

The ruins of the guardhouse at Camp Mohave, where Malone and
other suspects in Lawler’s killing were.irst jailed.

Because the men were to be tried
in the civilian court at Prescott, they
were transferred to the guardhouse
at Fort Whipple, a military post near
the town. Upon arrival Henry offered
to testify against Malone and Eith,
saying they had murdered Lawler
while he merely watched.

Malone argued against Henry’s
accusation and pleaded with the
court to find John Bray, the one wit-
ness who could prove his innocence.
In July United States Marshal W.W.
Standefer rode to Camp Indepen-
dence to subpoena Bray, but he
could find no one by that name at
the post. No records indicate a John
Bray served at Camp Independence
at the time.

On September 22, 1876, Private
Henry deserted. A month later, after
days of testimony, Private Mullen was
returned to Camp Mohave. Malone
and Eith were left to fight the mount-
ing evidence against them, still claim-
ing they only went to help Lawler
after leaving John Bray, whom they
refused to admit did not exist. When
it became obvious no one believed
them, Malone and Eith decided to
make a run for it on the night of
March 22, 1877.

Malone and Eith were jailed in the
Prescott city jail pending their trial in
June, but the building was in disre-
pair and the floors were rotting. The
men pried loose one of the decayed
planks and dug through the dirt to
the jail yard. From there they quickly
scrambled over the wall and escaped
into the desert.

The prisoners tried to elude cap-
ture by wading through creeks and

20


LEY RENSHAW

following “Choctaw”
short, square muzzle
ie long, flapping ears
e lean, brindle-haired

~" Choctaw growled
hard in the flank
y him on the path.
ua'll bite; a foot off
kick him like that.”
cy laughed, “Why he
more’n I can figure.”
up a warning hand.
iping down by the
‘on smells good.”
escript tramps paused
light packs on their
it's them two fellers
‘bout an hour ago,”
“They shore had
es.
Mahoney were riding
okee Strip to inspect
1 farmer had for sale.
held enough gold to
-d head, but with the
of frontiersmen and
Idiers, they rode with
for danger.
zers."" Don Mahoney
‘If you're hungry, we
for ten men.”
and Tramp were
Boud had caught a
on. Tramp cast an
at the two hobbled
a little meadow across
rrinned covertly.
zave Boud a raw bone
hanging the unbeaten

nighty mean panthers
he said as he pillowed
saddlebags, his right
‘lessly on his rifle.
‘em off,” Choctaw

the fire blackened
ept for the mournful
rwills and the eerie
the wooded banks

m were quiet. The

rs were tired after a

Stern old Judge Parker was

doubtful the evidence

would convict, and the hangman

could only practice

making his knot.

So the marshal brought in
a “witness,” the flea-bitten

mongrel who loved his master

long day in the saddle, so were. quickly
asleep. But not the two tramps. Choctaw
had lain down not far from the cooking
fire, the tips of his fingers just touching
the handle of an ax. Nimbly and as silently
as a cat he got to his feet. Tramp matched
him in silence. a heavy length of hickory
in his hand.

The heavy club landed with a dull noise.
but the sharp blade of the ax made an
uglier sound.

Choctaw untied a short spade from one
of the saddles and tried the soft sand be-
side the clear water. It was gasy digging
and in less than 30 minutes both corpses
were covered in their shallow grave. A mile
down the creek Boud’s deep voice sounded
in a long, eager baying.

“Call him in,” Tramp warned. “He's on
a trail and headin’ the other way.”

“Good riddance.” Choctaw growled.
“Now that we have horses, we don't need
a damn. flea-bitten dog trailing along.”

It was near daylight when a tired RBoud
dragged himself to the lonely camp site.
He was cut and scratched from a battle
with two coyotes. The rough hair on
-his neck stood suddenly erect as he
sniffed the human blood that stained
the sand. He peered through the
gloom: there was no sign of his master or
any of the other men. It was not the first
time Choctaw had left him, but the trail
had never been ‘difficult to, follow. The
only fresh tracks leaving the, place were
those of the two horses.

Roud sniffed at the freshly smoothed and
patted sand. It puzzled and worried him.
The human scent went right down into
the ground, Slowly he circled the grave.
then sat down and pointed his blunt nose
toward the waning moon. Never would he
let his deadly enemies. the wolves and
coyotes. desecrate the ground hallowed by
humans.

During the next week a dozen parties
passed up and down the trail, marveling at
the lonely dog. Marshal Braun, on his way
to the Cherokee Nation, first saw the dog
on February 18, 1866, the morning after
the murder. Six days later on his return
trip in company with a couple of traders.
he again noticed the dog, only by then
Boud was weak from hunger. ,

“Tt doesn't make sense for a dog to stay

phan aN

EEL ES ROP 3 NR

in one spot until he sturves,” the imarshal
said to his companions, “I'm going to see
what ails him.”

Boud was not friendly, but he made no
effort to keep the men from searching the
‘camp site. He even scratched a little in the
sand over the grave.

When the two corpses were dragged from
the grave, Marshal Braun took off his hat
and fanned himself. “There's no more

‘faithful companion than a dog.” he mut-

tered, “The poor brute would have stayed
right here and starved before he'd have
let the wolves dig ‘em up.”

‘The face of one corpse was battered be-
yond hope of recognition, but the cool,
moist sand had preserved the bodies.

“T think this fellow’s Don Mahoney,”
Braun said. “So that would make the other
one his brother Jack, They left Fort Smith
before I started out. Somebody killed ‘em
for their money-and horses... . .”

Judge Isaac Parker stroked his gray
beard and frowned. Deputy Marshal George
Maledon's nimble fingers tied and untied
the hangman's knot on the end of a rope.

“Phe Mahoney brothers never had a dog
like that.” Maledon said. “When they went
out on a cattle buying trip, they rode fast
and far. They thought too much of their
hunting dogs to kill them off that way.”

“tf he wasn't their dog, then he was
taking mighty good care of their grave,”
Matshal Braun said doubtfully. “1 had to
rope him and practically drag him away.
I've kept him tied up ever since we got
back, but he’s getting friendlier.”

“president Grant expects a hanging for
every murder committed in the Indian ‘Ter-
ritory.” Judge Parker observed. “I suppose
you've notified all the Indian policemen in
the various Nations to be on the lookout
for horses and gear answering the descrip-
tion of that taken from the Mahoneys?"
Braun nodded. “George can quit prac-
ticing and tie a real knot soon.”

Choctaw Joe was picked up by a deputy
marshal in the Cherokee Strip. He stil]
had Don Mahoney’s black horse with the
star in its forehead, but the saddlehags.
money and rifle had been disposed of.

Choctaw stoutly maintained he had traded
an Indian another horse for the black one.
Federal District. Attorney Clayton didn’t
have much hope for a conviction, though
he felt certain Choctaw was guilty. The
only hope of hanging the culprit lay in
the stern instructions Judge Parker often
gave the jury in cases where His Honor
felt the guilt was beyond a shadow of
a doubt though not sufficiently supported
by the evidence.

‘The defense attorneys smiled behind
their hands as the trial progressed. Even
if the judge did order a guilty verdict, the
President would review the case at their
request. And. the evidence would surely
not merit an execution, There was no
appeal to a higher court from the unique
one presided over by Judge Parker, the
President alone having the authority to
alter the court's decisions.

Even Judge Parker began to look doubt-
ful as the attorneys wound up their final
addresses to the jury. Marshal Braun joung-
ing against the rail in front of the bar. sud-
denly straightened up, spoke a swift word

to a deputy, then left the courtroom.
‘Ten minutes later when he returned,

A TRUE POLICE CASE OF THE OLD WEST the judge was charging the jury.

Braun coughed sharply and Judge
Parker looked up quickly with a frown of
warning on his face. The frown remained
as he watched the tall marshal approach
the bar followed by a large. yellow dog.

Boud'’s big head swung from side to
side in puzzled fashion and he whined
softly, “Vhen he crowded under the rail
and went straight to where the prisoner
cat between two deputies. Boud’s red
tongue lashed out as he sought to lick
Choctaw’s hand, but instead he got a
vicious kick. The dog sank to the floor and
rested his blunt muzzle on his paws. But
his yellow eyes never left the face of his
old master.

Judge Parker spoke dryly as he instructed
the jury. And the 12 men returned a ver-
dict of guilty without leaving the box.
The defense attorneys did appeal the case
to the President, but General Grant had
too much respect for the integrity of a
dog to interfere. All hope gone. Choctaw
confessed and implicated Tramp McCarty.

And the dour, never smiling George
Maledon tied two more hangman's knots


McCURTAIN, A,os, hanged at Van Buren, Arke, (Federal) on June 2h, 1870.6

AMOS McCURTIN, Hanged Van Buren, ‘rk, (Federal) on June 2h, 1°70

"Van Buren, Arke, 6-25-1870-Very considerable excitement has been created here lately by
the hanging of Amos McCurtin, on Friday last,-for a double mrder committed in the Indian |
Nation, In September last, James McClain, a half-breed Choctaw, and James Baakely, a negro, |
were driving a wazton loaded with domestic goods from Scallyville to Boggy Depot in the {
Indian ‘ation when they were passed by Amos NcCurtin and ‘Yilliam Fry, full-blooded Choc-
taws, who drove their own wagon on, 'went into camp,' and abput dusk were, joined by McClain
and Blakely, who camped at the same place, After dark, McCurtin proposed to Fry that they
should murder the new arrivals, and thus obtain possession of their goods, about S100 in
value, Fry, objecting to this, boyh lay down and, about daylight, the former was aroused
by McCurtan, who said that he had just murdered McClain and Blakely, and demanded his
assistance in removing their bodies, The threats used by McCurtin caused Fry to comply,
and the two together took the body of the negro, tied it to the tail of a pony, and

started tre animal into the woods, The goods were then removed to McCurtin's wagon in
which was placed the body of McClain.

"after drivine some distance, Nc Lain's corpse was thrown out in the brush, where it was
left, after McCurtin had taken from it the pants, remarking that 'they were toomgood to be tree ee
lost.' that night Fry was arrested when he made the above statement. Two days afterward Rie eo
NcCurtin was arrested in his own house, when he denied all knowledge of the affair, The Res Td
suspicion of the citizens of Boggy Depot, the Choctaw capitel, through which McCurtin had
passed, had been created by the fact that McCurtin had on pants recognized as McClain's,
while the revolver and gun which he carried were known to be the property of the same
person, The marks of blood on thewagon caused the Indians to follow the track and, by the
roadside were found the bodies of the victims, half devoured by the hogs,

"The prisoners were brought here and examined by Col. J. O, Ciurchill, the U, S, Commissioner
who committed them both, McCurtin was tried at the November term before Judge Caldwell,

Fry having been released to testify; and after a short trial McCurtin was found guilty and
sentenced to be hanged at Van Buren on June 2. McOurtin was greatly affected by the
sentence and his emotion was so overpowering that the guards were compelled to carry him
back to the jail, Since then, the Indian gave anoter evidence of his degeneracy from the
boasted firmnessof his race by attempting self-destruction by eating zlass, This little

meal was interrupted by the vigilance of theprison attendants, and although death did not
ensueenough had dee’n ingested to cause breast pains which remained until his death, On
Tuesday last, your correspondent, accompanied by an interpreter, visited the jail, where

he found McCurtin with three others engaged in the mysteries of ‘old sledge,' Two of the
Indian's companions are awaiting a trial for murder, while the third is detained to answer
the charge of having run off 150 head of mles, The same over, which resulted in McCurtins
defeat, much to that worthy's dissust, he expressed his willingtonass to favor me with a
talk, McOurtain's conversaition wes marked by a deliberate manner, He denied that he

had murdered both the men, but declared that he had proposed the double murder to Fry, who
had assented, he killing McClain, while Fry killed Blakely, and added he 'Fry thought no
more of killing a nigger than he did of shooting a buzzard,' Jin response to the inouiry as
to his belief in rewards and punishments ina future state, Mc urtin said that he held to
such a doctrine, declaring further that he had first joined the Methodist and then the
Presbyterian Church, He said that he did not know which denomination had his preference

and added 'It don't make any difference for it's nothing but a big talk anyhow.' The
question was then put to him if he would cormit the crime over azain, provided he could
escape with the goods and without punishment? ‘Well, I don't know about that; I'd have to
think a heap before I could make up my mind,'

"The night before the execution was passed in hearty sleep and in the morning he devoured

a substantial breakfast. Execution had been widelp published and citiztss from this and
surrounding counties came in large numbers. U, S, Marshals, Capt. 1%. A. Britton, had
decided that hanging should he private in jail yard and as a conseauentce he and deputy

were beseigned by applicants for admission, The general refusla of requests caused

general disgust but when people learned top of scaffold was to be atove walls, they prepared
to sed what they could, Over 2,000 people had gathered when hour arrived, Prisoner

dressed himself but with difficulty because of nervousness, Once dressed he looked at

new clothes and white gboves and beamed with satisfaction, Asked to havepicture taken

but told it was too late. Then asked for chew of tobacco, Said nothing further, and his
shaking limbs and convulsvive twitching of his mouth showed his fears. ‘as supported

or tather dragged up scaffold and did not gain composure until glass of water given .

ERTIAN TERR ST RT Cero SMT ae

EASES re Re IZ
RECITES, © CPE GS HY


Listened to clergyman's prayer and reading of warrent in trembling Silence, Neck not
broken and not pronounced dead for 18 minutes., It was believed he had fainted as when
t black cap placed over his head, he began reeline to and from and would have fallen had
he not been supported by two officers, Body buried in graveyard north of Van Buren,"

CONSTITUTIONALIS?, Augusta, Gas, Julyl0, 1870

g


There was every erence yi
Sl la sight pate ‘she a
@ peblication of = [t  horrth
A hve and cry was Hones aed tae
the whole Police of the City were ‘on gh
alert to xecure the murderer. How he was tinted
from his former abode in Greenwich-street to l’roy{-
dence, Khode Island, where he had taken up bis
abode, witha widow lady,in a remote part of the
city, near IndjJa Poiut,and how he was capiured b
Detective Officer Navins and Capt. Euras Sxitu mic
be fresh in the recollection of our readers. His trial
also,on May }4,ard five subsequent dys, the dé
velopmects made thereupon, and the suoserie t
career of the convi:t in the Tombs, with his alle od
confession and presended complirity in a inhttitndé

of fearful
discoverers ;

of heinous crimes, wre too receat for any further al- .

juaion,

dye wen ee ail which for two or three
} ed tae exccution of H1e ,
Pent ce tae since Wineias rate) the fase
Pe law, The Baillows, with its oome
ppurtenances, was sent tw Bedlve’s Island o Th ,
day, Marshal Rynpexs glving his penscial née
vision to {ts erection, locating the spat, and di aioe
how (the work should be dene. The lace wiliohstes

@elected for the purpose of givin
66 ma
porripie an opportunity to witness the a petpons as |

acle, was |
rr)

upon the northeast side of the island, Upon a green

sloping terrace, “which —torms the earthwork |
ofthe water-battery that gisroiunde 8 earth work

about two-thirds

f v
of the island. The spot was directly fronting the

ont part of the City, giving a view of the East

ee and Brooklyn ; it was about one hundred yards
Dorthwest of the landing, and elevated from #ix to
eight fcet above tide water. Everything being com-
pleted on the island, the Marshal returned to the
City and__found _his~ofiice besteged with _ap-

Wie for_tickcts to witness {ho execation.

‘tune rece who had never seen a person hung, and

pyrene igre who would have shrunk from
cle where an ordisary criminal was t

(@) {

pit abe iarkeg ne “ permits ” to look upon the last |

struggles of the man whose extraord{

reer of crime had destro ; ment of pliv
stroyed every sentiment of pl

7 ae Aaa These tickets were dispensed ou

no longer safe to trespass upon the accommo-

aations of the sing'e steamer which hai been char- |

j

3 rae
teed for the , U. pose, tho igh che was of tarse ainen

Siete,

Durlog the who'eof Thursday the wife of Hicks
Femeined witb tim fio the cell, no one trespsssiag
Upon their privacy except the pries’, woo entered oc-
castoually, This jas! day spent by this miseraole hus-
band and w.le was ocecu ied fo oonversiag upoo the
aycap,zements which had beca made by the latcer for
tha temporary support of herself ad chlid, her prin-
Civa) expectations being derived from the p-occeds of
tne sopyrghtof bis Confession, whien had alrea-y
taeu pad overto tim. Froma remark wuicd Wicks
Inave tuene of the officers on Tuesday, that ‘he
sbevld Jeave nis wife all soug,” it was supposed that
he hu; revealed to her wha’ has hitserto beed obty |
know to Duneclt, the plice where she could findsiins |
of money which he had concealed. Tue receipts
froma the vopyiigh: can gu buia little way towards
ber support, |

At hali past live P, M. on Thursday, Father Duzax-
Qi zt entered the prisoner’s Cell, and EHicks’ wie pre-
pared to take @ final leave, Several officers of tne
prison, and the Marshal’s Ceputies were present,
The separation, however, Was quite uniyae in its way.
Rising and takipg a bundie ot clowwing under her
left arm she paused for a moment in “he midvle of tne
eel, Patber Duaanqusr standing with his right had
Upon the prisorer’s shoulder. Hicks wok two simali
volumes from a shelf of tis cell and nanded thei to
his wife, Foran ipstant he stood looking down at
her with a smile, and then reaching fortn Kis hand,
took her's and shook it slighty, tnen leaning for
ward, he kissed her twice, saying 10 @ low voice,

** Good-bye.” “ Good-byc, Wii ius,” 8ne replied, as
she turned, withow! apparent einotion of avy kind,
and lefttte cell. ‘The cell-door was now closed, the-
priest intimatipg that he should spand the night with
tue condemned ALL but the Deputy Laited
States Marshals who had charge of the prisonor now
retired from the prison, and left bim to enter upon
the last night of his earthly existence. Yietdiug to
the direction of bis spiritual adviser, he gave up tue
fore-part of the night to devotlusal exercises, ant to
confession. At midnight he laid down, aud stept

a. undly until 3 o'clock, Wheu he was arouse J, and re-

newed devotiona! exercises with the pricst. He then
| washed his face and hands, puton a Cleaa shirt and
| ateahearty breakfast, Ati% o'clock he came vut of
| his cell and cheertully g eeted the ofticer. In answer to
, 2 quesiicn as to how he feit, he replied, “I feei very
; well,” and conversed cheertuily for a few minutes
| witn the cflicer. On several occasions he bad prevt-
Hously expressed his thanks to the Marshat and bis
; Deputies for their kind treatment of him during the

t ial, saying that he had received every iniulgeoce

which could reasonably have been expected, To-

wares ke Sisters of Mercy be evinced much
gratitude, and remarked on one occasion that
they were the only friends he bad left, He
calied the colored man who sweeps out the halis
of the priscn, anc gave him his clothes. and a tew
ainnll articles lett W bis cell, Ife went to the eecli
of Mortiwrr Suay, and told him he hoped he wou il

yet a new trial, Qn a previous occuslon he has,

enewn ipueh attention to this prisoner, aod has cea:
fiaed more to iym than to any other poron, oon.
fessing the inurders op tie sloon even before ne | ul
been eonvicted, aud taying he ought to fave becn
hung lovg ago. He also told him that he wou !
rather ole than rtinain thiee years in the ~ ate
Prison, To oeers Cia xr? and Diwan, te epoge
treely of bis ciline, ane sald he was tre worst ian
that ever lived. adding, You cont seem to thea.
{mean what 1 say.” oo Vea. repoved thet cere,
we belicve vou Would Nov say What Was io liue.
when so near yourend,” ‘These apparently earnest
ceclanatious of Hicks imoressed the offices s witi (he

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|


OREO rrr aa :
“we believe you would not say What wae Not true |
when so near yourend,” ‘These apparently earnest
declarations of Hicks impressed the offices with the
belief that he was sineerely penitent. tte only con-
cen seemed to be forbis wite and ohild, and he
sometimes remarked that he would noi care, if they
could be happy.
Marshal Rynpxas, with Shervifi Kerzy and Deputy-
Marsbal Tuomrsoy. arrived at the prison yes'eiday
incrning shortly before vo'clock. Whenthe Marshal
entered the cell Hichss Wasthen ouly partial'y dressed
in pants and shirt, with a ne@ pair of slippers oo his
feet. Sbenff Joun Kas.y, Deputy-Marshal Tioureon,

wih De ANGELIS, Ducan, CLackng3 atud the Keporter
of the Tivas also entered by request of the Marshal,
Pather DuBargver oceupying a seat at the foot of the |
bed, on which Hicks was seated. Ife was told to |
rise, and as he stood up Capt. Ryxpxas said to |

him: “ ALngnr W. Hicas, it is now my patnfal dry |

to 1cad_ to ‘you, in the presence of these officers |

of the Jaw, the warrant of exeention which I have re-
ceived from the President of the United 8tntes Ne
then proceeded to read the death warrant ina cloar,
firrn volee. Hicks remained perfectly unmoved,
meanwhile, andeven maintained a half sintle uj on
his face. ‘’ This,” added the Marshat, “is my an-
thority for now carrying Intoeflcct the sentence of
the jaw, and the prisoner will prepare to depart.”
Ilicks again sat lown, stlil retaining bls composure,
and requested that the Keporter of the ‘Timas, who
had stepped out, should recater. Ho then sald that
be wished to state that he was very gra'cful to Ocer
De Ado?iis and tbe other deputies for thate kindness |
to him, as they had done for hi even more than he |
had esked; Mr. De AnceLts having parthealacly am: |

|

|

terested himself to provide for ins wild and ehitd
dwing hisimprisonment,

The confession which he had made, he also woshadte |
say, was taken down by the ceputies tuely forthe |

}

Peneht of hie fami, ane he withcd them > be ae-
wiitte) ofall Wroby motives inconne ethan wi.trat.
Towaed Ot=.ecr Navindg ant Mr. SMart, who were 1n-
scsurental Iniosarrest, be sald that he held co hard
feeiltgs. On beteg ques joned as to how he

yr was taken cown by the ceputie: suely forthe |

felt pegaruidg the future world, he replied

ws If fearing tu cupres: uny hope, “*taatisa matter
would rather leave to fou,” referd: g to Pather De-
reasgibr. Who satat his side. Mls volce was firm,
bit very low anc cubdgued, ‘1 am rosigned,” he said,

(Poe Marshal has treated me very kinoly: I will not

; any anything on bie island” —He then tadiated
' that be was ready, and a u'cloek)A. M, he
left his cell. Going tu the door of MoRgtriner Suay ne

waid, hurnedly, ' Good-bye,” and immectately join-
ivg tbe Marabal and his attendants he left the Prison.
With Marshal Rryvuzs, Sheriff Keir and the priest»
be entered tne first carriage, the Deputies, Mr. Sur-
ron, and other officers, occupying the o'her
three, which were provided for the occasion, There
was alarge crowd in Franklin-street, who pressed
forwaid to. obtain a glimpse of the prisoner through
the cariiage windows, The cortege drove rapidly to
the foot of Canal street, where an tmmense throng
had gathered awaiting the prisoner's arrival, [lee
some delay occurred, the police experiencing con-
siderable diticulty in keeping the crowd back. By
strenuous exertions a passage was finally obtained,
and Capt. Rrnpegs ordered the carriage in which the
priscuer was to eriveon to the do:k. The cager
crowd, which had already got access to the pier, nov
besieged the carriage, and literally broke in the win-
dows and tore away the curtains to get a signt of
hima. The only notice which he took of these pro-
ceedings was a derisive sinile. 7
The boat—the Red Jaci:et—chartered fcr the occa-
_ sion by the United States‘authorities, was crowded,
alinost to her utmost, when the prisoner was brought
on board, in the custody of Deputy-Marshal De
Aynaz1i3, Who has had especial charge of him since
his trial. Marshal Ryypgn3 superintended his trans-
ter from the shore to the ship, He was taken aft to
what, on ordinary occasions, would have been the
‘ ladies’ cabin, accompanied by Father Dtcan
| gust, the Marshal, the Depnuty-Marshals De Anxceuis
and Tuomyson, and Sheriff Ketty. Forashort time
the cabin was filled with curious persons,
who, however, had the good feeling to re-
tire at an intimation froin the prisoner, that
| he wished to confer uninterruptedly with the pricst,
Subsequently he came from the cabin and looked
’ fyom the windows on the river, evinclng no show of
feeling, But for the fact that he was known to be the
“ian who was to die, his apparent unc ncern for tie
- greatevent of the day, would not have struck any-
body, as he would simply have been set down as one
of the crowd of spectators. Asit was, kaown as he
was, as Hicks, the pirate. whose moments of life
were e>bing with every revolution of the paddies tnat
_ threw back the spray of the hissing water almost in
his facé---those who ezaw lim wondered, and came,
perhaps, reluctantly to the conclusion that the man

did him wrong, but hig coolness and self-possession
were at least remark:ble, even for a great and hard-
e2.ed Criminal,

On leaving the pier, the Red Jacket proceeded far n
while up the river, before making a turn to approach
the island. She passed the Harriet Lane and the

Great Eastern, and one would heve thought that those
rhips, espectally the latter, were the «tahts for the

_eake of which the whole excurston had been planned.

ce ee ee

had no human feeling. Probably those who sald so —


Mi Vino y Albert, WOHLLE, Neneea WEW York one

are | at.

EXECUTION OF HICKS, THE PIRATE.

A ny te AEE

Iand. ;

Brencs af (he Tombs, lu tha Bay, and at the

Place of Execution,

—

ZX ia Confos@ion.

—

FORMER EXECUTIONS FOR PIRAOY.
The execution of a pirate in the Bay of New-
Vora ie, fortunately, av ovint of uacommun oceur-
tence, Us Jure 21, 1839, under the superintendence
of W, O. C, Wanngit, United States ‘areal, the
pirate and murderer Corssiius Witastus, was huog
at Wedloe's Irliund, nearly on tne spot waee Hicxs
yesterday paid the penalty of bis crimes. He was
@ae eo! the crow of the »dip Bragenzu, 39 American
vessel p'ying between this City and Antwer),
Frem the latter port she sailed in March of
that year, but inetead of making a smooth
passage @cioss the Atlantic, was driven far
eut of ber course by contrary wiuds, was then be-
calmed, and next bestormed, acd gfter narrowly
escaping wreck, became the scene of a most fearful
tragedy. Un leaving \ntwerp she had but a few
cabim passengers, among whom were twu lalles.
ler freight was of consivereble value. Besides ove
or two Americans, and a few English, there were
a}so three Dutchmen among her erew, and, unhap-
pily, one of them was Conyziics Witnaims, These,
coi federating together and led on by WILugLg, coin-
merced to take possession of the saip by kiting the
captain and bis officers, The male passengers
were also soon Gispaicned, bit the ladies, hav-

Gy (Federal) 7/13/1860
i
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{

Twelve Thousand People at Bedloe’s,

ing rushed below, barred the *companion-way,” |

apd for a little whic kept their terrible enemies
atbuy. Anentrance, howevey, was soon effected by
the mt ffians, and aficr a series of it:dtguitics, one
lacy was killed and throwa overboard, und the

cthér was tocsed overboard alive, {lis sickening to_

alis of this series of tragedics, It
is wei] to rcmember that fhe mutineers couldnoi af-
terwards agree among themsetves, and that while
they were in the iwid.t of their discord, they were
captured by a German vessel and tuxen Loto one of
the Hanoverian ports, The ship aud her piruatical
crew were sent thence to England, and after some
Iniervenirg diflicultics reative to jurisdiction
were overcome, four of them were dis-
patched to this country for tral, Thetr pre-
luninary Examination took place before Commissioner
Mos1on, and they were comiitted for action oy a
Grand Jury. One of them killed nimsel/, another
turned “Srate’s evicenec,” and the others, after a
kengthened trial. were convicted, and sentenced to
de hung on Beuivce’s [siaud on June 2), as aforesaid
It was shown on the ‘tral, aud subsequently con.
firmed, that Witkeius was the ringiexder in the
piracy, and that he ki:led the Captain; while on be-

half of his fellow convict it was provec tau: be used ,
hts utmost cndeavers to shield the !adies trum out-

rvge,and to sparc their lves. After remaining a
considerable time in prison, he was pardoned, put
Wrariwg was executed,

Worarias wos execated,

Twenty one years and tweoty-three days inter-
vened Dofure tbe be vt execution for piracy, when, yes-
lerday, Bria» W, Hicks was conveyed to the sane
Is!ang, to die for the commission of similar crimes,

Of the last executions on Ellis or ‘ Gibbet” Island,

we @jsewhere present a full record,

The crimes commiiied Ly Hives it ‘s scarcely nec- ;

essary torecount, so fresh must the recullection of
them be ip the public mind. We wili glance at them
very briefly, The sinop ’, 4, Juknecn, ot which Geo.
H. Boga was Captain, sailed from the foot of Spriag-
street on March 16, for Dcep Cieek, Virginia, to re-
turn with a cargo of oysters. Capt. Buea had long
been in the oyster trade, and had made considerable
money thercin. Her crew consisted of two brothers,
quile young men. named Sutra Watrs and Oxives
Wartrs,and Exias W, Hicss adias Albert W. Hicks,
aias William Johnson. The latter was the name
under which he shipped, and which was duly en-
tered jn the ship's papers. Alter leaving tne City the
vessel dropped in at Keyport, and subsequently at
Gravesend, where she underwent some scraping and
© eansing, snd then putto sea. The murders were
committed on the fourth night after she left New-
York, The brothers Warts, accortling to subsequent
appearances, were first dispatched while on deck,
aud the Captain was killed inthe cubin, after, what

1] the marks incicated to have beer, a desperate .
struggle. Their bodies were thrown overboard, the .

money in the possession of the Captain, abort $230, |

was secured by the murderer, together witn
his appurel, and thst of the Warts. broth-
ers. Instead of proceeding further to sea, he
turned the slup round, and came deck tothe City:
Karly on the morning of Wednesday, March 21, while
agvancing up the bay, the sloop, which was unskill-
fully managed by Hicks, came into cuilision with the
schooner J. R. Mather, bound for Phivedelpnta, Toe
concussion was 80 great tnat tac bowspiit of the

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sloop was broken off, and the schooner sustained |

sume injury. It was then scarcely deyifght, but soon
afterwards Hicks lowered the yaw! boat, and with
bundles and bags, fiiled with his victims’ clothes,
made for Jand, and reached Staten Jsianu at 4 potat
just above Fort Richmond, He abandoned tne boat,
and walked to the ol Quarantine Landing, waence,
after taking drinks and on freshments, an’
by his etrange conduct and proatgal show
of mores, atracting the notice ofthe terry master
and other parties. (whore testinoay was sirong
avdinst himat dis trial) he processed oy the feriy-
boat to this City. bet sher:y atler tne coillsion
with the schooner, the sloop 12.4 Johnson Was foiod
0 ve Geserted, Was tuhen i". tow, and Jrougut to a
slip bear Fuitom Marke, where an examination of
her Geck and cabin- teox poe, aod the reveiation
of a norrible trapeay ye veatiyoemreted on hoard of
her was the reset Blow: lay owite aod linen
ULOL her deck, Woh locke al tieman oye Chatter
therein, and in ber cai. was more sot tram ade
abd sivearea accut

TM ES


a

meh rere cae :
The rush tothe side of the Red Jacket woen passing

}

the ‘any died be was so great tnat the fur-

ey pearly dipped her gunwalesio the water, and
e officers of the United States Martahal on board

end restore the
her capsizing.
Un the azsival|at Bedloe’s Island the scene was a
sorprising one. | Stesmboats, barges, oyster slonos,
Yachts aud rowjboats swarmed every where ip view
of the gullows, They had come from all parts.
From Connecticut, where the murdered captain and
the brothers Warre belunged ; from Long Island
| where they were well known, Large steamers, acd
| us carry hundcreie of people away on p-easure exit:
sions, were theye, so laden with a living freigh. of
cunious peopie, that it seemed almost a wonder tha
they did not sin incontinently. There were narges
there with awnings spread, under which those who
were thirsty !npibed lager-dDier. There were row-
boats, with ladi¢s,—no, with females of some sort, im:
them, sbielding/trelr complexion trom the sun with
their parazols, while from beneath the f-1ag¢@ auc the
tassels chey viewed the dying agonies of the choking
murderer. Butimost conspicuous of all, and mostre
garded was the sloop £. A. Jokason, ou which
the murders wp:e committed. Newly painted, she
stood well intg shore, her stern not tiree hundred

eqnil-brium of the byat to preven’

her tcp mast head, on which her nane was patated
{n large rea igtters. Her deck was crowded, her
masts and sparg wate alive with bumta beings. Dia
the murderer sde her before the cap, that was ty siu!
out all mundane objects forever: from his view, was
drawn over his face? His face was luroed fulls to
wa'ds her whch he cied, ;
When thé Red Jacket had reached the Island, Mar
shal Rinpxgs, whose arrangements, aud his 6 e. of
carrying them into effect, were throughout at a
most sdmiranle kind, firs: had the boat clea:ed of all
persons but bis own officers, the pnys'ci'ns an! me n-
bers of the Prep. Then toe physicians passed out ar t
some taenty or more in pumber, ammorig what on

lice force. Tnen came the reporters and sundr
porties, such ‘as A'dermen and Councilmen a
otl.ers of less note. Toese all were ordered to leon
in line on the Doat, while the prisouer, la charge ‘of
Mr. Dg Angxui8, followed by tbe Marshal and h
aids, Jansed on the island, The foregoing order a“
procession was then resumed, and so the oe
reached the scafMvld—Hicns ascend g the hill aly.ie
and walking wilh a firta step. His eyes Were di:
rected tothe earth, and he did not appear to be con

had to use thety authority to draw the crowd away,

feet from the géilows, witn a huge burgee flying from |

ae Drs, GF. Woodward, A.C, Beil, Gull nattas :
eltje, Poelps, Barry, and Dr, Kennesy, of the Pu. |

|

:

se

oC

atacenival, White shits, red shirts, bug SIMs, 9 We

_..-fjackets, Ted jankets, greun jrckets aud ever steamer,

vessel and varht, decorated with ivety-colored flags, |
while the uproar’ 6 as jacessani—cries ol ** Dowa in
front,” “ Get gut of tae way,” rising from nundseds
of throats at Uje same time.

On the Ieland everything was orderly. T#o hun-
dred United States Marines from Governors {slau
and the Navy yard, under command of Major J. 3.
Anpiaaos, Secoud Artiilery Company, aut Lieuts.
Woop, Tuow 4 Wonrt, Rarp, Horwes and Haywood
were in atiendance. Tuey forined a Nollow-sq'ls. e
wound the gallows, and would undouvedly pave
hept back the so0 had occasion warrautet tlelr
interference. Mut those to whom the Marshal oad
{uynished Uch¢ts were fortunately not of toat ciass
who create cigturbances, OF in any way Vivlate tae
rules of propriety. ;

On renching: the gallows, Hrcxs knelt beside the
priest, Father DCBANQceT, and prayec, Witla every
appearance of real devotion, for some winutes. He
then stood up, while Asalgtant-Mucshal De ANGBLIS
and Mr, Jyaacs, the executorer, adjusted the rope
around his neck. Tne snouts from the boats of
“Stand away an front,” were ut this tine periecuy
deafening, the trovps, in forming one side of the
square, having shut out the view Irom tg wate’.
At asgial from oae of thelr officers, they moved
aside, aud then the nolse comparatively snostdec,
Toe executioner, whose province it was -t> tent the
rope, retired tb pis box, Mr. De ANGgLis gave the stg-
pal, and Hick$ was hung. He uiea very easily, the
third cervical vertebra, being at onve broken. Taere
were no struggles, and there wayscarcely & muscular

twitch. So te expiated, on this ezrto, the great

there cal be no doub', inasmuch as ne has freyeeoty
admited it. His so-called Cc s s, in whe!
seekS a@ Notot

re Circumstances, he ¢
with gr OlLo wing

account ,of the muraers on the E. A. Juhnson, for
which he suffered aeath, as dictated by nimself, con.

d

“improved” by the amanuens.s for sensation pur-

poses: {
The sloop B. A. Johnson offered an e1sy prey.
haa on board, L supsosed, trom autne information b
cculd gaiher, something over $},V0U, wua the entire
ciew consisted of but two boys and myscif
1 bad neveg known efor seen Capt. Bune
shipped with him. He bad never done

before |

cious of the mytiey and strange scene before nim

ee there we:e nut Jess than from 10 000 w 1900 |
1YSOns bresent, iIncecstanes alm ost as vane ai 48 i
atace Tt, 1e ts, b-ue shir, 0 de
jackets, red jackets, grew jackets gad ever eaniier
veesel and vacht, decorated with ifvely -colorad Ms "
while the uproar was jicessant--criea ol © Da ie
front,” “ Get out of the way, --ristug froiu nud
? of throats at Ule same time. ee
ie
s. sp frogs Govern te an}

ae the Navy pard, under comnand af Majin dos
ee oN Second Artiioty Company, aut Tow :
ovp, Tuovss, Worru, Rann, Ho owes tad Hein 5 |

were in attendance. Tacy formed aw Nuilow-ejise@ |
around the gallows, and would undewyveuly tace

It was.a motley and strange scene, lodeed. Qa'tto |

to Poy.

| but wipe, and even Jtiked Gin.

had ou veard,

transactions of life.

1 hag kil cd med. yes, apd
before, for far Jess ipducement thin
posed I should gain by hilling them, aod

by, to feel tne slightest CUmMpuUnCctLons
conscience then.

crime. The tear of detection never once cros@¢ed
ming.

come, in this world at least, and
tuecught to ne world to come,
After enguping with Capt.
my wite al
the ped, tuld her not to disturb me, as |
take a
that [ was not in.
| hberately watured all my pluns.
ecurse Tintended to piirsue exactly |
| decided upon everything,

sour dly as ever | sleptyn iny Hfe, my
| much at ease, and | felt so contented
‘ ‘ pportunity of making socpbe made

crimcs he had committed. Of his guilt, of course, |

tains matter af much inte: est, though it is evideutly |

‘TL ealculsteil to do this as calmly a3 vou would con
temp-ate Coing any of the usual duties in the ordinay :

I never thought of the consequences of such &
Wy

1 bad tou oft. n done the same thing witt fa

purity to beieve that a day of reckoning wquild ever
L never give @

Sat

ine injury or
wong, so that L had no revenge to gratify, no grudge

He seemed a kind and amiable min, and would, | |
have 50 doubt, awakeped kindly feedags in any neart
Yet, L engage! iny-
sel! to him sélely and only forthe cruel purp se of
luking bis life, the lives of the two young men, ard
making myself waster of the money | supposed he;

boys toa, many a tine
the sum Poo:
1 hed too

oft n 6yed my murderous hance in v'ood in days zg me
Or «Ualitie ol

y

{
iy

Burg, | went home fay |
we. 129 Cedar stree', nnd laying dawn on
wanted to
jong sleep, and if any one came for Neto my |
She left me alone, aol Lther de.
} warked out the |
and after [had
{ wenttorieep and icp ax

mlod waa ao
at the idea af

\
i

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hung. In six niinutes there wns net the sligrtest

it was exactly thirfeea minutes pist eleven
Welock when the rope was cut, ani flicks was

sign of life, thotuxh a feeole pulsation of the heart
was detectes by Lis. Woupwasp and Gutumerre
af‘er be had hes beneng eleven miwites. At
filleen minutes to i2 o'c.ocK the Dudy was juwered
wd piscedin a coffa, Tue features were plavhl,
apd betrayed scarcey avy signs that tne virate nat
died aviolent death, The hdof the cou aavirg
been secur~d, the remains were placed ou dvard the
tug Only Son, | and iepdsd aft the Cusjiom-rouse
duck. His wife+-poor thing, a widow then—ihrough
s0:ne misapprehension, wulted for them at anocher
Jocality, accomyanie) by a priest, and the doly was
interred in Calvary Cemetery without her kaoowi-
edge. In conndction “with this unhappy tlsiaae,
we aie requestey to publish the fotlowing :
rat New-Yorg, Jaly 13, 1960.

Thereby certify that f was present at the exe-
rution of A. Wy Gress, his day, July 13. Iu, on
Bezioe’s Istano.jaad tovk cha. g? of tae body, a the

wallows, abd did Maurshal Ryvpeas har tt pinceton |
ino

Donrd the slea at Onty Son, Lt wae convayed at
ooae ty the Custvin House Do:k, ead tren 1 Gaul it
couveyea at once to Calvary Cometery, for in'e -
ment, sending two of my aterdants win it, who ex-
ected to meet! the widow of ine late aA. W. Hices
the:e. Toey remained at the Cemetery unui 57%
ovleck. AS the wid w dif not ardive, wy hatthe
body burted. = W. TAYLOR, No. 163 Bowery,
(C. bE. DERIFFNLEY,

B. HAYS.

I certify thatthe above signatures are correct, and
that be Was buried by men in my employ.

|

i

| W. tl, TAYLOR,

~ Hicks nade no sneech at the gallows, as it war
genera'ly expected ne would hive done. EHtsonly
won's were, “ilang me quick—make haste,” IIs
demnennor Was (ulm and collected , wax lndeed such
as might have, created sympathy for him, if the re
memoisnce of bis appalling crimes bad not Seen too
vivid. Ag It was, ftwelve or thimeen thousand per-
sons regarded the score without even any tinea of

|

sadeess, Few men have passed from earth so whol- |

ly unre grotted as did thiemurcerer and pirate, ©
Tre errangemeuts, from firatto laat, were porfect,

po much eo, that on the returo of the Red Jackel ta |
the Cliy, a inewUng of (he parsengera wae cadet, andl

a resolutiun commendatory of Marahal Riapane, bin
Depuges and al 's, was adopted by acclamation,

FORMER BVECU PIONS FOR PIRACY,
Twenty-nine years ago, the plates Giene (while)
and Wawarsy (colored) were hung at Bille faland (or

crimes aimidar to that for which Ureas suffered The -
nexstexecution lo New-Yor). for piracy waethat of

Counsiivs Wipusiws, whieh took place at Filtia’
Istardon the 2istof June, 183% The cane of Cisnna
wasremoarkabvle in many reapecta, He Jed a tle of
crime, and abowed compunction for but one of the
many murders he committed,

By the courtesy of a soo of Mr. Taosas Moears,
late Uatted States Marshal for thle District, we are
pcrmitted he yao of inemoranda of the couferaiusis
of Gipns, made to Mr. Moss durag Use perlod

—_ ee eee

which elapsed frum his conviction to the srenntinn of

hasentence, Taken ly connectlon with the mary of
the waletector who died yesterday, this narrative bas
wipelancholy laterart.

COPFESSIONS OY THE PIRATE GILLS.

Durle-g the tmprisunment of Gisns,. after his con-
viction for piracy, he made fuil und free confessions
of his crimes, His coujidant was Tuomas Manis,
then United States Marshal for this District.’ The
m+ moranda of these confessions, made at the tine
by Mr. Mongis, are still in existence, and from them
we derive the particulars which Jollow. The paper
cn which they are written is yellow with age, and
the ink brown and faded. Guinss seems to have made
couflicting statements, for the broken parts of hisnar-
Tailve, scatiered over a dozen pages of manuscript
do not fit tcgether, and in some instances there is a
flat contradiction of one portfon with another. With
seine pains, we gather the story of the pirate’s life,
astold by himtrelf, tree from the discrepancies into
which he appears to have fallen with the utmost de-
likeration. Omitting those passages which he after.
wards declared to have been purposely falsified, we
reduce the confessions to the oraer which follows.
It will be observed that, like Ilicks, Ginps boasted ‘of
the commission of one hundred murders, nnd also
gives the particulars of some of the more henious of
his climes,

In the course of his conversations witt Marshal
Mosnis, Ginzs stated that he entered the Unite
States Navy at the age of 15, as midshipman. His
fatcer was a sailing-master in the Navy, and held
the command ofa gun-boat attached to the flotilla of
Com. CaxIGuTON in the time of the War of 1812
Young Gipns served on board bis fathor’s: boat from
1813 to'l615, but finally relinquished his place, from
Giegust with tle severity of naval discipline. The
wishes of his father weighed very little intho unset-
tled mind of the son, and he went his waysto find a
living elsewhere. Gines went to Boston, and tried the
experiment of store keeping in a small way, but soon
tired of a life which offered no excitement, and again
determined to go to sea. He snipped before the mast
on board the brig Harriet, for a West Indian voyage,
and pelformed his contract to the letter, making the
round Voyage, and subsequently returned to Havana.
That was the end of his honest career, From the
period of his return to Havana, he entered upon a
life of crime, and went from bad to worse, until he ex-
piated his offences by the forfeit of his life at Eilts’
Island in the Summer of 1830, in company witn his
confedcrate Wame.zy, a negro.

Asnearly as can be gathered from Ginns’ stato.
ments, his piratical career began In the Intter part of
the your 181%, or the early months of 1819. The pl.
rajes who jhen infested the Spaniah Malo had thel,


; Braces of the captain | uid

much} at esto, and | fel; 80 Conteuted ut the idea of
having at Last an“ pportunity of making some moacy
iN bn easy Way,

The vext day I went on board and commenced my
duties, and in order to lugrattate myself intotne g00'1

even more than couid
bave been es pected of we,

We salle on the 16th of March from the foot of
Sprite g- street, aud proceeded to Keyport, where we
remained ti! ae Wolle bere [scraped tae mat
Of the slnop, did a lot Bf carpenter work, and ect.
dently pieagod Capt, Buga Lyd much by my earnest.
Beas in tryl9g to mahe crerytning lodk ship-snape,

We arrived at Gravesend on Saturday afternoon,
anu walted'there for w teir wind.

At last We ;otto sea, and when we were off the
Ocean Ilouje | went to the forecastle and got an ax,
which [ put in the boat hanging to the davit aft.

TLe younger Warts was at the helm, und | asked
him to allow me to steer a little’ while, He consent-
ed, and webt forward.

Jn a few; minutes I left the helm, and, taklag the
» wen! ta him, and asked him (f he saw Baroegst
Rht. Heisaid he didnot. I told him to loo agatao,
ard pointed with my hand. = 4

He turpod round and looked in my face a moment,
buteven if be had suspected my cruel purpose, he
would bave read po indication of it there, tor I wag us
calm as though I wag golog todo the simplest and
most irnorent thing in Iife,

Hed I been usder humen influence, the confidant

a

He turnad his head, and peered through the dark.
ness in the direction I pointed, and as he did so, I

struck him on the back of b ‘
knocked him down, the head with the ax, and

He fel)! | : A

Thinkirg I had not killed him, I x
with the ax as he lay on the deck, ga da “su

His fal} and the noise of the ax made some nof{se,
which, added to that caused by My running across tne
sri oe ee eee the captain, who came
up the companion way, a
stked what was the mati 7 ing out his head,
 Lreplied, No ” and then askez aim, as I had
the younger Warts, id Is that Barnegat Light?” ?

vi ee UBB replied, “ No, you will not see it for
two hours';” and as he spoke he turned his head from
me. | a

The ax swung in the air, and, guided by my sinewy
sd murdérous are “ae down.

€ edge crushed through hfs neck, nearly sev-

ering his [head from hig body, and killing him in-

stantly,

The body fell down the compantonway,

AslTtu to leap after it, and disoatch my re-
maint ctim, I looked forward, and—Oh, God, how

1 shudder to think of it now !—he whom I thought I

\ had already killed had riser, and was Coming aft, his

ase

"hand quis‘retched toward me, and the diow'! running

A NEE I

Sse ee Men ee conten soe eeeneene ne mete emere ng one

In two dark streams over his pale face from two

| ghastly wounds on his head,

|

Fors moment 1 stood undecided, but as he vet
caine on, Trau toward him, but ere freacha-i him ha
fell about midehips, and rushing on hin, ( struc

| one! twice ! thriye:! with the ax, aid finisoed hin,

Kiuini:e aft I jumped down the Co.npanouway
with tre bloody axe om my hand,

There jay ihe elder Warts in his berth, an! close
beride him the ghustly, bloody corpse of the captalp,

TL stood & iInoment lovkirg at him, and dasned at
him, abd struck out with the ax.

He jeapea out of his berto, and Sprang at me, all
red @jih the blond of the Captulo, whose nody had
falien past him, covering him with gore in its tal’,

‘He tried to grapple with me, but stepping nack, I
gave the ‘atel ax a fu'l 8Wing and struck jin agalo,

“again, and again. once upon tne baad, once on the

back, 9nd once mare upon the head, whtoh elied nim
te the floor, und he luy dead at my feet, side dy side
wiih the ewytain.
Mv bloody wo-k! wasdone!
. Deac men teli no tales.
_Lwara'oue, Noeye had seen me, and now [ was

. free ‘0 reap the reward of work,

-
H

TI did nor fee) {he siigntest regret for what Thad
done, and went abont Temoving the Dodtes, as cooly
as though they had been so mue} old tiunher,

Tiech @ rope and vent Itsy to tne feetot tne elder
Warts, hailed him on deck, and threw him over the
quarter, IT then banled the captain out tn the same
manner, and threw tun over; gad then going to utu-

‘obops, C lifted the body of the Younger Warra trom

the dech. and plunged bim into the sea by the mar-
board side,

ee ee

licenthrew the ax overboard, aad a€ éoen’as [had

dere this Lohan ge cmtemmqaarss of the Soop, and ran -

In close ¢. the Hock.
My nentioin wes to run the sloop up tne North
Rivers a ahen fice her; but Le-menesr rnanfns ter

on De Dox Beaconabs-art of Coney (sland aid S:aten.

‘Sep Jightaouse, ater woe 2 f vie, wit oa
sdecher and caries awvoy the bowspri', $y 1 ont the
No oey, eb sub oOer arceles of value as Leoud
Ves, mothe vawl, and tien seul.ea asho-e, thee
mlés, laneing just Delaw 'he fort, on Statea ix aut.

Vy Movera nts after landing ar+ well known: and
ween ll: kboek up 0 tre tatakty that seemed tw
HOe  F Steps, in xcews as th, ago the fiend wie so
hag had ston by wea every emerzeney had de:
Sted me at iast, urlasaletme to My ovn wesk-
ras,

Bot lreser thonght of this unti! after my wrcest, |
hag no shavow of a presenthnent tha DP shoutd be

cheehked so sucGdenly and orongnt te Justice, and on |

My retura to New-York, nade arrangement lo yo
AXay PH Coy family ase ity as if ay hing Nad oe
curred whieh ssomld counsel me to nee Cranon,
Buten that tial night when € awoae trom a deep
Sleey to fod he etRoes of the law standing dv my

bed, fortre fi.sv tine fear ocaercade me,a-d | gew -

fait and Weak as a oaby. Great ops f sweat
started Ou On my foteNead amd all ove: my body. and
then Tresbg.d mat at Jost tae an ose-: anon Pad
served so ione had realy deserted me and shandonad

' me to my tate,

Rultoslleutzard ipoearance [ choged ‘ues fre

trystown, sr dno ewa) ciw me dream:d of what

Was POsstitiy withaun.

My tass ise oud. f have related all the awfal da-
taiaot my hfe with as inueh inion eneves as € can,
an} now nothing te ett me ont te prepare to din,

{ark no evmowhy, ane expect none. | shall go to
the gallus cures Uy ail w50 Know "he cateee wolch
ail! ning m: tha-e, and mv only hove fe “het God
wo din nie tng ate merey giant me thy spirit of tine
repentance which mav lead ty parduu aud lOrgveuess
mebe world to Come

if Wad ex. tly thirfean mincvtes past eleven
JOR whom the rove was ou an: ‘troK4 was
hong. by ete pesutes Chace woeret oe ride tase |

Syn OF tile, thon 2 fewole poceae sof tne meart
was detectes oy 24. Aoupwesap nod Gee MOITE
afer te halowop ft, were Slee mela ates At

Allred anidnitest to | ere he Ooaly Wad owe ed]

abi Othe om of Ty ne ot oe € afi

*

schooner Telegraph peered” into

his long telescope at the little
sloop a mile off the Staten Island
shore. His bewilderment at the antics
of the vessel was plainly written on
his face.

The sloop was not steering a straight
course. She was yawing aimlessly,
notwithstanding the fact that there
was little wind and the sea was calm.

Captain Harper noted something
still more astonishing. The powerful
lens glued to his eye showed no
helmsman at the wheel, nor was there
any other sign of life on the A. E.
Johnson, the name he read on the
sloop’s stern.

“Something wrong about her,” he
told his mate. “I never saw a ship
act like that before. Maybe she broke
her mooring and drifted away from
her pier.”

He directed his own wheelman to
alter the schooner’s course toward the
Johnson. In-less than a half hour he
drew alongside the sloop. As he ap-
proached he became more and more
firmly convinced that something worse
than a broken hawser was amiss on
the other vessel.

However, neither he nor the mem-

(OP scicone IRA HARPER of the

"He clung to the rail with one hand,
and | raised the axe and chopped off
his fingers,"' the murderer related.
(Photo specially posed by professional models.)

SEPTEMBER, 1943

ok CU JOY phelhielerl

bers of his crew who hopped aboard
the Johnson as the two ships swung
side by side were prepared for the

‘grisly discovery which they made as

they first set foot on the sloop’s deck.

Four human fingers and the end
of a thumb which had been cleanly
severed from a man’s hand were lying
on the port bow just next to the rail,
glued to the wood with their own
dried blood!

Their appearance sent a sickening
chill through Captain Harper and his
men. Then, as their eyes roved over
the carmine-smeared deck planks of
the bow, and took in similar stains on
part of the rail, they were aware that
the little sloop probably held further
evidence of gory violence and ma-
cabre tragedy.

Captain Harper shouted a lusty .

“Halloo!” two or three times, but
there was no response. He hesitated
a moment and then, trailed by his
crew, slid cautiously down the for-
ward companionway.

Going from the bright sunlight into
the gloom below decks, he was not
aware of any obstruction until he
tripped over an object at the bottom
of the narrow steps. It was soft and
yielding, and the already-shaken cap-

HICKS, Albert, white, hanged New Yorkj, NY IIFED) July 13, 1860

tain jumped as if he had trod upon
an octopus.

A cry of fright burst from his lips
as he hurriedly retreated up two or
three ,of the steps. One of his men
handed him a lantern. Its intermit-
tent, flickering rays, fanned by the
draft in the companionway, brought
into dim view the pulp-like object
over which he had stumbled.

The skipper knew now why the
sloop yawed so wildly, despite the
calm sea and slight breeze. It was
because Death was at the tiller.

Huddled on the floor, with one arm
resting on the bottom step, was the
body of a man whose head was so
badly crushed that the features were
unrecognizable.

Completely unnerved, and with a
disagreeable tightness at the roots of
his hair, Captain Harper bent forward
until the light from the lantern dis-
closed first the right and then the left
hand of the dead man.

None of the fingers was missing.
Those lying on the deck, therefore,
must have belonged to someone else.
Could it be possible, the captain won-
dered, that two men had been the
grist of some murderous fiend who
had turned a peaceful little ship into

BY JOSEPH FULLING FISHMAN

13

Lplibe SG 43

sweater

f for his
m \iller
nse\t -

& a pect

IVE

IT WAS A FESTIVE OCCASION WHEN A MURDERER WAS HANGED
ON THE ISLAND WHERE THE STATUE OF LIBERTY NOW STANDS

sisted. “He had two bags of gold.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because he asked me to help him
count them.”

“Did you know the man?”

“No, of course not.”

“You mean to tell us that a man
you never saw before, a total stranger,
asked you to help him count money
on a public ferry wherdé there were
hundreds of other people?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.”

“And you didn’t do it?”

“No. I thought the man was crazy.”

“And I think you were right,” the
policeman said wearily, his manner

ne -m
annem tS

‘bod

“Ye :

cs

SEPTEMBER, 1943

plainly showing that he was in doubt
as to which was the crazier, the man
who asked help in counting his money,
or the deckhand who took such a
story seriously enough even to re-
peat it.

However, the officer later realized
he had overlooked one important fac-
tor in the ferry deckhand’s tale. That
was the possibility that the man with
the bags of gold might have been
under the influence of liquor, and was
letting his tongue run away with his
caution.

The days passed, but New York
police made no progress in the strange
harbor murder mystery. The widow
of Captain Burr, and relatives and
friends of the Watts brothers were
interviewed concerning possible en-
emies of the slain men. They could
provide no help whatever. Nor was
there anything to show. that any of
the three men ever had been involved
in the numerous feuds among oyster-
men who battled for what were con-
sidered the best beds of the bivalves
in the Chesapeake.

Mrs. Burr scouted the idea that
her husband had any considerable
sum of money, which might have in-
flamed the greed of a thief. But, as
if to add still more confusion to. the
case, a friend of Burr’s came forward
to contradict this statement.

“George was a very close man,” he
reported, “close in money matters and
close-mouthed. But I had his confi-
dence. He told me that he had been
saving his money for years, and that
he didn’t believe in banks. He also
implied that ever his wife did not
know of his hoard—he was constantly
complaining about how women love
to spend a man’s money.”

“Did he tell you where he kept it?”

“Not George. I think I was more
closely in his confidence than any-
body, but he wouldn’t tell even me

’ anything like that. But George wasn’t
a liar. He wouldn’t say he had a con- ;

siderable amount of money if he didn’t
have.”

Big Spender Reported

For the first time the officers began
to wonder if after all there wasn’t
something to the ferry deckhand’s
story. They recalled him and obtained
a detailed description of the stranger
who, he alleged, had asked him to help
céunt two bags of gold. He said the
man was about six feet tall, approxi-
mately 35 years,of age, with black
hair and whiskers, and was heavy-set
and powerful looking.

The first real lead came the follow-

ing day when John Burke and An-
drew Kelly, two men who performed
odd jobs along the waterfront, noti-
fied police that a man of their ac-
quaintance, Albert W. Hicks, had been
spending large amounts of money in
various saloons around the Battery,
buying drinks for everyone in a man-
ner unusual to his known character.

Hicks was well, but unfavorably,
known to police. He had engaged in
various petty crimes, robbing docks
and breaking into small tied-up river
craft, and occasionally, when the
opportunity offered, engaging in what
is now known as “lush rolling”—
robbing men stupefied by drink.

Ordinarily the police would have
paid no attention to the story told by
Kelly and Burke. But their experi-
ence with the ferryboat sailor had
made them cautious. They decided to
investigate Hicks, especially since his
description fitted that provided by the
deckhand. They went to Hicks’ home
at 129 Cedar Street to talk with him.

They learned that on March 17, the
very day on which the bodies of the
two men were found aboard the
Johnson, Hicks had suddenly left for
an unknown destination, accompanied
by his wife and two children.

However, the family had not packed
up their things. Everything appar-
ently was still in the house. This made
it impossible to trace him through
moving companies. None of the neigh-
bors even knew that the Hicks family
had gone, nor did a search of the
place reveal any letters or other evi-
dence of friends or family relation-
ships which might give a lead to its
destination.

The only resource left to the police
was to inquire at the railroad stations
and steamboat offices. While that was
not such a hopeless task as it would
be now in New York, with its seven
and a half millions of population, it
by no means provided the sleuths with
an encouraging outlook.

A ticket agent was finally found
who recalled a man of Hicks’ descrip-
tion, accompanied by a woman and
two small children, purchasing pas-
sage for Boston. This was, as near as
he remembered, on the afternoon of
March 17 or 18.

The conductors and brakemen in
charge of the Boston trains on those
two days were interviewed. Luck was
with the police, since one conductor
had noted a group of the kind de-
scribed.

“They had tickets for -Boston,” he
reported. “I saw them on the plat-
form just (Continued on page 62)

15

a devilish horror-mill in the harbor?

He sent one of his men back to his
schooner for his pistols. He did not
know whether the ‘slayer was still
lurking somewhere below, ready to
add to his dreadful night’s work.
Taking one gun himself, and handing
the other to his mate, he slowly led
his chief officer aft to what he assumed
were the captain’s quarters,

Skipper Also Dead

It was only a few yards, but it
seemed like ten times that distance,
negotiating it a step or two at a time,
making sure that the small area illu-
minated by the lantern was clear of
any intruder. .

The captain’s quarters presented an
even more repellent sight than those
they had previously witnessed. That
officer, too, lay dead on the floor, his
skull not crushed by a blunt weapon
as the other’s had been, but split
cleanly in two by a terrific blow from
a sharp implement.

Unlike the first victim, the skipper
of the Johnson apparently did not die
without a struggle. The narrow little
room could not have presented a more
disordered appearance if a typhoon
had smashed through it. There was
scarcely an inch of the floor which
was not covered with blood and hair,
or even with bits of human skin. The
walls and ceiling showed smears of
red, as did the bed covering, which
had been dragged over the floor.

Stunned at his discoveries in the
comparatively short time which had
elapsed since he had first seen the
strange sloop, Captain Harper rigged
a tow line to the Johnson, and then
went back to his own cabin to set
down in his log an outline of the
gruesome encounter with the death
ship.

Under the current date of March 17,
1860, he made the necessary entries,
and then went on deck to meet the
officials of Staten Island, where he
was taking the Johnson. Neither he
nor his men had touched anything on
the sloop. They had not even observed
a bloody axe, later found stacked
against the afterhouse.

In that day murder was not exactly
unusual along the tough New York
waterfront. But the slaying of three
men at one time—the captain of the
ship was found to have all his fingers,
as had the other man, so officers de-
duced there must have been a third
victim—was decidedly not an ordinary
occurrence. Almost immediately the
case took its place as the outstanding
topic of the moment, a place it was not
to relinquish until subsequent events
had built it up to a peak of sensatjon
seldom reached before or since in the
history of crime in the country’s
metropolis.

The police of Manhattan, where the

14

bodies of the slain men were later
taken, were disorganized and only
“semi-professional”—if indeed they
had reached that stage of efficiency—
in the middle of the nineteenth cen-
tury. They seemed helpless in the
investigation of the mystery which
confronted them.

Inquiries they made along the
waterfront soon established the iden-
tities of three men who had sailed in
the Johnson on March 16 for the
oyster beds of Chesapeake Bay. They
were Captain George Burr and two
brothers, Smith and Oliver Watts, his
crew. If there had been a fourth man
on‘the ship none of the loafers or
roustabouts along the waterfront who
had ‘seen the sloop depart had ob-
served him.

The two dead men were identified
as Captain Burr and Smith Watts.
What had become of the body of
Oliver Watts—assuming that the sev-
ered digits on the deck were his—no
one knew. The police at first ad-
vanced, and for a time actually acted
upon, the theory that Oliver Watts
had slain his brother and the captain
and then, in order to divert suspicion
from himself, had severed his own
fingers, taken a missing dinghy, rowed
himself ashore and fled.

The only motive which appeared
plausible was that of a fight. The
possibility of robbery was scarcely
considered. Oyster fishing was a
poorly remunerative business, and no
one could conceive that a dirty little
sloop like the Johnson could possibly
have anything on her of sufficient
value to attract even a petty thief, let
alone a murderous robber,

Strange Story Told

Even at that time the police were
plagued by notoriety seekers who
sprang up like weeds in the publicity-
fertile soil of an outstanding crime,

he emeeeaett

a ae Cte

The sloop E. A. Johnson was yawing at
the will of the tides in New York's
upper bay when she was espied by a
schooner's skipper, who investigated.

and hurried to headquarters to “con-
fess” or to give the officers spurious
information about the case.

The police, therefore, were not at
all impressed when the deckhand of a
ferry plying between Staten Island
and Manhattan reported the queer ac-
tions of a man he said rode on his
boat after midnight of March 16, the
approximate time when the murders
were committed.

“He was a rather handsome young
fellow,” the informant volunteered,
, and he carried two bags of money.”

The deckhand noted the amused
glances which passed between the
officers. “I tel] you he did!” he in-

FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE

ON

sisted

‘

“How
“Beg
count t
“Did
“No
“You
you ne
asked
on a }
hundrs
“Yes
“An
“No
“An
policen

SEPTE?


,

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62

Hangman’s Holiday

(Continued from page 15)

after they got off at Providence, and
I told the man he had made a mistake,
that we were not in Boston yet. It
seemed to make him angry. He said
he knew we weren’t, but that he had
changed his plans and was going to
stay in Providence for a day or two.”

Coupled with other developments,
the officers Hecided, this was a sus-
picious circumstance. Several investi-
gators went to Providence, where they
conferred with the local police. It did
not take long to locate Hicks and his
family in a small hotel in the Rhode
Island city.

He seemed not at all disconcerted
when three officers faced him. He
waited quietly for them to speak. |

“I know nothing whatever about
these murders, gentlemen,” he averred
after they had stated the object of
their visit. “I’ll be glad to go back to
New York with you. I can easily prove
my innocence.”

One of the officers nodded. “We'll
have to search you first,” he said.

Recover Victim's Watch

“Oh, no, you won't!” Hicks pro-

tested irascibly, showing the first sign’

of belligerence. “I’m no criminal, and
I don’t intend to be searched!”
The sleuth nodded to his two com-
panions. The three policemen ad-
vanced on the suspect, who sprang
forward with an upraised fist. He
struck one of the officers and stunned
him. The other two closed in, grabbed

| Hicks’ arm, tripped him and sent him

to the floor. They held him there, de-
spite his struggles, while their com-
panion ran his hands through the
suspect’s pockets.

The reason for his reluctance at
being searched was quickly revealed.
Out of one pocket the officer brought
forth a heavy gold watch. He flicked
open the hinged casing. There was an
inscription inside. “To my dear hus-
band George W. Burr, from his loving
wife.”

From another pocket came a da-
guerreotype of a very pretty woman,
who proved to be the sweetheart of
Smith Watts. By an ironical twist of
fate, she had given it to him on the
morning of the day he was murdered.

“I can explain those,” Hicks asserted
after his hands were cuffed and he was
lifted to his feet.

“Go ahead,” the officer prodded.
“They seem to need some explaining.”

“I stole them from a drunk in New
York. I guess he’s the man you’re
after. I don’t have to tell you that’ I’ve
been arrested for robbing drunks.”

“No, we know you. But you'll have
to tell a better story than that about
getting the watch and picture.”

The ferryboat deckhand promptly
identified Hicks as the inebriate who
had lugged two bags of gold aboard the
Staten Island boat in the early morn-
ing hours of March 17. The man was
brought to trial on murder charges,

and a jury convicted him after only
ten minutes’ deliberation.

Hicks was sentenced to be hanged
on Bedloe’s Island—now occupied by
the Statue of Liberty—it being neces-
sary.to execute the death sentence on
government property because the
murders had been committed on the
bay, which was under federal juris-
diction. -

Throughout the trial the excitement
about the case did not abate. On the
contrary, it increased. The courtroom
was so packed by the hordes of people
who seemed to revel in the gory de-
tails of the murders that it was neces-
sary to swear in special police to keep
order.

Even then there were disgraceful
scenes enacted in court, including
name-calling and numerous fist fights
between members of one faction, who
thought Hicks was an inhuman mon-
ster, and others equally convinced
that he was convicted on the flimsiest
kind of circumstantial evidence.

It was Hicks himself who resolved
all the disputes over his guilt. He had
been in the Tombs but two days fel-
lowing his conviction when he sent for
the warden, bluntly admitted that he
had murdered Captain Burr and the
two Watts brothers, and agreed to tell
the story of the bloody crime to a
group of officers and such newspaper
reporters as might care to listen, fol-
lowing which he would sign a formal
confession.

Ringed by about 25 police and news-
papermen, Hicks began a narrative of
blogdlust and merciless, insensate
cruelty which chilled the spines of
even those in his audience with the
most blunted sensibilities.

Says He Was Kidnaped

“It all happened because I was
shanghaied,” Hicks explained. “I guess
I must have drunk too much. When
I awakened I could tell from the mo-
tion that I was on a ship. I was pretty
sick, had a terrible headache, and was
still blurred about what had happened.
Then I realized a man was standing
over me. He gave me a kick.

“*You’re on the sloop E. A. Johnson,’
he told me. ‘We’re bound for the
Chesapeake oyster beds. We'll only be
out a couple weeks, and when we come
back you'll have plenty of money. So
don’t start any trouble. Don’t forget
there’re plenty of belaying pins around
that are harder than your skull. If
you behave yourself you'll get fair
treatment.’ ”’ i

Hicks. stopped and surveyed’ the
circle of interested faces.

“But what did your being shang-
haied have to do with the killing of
these men?” a reporter ventured.

“I’m coming to that. You see, I’ve
been hanging around the docks for
years, and I thought I knew how to
take care of myself. I knew there was
a lot of shanghaiing going on, particu-
larly for. the oyster beds, and I don’t
mind saying that once or twice when
I was short of money, I ‘crimped’ a
little myself. But it made me pretty
angry that anyone did it to me.”

“You felt you deserved better treat-

FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE

—

a Sone 2

ment?” an officer queried ironically.

“Yes,” Hicks responded, ignoring the
sarcasm, “And when I found that I
was on that sloop, and Captain Burr
talked about belaying pins, I pretended
I would go along all right and not give
any trouble. But I made up my mind
to get even as soon as I got a chance.
The chance came that night after Cap-
tain Burr and the younger Watts boy
turned in, and Oliver Watts was acting
as lookout up for’ard.”

“Where were you?”

“T was at the helm. I told the captain
that I was an A.B., and that I had put
in four years at sea, so he made me
take my trick at the tiller. Anyhow, I
waited until Burr and young Watts
had gone below, and I was pretty sure
they were asleep. Then I lashed the
wheel to keep her on a straight course
so that the other Watts boy wouldn’t
notice her yawing. When I was sure
he was keeping his eyes dead ahead,
and wouldn’t know what was going on
in back of him, I made up my mind
that then was the time to get revenge
for the way I had been treated.”

“But why on the Watts boys? They
didn’t have anything to do with shang-
haiing you, did they?”

“J ‘don’t know,” Hicks replied
frankly. “They had sailed on the
Johnson for the past three or four
voyages, they told me, and I figured
they had had a hand in my being
there. So I grabbed me a capstan bar,
slid along the side of the afterhouse
and crawled in back of the dinghy
until I was a little past ’midships.
There was some rope coiled on deck
for’ard, and I was able to hide behind
that until I got within a few yards of
Watts. Then I rushed him.”

“Didn’t he put up a fight?”

“He tried to. When I was about a
yard in back of him he must have
heard me, because he turned around
and tried to hit me with his fist. But
he was too late. I brought the capstan
bar down on his head, and struck him
again with it after he fell to the deck.
Then I went below to finish off the
captain, who was still asleep.”

“You mean to say that all that noise
on deck, your striking Watts, his fall-
ing to the deck and your hitting him
again didn’t awaken Captain Burr or
Smith Watts?”

Captain Fought

“No, it didn’t. You see there was a
fresh breeze and quite a sea running.
I suppose the swishing of the water
and the noise of the wind through the
yards drowned out the other sounds.
Anyhow, when I walked back over the
deck and went down the com-
panionway, after taking off my shoes
so as not to make any noise, they were
still asleep. Oh, wait a minute. There’s
something I forgot to tell you.”’

“What's that?”

“When I went aft again I took the
port side instead of sta’board, and
there I saw an axe alongside the
afterhouse. I figured that would be
easier than the capstan bar, so I
heaved the bar over the side and took
the axe. But just as I entered Burr’s
cabin he awakened. He could see me

SEPTEMBER, 1943

outlined in the door, I guess, against
the light of the cabin lamp, which I
should have turned off. The minute
he saw me he jumped out of bed.

“I raised the axe, but you know how
narrow the captain’s quarters on those
little sloops are. I could not swing the
axe properly, and it caught in the side
of the door. I pulled it out and started

to make another swing when he came.

at me. This time I struck him, but it
only hit his arm, and then he was on
me like a wolf, and I had to drop the
axe and fight him off. It took some
fighting I can tell you. Burr was a
powerful man, and he was fighting for
his life and knew it.’

Hicks Seemed to sense that a dra-
matic pause was in order and he was
silent a moment.

“J finally shook Burr off,” he re-
sumed. “But it was a piece of luck
which kept him from going after me
again.”

“What was that?”

“There was a small stove in his room
and when I pushed him away he fell
against it. He didn’t have any clothes
on, and when he jumped away from
the stove I saw my opportunity, and I
raised my axe and brought it down
right on the top of his head. That fin-
ished him. But I was still_ worried
about the Watts boy up on deck.”

“What were you worried about?”

“] didn’t know whether he was dead
or not. Then there was the younger
Watts boy. Just as I started up the
companionway he came at me. I let
him have it, right on the steps.

“When I went topside I found his
older brother-had managed to get to
his feet, and was staggering back to
the stern. I decided the best thing to
do was to heave him overboard. But
when I lifted him up, and tried to
throw him over he had sense enough
to grab the rail with his hands. I man-
aged to get one of them loose, but he
held on with the other. It was then
that I brought the axe down on his
hand and chopped his fingers off. He
dropped into the water, and that was
the last I saw of him.”

Hicks smiled as he concluded his
story of the tigerish bloodlust which
had. transformed the peaceful little
sloop into a floating slaughterhouse.

And all this, he wanted his hearers
to believe, had been the aftermath of
the affront to his dignity in shanghai-
ing him in the same manner as he him-
self admitted he had done to others.
All of those present doubted the story.

Found Bags of Gold

Again there was a long silence as
those in the audience sought to com-
prehend the incredible picture of hu-
man depravity. The question of a re-
porter acted like cold water in shock-
ing them back into the present.

“What did you do then?” he quizzed.

“Well, I thought as long as I had
killed all of them I might as well look
around to see what I could find. I did
not think there would be very much.
But you can imagine how surprised I
was when, in a small chest at the foot
of the captain’s bunk, I found two bags

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63

HICKS, Albert W., white, hanged New York, NY, July 13, 1860

w York

ary, in-

i THE TRIAL ALBERT W. HICKS, FOR PIRACY,
NEW YORK CITY, 1860.

nple, to

ee and THE NARRATIVE.

oygo in

cample, One evening in March, 1860, the sloop E. A. Johnson,

[ : sailed from New York bound for Virginia to obtain a cargo

itiff for of oysters. On board were four persons only; the Captain,
Burr, the mate, Johnson and two young seamen named Watts.
The next morning the vessel was picked up in the lower bay
with not a soul to guide her and bearing evidence of foul
play. It was also evident, as the bowsprit had been carried
away, that she had been in a collision of some kind. The
cabin and deck were covered with blood and bore dire marks
of a fearful struggle.

The news of the tragedy soon spread through the city and
the next day the landlord of a rooming-house in a poor
quarter, reported to the police that a man named Johnson
who lived in his house had come home unexpectedly the pre-
vious day with an unusual amount of money which he said he
had received as prize money for rescuing a sloop in the bay.
He had left the night before on the Fall River boat with his
wife and child. He was traced to Providence and brought
back to New York. In his possession were found Captain
Burr’s watch and some of his clothing; also clothing and
other things belonging to the sailors, Watts. No trace hav-
ing been discovered of the three missing men, the fugitive
whose real name was Hicks, was indicted for their murder.
But at the same time he was indicted for robbery on the
high sea, which being also a capital crime, viz. piracy, he
was put on trial for that.

The evidence was most conclusive. He was identified by
several persons as being the Johnson who had shipped on
the oyster sloop. He was seen the next morning rowing to

(625)


626 XIV. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

the shore of Staten Island in the yawl belonging to the sloop.
Later he was encountered on his way to the city by persons
who noticed him carrying a bag and who saw that he had
a quantity of gold and silver which he afterwards exchanged
for bank notes with a broker, who clearly identified them.
The Captain’s watch, his clothing and articles belonging to
the two sailors, were also proved beyond a doubt, and he
did not produce a single witness to contradict the case against
him. But he denied that he had ever been on board the
oyster sloop or had ever seen Captain Burr.

The jury very promptly returned a verdict of guilty.
Hicks for nearly a month maintained his innocence and then
broke completely down and made a full confession. He ac-
knowledged himself one of the most terrible criminals that
the history of crime records; from his youth a robber,
swindler, free-booter, mutineer and pirate. He had been
guilty of many murders and had up to this time led what
would seem to be a charmed life.

The day of his execution was like a fete day in the me-
tropolis of America. He had been sentenced to be hanged
on Bedloe’s Island; a large steamboat was chartered by the
Federal authorities to convey to that place the criminal, the

officers of the law, the city politicians and their friends. It -

was accompanied by a fleet of excursion boats loaded to the
water’s edge. When he landed at the pier on the island,
small boats of every description covered the water every-
where and in the presence of thousands of spectators and
before him the sloop, E. A. Johnson, newly painted, her stern
close to the gallows and her decks and rigging alive with
human beings, he was swung into eternity.

THE TRIAL.'

In the United States Circuit Court, New York City, May,

1860.
Hon. Davip A. SMALLEY,’ Judge.

1 Bibliography.* The life, trial, confession and execution of
Albert W. Hicks, the pirate and murderer, executed on Bedloe’s

ALBERT W. HICKS. 627

May 18.

The Prisoner is indicted for having on March 21 last made
a violent assault on George H. Burr, on the high seas, on
board the sloop Edwin A. Johnson, and there feloniously and
piratically carried away the goods, effects, and personal prop-
erty of the said George H. Burr, who was master of that ves-
sel. The property consisted of about $150 in gold and silver
coin, a watch and chain of the value of $26, a canvas bag,
a coat, a vest, one pair of pantaloons, and a felt hat. Second
indictment is the same as the first, but charges the felony to
have been committed in the lower bay.

The prisoner was also indicted for the murder of George
H. Burr, master of the Edwin A. Johnson, and two seamen
named Oliver Watts and Smith Watts. As robbery on the
high seas is piracy, and punishable with death, the prisoner
was placed on trial for the robbery only.

He pleaded Not Guilty.

Island, New York Bay, on the 18th of July, 1860, for the murder

' of Capt. Burr, Smith and Oliver Watts, on board the oyster sloop

EK. A. Johnson. New York: Robert M. DeWitt, publisher, 13 Frank-
fort Street.

This pamphlet of 84 pages contains, in addition to the report
of the Trial, a history of the case, the prisoner’s confession, made
after his conviction, “containing the history of his life, with a full
account of his piracies, mirders, mutinies, high way robberies, etc.,
comprising the particulars of nearly one hundred murders.” Also
his “phrenological character” by L. N. Fowler, Professor of Phre-
nology, a full account of his execution and the story of the pirate
Gibbs, executed 29 years previous on Ellis’s Island for similar
crimes, and a poem in 10 stanzas, entitled “Blood for Gold; or the
Confession of Hicks the Pirate.”

It has numerous woodcuts, as follows: Portraits of Hicks and his
wife, the boat in which he escaped from the oyster sloop, the deck
of the sloop and the blood stained cabin, portraits of Captain Burr
and Oliver Watts. a full page picture of the sloop, the detective de-
scribing the murderer’s arrest to the reporters, the people of New
London making an attempt to lynch the murderer.

2 SMALLEY. Davip A. (1809-1877). Born Middlebury, Vt. Admit-
ted to Bar 1831 and practiced in Burlington, Member State Legisla-
ture 1842; Collector of Customs, Vermont, 1857; United States Dis-
trict Judge, 1857-1877,


»..and youll always have tobacco
in pour old tobacco box!”

When I was a kid my father used to sing a
song that ended up with this refrain:

“Oh, save up your money and put it in
your sox ‘

And you'll always have tobacco in your
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No matter how hard I tried... I never
seemed to be able to save up a red cent.

But it's all different now!

About ten months ago, I started buying
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Figured it was the least I could do for
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And that’s the only way I thought about
it... until juse recently!

Now, all of a sudden, I’ve discovered
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Those Bonds are beginning to mount
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So J’m singing father’s song... a little
different... .

“Oh, save up your War Bonds and put
them in your sox

And you'll always have money in your
old tobacco box.”

YOU'VE DONE YOUR BIT... .
- NOW D0 YOUR BEST

BUY MORE

WAR BONDS

64

filled with gold coins. I also found a
bottle of good whisky there, and I took
half a dozen drinks before I left in the
dinghy. This was about two miles off
Staten Island. Before I left I turned
the ship around and lashed the
wheel.

“I guess that deckhand was right
when he says I asked him to help
count the money, although I have no
recollection of it. I must have been
pretty drunk, although I seldom show
it. I can carry an awful lot of liquor.
You know the rest of the story about
my buying a ticket to Boston and then
getting off at Providence. But first I
made a trip around some of the saloons
in New York and bought the drinks
for everybody. I guess I was still
pretty drunk.”

While Hicks’ confession changed the
minds of those who had doubted his
guilt, his gory tale heightened the in-
terest which his arrest and conviction
had created. But even those who were
most critical of the exhibitionism and
pandering to morbid facts which had
been involved in his trial were not
prepared for the bizarre, holiday at-
mosphere which surrounded his in-
carceration in the Tombs and his ex-
ecution on Bedloe’s Island.

It was the age of P. T. Barnum,
America’s most noted showman. That
wily gentleman, always on the alert to
cash in on the notoriety of others, got
the permission of the authorities to
dicker with. Hicks for the privilege of
making a plaster bust of him.

The murderer demanded several
hundred dollars, but Barnum, a
shrewd bargainer, finally got him
down to $35 and two or three boxes of
cheap cigars.

Hicks was a good prisoner in that
he made no complaints concerning the
food or the treatment he received. His
only bitterness appeared to be against
Barnum who, he alleged, had beaten
him down to a ridiculous price for the
plaster cast privilege.

Hicks’ main concern seemed to be
to provide for his wife and two chil-
dren after his death. This resulted in
the authorities granting him a con-
cession which would appear pre-
posterous in our day. He asked for
and obtained permission to have the
jail opened to any of the public who
wished to see him and who were will-
ing to pay him five cents apiece for
the privilege! The money He collected
in this way, and which he left to his
family, amounted to several'hundred
dollars.

Macabre Parade

But even these shenanigans, fan-
tastic as they were, seemed pallid by
comparison with the scenes which oc-
curred at his, execution on July 13,
1860. That gruesome affair had all the
trimmings of a municipal holiday. It
was literally thrown open to the pub-
lic. The hanging took place in the
open on Bedloe’s Island, visible to
anybody who could beg, borrow or
steal a ride in any kind of a craft
which would float in the wide channel
in which the island stands.

But before this point was reached

five or six carriages drew up before
the Tombs. The one in the center was
reserved for Hicks, the United States
marshal, who had charge of the fes-
tivities, and his deputies. The marshal,
as required by law at that time,
sported a topper and a black coat, and
wore at his side a sword which was
continually getting in his way when
he walked.

The other carriages contained digni-
taries who rated a front seat. The cav-
aleade proceeded slowly to.the Bat-
tery, followed by a band which ground
out funeral dirges! This procession in
turn was followed by at least 20,000
people, who walked all the way to the
Battery in the hope of getting a
glimpse of the murderer, and who on
occasions became so unruly in trying
to peer into his carriage that it was
necessary to call for more police to
maintain order.

The water off the lower end of Man-
hattan was swarming with hundreds
of rowboats, sloops, schooners, skifts
and vessels of every other kind im-
aginable. They crowded around the
Red Jacket, the city’s ship plying be-
tween the Battery and Bedloe’s Island.
making it necessary to delay the start
to the place of execution because tne
captain of the Red Jacket was afraid
of running down some of the over-
enthusiastic spectators.

In dangerous proximity the hun-

dreds of boats moved like a national’

pageant toward Bedloe’s. In a solid
mass they jammed against the seawall
while the passengers gaped at the
scaffold. Hicks showed no fear what-
ever. On the contrary he seemed to
enjoy the excitement of which he was
the center. Only the really important
people were allowed on the island, but
the murderer waved to the others in
the boats as though to let them know
that he appreciated and thanked them
for their interest in attending his
execution.

The lines of soldiers surrounding
the gallows blocked the view of some
of those in the craft in the channel.
There were indignant cries of protest,
and calls on the marshal to remedy
this situation. That official thereupon
instructed the soldiers to move aside,
thus obviating any charge of un-
fairness on the part of those who
would have been unable to get a full
view.

With the proverbial steady step
Hicks mounted the scaffold. Before the
black cap was adjusted he smiled at
the crowd below and cast his last
plence over the armada in the upper

ay.

The marshal stepped aside and gave
a signal. The trap opened. Amid a
thunderous roar from the thousands of
spectators, Hicks plunged into space.
The sound of the twanging rope was
punctuated by the sharp crack of a
broken vertebra.

It was a far.easier death than those
suffered by the three men that Hicks,
often referred to as “America’s most
brutal murderer,” had slain.

And it marked the end of as sordid
a spectacle as the nation has ever
witnessed. ae

FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE


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HE schooner Telegraph, . bound

for New York, nosed _ slowly

through the waters of Long
Island Sound. Early on the morning
of March 21, 1860, another vessel
which appeared to have been aban-
doned, loomed out of the mist. The
Telegraph's captain ordered a number
of his crew to lower a life boat and
set out for the derelict.

When the rescuing party boarded
the mystery craft they found that it
was the E. A. Johnson which had
evidently been in collision, for the
bowsprit was damaged. But this
seemed trifling. compared with the
fact that the deck and rails of the
boat were smeared with blood stains,
and in the cabin were similar grue-
some tokens of deathly encounters.
No bodies were found. They had evi-
dently been thrown overboard by the
assassins who escaped in a cutter car-
ried in the stern of the sloop:

The Johnson was towed into New
York harbor and police were notified.
Officials soon learned that the ship
had sailed a week before for Virginia
to bring back a load of oysters. Her
crew had consisted of Captain George
Burr, Seaman William Johnson and
two- youths, Smith Watts, and his

TRUE CRIME DETECTIVE CASES

i ERE 2
Brother Oliver.

For months detectives were unable
to understand what had happened on
the oyster smack. Newspapers sug-
gested piracy and mutiny. '

As time went on it seemed that
the tragedy would remain an ever-
lasting mystery. But one day John
Burke and a friend, Andrew Kelly,
visited Police Captain Weed, who was
in charge of the case.

“Why don’t you ask Will Johnson
what happened?” they asked. “He
was on the ill-fated boat, and he’s
now living in New York on Cedar
Street.”

Captain Weed was amazed. He had
always been~under the impression
that all members of the crew had
been killed. Now he surmised that
Johnson was the murderer and had
made his escape from the death ship
in the cutter.

In less than a week the wanted man
was arrested in Providence, then
brought back to New York where he
was lodged in the Tombs. “I swear

that I’m not Johnson,” the prisoner -

declared volubly. “My name is Hicks.
I never heard of Captain Burr and I
was at no time on a boat.” However,
a watch identified as Captain Burr’s

y Rae owes <t ak Rare Craanting
and some belongings of the other
seamen were found in the accused
man’s coat pocket. What was more,
witnesses appeared who swore’ that
Hicks had often assumed the name of
Johnson and had recently been
spending huge sums of money in
spite of the fact. that he had never
been known to have had a well-paying
job. Officials were satisfied that Hicks
had killed the captain and others in
order to obtain money.

Hicks was indicted for murder but
he laughed at the authorities. “You'll
never hang me.” he sneered. “How
can you find me guilty of killing any-
one? Where are the bodies?”

Hicks had called attention to a
legal technicality that had always
worried the prosecutor. But the pro-
secutor had a trick up his’sleeve. Hav-
ing discovered that “robbery on the
high seas” was also a capital offense,
he had no difficulty convicting Hicks
on that charge. There was not the
slightest doubt that the latter had
stolen Captain Burr’s watch.

Hicks was hanged on_ Bedloes
Island, New York. A few moments
before he died he confessed his brutal
crimes. “Now I die in peace,” he
shouted as he plunged into eternity.

55

Roe Cime Detect, Vere (PES

636 XIV. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

cution, that you may understand the bearing of each por-
tion of the testimony toward the rest. You will perceive
in this case one peculiarity. A great number of witnesses
will be examined for the government, and among these wit-
nesses there is a very slight connection, either with each other
or with the individual himself—particularly with each other.
Various witnesses will be produced before you from Islip,
Gravesend, Staten Island, New York, and Brooklyn, who are
unacquainted with each other, who each come up to add their
little fibre to this strong cord of proof which is thrown round
this defendant. Each little item of evidence is of no particu-
lar strength, of no decision in itself, but only forming a
strong chain, a perfect chain, as claimed by the government,
fixing without question and without doubt the guilt of this
offense upon the prisoner. Your attention, gentlemen, is in-
vited to this carefully and scrutinizingly, which scrutiny, I
feel convinced, you will give to it. It is a question of great

interest—it involves the punishment of a terrible crime. If’

this prisoner is the true offender, the result may be very
serious to him. It involves a vindication of the law and the
punishment of a crime which he thought he had covered up;
for there is very little doubt he thought he had sunk the
vessel by the collision in the Lower Bay; and I think you will
say, as I have, in looking over the evidence, that the hand
of Providence, in marking the track this man was to pursue,
has placed upon that track the eyes of those who would come
up afterward to identify him. It seems strange in this
eenter of swarming thousands, at such a time of the day as
this prisoner escaped from that sloop, he could not have
hidden himself. It seems as though there was but one eye
to watch, and one instinct to follow and observe him. From
the very time that he landed on Staten Island until he went
to Providence, his whereabouts was known all the time. I
cannot explain either to you or to myself what it was that
eaused him to be watched; that he was watched and observed
will be shown. From the very commencement of his being
seen on the E. A. Johnson till he was brought here, every-
thing is known concerning him, save the twelve hours inter-

ALBERT W. HICKS. 637

vening from his sailing from Coney Island till the next morn-

ing. He has been called upon to give an account of the

property of the Wattses and Captain Burr—but he claims
it as his own. He has been called upon to give an account

.of those men with whom he was, and who are no doubt

already dead; but he utterly disclaims any knowledge of
them or of the vessel upon which they were. That, gentle-
men, you will judge of on the trial. You will say whether
he is guilty of the triple crime, the double, bloody, damning
crime that occurred on the deck of that vessel; and if so, as
jurors and citizens, whatever may be the result to him, and
whatever the punishment, I have no doubt but that your

verdict will be in accordance with the law and the facts.

THE EVIDENCE.

Selah Cowell. Know the sloop
HE. A. Johnson; I built her,
owned one-half and Captain
George H. Burr the other. Saw
prisoner on board the E. A.
Johnson on Wednesday evening
before she left at the Spring
Street dock. She cleared Thurs-
day, 15th, to Deep Creek, Vir-
ginia, for oysters; the crew con-
sisted of Captain Burr, Oliver
Watts and Smith Watts and the
prisoner, as mate. Captain
Burr was about thirty-nine; Oli-
ver Watts about twenty-four and
Smith Watts about nineteen. Cap-
tain Burr was dark; Oliver
Watts had very light hair and
Smith Watts had dark brown
hair. I saw the E. A. Johnson
at the Battery when she was
brought in; saw the yawl boat
of the Johnson with the harbor
police; she had that yawl boat
before she left. On examining
the Johnson I found a _ black
canvas valise and some clothes;
brought them here, found the
things now in it and a knife in
it.

Cross-examined. I never saw
Captain Burr since. Oliver Watts
was a large man, about 170
pounds; Smith Watts perhaps
180 pounds, very large for his .
age; Captain Burr was a small
man, not more than 125. The
Watts boys were on board the
sloop the Wednesday evening
before she sailed. When de-
fendant was on board on Wed-
nesday evening he was dressed
with a blue shirt and overalls
like those I found in the vessel.
I took supper there. The pris-
oner was at supper also.

John A. Boyle. Am enrolled
and licensed clerk in the Custom
House; the E. A. Johnson was
enrolled on 3rd December, 1858,
as an American vessel.

Daniel Simmons. Know the
sloop E. A. Johnson. Chartered
last Spring from this port to
Virginia for oysters on 14th
March. She left here last on
Thursday morning 15th March.
Settled with Captain Burr for
his charter on 14th March; gave
him $200 in silver coin, quarters,

638 XIV. AMERICAN

STATE TRIALS.

halves and ten and five cent
pieces. In gold, two tens, two
fives, a two and a half, one dol-
lar in gold and a half dollar ina
shot bag. Did not know where
the Captain used to keep his
money; there was a secret draw-
er in the shop where I kept mon-
ey when I sailed with him. Have
seen that bag since when it was
taken out of the prisoner’s pock-
et at the station-house. At the
Station-house when he _ was
brought from Providence I asked
him if he had ever seen me be-
fore; he said he had not. Cap-
tain Weed asked him if he knew
me and he said he did not. Told
him I saw him on board the E.
A. Johnson at Spring street
dock; said he never was there
and did not know there was
such a vessel; asked him if he
knew Captain Burr, he said he
did not, that he never saw him
and never was on board the ves-
sel. When I saw prisoner on
board the sloop his whiskers
were red and full, when I saw
him after his whiskers were
darker.

David 8S. Baldwin. Know
prisoner; saw him on board the
sloop on 18th March; he was
helping to get out oysters; told
me that he was going to Vir-
ginia with Captain Burr for a
load of oysters; that if I wanted
to go up town he would stay on
board and mind the vessel; I
was cook; this valise I saw be-
fore; the prisoner handed it to
me when he came on board on
the 13th; prisoner did not stay
on board that night; I saw this
knife before with the prisoner,
on board; saw prisoner on Wed-
nesday morning on board the
sloop at breakfast; did not see
him again until to-day.

Cross-examined. I left the
sloop on Wednesday; Smith
Watts took my place as cook;
prisoner first came on board be-
tween six and seven Tuesday
morning; never saw him before.

James H. Bacon. Am in the
oyster business; prisoner I saw
on the E. A. Johnson on the
13th March; was there two days
getting out oysters; Johnson

“was there shoveling out oysters;

he wore his whiskers same as he
does now; he had a check shirt,
short coat, and comforter about
his neck; next saw him after his
arrest, when I was called on to
identify him.

Reuben Keymer. Saw prison-
er the day before he sailed
from Gravesend; he came
ashore after one of the Wattses
just at sunset. Prisoner and
Watts returned to the sloop in a
yawl boat. Prisoner was dress-
ed in a coat of the description
of the one produced; watched
the sloop going out; she went
south-west to clear Coney Island
and then took a_ southerly
course.

Cross-exramined. Was not well
acquainted with any of them ex-
cept Captain Burr; am certain
the prisoner was the same man
who sculled the yawl.

Charles Baker. Knew Captain
Burr and the sloop E. A. John-
son; saw her in March last at
Gravesend bay; knew Smith and
Oliver Watts by sight. Saw
prisoner come ashore and take
away some of the hands, saw
the sloop go away after pris-
oner and the young man got
on board; Captain Burr was on
board; there were four on board
altogether.

John S. Whitworth. Saw pris-
oner at Gravesend Beach on

ALBERT W. HICKS. 639

19th or 20th of March last; he
came ashore in a yawl boat;
was painting a vessel at the
time; the boat was not more
than a few minutes there when
I saw her go back again toward
the E. A. Johnson which was
about 100 or 120 yards off; saw
prisoner on the day following,
he came ashore in the yawl
boat; think he had a monkey
coat on on Tuesday.
May 19.

Richard Eldridge. Saw Cap-
tain Burr and the two Watts
boys and Johnson on board the
sloop Johnson; went out in the
Sirocco in company with the
sloop, Johnson, past Coney
Island, up to the Health Office.
Captain Burr, the two Watts
boys and Johnson were on
board when she left; she went
on the usual course of southern
vessels. Took a letter from
Captain Burr to his home.
Johnson wore a beard same as
now but no mustache on the up-
per lip.

George Neidlinger. Live on
Staten Island at Port Richmond,
saw prisoner at six on the
morning of 21st March; asked
me if there was anyone to in-
terfere with his boat and I
said, no. He left his boat on
the south side of the fort and
he came from that direction. He
had on a monkey jacket with a
Kossuth hat; he had a feed bag
which he carried on his shoul-
der.

Michael Durnin. Know pris-
oner; saw him on 21st March; I
was going down to Port Rich-
mond and met him with a bag
on his shoulder.

Augustus GQuisler. Attend bar
at Vanderbilt’s Landing; know
prisoner; saw him on Wednes-

day morning, 21st March; came
to our shop and said he wanted
something to’ eat, he asked me
if I had any coffee and I said I
had not, but told him where to
get it; he went out and came
back again and said they were
not up; he asked for eggs and
invited Mr. Hickbert to take a
drink. He showed me a $10
gold piece and asked me if I
wanted it. I said, “No sir, I
have not change for it”; he then
took some silver and paid me.
The coat he had on was like
that produced, it had patches on
the elbow like this. He told -

' Mr. Hickman he was Captain of

a sloop, that he had been run
into and one man was killed
and another knocked overboard;
he said he was downstairs asleep
at the time and had only time
to get his clothes and the ‘“‘need-
ful” (at the time shaking the
bag) and come ashore in the
yawl.

Abraham SS. Hickbert. Saw
the prisoner on 21st March, at
the Vanderbilt ferry, at about
half-past six; he asked me
where he could get something
good; I showed him; he went in
and asked Augustus, the bar-
keeper. He told me that the
vessel he was on was the Wil:
liam Tell; that he had been run
into by a schooner, and one man
was killed against the mast, and
another knocked overboard.
Prisoner shook a bag in his
hand when he said he had only
time to save the one thing need-
ful.

Cross-eramined. Had never
seen him before, to my knowl-
edge; cannot tell exactly how
he was dressed, nor whether he
had whiskers.

Franklin E. Hawkins. Am cap.

640 XIV. AMERICAN

STATE TRIALS.

tain of the sloop Sirocco; saw
the prisoner on board the E. A.
Johnson; my vessel was lying
at Coney Island, and the sloop
Johnson was lying at the same
place; on the Sunday before she
sailed I went out with her;
Johnson came ashore in the
yawl boat on the evening be-
fore the sloop sailed.

Patrick McCaffrey. Am a deck |

hand on the Staten Island ferry-
boat Southfield; know prisoner;
saw him in the gentlemen’s cab-
in about seven on the morning
of 2lst March; asked me if I
was a judge of this country’s
money; that he was afraid them
fellows were cheating him; I
said I was a pretty good judge
of gold and silver, but did not
know much of bills; he asked
me to count the money; I count-
ed out three or four gold pieces
and told him what they were;
the bag was.a kind of a shot
bag; he told me to mind his
canvas bag and he would give
me the price of my bitters; my
attention was particularly called
to the coat by it being bare in
some places and having patches
on the elbow. Next saw pris-
oer in station-house, he denied
ever having seen me; when I
saw him I said, “there‘s the
man.”

Cross-examined. Had never
seen him before I saw him on
the Southfield; he had whiskers
up to his ears but no moustache;
his whiskers were blacker than
they are now.

William Drumm. Met the
prisoner on a Wednesday morn-
ing, about eight o’clock; at the
South ferry; about 21st March;
saw him at a coffee and cake
stand kept by Charley McCos-
ten; he got a cup of coffee and

a piece of pie; he put down a
gold piece, and the man said,
“Oh, —— have you no smaller
change than that?” he then gave
him something else. Carried
Johnson’s bag to the corner of
Cedar and Greenwich streets;
asked him fifty cents, and he
gave me three shillings, and
said if I did not go out of that
he would kick me; there was a
Dutchman there who told him
two. shillings were enough;
pointed out the prisoner on the
following Sunday, in the station.
house.

Cross-examined. Testified be.
fore the commissioner that the
bag was very heavy and cut my
shoulder, and that it did not
seem to be filled with clothes;
saw him first at the coffee

stand; he wanted a carriage |

first.

Patrick Burke. William John.
son had a room from me in Ce-
dar street near Greenwich; saw
him on Wednesday before hig
arrest about four o’clock; saw
some bills with him that day;
he went away by the boat that
evening; he took his wife and
child with him; he left a ship’s
instrument (a compass, I think)
behind at my house; he always
paid me my rent like an honest
man.

Cutherine Burke. Am wife of
the last witness. Johnson did
not say anything about what
voyage he was going on the last
time he went to sea; had seen
prisoner with money on previ-
ous occasions. .

Albert S. James. Am a brok-
er; saw prisoner on Wednes-
day 21st March at my office;
asked me to take some silver at
as low rate as possible; changed
about $135 in silver and $35 in

Perce

ALBERT W. HICKS. 641i

gold; it was in a bag and tied
up in a handkerchief. I gave
him $130 in Farmers’ and Citi-
zens Bank of Williamsburg,
Long Island; tens, fives, threes
and twos.

Richard O’Connor. On 2ist
March took his baggage to Fall
River boat. He told me if any-
one inquired where he was go-
ing to tell them it was none of
their business.

George Nivens. Am officer of
second precinct; understood 2
man answering prisoner’s de-
scription had left in the Ston-
ington boat but traced him to
Providence where I arrested him
in a boarding-house; found him
in bed with his wife; shook him
up and searched him; found on
him a watch; took away two
trunks, two bags, two handker-
chiefs and a knife, a _ pocket-
book and some _ bed-clothing
which he claimed to be his. I
found in the pocket-book $121 in
bills on the Farmers’ and Citi-
zens’ Bank of Williamsburg,
mostly fives and tens. First I
told him I arrested him for pass-
ing counterfeit money. He told
me that the watch belonged to
his brother; said he had not
been in New ‘York or Staten
Island during the month of
March; that he had been specu-
lating about the market and had
about $60; at another time he
said he got the money from his
brother. He denied all knowl-
edge of Captain Burr and the
sloop E. A. Johnson,

Elias Smith. Was with Nev-
ins when he made the arrest;
am aé reporter of the Times.
The prisoner denied all knowl-
edge of the sloop E. A. John-
son or Captain Burr; said he
had not been in New York for

two months. I said to him:
“You are charged with imbruing
your hands in the blood of three
of your fellow men for money;”!
prisoner shook his head and
said, “I do not know anything
about it;” then said to him,
“You have been on board the
sloop Edwin A. Johnson;” he
shook his head and said he did
not know anything about it, and
was never on it; Mr. Niveng
read the newspaper accounts of
the transaction to him; he said
he did not care much about the
arrest except for the interrup-.
tion to his business, as he had
purchased a place in Provi-
dence; I told him he would be
identified when he got to New
York; he said we might think
what we liked; he seemed an.
noyed at our pressing the sub
ject.

Cross-examined. I said to him,
“If you are innocent, then you
are willing to go back to New
York?” after hesitating he as.
sented.

Samuel Downes. Am captain
of the steam-tug Sirius; picked
~up the sloop E. A. Johnson on
the East Bank about six o’clock
in the morning; brought her to
this city; the bowsprit was
broken off about midway; the
jib hung overboard; there was
no small boat on board; board-
ed the sloop, there were pools
of blood on the deck and the
cabin appeared as if some one
had been slaughtered there;
there were marks of a hand as
if struggling and then there ap-
peared to be a blow of a hatchet
where the hand mark was, as if
it was cut; the blood flowed
down to the scuppers; there
were evidences of ascuffle. There
was a mark of a foot in the

642 XIV. AMERICAN

STATE TRIALS.

blood as if some person with a
boot or shoe had stepped in it;
seemed as if some person had
been dragged from there and
thrown overboard; there was
some hair found in the pool of
blood forward, it was dark
brown hair.

Hart B. Weed. Am captain
of the Second District police;

examined the clothes brought by ©

Nivens from Providence; there
were coat, pants, vest, and some
flannel clothing contained in 2
bag used for feed; a daguerreo-
type in the bag; I sealed it up
and gave it to the clerk of this
court. (Is said to be that of
the sweetheart of one of the
Wattses.) Was at the station-
house when _ prisoner was
brought there; he said he knew
nothing about it; asked him if
he knew anything about the ves-
sel or the murder, and he said
he had not been in New York,
Staten Island, or Long Island
for some time; Dr. Bouton, the
coroner’s assistant, accompanied
me to the sloop; we found a lock
of brown hair lying partially in
a pool of blood on the deck;
also found hair on the coffee-pot
in the cabin.

The cabin had a great deal of
blood and had all the appear-
ance of being washed down; I
found a bucket, with a rope,
which appeared to be used in
taking up water; there was
blood and hair on the rope at-
tached to the bucket; there were
holes bored in the deck; we
found an auger with blood on
it; the auger fitted the holes in
the deck; found cuts on the
clothing of the captain’s berth;
the railing had the appearance
as if a hand was on it and had
been cut; saw marks which

seemed as if a person with
bloody clothing had been shoved
down the side of the vessel;
there was blood on the stove
and wood in the cabin; the
cabin was in a deranged condi-
tion.

Cross-eramined. (A shirt and
linen coat produced).—These
are the clothing we found in the
captain’s berth with cuts on
them; there was no blood on
them nor on the bed; they had
the appearance of being clean
and folded up; examined the
prisoner to see if there were any
marks on him; found no fresh
marks of violence on him; on
his arms I saw the figure of an
eagle printed in India ink.

Theodore Burdett. Belong to
the harbor police; found a boat

about seven 22nd of March, the:

day after the sloop was brought
up to city, fifty yards to the
southward of Fort Richmond.
Hickbert and Gresler gave me
information where I could find
the boat. Mr. Selah Howell
claimed it and took it away.

Samuel J. Conover. Am a
watchmaker, doing business with
Mr. Squire. Remember repair-
ing a watch about a year ago
for a person named Burr. It
was not brought to me by Burr.
It was a double-case silver,
watch. The maker’s name, J.
Johnson and the number 21310.
(Looks at the watch.) This is
the watch that I repaired.

Cross-eramined. In giving a
description of the watch and its
number I am aided by a record
which we keep at the store; the
record is in my handwriting.

Henry Seaman, I know Cap-
tain Burr’s watch; had it in my
hand on Tuesday at my house
and he, Captain Burr, took it

ALBERT W. HICKS. 643

away that evening; recollect
leaving Captain Burr’s watch to
be repaired at some store in the
Bowery a year ago last April;
know it by its general appear-
ance and by the guard and the
way the guard is knotted. Knew
the sloop Johnson and its yawl-
boat; saw the yawl-boat at the
police station after the sloop had
been towed into the city.

Cross-examined. I left the
watch at Mr. Squire’s store to

be repaired; did not go for the
watch; remember the number of
the watch, 21310.

Mr. Conover (recalled and
produces the watch). It is as
follows: Mr. Burr, D. B. silver
watch, J. Johnson, Liverpool,
21,310. Did.

Catherine Dickenson. Seven:
teen years of age. I knew Oli.
ver Watts; saw him last on the
Tuesday of the week he sailed;
I gave him my daguerreotype.

Mr. Graves objected to this testimony.

Tur Court said he deemed the evidence was proper and import-
ant; it had been proved that a daguerreotype was found in a coat,
and if the prosecution can prove that that coat belonged to young
Watts, and that this is the daguerreotype this witness gave him,
it will go far to connect the prisoner with the trantsaction on board
that sloop. The evidence is not only eminently proper, but very ma-

terial and important,

Miss Dickenson. When I gave
him the daguerreotype he put it
in his coat pocket; saw that
coat since in the District Attor-
ney’s office; I think this is his
coat and this the pocket. he put
it in; (daguerreotype produced) ;
this is the same one I gave him.

Harriet Robinson. Am mother
of the last witness; knew Oliver
Watts for three or four years; he
used to stay at my house when
home from sea; he wore on that
Tuesday his best coat; I should
suppose this (the coat in which
Captain Weed found the da-
guerreotype) to be the coat;
know it from the lining, etc.; he
said he gave $16 for it.

Abbey Hubbard. Am _ the
mother of Smith Watts; on 7th
March he started to go with
Captain Burr to Virginia (iden-
tifies a portion of the clothes
belonging to her son; patched
this shirt myself; this bag has
the initials of my present hus-

band, Lorenzo Hubbard, on it;
put my son’s clothes in it that
morning myself; knew the
shirts; I cut them myself, and
had them sewed; he was very
large, and could not get shirts
to fit him; I have had no tidings
of him since, only that I suppose
he was murdered. This was
Smith Watts’ handkerchief; I
have washed and done it up for
him for two years, and never
saw one like it.

Dideme Burr. My husband
Captain George H. Burr left
home on 8th March last, have
never received any tidings of
him since; should know his
watch from the case and its gen-
eral appearance and the guard;
this, I should say is the same
watch. Saw some of his clothes
in the Second Ward station
house; he had a hat like this
which he wore from home. This
was his shirt; those pantaloons
I think were his, This black

7 at

THE GANGS OF NEW YORK

newspaper reporters. At a signal from Marshal Rynders
the drums rattled, the musicians struck up a dirge, and the
carriages rolled slowly across the street along thorough.
fares lined with cheering crowds to Canal street. There the
steamboat Red Jacket waited to convey the hanging party
to Bedloe’s Island, where the Statue of Liberty now beckons
_ with her blazing torch of freedom.

The vehicles and the fife and drum corps were dis-
missed when the procession arrived at the dock, and the
party, augmented by more than a thousand persons who had
been invited to the hanging but not for the carriage ride,
went aboard the steamboat. Hicks was made comfortable
in the cabin, and immediately engaged in prayer with Father
Duranquet. By ten o’clock the steamboat was crowded with
some 1,500 men, and a start was made for the Island. But
in midstream Marshal Rynders discovered that there was
plenty of time, and he determined to take his guests for a
pleasure sail up the Hudson. The Red Jacket was accord-
ingly turned about, and steamed slowly up the river as far
as Hammond street, where the steamship Great Eastern,
recently arrived from Europe on her maiden voyage, was
anchored. Hicks was brought to the rail, and as the Red
Jacket circled the Great Eastern, Marshal Rynders sta-
tioned himself on the bridge, and with his sword in one hand
and a trumpet in the other, announced to the passengers of
the steamship the purpose of the cruise, and the meaning of
the shackles on Hicks’ legs and the handcuffs on his wrists.

About 10:30 o’clock the Red Jacket again started down
the Bay, arriving at Bedloe’s Island half an hour later. The
guests formed themselves in procession, and, preceded by
Marshal Rynders, Father Duranquet, and Hicks, marched
down the gangplank between lines of Marines under com-
mand of Captain John B. Hamilton, while beyond the pier
a detachment of regular infantry from the garrison at Fort
Hamilton awaited to escort the doomed gangster to the

RIVER PIRATES

cene of execution. Hicks marched with his lips moving in

: raver and his hands crossed on his breast, and as pate as

fis ect touched the soil of the Island he knelt with Father
Duranquet and commended his soul to the special oe
of the Almighty. He was permitted to complete his sue a
i 71 heads, and the pro-

1¢ thile the guests stood with bared ads, ¢

rien Ben ae forward, with Hicks in the center of :

hollow square formed by the troops, while the regimenta
d played a dirge.

es Liesiwhile Daadecds of boats had come from ae
hattan, and from Staten Island, aac! ans eae be

i re
df ed a solid mass for more than a hun
Eee ioce Beyond this fringe of Aen oles eae? che
ion boats, gail decorated with flags and bun

are io the ninwale! with hilarious crowds amour

show hawkers and patterers peddled hot corn, candy, an
other dainties. It was estimated that at least 10,000 ae
saw the execution, for the scaffold had been erecte ne
thirty feet from the water, and the hanging was in pa
lg of the throng which filled the boats. Flicks atebhe a
the death platform promptly at 11:30 0 eo pie
minutes later, after Marshal Rynders and other o we
had shaken hands with him, the Aes cut eee ney

or
d through the trap. He strugg ed severe y
ais but eee exhibited no pain. The nee Z
mained ‘suspended for half an hour, when it was cut oe
and carried aboard the Red Jacket, an se eee ine
_ Hicks was buried in Calvary Cemetery,

Baap cold before the grave had been robbed by ghouls,

who sold the corpse to medical students for a few dollars.

3
7 7 i f the Fourth
>~ the police began to drive the gangs of the }
oi etiaatd along the East River, dives el ha
those along Water and Cherry streets sprang up aroun the
79

EVV AI

aTarle | Ar. ALATARAAL aoe

THE GANGS OF NEW YORK

ane ae in this method of procuring clients was Piker
oe Mies Sait to have been a thug of exceptional bata.
prises n he was at length brought to book for one f

ny crimes, the police found this list in his pocket 7 :

Punching abso sae

Both eyes blacked ... ae de oe i

Nose and jaw broke ... . . bia a i

Jacked out (knocked out with , black. .

Fa) oa aS ooo and -ae"ee.

Ear chawed of ................. i

Leg or arm broke ............... :

Shot in Het etre a, eta soe ae se

Se ne ey Sn aca aE e

Doing the big job o.oo aoe and up
Ryan made good use of his opportunities, as was ap-

adie from a notebook which was also in his poOssessior

ee Page was a ; aan and below the heading ania
ames. Some had check mark
which Ryan explained meant shed bee
xpl: that th
Pieted to the satisfaction of his clients eee ae been ei
1e greatest leaders of the Wh G
yos were D
a Driscoll, who exercised joint a it
; ppropriately enough, the i
seca ANCA : y were hanged. in the
ght months of each other. I i
and John McCarthy b i eine eee
i y became involved in a quarrel

ve aes girl named Beezy Garrity, oad the furious

a ght which followed a bullet struck and killed her. Dri
. LL of the crime, and was hanged on Tis
I y mite

» 1000. Lyons was probably the most feroci :

of his period, a worthy ri orlien “Mote the
| ; y rival of the earlier M :
Bow “ Boy and the later and equally eminent Monk Ease

man. e€ wes eae of the first of the great gang lead
o avail hims ini —_—
-~ elf of feminine counsel. He frequently con-

THE WHYOS AND THEIR TIMES

sulted his girls, Lizzie the Dove, Gentle Maggie, and Bunty
Kate, all of whom proudly walked the streets for him and
faithfully gave him their earnings. But Lyons was not satis-
fed with the manner in which they maintained him, and
added a fourth girl, Pretty Kitty McGown, to his entourage.
He expelled her lover, Joseph Quinn, who vowed eternal
enmity, and for several months he and Lyons went gunning
for each other. Both celebrated the Fourth of July, 1887, by
drinking heavily, and when they met next morning at the
Five Points their dispositions were even more murderous
than usual. They blazed away at each other across Paradise
Square, and Quinn fell dead with a bullet in his heart. Lyons
went in hiding for a few months, but was finally captured,
and was put to death on August 21, 1888. Bunty Kate and
Pretty Kitty shrugged their shoulders and obtained other
lovers immediately, but Gentle Maggie and Lizzie the Dove
aroused much comment in the underworld by donning
widow’s weeds and refusing to accept any business engage-
ments until they had observed a decent period of mourning.
However, they occasionally went out for refreshments, and
met one night in a Bowery dive, where they undertook to
decide whose sorrow was greatest, and to whom Lyons had
been more affectionate. Gentle Maggie finally settled the
argument by stabbing Lizzie the Dove in the throat with a
cheese knife, and Lizzie died. Her last words were that she
would meet Gentle Maggie in hell and there scratch her
eyes out.

Another shining light of the old Whyos, before the
time of Driscoll and Lyons, was Dandy Johnny Dolan, who
was not only a street brawler of distinction, but a loft bur-
glar and sneak thief of rare talent as well; nothing was too
great or too trivial for him to steal. His fellow gangsters
regarded him as something of a master mind because he had
improved the technique of gouging out eyes; he is said to
have invented an apparatus, made of copper and worn on

229

ae 4

FEDERAL
HOBSON (FURLONG), John, white, hanged at Savannah, Georgia, April 28, 1820,

WEXECUTION - Agreeably to appointment, the awful sentence of the law was this day, at
half past 12 o'clock performed upon John Hobson, alias John Furlong (but has denied
both these names), convicted of piracy and murder, The ceremonées on the occasion
were solemn and impressive = the terrible and ignominious end of this unfortunate man
who has thus expiated his crimes on the scaffold, must serve as a striking example to
prevent the commission of similar offences, He was a Roman Catholic and received
great attention from the Rev. Mr. Gallagher, The conduct of Furlong, during the
period of his being brought from the gaol, until he was executed, was marked with a
degree of firmness seldom witnessed an such @& an occasion, He walk d to the

gallows with great boldness, where he knelt and prayed for some time, aided by the
priest, He resigned life with the greatest composure = and apparently with a confi-
dent hope of pardon for his sins; = For such was his coolness, when he mscended the
scaffold, the executioner tied by a single knot upon the rope, The culprit remarked
that he did not understand his business, that the knot should slip and desired him

to take the half hitches upon its when this was done he said that will do§

The Marshall asked him if he had any thing to say? He addressed the crowd and said
he hoped those around him would take warning by his unfortunate fate, and think

twice before they acted once, It is supposed his neck was broke when he dropped, as
he died very suddenly, The crowd of spectators was immense and the scene impressi-
ve. Since sentence was passed upon him, he has appeared to have been devoutly en=
gaged in preparing himself for the awful charge, He has not pretended to deny the
justness of his sentence, He has never made any disclosure, which was satisfac-
tory, either of his name, connexions or residences and it is believed he did not wish his
parents or relations should ever know his fate, There is but little doubt, from

his dialect, that he was born in Ireland, Furlong appeared to possess a strong mind, and
we trust that he was sincerely penitent, He expired without a struggle, The body remained
suspended about half an hour, when it was taken down and interred, We cannot but hope
that this awful exhibition and example will have the beneficial effect of deterring
others from similar crimes, This was also the day fixed for the execution of Ralph
Clintock, David Bowes, and Henry Matthews, for the crime of piracy; but the execu-
tive of the United States has respi ed them till the middle of June next, =

SAVANNAH REPUBLICAN, April 28, 1820."

THE COURIER, Charleston $. Ce, May 1, 1820 (2:2.)

HILL, Owen D,, black/Indian, hanged Fort Smith, trk,, (Fed.) on -27-1888

"April 27, 1888-Advices from Fort Smith say that three men were hanged there this morning
for crimes committed in the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, The men - George Moss, Jack .
Crow and Owen Hill - were all colored with part Indian blood, The condemned men spent

the night in crying, praying and shouting, Neither of them selpt but a few moments here
and there and ate nothing at breakfast. At 7 o'clock the crowd of morbid sight seekers put
jm their appearance, and an hour later the jail yard was filled with a miscellaneous froup
of men, women, and children, ‘The jail corridors inside were filled with, friends and rela-
tives of the condemned men, who shook hands with them and madethe walls re-ccho with gospel
hymns and prayers, led by a group of colored clergymen. Each of the mean leaned against
the bars, the picture of utter despair, Hilled acted like a half-crazed man. He bade

his relatives goodbye, one by one, uttering his farewell words in a dreary WANAXSANSS
XUAKXNYXKKAXEXKAKA monotone, shaking their hands and jumping about from one place to
another, The parting with his sister was very sad. She is a tall, very neat looking
colored girl, and wore a heavy crepe veil, through which her face could be scen distovted
with grief, Hill kept repeating continually that his faith was with the Lord, and that he
knew he would be saved, to which the crowd would fervently shout "amen," The other men

had but little to say, and leaned against the bars as though too weak to stand, Occa-=
sionally the crowd would sob aloud, and Moss wuld move nervously about with wide open

eyes that showed the abject terror he felt at his impending fate, BAAKAXHXUAXAK Captain
Maledon, the hangman, had made the final preparations before dawn, and everythins was

in place long before the march to the scaffold began.

"When Deputy Marshal John Carroll came in to read the death warrant, Moss was engaged in
listening attentively to spiritual advice offered him by fellow prisoners, His brown

face seemed blamched with terror, and he glanced nervously about him as though he esvected
the drop to fall any minute. Hill did his best to be cheerful and SAMAK FKAXHASKS SEA
composed and although he was extremely nervous he answered all questions put to him and said
he was very happye On his breast he wore a white card with the letters M, S. B, made of
the hairof his mother, sister and brother, which, he said was the last token of love he

hop d they would ever remember, Crow at the last moment showed that he could talk English
cuite well, and conversed with a reporter as well as the rest of them, He said goodbye and
asked that nothing else be published in the papers. During the reading of the warrants,
the three men sat side by side, listening attentively, Hill kept tappin on the ground with
his feet, singing in his d reary monotone, 'God have mercye' ‘Let not your hearts be trou-
bled, It is God's well.! He smiled continually. Moss and Crow X&KAA looked stolid and
indifferent, On the scaffold Hill seated himself and began shouting 'We are on our journey '
homee' He could not stand or sit still but drummed with his feet, clasped his hands and
rolled his eyes wildly about as though half dead with fear. his spiritual adviser shook
MRKXXXKAXKAXKBA hands and wished him goodbye, thilchangman Naledon arranged black caps and
noosese Moss and Crow looked straight out into the space below the gallows and did not
move their lips; they seemed quite composed at the last, moment, but Hill shouted incessantly.
When led to the trap Hill kept up the same crazed harangue and Moss and Crow trembled vio-
lently, but said not a word. The noo es were adjusted. The last prayer was said and the
black caps were slipped on, The drop fell with a crash, and the three wretched victims were
suspended in mid-air. Aftkk the drop had falled for 13 minutes, the attending physicians
pronounced them all dead. Moss'&pulse stopp d first, and then Crow's and lastly Hill's.

In thirty minutes the bodies were cut down and subseauently buried in Potter's field,"

"Owen D. Hill, negro, was convicted of the mrder of his wife in the Creek nation, near Mus-
Kogee, about one year ago. He had taken good care of his wife and mother-in-law, but the
latter seemed to keep up a continual row and finally induced hee daughter to leave her hus =
band, Unable to induce her to return to his cabin, he attacked her with a razor, cutting her
throat. He next tried to kill his mother-in-law and then himself, but inflicted only slight
wounds, As he started from the house he picked up his infant and carried to to a neighbor's,
leaving it on the doorstep with the request to take care of it, He then hid, in the bushes
until someone returned home and took charge of thechild, He then left the country but was
soon arrested, and in his trial last November, his mother-in-law was the only witness against
him, He maintained his innocence, but without avail, After conviction be became very re=-

ligiouss" NEWS, Galveston, Texas, April 28, 1888 (1-3).

t

32

by Glenn Shirley

Raped and helpless, they abandoned her in a pit alive with snakes!
Boasting of their crimes, the sadistic outlaws seemed beyond the

reach of justice!

How this hideous crime was revenged is a stir-

ring testimony to the courage and bravery of one strong man!

~ a Noe 6 Ww hee
» 3. 6 Ne

my

\

Author's collection

56 a

a

2
£
i
‘

5
A

: , he

Artist's sketch of Captain J.H. Mershon, perhaps the most efficient and active of t

200 deputy pao. who rode Indian Territory. He told U.S. District Attorney Clay- - __
ton: “If you want the girl’s bones, I will get them.

tan in an autumn afternoon of 1882, Captain J.
H. Mershon, perhaps the most efficient and active
of the 200 deputy marshals who rode Indian Terri-
tory for Judge Isaac C. Parker’s federal court for

the Western District of Arkansas, strode into the
office of U.S. District Attorney William H. H.
Clayton at Fort Smith, carrying a grain sack on
his back.

REAL WEST, JUNE, 1970

The district attorney, swamped with paper work
piled high before him, scarcely noticed the officer
until Mershon lifted the sack from his shoulder
and dropped it on his desk, with the remark:

“‘Here’s a piece of the girl’s dress and the bones
of the dead horse thief!’’

To many, the remark would have been startling.
To Clayton, the most vigorous prosecutor this re-
markable criminal court ever had, it suggested only
another murder case to be tried.

He examined the remains of the dress, then
punched the sack with his fingers. The bones in-
side rattled.

Glancing up, he carelessly inquired: ‘‘What girl?
What horse thief’’?

As briefly as possible, Captain Mershon told him
this story:

The year before, Bud Stephens, a 22-year-old
horse thief, had barely escaped a Montague County,
Texas, posse by fleeing across Ref River into the
Chickasaw Nation. Following close behind came
Ella Stephens, his bride of only a few days and
a pretty girl of 17. Ella’s parents, respectable peo-
ple, had bitterly opposed their marriage. But Ella
was madly in love with the wild, handsome Bud.
She had forsaken her home and all its niceties to
follow an uncertain life with the fugitive.

Both rode fine horses, Ella a big gray and Bud a
dappled sorrel.

Heading norththrough the Chickasaw Nation, they
found nothing except a few settlers and the scat-
tered ranches of Texas cattlemen who leased graz-
ing lands from the Indians. The ranchers fattened
their herds in the Nation during the summer and
fall, then drove them back across Red River and
shipped them to Chicago and St. Louis markets.

Bud and Ella rode through scrub brush and
timber and across vast, rolling prairies until they
reached the Arbuckle mountains. In the mountains
they found an abandoned Indian cabin and set up
housekeeping.

The ranchers in the vicinity also raised good hor-
ses, and despite Ella’s pleas, Bud couldn’t resist
taking any animals that strayed near their moun-
tain retreat.

Bud figured he was safe enough.

Most of the Chickasaws lived along the Washita
River in the settlements to the north of Smith
Paul’s Valley and White Bead Hill. Few drifted
down into that part of the Nation. The federal
marshals from Fort Smith seldom came that far
west, and the closest miliary post was Fort Still.

Bud was soon joined by Henry Loftus, a young
freedman living nearby, and a hulking, amoral
desperado named Martin ‘‘Bully”’ Joseph. Together
they began stealing whole herds of horses, selling
them as far north as Kansas.

Judge Isaac C. Parker of the federal court for the
Western District of Arkansas with jurisdiction over

Indian Territory. He sentenced Bully Joseph to the

gallows.

Loftus had an aged father and mother and an
older brother, William, all law-abiding citizens.
He also had a roving disposition and little regard
for the rights of others.

He had fallen in with Joseph, and they had
committed many unlawful acts along the Washita.
Both thought they were raseally lady-killers, and
when in their cups, were wont to boast of their
foul deeds and latest affairs with Indian women.

One evening as Ella watched them depart, she
said to her husband: ‘‘Look at them, Bud -- rid-
ing off like swine. That Bully Joseph gets mean-
er every day’’.

‘‘They won't bother you'’, Bud assured her.
When he saw that she didn’t believe him, he prom-

ised: ‘‘I'll soon have enough money to take you
out of here. We'll go to California -- and start
honest’’.

His companions, however, shared no such goal.
Loftus and Bully knew of Bud's stake, which inter-
ested them more than where they would steal the
next herd of horses.

The morning of April 20, 1882, Bully came dash-
ing into the yard on his lathered pony. He told
Bud that Loftus was standing by a herd of fillies
they had just spotted grazing in a ravine at the
foot of the mountain. They needed Bud to help
corral them. :

Bud saddled his sorrel. Ella pleaded to go with
him. While she packed a picnic basket with food,
Bud saddled her gray. “s

wan

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JOSEPH, Martin, black, hanged at:Fort Smith, Ark. (federa

by LEE HOLMES

ARVIS (RED) STEPHENS didn’t

look like a horse thief, much

less the biggest one who

ever infested the West. He was in his

mid twenties, soft spoken and he wore

dude clothes like drummers who ped-

dled their wares in Texas in the early
80s.

He actually was a drummer, selling

34

horse medicines for the Dallas Reed
Veterinary Supply Co., a role which en-
abled him to size up the scope and steal-
ability of a rancher’s horse herd without
the rancher suspecting that he was being
set up for the toughest, most ruthless
crowd of horse thieves in the history of
the frontier.

Once Stephens decided upon a herd,
he didn’t immediately lead his crowd in-
to dingling it. Texas ranchers were a
cagey bunch; it wouldn’t have taken

_ FRONTIER! WEST,, APRIL, 1972.

4

1) on 6-29-1883, ’

“ey

fe
* e
ae

them until Christmas to figure the affin- .

ity between the drummer and the, >
thefts. So he dingled herds that he had ~~
put his larcenous eyes on several ranches
and perhaps a month back, varying the .~
time and place so that there was no pat- =
tern some bright marshal could discern. | as

The theft of Rollie Worden’s 42 =
horses was typical of this cunning little 9
man’s technique. iif

Worden was owner of the Double Bar 4
W spread (=W=) in Cottle County in the_ 7


|

Author's collection

U. S. r
orous prosecutor the remarkable Fort

They rode down the mountain
to a spot Bully had selected to
corral the herd. Bud helped him
stretch ropes around some trees,
then Ella waved them off and
started unpacking the basket.

When out of hearing distance,
Bully and Henry Loftus promptly
put into execution the plan they
had conceived. Loftus dashed from
a ravine on Bud's right, his six-
shooter at full cock.

Joseph, suddenly dropping to
Bud's rear, shouted: ‘‘This is
where we end our partnership!”’

Bud wheeled his horse to es-

34

istri ttorney William H. H. Clayton
et ae ee Smith court ever had, but he need-

ed evidence to convict.

was the most vig-

cape. A neatly placed shot through
Stephens’ head toppled him from
the saddle.

Leaving his body to rot where
it had fallen, Loftus caught up
the sorrel. Then he and Bully
headed back to Ella at a gallop.
~The moment Ella saw Bud’s
sorrel, she suspected treachery.
She tried to defend herself, but
the two desperados seized her.
They forced her to reveal the
hiding place of Bud’s money, then
flung her on the grass...

When they were both through
with her, and she sat sobbing

into her ripped garments and
calling Bud’s name, Joseph put

his revolver to the back of her
head and squeezed the trigger.
They threw Ella’s body across
the saddle of the sorrel, got the
girl’s picnic basket and saddled
her gray, then proceeded up the
mountain.
Carrying the dead girl to the
top of the Arbuckles, they en-
tered a narrow, cavelike chamber
that had been formed from a
mighty upheaval of rock. At the
back of the cave, a fissure des-
cended a short distance, then
dropped abruptly into the bowels
of the earth. Into this pit, they
threw the basket and body.

Returning to the cabin, they
found Bud’s money, sold his and
Ella’s saddles and horsesinSmith
Paul’s Valley and whooped off the

‘profits in dives along the Washita.

A few months later Loftus,
while drunk, told his brother of
their triple crimes. This caused
a row between him and Joseph,
and Joseph killed Henry.

William, fearful for his own
life, promised to keep the secret.
Then Joseph left the country and
William told his parents why Bully
had killed Henry. Old Man Loftus
reported the case to Deputy Mar-
shal Mershon.

Captain Mershon searched for
Stephens’ body and found his
bones at the place Henry had
described to his brother. Next,
accompanied by William and his
father, he visited the cave in the
Arbuckles. Guided by a piece of
the girl’s dress that had caught
on the rocks in her fall, they
found the pit that secreted her
remains.

Finally, the marshal took the
trail of Bully Joseph. He found
and arrested Bully in the Semin-
ole country and placed him in the
federal jail at Fort Smith.

When Captain Mershon had fin-
ished his story, the district attor-
ney commented:

“You have one witness whose
testimony might be admissable
in court, and a piece of cloth
that cannot be identified. A jury
wouldn’t give Bully Joseph much
for killing a horse thief. But if we
charged him with the murder of
Ella Stephens...What we need is
the bones of the woman.”’

(continued on page 74)

LT EI TILT ELE TI TE TT I I ETE I EY OCT IE OT SET CD TE TT LETT ECO COOL IEE A EE 8

Ff

aig

Prior to the arrival of the white man,
the Indian was not warlike. Implements
found in ancient Indian village sites are
those of a peaceful pursuit. The Indian
had a well defined boundary as to their
rights to live and hunt, and there was

little need for trespassing. Only occasion-
ally did another tribe infringe upon its
neighbor, then this sudden invasion was
reason to fight. With the arrival of the set-
tlers, much of the land was taken from the
Indians and they found their homeland
no longer theirs. Territory for anew place
to live had to be taken orstolen from ot-
her tribes, and this led to bloodshed and
w .

$ Each tribe had its own customs of war,
? but there were two recognized types of
warfare before the coming of the white
man. One was the defensive, or fighting
for protection of women and children,
the home and the village. The other type
was aggressive warfare or going on an
expedition to avenge injuries, or to take
spoils. The arrival of the white man
brought new kinds, and reasons for war-
fare. One was the wholesale destruction
of game animals. The Indian never killed
more animals then they could use for
food, clothing or shelter. The killing of
game became a sport with the white man
and the very existence of the Indian was
in danger. The other type of worfare, not
¢ften mentioned by historians, was the
discord over religion. There were thou-
sands of incidents of intolerance. The mis-
sionaries and colonists felt the Indians to
be savage and that it was necessary to
§ take away all of their old beliefs and
make them believe as the white man. Red
? Jacket, the Seneca chief, said that the re-
ligion of the Indian was to love each
other, to help each other, and not to
quarrel about religion. Many times the
Indians would not give up their old be-
pe which they felt were not so dif-

ferent trom those taught by the white
man. Indian prophets, however, did
preach among the Indians inciting their

&
a

THE AMERICAN INDIAN

Real West facts about the Indian and his way of life. By Nono Minor, Curator
of Plains Indians, Kansas City, Museum of History.

WAR AND STRATEGY |

Gods away from the land. Many proph-
ets were the direct cause of war. Pope,
a prophet of the Pueblo, urged revolt
in 1680. Pontiac was inflamed by aDela-
ware prophet to go to war in 1762. The
Shawnee Prophet, Tenskwatawa, has-
tened the battle of Tippicanoe by urging
his brother Tecumseh to fight. Kanakul,
a Kickapoo Prophet, was the agitator of
his people resulting in their losses in
1827. Wovoko, or Jack Wilson the Paiute
prophet, was the originator of the Ghost
Dance which brought about a Sioux out-
break and the battle of Wounded Knee.

In battle, grades and ranks, each hav-
ing its own insignia, were held among
the warriors. All ranks had to be won by
personal achievement. Before a man
could count his war honors, and wear
the appropriate insignia or assume the
grade or rank to which the honor enti-
tled him, he had to be given the right
publicly and this was usually with great
religious ceremony. War honors were
the token of a man’s courage and abil-
ity.

All tribes had strict military rules. Their
fighting wasnot the wild assault of a mob.
It was the duty of awarriortokill or cap-
ture the enemy. Often it was considered
more brave to simply touch the enemy
than to kill him; this was called counting
coup. While many tribes kept the men to-
gether in battle, others let each man fight
independently. Friend stood close to
friend and often the greatest battles took
place over the body of afallen comrade.
The friend determined not to let the ene-
my touch the body of his friend. Each man
was free to take all the honors he could,
but when it came to a division of the
spoils the leader had the right to divide
them, and no one could question his ap-
portionment.

Young boys from an early age
were taught bravery. They were told of
the honors of the great warriors. Every

people to drive the white man and his boy wanted to be like them and it was

RAOMO? MOM»? AOWDy? AOWOw? OWS? LOW? DW? MOMS? MLOPDN? OMG? MOMS? LOW O v2 AOMO? KOWOmwh

the duty of the warriors to teach the
young boys the art of war. They were
taught to send signals, to swim under 2
water, to track an enemy, as well as
skill in using weapons of war. The boys
were so well trained in childhood that
when they reached manhood it was not
unusual that they could hold off a force =
against great odds, as a single warrior,
oras one of a few.

:
AMONG THE INDIANS ‘
é

:

6

:

Or <MOWOn?

OVO? «LO

Most war parties were made up of vol-
unteers, and there could be anywhere 5
from eight toa hundred men. Some tribes
had adivision of duties. The leader would
choose who would do each thing; some
were to hunt game, as the war party
moved on; others were to carry the ket-
tles and look after the utensils and cook j
the food; others had tocarry the food the
hunters caught and carry the water as
well as fix the fire. Some were appointed 2
to carry the extra moccasins and see that
each man had a new pair when his wore
out. The most honored of duties were
those of the scout. These were the men
who scouted ahead of the war party into
enemy territory.

On «OW

CAOUOD? OM

Women at times, went to war usually
as helpers. A woman was never under
orders. However, when the spoils were
divided the women were given a share.
Only in rare cases did the women fight
side by side with the men on equal terms.
Women usually fought at close range and
with knives or any object at hand.

Many things would influence a warpar-
ty and one of the most common was
dreams. Often if one member of the war
party had a dream of aharmful nature or
indication they would turn back. ‘

Fortificatiors were used for the protec-
tion of the tribe, and later to ward off
horse thieves. The people of the Upper
Missouri built palisades too high to be
scaled. The Ponca, had on enbankment
over six feet high to protect their earth
lodges.

(continued on page 71)

35

PP DPDOD
RAPE AND OF ATH
‘
S$ (continued from page 34)
A es oy
al weaveus, iLershon ex-

claimed, ‘‘there is no telling how
deep that pit might be!”’

The marshals who rode Indian
Territory for Judge Parker were
picked for their ability to handle
tough assignments. Like the
Texas Rangers and the Northwest
Mounted Police, they usually got
their man.

But the test was not always
in bemg able to bring in a crim-
inal

Ciayton needed evidence tocon-
viet. It would take great courage
fe ublaim It

Atter 4 pause, Mershon said:

'; you want the girl's bones, I
will get them.”

aptain Mershen left Fort
Smith that night with a small
possee. Among them was a tall
Pennsylvanian named John Spen-
cer, who had ridden with him on
many expeditions.

Dee eabtestedaani deste raebeteedtotoet nent econo rented tana Loon ele cote tate ode ete tn tn he po onto ke SoA eh pheno he ele let Sole p leet pe totede

PLA ADP AP AP AP PVD LOL LP.

TRAPPED ;
)
§ (continued from page 65)

POP? PIP LDP?LO LO PDD OY

well spaced shots. Again I knew
i Seard a long shout and emptied
tne cylinder.

in a short while Eddie was
stomping around asking and
answering questions. He had
he.wrd Dixie on the porch and
supposed I would be in any min-
ute so he began putting supper
cn she table, but after waiting
sume time had taken the ‘‘Cole-
man’’ lantern and gone out to
investigate but had almost mis-
sed seeing the bandana. ‘‘Her
head and neck was so damn
dloudy."” he said, ‘I couldn't tall

ne oardana from her skin. Saud
LNUSe. papers! They were so
Soggy all ! could make cut was
Mit Can, and fur I thought it
said milk can. Dixie wanted to
follow me so I had to lock her
up

Lighting 4 Candie na gingeriy

began looking for some way to
Tove the bould-: that h-a my
74

Within a few days they reached
the Arbuckles and climbed to the
cave, armed with a strong rope
and a iantern. Spencer volun-
teered to go down and bring up
the bones.

He knotted the repe around his
body and the others lowered him
sixty feet into the dismal, foul-
smelling hole.

The moment his feet touched
bottom, countless huge snakes
came crawling from crevices in the
rocks. More than a dozen had set
up housekeeping in the basket and

‘the girl’s skeleton. Their eyes

gleamed in the dim light as their
heads swayed to and fro, hissing
at the unwanted intruder.

“Pull me up quick, for God’s
sake!’’ screamed the deputy, and
in a few moments he stood back
on the cave floor, white-faced and
trembling. '

While Mershon and the others
racked their brains for some way
to exterminate the snakes, Spen-
cer drew a few deep breaths to
calm himself.

Finally he drew his revolver and
said, grimly: ‘‘Give me that
lantern.”’ ‘

foot anchored. ‘‘I think I’ve got
it!’’ he exclaimed from across the
boulder after peering down
among the slide. ‘‘I can see
your foot and I think I can reach
it. ‘‘Be damn careful you don’t
dislodge something and get an
arm or your head caught,’’ I
warned, ‘‘or we are up Skunk
Creek!’’

I could feel him unbuckling my
heavy overshoe. Then he was
unlacing my shoe, or trying to,
but the iace had fouled and he
only succeeded in pulling it in a
tight knot. That called for some
cussing on his part. His razor-
sharp knife did the trick and I
pulled my foot free.

Eddie was so jubilant he was
pounding me on the back when
I said ‘‘See if youcanfind my
tobacco. It’s right below here
some place.”’

“Weil for Chrissake!’’ he ex-
ploded. ‘‘Here you -vere all but
a gone goslin’ an’ you’re worried
about a damn sack of Durham!
Of all —”

“I’m not worried about it,’’ I
said, trying to get my shoe on,

“‘T need a smoke.”” Eddie-didn’t
cmihe, whikh was one of the

With the lantern in one hand
and his six-shooter in the other,
he was again lowered into the
depths:

This time he took advantage
of the blinding effect of the light
on the reptiles. Taking aim at the
head of the nearest snake, he
fired.

The explosion put out the lan-
tern. The snake, threshing wildly
in its death throes, coiled itself
about his left arm and neck.

Spencer kept his nerve. The
report of the revolver in the
narrow confines of the pit had
frightened the remaining snakes.
They fled as he shook and drove
them from the skeleton.

Quickly he gathered the bones
in the basket, then signaled to be
pulled to the top. When he ap-
peared above the rim with the
dead reptile around his neck, he
nearly caused a stampede.

When the basket of bones were
produced in evidence at the trial
of Bully Joseph, the surprised
desperado confessed. Judge
Parker sentenced him to the Fort
Smith gallows, where he died on
June 29, 1883, with a broken neck.

®RW

wonders of those in ‘‘stir,’’ he had
often explained, and had tried to
persuade me to quit.

Back in my shoes and sheep-
skin coat and a good smoke I
retrieved my carbine. With Old
Spook under me and the monster
cat tied behind my saddle the
world never looked brighter.

With supper under our belts at
two A. M. I lit in skinning the
cat that, by our spring scale,
weighed just under forty pounds.
Had he been fat, well --? He
was an old one and I guess he had
done more ‘‘Cattin’ around”’ than
hunting as the pelt hadn’t the
usual layers of fat so it was
easily dried. Even then wespent
the balance of the night and the
next forenoon drying it behind the
stove before turning it fur-side
out for shipment.

With the tags properly num-
bered and filled out, so as to cor-
respond with my last month’s de-
tailed report, Eddie took off for
the Post Office in Palisade, fif-
teen miles away. After he was
gone I reviewed the terse, unin-
teresting data that had gone on
the pelt’s tag: Bobcat. MaleS.C.
Empty. #932. @®RW

MURDER
§ (continued from page 66)

“That is the man who directed
the Indians from his horse. His
beard has grown longer since he
cut it off but he is wearing the
same hat and buckskin coat he
did on that day of infamy.”’

The two hired hands appeared
next as witnesses but their testi-
mony was not much. Immigrants
who arrived on the murder scene
reported what they had done and
of seeing the raiders in flight.

When the prosecution finished
sr triumphant laugh rang
out.

“‘All this is utter nonsense,”’

he declared hotly. ‘‘The English-
man is lying outright. He has
shown that he doesn’t know an
Indian from a white man. The
Shoshones done it.”’

In his defense he added further
that he had never seenhis accuser
before in his life. Thereuponcame
witnesses to his barging intocamp
and berating and threatening to
kill Wood. He had recognized him
on sight, yet supposedly never saw
him before that moment.

Three denizens of the post swore
that to their personal knowledge
Tooley had not and could not have
been so far east on the day of
the double murder.

The judge selected must have
been a smart man with previous
criminal prosecution experience.
He ordered the sheriff to ‘‘search
him thoroughly, even to _ his
boots.”’

‘Don’t none of you lay a hand
on me!’’ Tooley squalled. ‘‘I’ve
damned well had enough of this
farce.”’

When he madea move as though
to plunge through the crowd inan
attempt to escape a dozen hands
hauled him down. Two deputies
went through the clothing of the
then ashen faced Tooley.

A money belt around his middle
was brought to light. In it was
$500 of Wood’s English money.

“‘T can explain having that----”’
he began in a cracking voice.

““You don’t need to,’’ a deputy
told him grimly. ‘‘This should be
enough to hang you. How often

does any one bring a large sum
of English gold intothecountry?”’

Reviewing the evidence, the im-
promptu judge instructed the jury
in a formal manner. A verdict
of guilty was rendered promptly,

Asked if he had anything to
say before pronouncing the death
sentence Tooley could only gape
at the judge. Frozen with fear,
he could not utter a word. The
bold braggart and self-styled
tough man facing certain death
turned craven.

Suddenly he leaped away from
the men pressing him close. Break-
ing through the crowd he almost
gained freedom through the door
as bystanders fell out of the way.

The judge yelled, ‘‘Stop that
man!”’

The sheriff yelled, ‘‘Shoot,
boys, shoot!’’

The thunder of guns echoed
and that may have been the way
the killer chose to die instead of
on a rope. His body fell half in
and half out of the post door
riddled by bullets.

Penned an early day historian,
“Justice was swift. The proceed-
ings orderly and the criminal paid
for his onerous crimes with a
cost of only a few citizens’ time.”’

eRW

REFERENCE SOURCES:

Research, histories and publi-
cations, Western Americana
collections, Northern Arizona Uni-
versity.

Crossing the Plains: Days of
’57 by W. A. Maxwell. San Fran-
cisco, 1915.

Nevada, American Guide Ser-
ies, Portland, Oregon. 1940.

Tales of the Frontier, edited
by Everett Dick. Lincoln,
Nebraska, 1963.

History of Nevada edited by My-
ron Angel. Oakland, California,
1881.

Nevada, California and Wyom-
ing by H. H. Bancroft. San Fran-
cisco, 1889.

History of Nevada by Samuel
P. Davis. Los Angeles, 1913.

Old Trails West, The, by Ralph
Moody. New York, 1963.

Trail of the Argonauts by Char-
les M. Harvey. Atlantic Monthly
for July, 1911.

Geography of Nevada, The, by
Mrs. C.H. Luke. Chicago, 1932.

Nevada, by Effie M. Mack.
Glendale, California, 1936.

Meer x

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75


} ’
¢ Sah = Wos a
reorge & Michael,y,
Wika, USOLE
paws bose

Atlanta, Feb,

George and Michael] Krull, 33
and 31, M "9
brothers, were Siven death Sen-

tences by a Jury in Uniteq
States District eo;

- The jury
Penalty for both On rape |

er and
i. | Nt L. =
-lafter being locked up for the (¢ at (i
night, Testimony showed they
kidnaped the l

all relate is exactly
wsday of April 14th,

city, Chattanooga,
ag air appreciatively
macy owned by my
reached my middle
operation, I have

ost persons take for °

in bloom.
e any different from
in a drugstore, and
nusic and television
rrible things happen
you walk every day.
ited on several cus-
my brother and my
1 I discussed a little
osale drug house on
North Chattanooga
ind Trust Company.
‘tore and overheard
ably, have put po-

‘, driving the black
* owns, and it was
ie my first mistake.
d door was locked
le, I left unlocked.
[ might have saved
o drives should re-
nued on page 78)

wh av id
Hota x

two brothers must die in the electric chair for their terrible crime against me

19


18

“I BEGGED THEM
TO KILL ME”

Kidnaped in broad daylight from a busy Chattanooga street,

I became the prisoner of two ruthless men.

Death alone offered me deliverance from the horror

BY MARGARET JOHNSON

HAVE KNOWN the greatest horror that can

come to a woman. Prisoner of two ruthless men,

I shrank beneath the blows of their cruel fists,
felt blood trickle down my neck where their knives
cut me, sobbed with pain and shame during their as-
saults until I begged them to kill me. They were too
evil even to grant that request, keeping me alive for
their own unspeakable purposes. And through the
bravery of a federal park. ranger, I go on living now,
sometimes waking at night with my own cries, fear-
ful of so many things, my nerves on raw edge.

It helps little even to know that the beasts who did this
to me are condemned to die in the electric chair. Yes, they
will walk into that little room, feel the straps tightened
about their arms and legs, know sudden darkness when the
black hood is Slipped over their heads. Their bodies will
leap against the straps and what souls they possess will
answer to the highest court for their crimes.

But will that help me to forget the terror-filled hours
when they worked their evil will with me? I don’t know.
Perhaps telling the whole story here will help to cleanse my
mind of it. It might even help some other defenseless woman
to avoid what I went through by realizing what fiends can

roam a daylight city, and by taking some simple precautions
to thwart them.

First, let me point out that Margaret Johnson is not my
real name. Officials of the FBI and the states of Tennessee

against me. But everything else I shall relate is exactly
as it happened to me on that black Thursday of April 14th,
1955.

It was a pleasant morning in my city, Chattanooga,

” Tennessee, I remember sniffing the spring air appreciatively

countless others. Living alone, working in a drugstore, and
finding your amusement in books and music and television

At about 1 p.m. I started blithely out, driving the black
Ford business coupe which my brother owns, and it was
when I stepped into that car that I made my first mistake.

myself terrible agony. Every woman who drives should re-
member always to lock all car (Continued on page 78)

, ins
Ltr. Oo Go

[RUE DETTE CFL VE


aves, SUSPDe neUNeady; one Wallasey uaay

» @rubie property.

Guilty of a Fearful Triple’Murder.
_ Bpecial Dispatch to the Glube- Democrat.
s Fort situ, ARK., July 13.—Tne trial

wi. to the other two.

The prvof shows that on the 17th of Janua
Deputy United states Marshal Phillips struc

charge. We had business at Kufaula

1 Officers,

PhiNips burted his companions where they
, -| Were killed, and then went in seach of Sea-
‘t bora, whom hesoon arrested, Seaborn said
_-‘ SOT INen came to the camp mn the ntght and
_ «Killed the men while he escaped in the-dark-
“1; Mess. Tle was brought here, jailed, and short-
., dy afterwary Walker and Olioola were brought
‘".I @s accessories to the murders, some of
rf — property belonging tothe officers being

tha:
mnen, thus relieving his companions, who are
near relatives. . i
: ae A Wealthy Prisoner Admitted to Bail.
- Special Dispatch to the Globe-Detnocrat. .
TOPEKA, Kan., July 13.—Ther> was quite a
'. Qramatic scene im. the Supreme Court this

a

. g@vening when Adsociate Justices Valentine de-

“Of Roy Vance, of E) Dorado, ‘Kan., who has
been confined in the £1 Dorado jail since June
“29, for the killing of WiHs G. Farney.
3 There was intense excitement at Fl Dorado
“When the shooting was. done, and although
Vance 19 reported to be worth $60,u00
the feeling among Farney’s friends was so
. Strong that. Vance was. committed
Ball, threats of lynching being made m the
. “event ofhis being admitted to bail. “When
> the excttenrent In a measure sn » the
friends of Vance set about securing hfs re-
lease,and to-day he was brought to Tepeka

ter, the wife of Gen. Biddle, a wealthy Cau-
fornian., Mr. Kennedy was a man of consid-

i pW, Seaborn ireen, Dr. Walker and Josh Oboola,
“2t ”} three Creek Indians, charged with a tarribie

(YO... Wiple murder, came to close at 7:30 o’clock
W>. this evening by the jury returning a verdict
: .. Of AYiIty as to Seaborn Greenand not gullty as

This ts one of the most bloody and revolting
murder cases ever tried befurv this Court.

“* Camp fftee@ miles from Eutaula,Cree Nation,
» Raving Seaborn Green In custody on a Hygnt

, and
» Jeaving his. camp in Charge of Henry smith,
: Mark tu §

. .About 12 feet distant from them tiny the i
” @ead body of Kelly ina pool of blood, he hav-

: Ing been shotand also murdered with the
' Liloody ax. Seaborn Green had gone, as was
Also someof the property belonging to the

+ Itvered his opinion im the habens corpus case

aa-

of

K

On his return next morning a terHble Sight j>~.-
Met his guze. Ona pallet near the camp-fire fi ~~
):~ any the remains of Sui!th and Kuykendall,
“| With their heads severed: from thelr bodies

|:

me taken before Judve Valentine, Who,.aiter

Unidentified newspaper aticle sent by Van Realte,


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y

had cooperated with her tormentors.
After a trial of two days, both brothers
were found guilty as charged, without
recommendation of mercy. The death
penalty thus became mandatory.

A succession of appeals delayed their
date with the executioner, but on August
2lst of the year following their crime,
George and Michael Krull went to their
deaths in the electric chair at Georgia’s
‘Reidsville Prison.

The crime of rape continues to take its
toll of the women of America in ever-
increasing numbers. In states all over the
country, men are caught who boast of
having rpaed not just one or two, but
dozens of women. Many are aquitted

when brought to trial, because antiquated
rape laws make it almost impossible to
win convictions. Those who are con-
victed, for the most part, are given
sentences that make it possible for them
to return to the streets and resume their
predatory assaults with impunity on un-
suspecting girls. No girl, no matter where
in the United States she lives, or works, or
travels, is safe from these lust-driven
animals who walk like men.

If itis any comfort, there are safe from
the Krull brothers, George and Michael,
who paid for their crimes against blonde
Marian Barclay in the electric chair. The
record shows hey have not raped any girl
since. ; kk

hae % ‘

Gail Took off Pantyhose . . .

called him to tell him he was going to get

the stereo back. He hadn’t seen him.”

Investigators now: began to retrace
their steps and question known acquain-
tances of Richard Jarrell. This friend who
knew someone who would rip off his
friend might also know someone who
would kill him to rob him for the receipts
from the store where he worked. Or
maybe even, the friend might be of that
bent himself.

When no one of Jarrell’ s acquaintance
in High Point admitted knowledge of
anyone named Murrell or Merrell, the in-
vestigation moved to the nearby town of
Thomasville. With cooperation of police
there, the High Point detectives tried in
vain to locate a person of that name.

After running down. numerous leads
and finding that all of them ended up
against a blank wall, the investigation
turned back to High Point and deeper
into Jarrell’s background. It was learned
that Jarrell had at one time been
employed by the city of High Point in the
maintenance department. In fact, it was
recalled, as a youngster he had hung
around the police station.

None of this, however, resulted in any
new. , approach to the . investigation.
Things had come to a complete standstill
when the detective division received a
phone call from a girl who said she was
concerned about the welfare of one of her
friends. a

Detectives Noah and Tobin went to in-
terview the girl, who said her friend’s
name was Edna Gail Beck and she knew
who had killed Richard J arrell; there had
been two men who had done it, and
because the Beck girl had knowledge of
the crime, they had threatened to kill her.

“Do you know who the two men are?”
detectives asked the informant.

The girl said she didn’t know who they —

were and had never seen them, but she
understood that they were originally
from out of state. She wasn’t sure, but
they might be from Virginia. She had un-
derstood from her friend that both had
been in trouble with the law before.

“(trom page 35 h

“Can y you ‘tell us 3 where’ wecan nfind Gail
Beck now?” the informant was asked.

She didn’t know where her friend was
now, the girl replied, but she likely was in
the Thomasville area, where she had
family and friends who might hide her
out until the alleged ayers had left the
area.

In their search ae Cail Beck,. in-
vestigators came across the name ofa
woman who lived in Davidson County
and, as they were about to check her out,
she called the police station to say she
wanted to talk to them about something

which had happened in High Point the

night before.
.The caller said she had been visiting in in

High Point at the home of a girl named i
Nealey and that Gail Beck had been there .

with two men both of whom had guns.
The two men were drinking heavily and,

during the course of the evening, they had
‘taken care” of Fy

talked about having ‘
Jarrell.

_ At this’ point, she aid, the Kio men
produced guns, one of which she learned ~
was a .38 pistol and the other a .22. As the _ d

pointed a pistol at the floor between her s

feet and fired. . °:

She had been wanted that if is ‘dis &
‘cussed what she had overheard concer- ©
ning the death of Jarrell, she would be

killed. As soon as she was able to ‘do so, ©

she said, she had contacted police. : *: 1S.

She said that the two men had been in- ©

troduced to her as Wayne Meriwether’
Sechrist. She _

and Sherrill (Shorty)
thought they had been staying in.
Thomasville recently, but they had talked
about leaving the area for Texas.

After talking further with the infor- §

mant, she agreed that she might be able to.__
set it up to get Sechrist to her house again.”
While. these arrangements were being —
made, investigators moved ‘on to Joyce .

Ann Nealy. Taken to headquarters, $ she : he

was advised of her rights and question
about the slaying and robbery of fRichard
Jarrell. - xk

4 ri ee *

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Vl =

ae OF

OFFICIAL DETECTIVE MAGAZINE,

‘The
Insatiable
Sex Freaks

~ And The |

>

Brutalized
Blonde

by EARL WALKER

Special Investigator for
ACTUAL DETECTIVE STORIES

HE VIOLENT, forcible rape of a

woman by one or more men is a

crime that beggars description.
The ancient cliche in melodramas of an
earlier era termed it “a fate worse than
death,” and like all phrases that become
cliches through popular repetition, it con-
tains an impressive amount of truth. Any
woman who has survived the ordeal of
carnal assault against her will will swear

way it was described last year by a pretty
doctoral candidate at a Midwest universi-
ty after she had recovered from the most
soul-shattering experience of her life.
Five men had snatched her off a campus
street in broad daylight, taken her to an
abandoned farmhouse where they held
her captive for nearly 72 hours, and
brought in some of their friends to share
in the fun of debauching her body.
They had stripped her naked and kept
her on a foul mattress salvaged from a
dump heap.“During the first twenty-four
hours,” she said afterward, “I thought I
was going out of my mind. I wanted to

December, 197),

into a state of shock in which, although
she was aware of what was happening to
her, her senses were numbed. She lost
count of the number of times she was
raped, sodomized and forced to perform
unspeakable sexual pervisions, but as

-nearly as police could estimate by piecing

together remembered fragments of her
scarifying experiences, she was assaulted
at least 80 times!

This is the story of a young widow
who, after suffering a nightmarish ex-
perience at the brutal hands of two men,

- lived to tell about it and to say: “If Live to

be a hundred, I will never forget even the
smallest detail of what they did to me.”

Almost universally, that is the reaction
of girls and women who have been sex-
ually brutalized by the lust of voilent

. men, and therein lies the truth in the old

chiche: Death would have brought mer-
ciful surcease to their agony; survival
means they must live with the humiliation
and degradation they experienced for the
rest of their lives.

We'll call her Marian Barclay, which is
quite different from her real name. When
she set out from her home in a Tennessee
city some 20 miles north of the Georgia
border on that spring morning in April,
she was a week past her 28th birthday and
six months beyond the day she had buried
her husband after he had been killed in an
automobile accident. Marian Barclay was
a tall, uncommonly attractive blonde
with a stunning figure that caused men’s
head to swivel when she walked down
the street. She was a college graduate, a
devout church-goer active in church af-
fairs, and she dressed stylishly but with
becoming modesty. In the six months
since the death of her husband she had
confined her activities to her job as assis-
tant manager of a local dry goods store,
her church, and her home. She had not yet
accepted a date with any man, although
many had tried to date her.

“I simply was not ready for that yet,”
she said.

Ata few minutes after one o'clock, she
left the store in her car, which she had
borrowed from a relative while her own
car was being repaired. She had two stops
to make, one at the bank, one at a
wholesaler’s in a neighboring city. The
door on the passenger side of the front
seat was locked. The door on the driver's
side was not. If the window had been
rolled up and the door locked—a precau-
tion she now recommends urgency to all
women driving alone—she would have
been spared the ordeal that changed her
life.

When she reached the wholesaler’s
she pulled into a service station to swing
around in a U-turn so that she could park
in front of the supplier’s place of business
across the street. She never saw the man

left elbow was pulled open and a man

was roughly pushing her over so he could
slip in behind the wheel.

“I simply couldn’t believe what was
happening,” she said, “until I saw the
wicked-looking sharp knife in his hand
and felt its point pricking my left side as
he roughly ordered me to shove over.”

“Be quiet!” the man warned
menacingly. “If you scream I'll kill you!”

From his tone and the hard look in his
eyes she believed every word he said. She
looked around desperately for help.
Someone must have seen what was
happening to her—it was broad daylight
on a sunny afternoon. But she saw no one.
Then there was another man at the right-
hand door, trying to open it. The man
with the knife leaned across her and un-
latched it, and the second man hopped in,
slammed _the door behind him, and she
Was imprisoned in the front seat between
the two of them. He also had a knife in his
hand and he held it against her right
breast; she could feel the point, even
through her bra. She was too terrified
then even to move a muscle.

-“What is it?” she managed to ask.

“We want money, lots of money!” the
second man, who later would be iden-
tified as Michael Krull, 31, snapped. The
man behind the wheel was his brother,
George Krull, 33.

Marian Barclay heaved a sigh of relief.
If that was all they wanted, she might get
off easy. The driver interrupted her
thoughts to say they also wanted a car.

“I don’t have any money,” Marian
said. “I don’t have the car registraiton
papers, either. It's a borrowed car.”

“You're lying!” Mike Krull snapped.
Meanwhile, his brother had put the car in
gear and was pulling out onto the street.

For a few minutes nothing more
happened. They rode along in silence,
and the pretty blonde was beginning to
think that despite the accusation that she
was lying, they would realize they had

(Continued on page 70)

Her prayer for death to release her from her agony
was denied, and Southern lawmen who listened,
appalled, to the horror story of her
incredible ordeal unanimously agreed that

ie

eae on eee a ee

S

ST

*1561 $12 4snany uo Cpexepez) ets

Detectives bring in George (I.) and Michael Krull for interro

to that. who approached her car as she waited for

“Rape is the ultimate debasement of After that, the attractive, highly in- a break in the traffic so she could swing

death was too good for her bestial assailants...
woman's constitutional rights” was the _ telligent young woman mercifully went _ into her turn, but suddenly the door at her

- LL t

die. I prayed for death.”


oo Teer Se,

with six digits and writes that at the bot-
tom of the letter. The six-digit number is
repeated at a corner of the page and this is
torn off. The informant keeps the piece
he has torn off and mails the balance of .
the letter.

If the person or persons he has named
is convicted, he presents the piece he had
kept to the paper to claim the reward. If
the number matches and the jagged
edges where the informant tore off his _
number match, he is paid the reward. ~

At the request of the Chicago police,
Chicago Today offered a reward of $3,-
000 under its Secret Witness plan.

About six months after the crime was
committed, an anonymous informant
named James Isaac Smith at an address
on South Calumet Street and Joseph
Smith at an address on West 56th Street,
as the robbery-killers.

5

‘A check with the crime lab’s bureau of
identification showed that James Smith,
23, and Joseph Smith, 22, not related,
were scheduled to appear in Felony
Court that morning on a charge not
related to the Richmond murder.

Detectives went to Felony Court,
where the Smiths then were having a
hearing. As soon as it was over, they were
taken into custody and charged with the
murder of Dale Richmond. They were
taken back to Felony Court for another
hearing and were ordered held without
bond in the Cook County jail. At a hear-
ing on April 18, 1972. The two men were
ordered to appear for a preliminary hear-
ing on May 2nd. On that date, they were
bound over to the grand jury.

The evidence and testimony of
witnesses was presented to the Cook

County grand jury and both men were in-

”

of
dicted on charges of murder. Both men
went to trial before Judge Robert L.
Massey. A jury deliberated four hours on
the night of February 8, 1973, before

. Teturning a verdict of guilty. Judge

Massey scheduled sentencing for March
2nd. ‘

The sentencing was postponed to
March 18th and on that date, Judge
“Massey sentenced James Smith to 60 to
100 years and Joseph Smith to 75 to 100
years. As this was written, both men were
in the penitentiary at Stateville serving
their sentences. wok

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Jenny Ross is not the real name of
the person so named in the foregoing
story. A fictitious name has been used
because there is no reason for public
interest in the identity of this person.

picked a poor victim and soon let her out.
She was in for a rude awakening.

As soon as they got clear of the heavy
traffic and were traveling out of town on
a road where they met cars occasionally,
Mike Krull put his knife on the
dashboard, turned suddenly, roughly
tore at the top of her dress and shoved his
hand into her bra. °

“Where do you keep the money?” he
snarled. “Give it to me—you hear?” He
was still fingering her breasts.

She tried to push his hand away, cry-
ing, “I haven’t any money. I told you the
truth! I just made a deposit at the bank!

Mike Krull turned suddenly in the seat
and his hand flashed out, doubled up in a
fist that smashed into. the terrified
blonde’s face. Stars exploded in the girl's
head, but she didn’t lose consciousness.

“Then you'll get some dough,” Mike
snapped, “or you'll be dead!” With that he
began punching her with his right hand—
hard, driving blows that landed with
agonizing pain on her breasts, her

ach, her groin. :
oe Please!” Marian cried. “Don't! Don t
hit me. I can get you some money.

“Now you're talking,” George Krull
said. “How much can you get?”

At that moment, Marian Barclay
would have given them anything to make
them let her go. She told them she could
get $1,000 if they drove her to the store
where she worked. The figure appealed
to them. She gave them directions and
they drove to the store. George told his
brother he'd let him out and he could go
in, tell the people they had Marian, and
get the money.

But as they drove past the store a cou-
ple of times they had second thoughts.
“It's too risky,” George decided. “We'll
have to think of something else.” He
drove on, and he and his brother discuss-
ed various alternatives that might be a

70

safer way to get the money.

Marian finally suggested they call one
of her close relatives, and she would
arrange to get them the money and the
car registration. They liked the idea. By
this time, they had crossed the Georgia
state line, and George stopped the car in
front of a drug store in Rossville and told
Mike to go in and make the call. They
ordered Marian to crouch down on the
floor so she wouldn't be seen. As they
waited she prayed—harder than she'd
ever prayed in her life—that Mike would
get the right answer.

When Mike came running back to the
car they took off again, and now they
were speaking. excitedly in a foregin
language which the captive blonde could
not understand. With a sinking heart, she
realized they were not heading back to
Tennessee; they were driving southward
into Georgia.

The aesinti truth hit her like a
sledgehamimer—they were not going to
release her! They must have decided to
kill her—or:..she couldn't bear to let her
mind dwell on the alternative.

They had traveled only three blocks
when Marian Barclay’s worst fears were
realized. In the seat beside her, Mike
Krull reached over and forcibly turned
her face to look at him. His mouth was
twisted in a ghastly, lascivious grin.

“I'm going to throw you in the back
seat,” he said, his voice sounding strange
and strained. His hands reached or t and
slid across her breasts, lingering there as
he relished the sensation. Paralyzed with

fright, her mind racing with ' the
possibilities that now lay in store for her,
the pretty girl could not move a muscle.

Then, gripping her slender body in his
big, powerful hands, he started to lift her
over the back of the front seat. Pain shot
through her body like a knife. Marin
Barclay had a> ‘vertebrae that» had

bothered her for years; it dislocated easily
and caused her excruciating pain.

“Wait!” ‘she cried “Please wait! You
don’t have to do that!”

Her legs shaking uncontrollably with

‘the fear that gripped her, the terrified
blonde half-crawled and was half-pushed
by libidinously questing hands into the
‘rear of the car. There was no seat there
and she sank to the cold metal floor.
Numb with revulsion she saw Mike
Krull’s face swimming before her eyes as
he clambered back there on top of her.

Like a hungry mad dog, his hands tore

‘at her clothes, pawed her breasts, ripped
off her panties, clawed over her thighs
and groin. The pain and anguish she had
suffered from the blows and knife thrusts
before were as nothing compared to the
agony and humiliation she had to endure
now. Krull clutched her in an iron grasp
and wreaked his lusting will on her
helpless body, tossing her around as if she
was a sack of meal in order to hold her just
the way he wanted her. His foul breath
came in panting gasps in her ear. All she
could do was sob.

“I don’t know how long I was back
there,” Marian Barclay said later.
“Perhaps part of the time I lost con-
sciousness. I seemed to be floating in a
black night, shot through with lightning
flashes of pain. Once I cried out and
Michael Krull punched me with his fist.

The car stopped, but she could only
lie on the floorboards and moan. Mike got
out and took over the wheel and George
got into the back. Now it was his turn with
the captive blonde.

He was even more brutal than his
brother, pawing and tearing at her like a
frenzied animal, heedless of the pain he
was inflicting on the girl’s naked body.
When she screamed, George jabbed the
knifepoint to her throat, inflicting a cut
that started blood flowing down her neck
and over her breasts. .

“TI kill you! P'll kill you! ll kill you!”
he kept muttering as he was raping her.

~

They were the only words during the
entire nightmarish ordeal that Marian
Barclay was glad to hear.

“Kill me!” she pleaded, and later she
said she never meant anything more
earnestly in her life. Death would have
been sweet deliverance from the horror
that now seemed to have no ending. “Go
ahead,” she cried. “Please. Please kill
me!”

But that deliverance was denied to
her. It was one threat which apparently
they did not mean to carry out. At least,
not yet.

George’s lust appeared to be in-
satiable. He continued to gorge himself
on the carnal delights of his captive’s
body. Suddenly Marian realized the car
was rolling again. She had not been aware

when it started to move. She was still at -
the mercy of the beast on top of her. He ~
didn’t know the meaning of the word ’

mercy. She lost all track of time.
Moments, seconds, hours merged in an
endless, throbbing horror. |

At last, however, George Krull’s, pas-
sion was spent. He just lay there on top of
her for a while, but then he climbed off
and clambered back into the front seat.
The pain-racked blonde captive could do
nothing but lie on the metal floorboards
of the back seat and weep, wondering
why this hideous thing had happened to
be praying that death would soon free

er.
Finally she felt the car come to a stop.
George Krull looked back and said to the
near-naked girl on the floor—a few
shred of clothing still clung to her but
did nothing to hide her nakedness—“I’m
taking you into the woods.”

Only half-conscious, Marian thought,
“Now I’m going to die. That will be best.
It will be the only thing.” George seized
her by the wrist and dragged her out of
the car. She noticed it was getting dark.
Many hours must have elapsed since her
captors had forced their way into her car.
Mike Krull remained in the car.

Marian suddenly realized that they
were in the Chickamauga-Chattanooga
Military Park. The vast stretch of woods
and fields were deserted. The thought
crossed her mind that it was an ideal place
for a heartless monster to murder a
woman at his leisure and bury her where
she'd never be found.

George Krull walked rapidly, never
letting go her wrist, and she stumbled
along after him, her unsteady legs barely
keeping her on her feet. He pulled her up
a steep embankment, then they stumbled

down the other side into a ravine where ~

they were completely hidden.

There he threw her to the ground rou-
ghly and assaulted her again. The man
was like an animal, unfeeling, insatiable,
driven by ‘lust without conscience.

Afterward, as she lay on the ground
exhausted and racked with pain, she
heard him scratching at the ground.
When she looked up, he said harshly,
even laughing as he uttered the words,

\

“I'm digging your grave.”

; Marian Barclay was no
srightened. She just wished it would be
ovc: quickly.

She didn’t even know what was
happening when rescue suddenly and
miraculously appeared in the person of
Park Ranger Fred Vanous. Her first
awareness was when a man’s figure came
into view some little distance away in the
deépening dusk. At first she thought it
was Michael Krull, come to vent his lust
on her body again now that his brother
was through with her.

But George Krull reacted quickly.
Darting to where she lay, he pressed the
knife against her breast again and hissed,
“Don’t say a word!”

The man in the distance stopped and
looked over at the couple on the ground.
“What's going on over there?” he called.

George didn’t answer. He pulled the
blonde to her feet and together they
started hurrying along the ravine.
Another shout: “Who are you?”

They were moving away, but theman
remained where he was. Marian was
overwhelmed by a feeling of desolation.
“Apparently,” she said later, “he thought
we were ordinary petters who sometimes
come to the park. Aslong as we moved on
he wouldn’t bother us further. Help was
within reach—and I was going away
from it! I tried to call out, but my throat
seemed to be closed up from fear and ex-
haustion. I couldn’t make a sound.”

B. then the tortured blonde’s very
weakness saved her. He legs collapsed,
unable to carry her farther. She fell to the
rough ground. George pulled her along,
dragging her over stones and through
brambles that tore at her.

“Get up! Get up, goddam you!” Krull
snarled. The girl got up, managed a few
more steps, then collapsed again. Again
George Krull tried to drag her along.

The ranger finally appreciated what
was happening. “Hey, there! Wait!” he
called out. “You're under arrest.”

“Like hell I am!” Krull yelled back.
Abandoning his blonde captive finally, he
fled swiftly up the ravine and scrambled
over the bank at the top. Orange flames
spat from a gun in the hands of the ranger
and shots crashed along the ravine.
Marian heard the ranger’s footsteps thud
past her.

He was back in a few minutes,
however. “He got away,” he said as he
bent over the prostrate girl. “What's this
all about?”

It was several months before Marian
Barclay could tell him. Now that she had
been delivered from the beast, she could
only cry and sob hysterically. The ranger
“had the most beautiful face I’ve ever
seen,” she said later. He helped her back
to the road as soon as she was able to
walk, put her into his official car, and
sped her to a hospital.

After the doctors had cleaned her up

longer |

and ministered to her hurts, a variety of
law officers, local and federal (because
the park was federal property), came and
questioned her. Everyone was kind and
considerate, and when the lawmen had
heard her story, they vowed to aman that
the two men responsible would be caught
and brought to justice.

An all-out manhunt was launched im-
mediately and participating in it were of-
ficials from both Georgia and Tennessee,
as well as the Federal Bureau of In-
vestigation. In a remarkably short space
of time, the beautiful blonde widow's
assailants were identified from mug shots
as a pair of brothers, George and Micheal
Krull, with long criminal records. Their
fingerprints in the victim’s relative’s car,
which was recovered the next day where
it had been abandoned, confirmed the
identification.

Despite the intensive search for the
wanted pair, however, it would be more
than three months before they were
caught. Michael Krull was captured in
New York City after holding up a bar. His
brother had been captured a few days
before in Tennessee, but his true identity
did not become known until later.

Both were charged in federal court
under the so-called Lindberg Law on the
kidnaping charged involved in their ab-
duction of the pretty blonde widow
Marian Barclay. If convicted, they faced
a maximum penalty of death. The court
appointed lawyers to represent them and
the attorneys entered not guilty pleas for
their clients. Counsel for both men filed

motions for a change of venue.

While the Krull brothers were
awaiting trail, they made a desperate
attempt to escape, using knives they had
fashioned from dining hall utensils. They
and two other prisoners who joined them
were captured at the basement door of
the prison, however, and they sur-
rendered peacefully when they realized
vet had no chance of escaping with their
ives.

The trial of the accused brothers
began in federal court in Atlanta, Georgia
on the second day of F ebruary in 1956, a
little more than two months less than a
year from the day of horror they had in-
flicted on the helpless blonde widow they
abducted in broad daylight and sub-
jected to their animal lusts. They faced
Marian Barclay in court without a flicker
of remorse on their sullen countenances.

From the very outset, there was little
doubt about the outcome of the trial, but
the final indignity for their victim oc-
curred when the accused brothers
attempted to convince the jury that their
blonde “companion” was a willing par-
ticipant in all that had happened, that she
had “consented” to the bestial things they
did to her.

But 20 witnesses for the government
backed up her story. Psychiatrists had ex-
amined the defendants and pronounced
them sane. The jury never for a moment
believed that the beautiful blonde victim

71


DROPPED =
10 DEATH

ane mess meee

Nanging of Philip Lashley at
Tucson Yesterday

DANCED ON SCAFFOLD:

cee cea none anss

Standing on the Trap He Jested!
With the Hangman

:
ares |
|

URSED THE JUDGE AND JURY

e Said His Ghost Would
Haunt Them.

tery of a Murder Indused By Love
and Jealousy. A Desperate Fignt
Against Death. Other Arizona |
Executions Recalled.

Tucson, Ariz, July 9.—(Special.) —
Philip Lashley was hanged at 3 p. m. ,
oday. He was game to the Jast. He|
lept peacefully last night and after
hearty breakfast, spent the morning
nd day joking with visitors and the!
ther prisoners. He refused all “i
iglous consolation, saying he would |
je as he had lived without fear of!
704, man or the devil.

‘

q LUCSON, AZ 7-9-1397 eee

(Zhe .-L)

The death warrant ‘was read to him'
t 2:15 and soop after the march to
e gallows was begun. He walked,
th military step to an enclosure on|
e east side of the jail, where the|
affold was erected) a week ago. He!
D lightly up the stepa leading to the!
allows. The witnesses and officers|
equired by law only were present,

Ae
qe
coted urain. ori Berhune and the!
Mleers Whe tad ta, charge of him;
uring his imprisonment.

At the conglusion of his address he!
ested at the deputy United States|
arshal ‘while he was adjusting the!
vose. Tle urged him to hurry, and!
irning to the sheriff degeed him to}
¢ that the exeeution would take place |
romptly on time. While standing on!
€ trap just before the straps were |
djusted he danced and sang und |
ecaped abuse upon Judge Bethune, the!
embers of the jury which had con-!
leted him and the United States at-,
hey. He threatened that his ghost!
‘ould haunt them. From beneath the!
lack cap which covered his head and
ace there came jests und curses, !
At precisely 3 o'clock a deputy.
Pnited States marshal cut the rope and!
Hishley shot through the ¢rap. The:
Ppe rebounded and swayed, but there’
ras no metion of the body. Death!
¢ been instantaneous, Ia twenty}

- =

Intles Lashley was oMeially pro-'
yunced dead and his body was cnt
wn and placed in a coffin for burial


McCARTY, Patrick, wh, hanged Fort Smith, AR (Fed) April 8, 1887

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A BARK FOR, THE DEAD) cccccoscsiciecoopsscsersecssonsossensosesosecgancansgrevsssecsoes George Scullin 4
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'

BY F. STANLEY RENSHAW

The big dog following “Choctaw”
-Joe Stutzer had a short, square muzzle
like a bulldog, the long, flapping ears
of a hound and the lean, brindle-haired
hody of a wolf,

“Outta the way,” Choctaw growled
and kicked the dog hard in the flank
as it tried to push by him on the path.

“Some day Boud’ll bite} a foot off
you when you kick him like that.”
“Tramp” McCarty laughed. “Why he
stays with you is more’n I can figure.”

Choctaw held up a warning hand,
“Somebody's camping down .by the
creek. That venison smells good.”

The two nondescript tramps paused
angl shifted the light packs on their
hacks, “I'll bet it’s them two fellers
who rode by us "bout an hour ago,”
Tramp grinned. “They shore had
mighty fine horses.”

Don and Jack Mahoney were riding
over to the Cherokee Strip to inspect
a herd of cattle a farmer had for sale.
Their saddle-bags held enough gold to
buy a few hundred head, but with the
careless assurance of frontiersmen and
ex-Confederate soldiers, they rode with
an easy contempt for danger,

“Howdy, strangers,” Don Mahoney
greeted the two. “If you're hungry, we
got enough meat for ten men.”

Both Choctaw and. Tramp were
hungry, though Boud had caught a
rabbit about noon. ‘Tramp cast an
appraising look at the two hobbled
horses grazing in a little meadow across
the creek, then grinned covertly.

Jack Mahoney gave Boud a raw bone
to gnaw on hefore hanging the unbeaten
venison in a tree, ~

“There's some mighty mean panthers
in this country.” he said as he pillowed
his head on his saddlebags, his riglit
hand resting carelessly on his rifle.

“Boud‘ll run ‘em off,” Choctaw
laughed.

. The coals of the fire blackened
quickly, and except for the mournful
call of the whippoorwills and the eerie
hooting of an owl, the wooded banks
of the prairie stream were quiet. The
Mahoney brothers were tired after a

Stern old Jud:
doubtful the «
would convic'
could only pr:
making his k
So the marsh
a “witness,”

mongrel whc

long day in the
asleep. But not |
had lain down 1
fire, the tips of
the handle of an «
as a cat he got to
him in silence. a
in his hand.
The'‘heavy clul
but the sharp b
uglier sound.
Choctaw untiec
of the saddles ar
side the clear w
and in less than
were covered in t
down the creek P
in a long, eager
“Call him in.”
a trail and headi
“Good — riddat
“Now that we h
a damn, flea-bitt:
It was near da
dragged himsel!
He was cut and
with two coyotes
-his neck stood -
sniffed the hum:
the sand. He
gloom: there wa
any of the othe
time Choctaw h
had never been
only fresh track
those of the tw
Roud sniffed a
patted sand. It
The human. sce
the ground. Sl
then sat down :
toward the wan
let his deadly
coyotes. desecra!
humans.
During the 1
passed up and ¢
the lonely dog.
to the Cheroke:
on February It
the murder. Si
trip in compan
he again notic
Boud was weak
“Tt doesn't n


is involved

“Maybe today I'll find him"—that
thought can keep a rider in the
saddle for along time when a murder

[THE LONE RIDER sat very straight
as he let his gaze sweep the rolling,
rocky hills lying before him.

“Where?” The word had_ echoed
through his mind countless times in
weeks past. “I know he’s out there some-
where, but WHERE!”

The chestnut mare beneath him took
advantage of the momentary halt, eager-
ly nibbling the winter browned grass at
her feet. The man in the saddle wore a
straight, well-padded jacket, its collar
turned up to protect his neck from the
sharp chill at his back. A_ battered,
wide-brimmed, old hat shielded his head
and face. It was an imposing face. The
thin mouth line below the heavy, gray
moustache, and the hard-set jaw showed
strength and firm determination. Faded,
cmon blue eyes under craggy, gray

rows told even more. They were the far-
seeing eyes of a hunter, eyes that missed
nothing. Both the face and rough hands
that loosely held the reins had been
turned a copper color by exposure to

42

Courtesy Burk's Museum

By W. F. CURRY, JR.

the weather. The man seemed ageless
except for the gray at his brow, lip, and
temples. The only ominous note was a
heavy revolver that hugged his right
thigh and the worn rifle that lay
snugly in its boot.

The man glanced down the shallow
draw to a small spring bubbling from
the rocks. For the first time he noted
the lengthening shadows, the hills
painted red by the sinking sun, and the
biting chill that had crept into the
evening wind. With it came an awareness
of the stiff muscles and bone-deep
weariness of a long day in the saddle.

He moved his hand slightly, touching
the rein to the mare’s neck, and moved
into the sheltering ravine toward the
spring.

Only a small heap of glowing embers
marked his campfire. John Clarke lay
on the ground, wrapped in a blanket
against the cold night, his head resting
in the hollow of his saddle. As he lay
staring at the stars, his mind drifted
back over the events that had brought
him into the heart of the Indian Nations.

EPWIn had been determined to go.
He had pleaded and cajoled his pa
unmercifully. Finally John Clarke had
agreed for his nineteen-year-old son to
join the trail drive camped on nearby
Leon River. After all, Ed was a man and
deserved to be treated as one. The
mother, Elizabeth, had been against the
idea from the start, but she had never,
nor would she ever, dispute her hus-
band’s decisions. The young man from
Comanche, Texas, joined the drive.
Letters had come from Ed as frequent-
ly as he had passed towns where he
could mail them. He thoroughly enjoyed
the work. The drive snaked its way

True West

a psa

Faye ree at

i a, haat

northward, veering slightly to the east
because of better grass and water. They
had taken on more hands near Sherman,
in Grayson County, Texas. The herd had
crossed the “Big Red” just north of
there, wound its way slowly across the
Nations, into Kansas, and finally to
their destination near ap, = City.

‘A letter from Dodge had brought with
it a hint of uneasiness. Ed was not
returning with the rest of the drovers.
Instead, he and a companion, Bob Mas-
sey, were going to see some of the
country first. Days passed with no word.
First eagerness and then worry caused
time to pass with leaden feet. Days be-
came weeks, and still Ed failed to reach

March-April, 1967

Courtesy Burk's Museum

home. Then a letter had come from
Sherman, from the sheriff of Grayson
County.

Bob Massey, a man of bad reputation
who had joined the same drive near
Sherman, had returned recently alone.
He had a lot of money in his possession,
new gear, and was riding a beautiful
silver-gray mare. Another drover who
had returned earlier from the same
drive had called the sheriff’s attention
to the matter. The horse and gear, he
said, were very much like those belong-
ing to a young drover from Comanche,
Texas, Ed Clarke.

On being questioned about the matter,
Massey had claimed that he and young
Clarke had struck up a deal and swapped,
with boot. Doubting the man’s story, but
unable to disprove it, the sheriff had
written the Clarkes in Comanche to see
if their son had arrived home. John
Clarke did not show the letter to his wife
until months later. Z

Clarke bought a few extra items that

he would need, and some cartridges for
his rifle and six-gun. The next morning,
he had taken Elizabeth Clarke over to
a neighbor’s house, kissed her goodbye
and said he was going to look for Ed.

He rode hard but by the time he
reached Sherman, Massey had left town
again. Clarke felt icy fingers of fear for
his son’s safety as he learned more of
the other man’s unsavory character. He
was convinced beyond a doubt that the
horse and gear were those belonging to
Ed. All that he was able to learn of
Massey’s departure was that he had
crossed the Red River into Indian Terri-
tory. Nobody seemed to know where he
was headed. From there on, it was any-
body’s guess.

THE TRAIL had lasted only a few

miles into the rocky hills before it
disappeared. Clarke had spent long and
fruitless days. combing the countryside
for some trace of Massey, but none was
to be found. Finally, in desperation, he
had ridden to Dodge. He would learn
what he could there and, if possible,
backtrack down the many-weeks-old trail
to Texas.

It had not been difficult to learn of
his son’s and Massey’s movements in
and around Dodge. Some had wondered
at the strange pair; the quiet, well-
mannered Ed and the sullen, vulgar
Massey. The father’s fear grew as he
picked up their trail southward.

The route was a simple one to follow
through the comparatively well-settled
plains of Kansas. Many small towns had
quietly marked their passage with the
seeming disinterest of rural life. Yet they
remembered. At Arkansas City, on the
Kansas border, the pair had spent sev-
eral days. Ed had ordered a new pair
of boots made by a well-known _boot-
maker there and had waited until the
boots were finished. Everyone had
seemed to like the soft-spoken young
Texan, but none cared for the company
of his sullen companion.

After they crossed into Indian Terri-
tory, however, Clarke quickly lost
the trail. Only dogged determination
drove him on. He knew that his was
probably an aimless and _ desperate
search, but he also knew that he would
continue it to whatever end.

Mile after mile of the rocky, undulat-
ing terrain slid by as the lone rider con-
tinued his relentless search. One day
the sun was riding high toward its
zenith, when John Clarke spied two
riders approaching from the southwest.
These were the first white men, other
than an isolated rancher or two, that he
had seen since leaving Kansas. He sat
on his horse in the shade of a scrubby
tree and watched them for a few minutes.
Both .men rode stocky sorrel ponies and
seemed to be in no particular hurry.
Clarke nudged the mare’s flanks and
moved out to meet the pair.

“Howdy.” The call rolled across the
waving tao to meet the stranger.

“Howdy,” came the reply as the man
reined up beside them.

“I’m Cal Suggs,” said one of the men
extending his hand. “I’ve got a little
spread up near Erin Springs. This here
is my neighbor, Ben Ingram,” indicat-
ing his companion who also shook
Clarke’s hand.

“Name is Clarke, John Clarke, from
Comanche, Texas,” he replied quietly.
“I’m heading in from Dodge City.”

Suggs glanced up at the sun. “It’s
almost noon. Why don’t we move over

(Continued on page 64)

43

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64

The Backtracker
(Continued from page 43)

behind that wash, have a bite to eat, and
visit a spell?”

“Reckon I’ve got plenty. of time,” was
Clarke’s reply. In fact, nothing could
have suited him better; he would have
an opportunity to ask questions without
seeming too curious.

S THE three rested, ate, and talked,

the hunter probed carefully for any
clue that might help him in his quest.
When it came, it came unexpectedly like
the resounding crack of a sudden peal
of thunder.

Suggs was talking. ‘“You’re the second
rider that we’ve crossed trails with this
morning. Kind of unusual for this neck
of the country, too, except for the red-
skins. He was heading up into the
Chickasaw country. Probably intending
to camp at the springs over there.” A
thumb was jerked toward the west.

Ingram spoke up. “That silver-gray
he was riding was a mighty fine look-
ing piece of horseflesh. Wish we had
gotten a closer look.”

Clarke looked up. “You didn’t talk to
him?”

“Naw, I don’t think he even saw us.
We were quite a-ways off. I figure he
was headed for the springs.”

“Humm,” murmured Clarke, “sounds
like a drover that I know from down
my way, leastwise the horse does. How
far would it be out of my way to ride
by those springs?”

“Not much,” Suggs replied. “It’s about
ten miles due west, over on the Washita.
He was coming from down toward Texas,
all right. Might be the man you know.”

The men broke camp shortly and
shook hands around. “Pleasure meeting
you, Mr. Clarke,” said Suggs, “and if
you’re ever back up this way again, stop
by my place.” :

“Same here,” Ingram shook his hand
warmly.

“Much obliged,” came the reply. “I
may just take you up on that.”

The trio mounted their horses and,
with a friendly wave, the two ranchers
watched the other man resume his trek
southward. As he rode out of sight, they
turned their faces homeward.

As soon as Clark had ridden a few
miles, he turned his mount due west.
The afternoon was almost gone when
he topped a ridge and saw the silver
ribbon of the Washita River lacing its
way through the trees that lined its
banks. His sharp eyes almost immediate-

-ly spotted thin wisps of smoke off to his

right.

_Clarke dared not hope. Would he reach
the end of his search at that campfire,
or would he be off again chasing a man
that he had never seen? The chestnut
mare picked her way down the steep,
rocky hillside toward the unknown.

Dusk hung heavy when the man
reined in the mare. He guessed that the
camp was about a half mile distant, up-
river and upwind. Tying the rein to a
low hanging branch, Clarke slipped the
heavy .44 saddle rifle from its boot, and
melted into the thick brush.

The man squatting by the fire was
fairly young, but his cold eyes and
harsh face spoke of a ruthless and bitter
past. The gray horse tethered nearby
moved restlessly as it grazed.

As he raised a cup of coffee to his lips,
a voice boomed out of the darkness.
“Massey!”

Like a striking snake, the hand re-
leased the cup and leaped for a six-gun
at his hip. At the same move, he half
rose. A single roaring shot stopped both
motions short. The cup, having fallen
only a few inches, was sent caroming
off the rocks in the darkness by the
bullet. The half crouched man, his hand
frozen just above the gun butt was as
motionless as a statue. Again the voice
of death echoed from the darkness.

“Massey, you make one wrong move
and the next bullet will blow your head
off! Use your left hand to unbuckle
your gunbelt and lay it on the ground.
Then move over against that bank.”
Slowly the man complied.

HERE was a slight rustling of

brush, and Clarke stepped into the
ring of firelight. The heavy rifle in his
hands held an unwavering bead on Mas-
sey’s midsection.

Massey looked closely at his captor’s
set face. “I don’t know who the devil
you are or what you want, mister, but
you’ve got the wrong man. I don’t even
know you!” His voice was hard and
belligerent.

Clarke’s eyes seemed to cut. through
him like a freezing winter wind, and
Massey shifted his weight uneasily
under the silent stare.

“I’m John Clarke, Ed’s pa.”

“Look, mister, just you take it easy
with that cannon! I still don’t know
what you’re talking about.”

Clarke knelt and ran his hand over
the gun and belt lying on the ground,
but neither the rifle nor the eyes ever
left their target. Deftly, his fingers
sought out the “EK” that Clarke already
knew he would find cut into the hand
grip. Then he rose and moved toward the
mare who pricked her ears and snorted
softly. Her hip was in shadow, but as
she turned to him the flickering fire-
light fell across the overlapped “E C”
that was Ed’s brand.

Clarke patted the mare on the nose.
“So I’ve got the wrong man, huh? Sup-
pose you tell me who you are and where
you hail from.”

“My name is Massey, Bob Massey,
from Texas, but I never heard tell of
you or your boy, either.”

“Where did you get the horse and
gear? They aren’t yours.”

“T bought them off of a drover.”
Massey’s mind worked fast. “He was
broke and needed some cash to get home
on.”

“Them fancy new boots, too?” Massey
almost jerked his eyes to the boots that
he wore.

A quick reply, “Naw, a bootmaker up
in Kansas made them for me. Look,” he
growled, “you haven’t told me anything
but your name. What is your business
with me?”

John Clarke looked straight into the
man’s eyes. “You killed my son and I'll
see you dead for it,” he replied quietly.

Clarke looked on as Massey broke
camp and, after getting his own mount,
they began the long ride to Fort. Sill.
Massey continued to expound his own
innocence and to curse the silent horse-
man at his side.

Near midnight, they reached the top
of a low ridge and saw a small cluster
of corrals and ranch buildings lying in
the valley below. The pair rode down and
stopped in front of the main house.

“Mr. Suggs?” Clarke called out.
“Hello!”

After a moment of silence, “Yah, who

True West

/

-is it?” The question traveled down a

rifle barrel aimed through a window.

“It’s John Clarke. We met on the trail
today. I’ve got a man that I’ve been
looking for with me.”

Cal Suggs recognized both horses. Still
holding the rifle, he moved to the door,
warily opened it, and told the men to
dismount and come in. Clarke had his
captive carry the saddle bags and bed
roll in with them. After a brief explana-
tion to Suggs about his son’s disappear-
ance and his own subsequent search for
Massey, they went through the man’s
things. There was more than enough
evidence to prove that Massey was, in-
deed, the man for whom Clarke had
searched so long and tirelessly.

For the rest of the night, the prisoner
was tied to a bed and Suggs stood guard
over him. John Clarke slept a restless
sleep.

DURING the night, Massey suddenly

—and boldly—admitted to Suggs the
murder of Ed Clarke, and told where he
had hidden the body. The whole incident
had taken place only a few miles from
Cal Suggs’ ranch, over near Ingram’s
place.

At daybreak, the three men saddled
up and hit the trail to Fort Sill. There,
Massey was turned over to the authori-
ties. Clarke repeated the story of his
search; then he, Suggs, and a Deputy
U. S. Marshal rode out to the place of
the murder.

Ingram joined them and he and Suggs,
both of whom were familiar with the
terrain, had no trouble in locating the
campsite that Massey had described. A
small, gray mound of ashes and some
charred embers marked the campfire. A
short search led to the discovery of Ed
Clarke’s .half-naked, badly decomposed
body under a brushpile in a nearby
ravine. He had been shot in the back
of the head.

Only the pain in the father’s eyes and
the tears that ran down the leathery
cheeks gave a clue to his inner emotions.
Tenderly, he wrapped in a blanket the
remains of what had once been his son.
The other men sifted the campfire ashes.
A few buttons, rivets from Ed’s chaps,
his belt buckle, and several other small
items that hadn’t burned were found.

It was a solemn group that returned to
Fort Sill bearing its grisly burden. John
Clarke’s search had ended as he had
feared, in violence and heartbreak. The
next morning, he appeared at the
marshal’s office.

“What will happen to Massey?” he
asked.

The marshal leaned back in his chair.
“He’ll be sent to Fort Smith, Arkansas,
to be tried for your boy’s murder. That’s
headquarters for the law here in the
Territory.”

“Is there any chance that they will
turn him loose?”

“Always the chance, but not likely
with so much evidence and his own con-
fession. Anyway, he’ll be tried by old
Judge Parker—Isaac Parker.”

Clarke’s face hardened. “They might
as well hang him, because if they don’t
he’ll never walk out of that courthouse
alive. I’ll blow his head off!” The
marshal had no doubt that the threat
was sincere,

Later that day, Clarke wrote a letter
to Judge Isaac C. Parker, Fort Smith,
Arkansas. It read in part: “I have just
arrested one Bob Massey of Grayson
County, Texas, for the murder of my

March-April, 1967

son, Edwin. I placed him in charge of the
Fort Sill authorities. He had in his
possession my son’s gray mare, his pistol
with the letter E cut into the handle,
and his gear. I came up here, found him,
and arrested him one evening, then took
him to Cal Suggs’ ranch, twenty-five
miles from Fort Sill. He admitted to Mr.
Suggs that he killed Edwin. If it is
needful, Mr. Suggs will come to be a
witness. For God’s sake, hold Massey
until I find all the witnesses, for I
have heard that without witnesses you
let them go in a few days. I wanted to
arrest the party first, then get up the
witnesses later. They said they would
be sending him to Fort Smith soon... .”

After mailing the letter, Clarke rode
out for home. Trailing on a lead rein
was the silver-gray mare who bore his
son’s remains. He was being returned to
Comanche, Texas, for burial.

T WAS early winter before word was

received that Massey’s trial was set
for December 5, 1882. True to his word,
John Clarke rode up to Fort Smith.

Once under way, the proceedings
there moved rapidly. One by one the wit-
nesses placed fact on fact to build an
airtight case against the murderer. On
completion of the testimony, the jury
filed quietly from the room. Only a very
short time elapsed before the verdict of
guilty was pronounced.

The prisoner, his face an ashen gray,
was led before the bench for sentencing.
The judge’s words cut through the
silent courtroom. “. . . I sentence you,
Robert Massey, to be hanged by the neck
until dead for the murder of one Edwin
Clarke of Comanche County, Texas, ...
on or about the first day of March in
the year 1882. The date of, execution
shall be set by this court at a later time.”
The trial had lasted only six days.

Clarke watched silently as the guards
led Massey away. The man had not been
out of his sight during any part of the
trial. Finally he rose, his battered, black
hat clinched in his fist and, with his
broad shoulders sagging, walked out of
the courthouse. It was a broken, lonely,
old man who turned his face toward
Texas and home.

On February 1, 1883, at his official
sentencing, Robert Massey was sentenced
“to be hanged by the neck until dead...
in the presence of witnesses, between
the hours of'nine o’clock in the morning
and five o’clock in the afternoon on Fri-
day, the thirteenth day of April... .”
—a rather appropriate date for a man
who had brought so much ill luck into
the lives of others.

Saint or Devil?
(Continued from page 35)

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fall began in 1851 with the arrival in
New Mexico of Bishop Juan Bautista
Lamy. With the bishop came his able
lieutenant, Father Joseph P. Mache-
boeuf, who later became bishop of Colo-
rado. (Continued on next page)

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65

climbing over rocks, but Marshal
Standefer and his posse knew more
about the area than did Malone or
Eith. Following what tracks were visi-
ble, Standefer guessed the men’s
direction and used high points to his
advantage. Within hours he spotted
the fugitives, and his posse swiftly
encircled them. The posse shackled
Malone and Eith, who protested that
they could not get a fair trial, and
dragged them back to jail where they
were kept under constant watch. In
May the men were Officially dis-
charged from the army, and by July
both had been convicted of murder
and sentenced to be hanged.

Shortly after the trials the presid-
ing judge, Charles A. Tweed, sent a
communication to United States
Attorney General Charles Devens to
have President Rutherford B. Hayes
commute Eith’s sentence. From the
evidence presented, Tweed was cer-
tain “Eith probably did not contem-
plate or intend the killing of Lawler
when the assault was made upon
him, though he was undoubtedly
present, aiding and abetting in the
acts which resulted in Lawler’s
death, and was no doubt, in law,
guilty of murder.”

On August 16, 1877, Marshal
Standefer received a telegram from
Devens informing him President
Hayes was commuting Eith’s sen-
tence to life imprisonment. Although
newspapers reported Eith was to
serve his time at the Yuma territorial
prison, his name does not appear on
any records there; where he actually
served his time is unknown.

Malone requested the same sen-

Sharlot Hall Historical Society

James Malone on the scaffold awaiting his execution.

tence, maintaining he was no more
guilty than Eith, but Judge Tweed
was unwilling to oblige him. Extant
records do not indicate that anyone
ever pinned a motive on Malone, but
his drunken confession to Hale, the
blood on his uniform shirt, and his
inability to prove John Bray’s exis-
tence made him the most likely mur-
derer. The date of his execution
stood. Malone’s lawyer tried to help
with appeals and character witnesses,
but in the end Malone lost his battle
for life.

At 2:00 p.M. March 21, 1878, James
Malone was led to a scaffold in the
Prescott jail yard. With
his head high, Malone
ascended the steps with-
out assistance. After
Standefer read the
death warrant, Malone
again denied his guilt
and said the evidence
against him was per-
jured. He = firmly
believed he could have
proven it had he been
allowed, but his lawyer,
whom Malone consid-

Sharlot Hall Historical Society ered an incompetent
Fort Whipple, which served the Prescott, Arizona, area. fool, dissuaded him.

30

From what he saw on the night of
January 10, 1876, he was sure James
Henry had murdered Lawler, which
is why the man deserted, but he sim-
ply could not prove it. No one ever
found Henry.

Malone’s plea of innocence, and
his request to shake the hands of the
soldiers who were among the 200
observers, touched many of the peo-
ple. Some of them even began to
doubt Malone’s guilt as they watched
him force a smile while saying
farewell to his fellow soldiers. Before
Standefer put the hood in place
Malone said, “Since I can do no good
in this world, maybe I can in
another.” They were his last words
before the hood was placed over his
head and the trap door dropped.
Thirteen minutes later he was pro-
nounced dead.

Malone donated his body to scien-
tific research. Four years later his
skeleton was stolen and left on the
plaza in the center of Prescott. The
incident prompted the city to give
Malone a decent burial and put to
rest the matter of his guilt or inno-
cence, which remains questionable to

this day. YJ

TRUE WEST

By Arthur
Feaewors by f. M.

L. Campa
said Kopi

Knocking Roun
the Rockies *--
$82” By ERNLSTINCERSOW

yeshy furett Da

SEPTEMBER 1994