Arizona, H, 1882-1994

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apprehensively at him. “The Claw’s never
operated this far west, has he?” he asked.

The stranger coughed. “Guess not,” he
said, biting his words sharp, “but there’s
always a first time.”

The contractor felt cold sweat on his
forehead. Nonsense, he told himself. It
was the darkness and this cursed trail
getting on his nerves. He was worried
about the road.

“T think we’re lost,” he said as the trail
grew fainter.

“Stop and I'll take a look,” said the
stranger. Johnson put on his brakes and
the car crunched to a standstill in the
sand, The contractor turned around and

‘saw the glint of a revolver.

“T want that money you got at the
bank,” quietly announced the man in the
back seat.

Kills Woman

Anke JOHNSON muffled a shriek
and her husband consoled her with
an affectionate pat. He slowly reached for
his wallet, which contained several hun-
dred dollars, and handed it over.

A fiendish gurgle came from the
stranger. “I think I’ll take your wife,
too,” he said. As his fingers reached for
her, Peter Jolinson swung a powerful fist
which missed him by inches,

There was a roar and another and
another. Mrs. Johnson cried out as the
hot lead tore into her temple. Then she
lay quiet. Her husband was still thrash-
ing around with his fists when a bullet
caught him squarely in the chest. Two
ripped into his neck. He crumpled.

The stranger still was not satisfied. He
fired two more bullets into Anna Johnson
before he stepped from the death car and
strode off across the desert.

A few minutes later Peter Johnson
revived and groped for his wife’s wrist.
He could find no pulse.

When full realization came he whis-
pered and wept. Each sob stabbed him in
his wounds.

Although he was bleeding profusely,
Johnson got the car started. No man
could know what he suffered the next few
hours, sitting there beside Anna who only
the day before had been so vivacious and
as: ie ;

Gripping the steering wheel, he drove
blindly mile after mile but at last weak-
ness stopped him and he dropped off into
unconsciousness, The hot sun of early
dawn ‘brought him to and he managed

After phoning the details to Tucson
and Yuma, the officers sped to the scene

‘of the crime. The night’s rain, how-

ever, had blotted out all except a very
few scattered footprints—the footprints
apparently of two men.

“There’s no question about it,” said a
surprised deputy, measuring the shoe
prints across the ball. ‘This one is an
inch shorter than the other one.”

After getting a posse on the trail, they
returned to Stoval where they again
talked with Johnson.

Johnson swore. there was no other

somehow, even though he groaned with J man but the killer.

every jolt, to get the car into Stoval, 28
miles from the scene of the crime.
Walter F. Cronk and his wife saw him

‘as he half staggered, half fell from the

car. After hastily bandaging his wounds
and getting him to bed, they phoned
Sheriff James Polhamous at Yuma, and
a mortuary. By the time the deputies ar-
rived several hours later, Johnson was
sinking fast.

“You've simply got to save him,” they
told a physician who was none too opti-
mistic. “He’s our one hope of definitely
identifying The Claw when we do catch
him,’

In spite of wounds and hardships, the
contractor’s mind was clear and he gave
the officers a good description of the mur-
derer together with all the facts leading
up to the shooting.

“Did he tell you his name ?” they asked.
Johnson nodded. “Yes but I don’t re-
member, It was Bill Taver or something
like that. They’ll know at the Dodge
agency in Tucson.”

It was evident that The Claw never had
expected Johnson to survive or he
would not have been so bold. Blocked
by the posses patroling the road, he had
figured in his fiendish, cunning mind that
he could pick up victims in Tucson, lure
them into the desert and murder them.

“There simply couldn’t be two sets of
footprints,” he said. But there were and
the deputies could not figure it out.

Find Clue

6 Bc was a hole in the windshield of
Johnson’s Dodge sedan, apparently
pierced by one of the killer’s bullets. Since
one deputy thought the hole had been
made by a bullet fired from outside the
car, not inside, the officers removed the
windshield and sent it to Tucson for an
expert to examine. p

At the Dodge agency in Tucson, the
name, Bill Taver, mystified the owner
until his cashier recalled that one William
Estaver had applied there for a job two
weeks previously.

“He said he was an experienced sales-
man,” the cashier recalled, ‘“‘and he had
glowing references, most of them from
Miami, Florida. I was leary of the fellow
because it looked to me as though William
Estaver had been written over some other
name on the references.”

Sheriff Daniels’ office had just dis-
patched a telegram to Miami authorities,
asking them for any facts about William
Estaver, when a cowpuncher came in with
some news that put an entirely different
aspect on the case.

“T was sitting in
he related, “when
came in. I knew th
over to their table.
a roll of bills that

“Where did you
I asked, reckoning
a little cattle rustlin

“ ‘Killed a man de
cow,’ one told me. ‘C

Could it be possit
was mistaken ; that '
the shooting insteac
It had been a dark
thunder and lightn
who was worn out
Such an error was

The authorities
shock when they rec
the next morning:

“WILLIAM
DROWNED HE!

FOUR MONTH

ON ae

HADLEY,

T SHE minute the sun fell behind
Dead Man’s peak, the desert be-
came a weird land of grotesque
shadows and frightening silhouettes.

Range-bred Bobs Turner, heading for
her father’s ranch near Ajo, Ariz., sped
her car down the bumpy, dusty trail, her
anxious eyes glancing apprehensively at
every giant cactus as though she ex-
pected its gnarled arms to reach out and
seize her. ;

In other months she would have en-
joyed the glowing sunset and the cool
of the desert evening but these Novem-
ber days she remembered only the ghastly
stories she had heard—horrible tales
about a fiend with claw fingers who am-
bushed his victims at twilight. She never
had intended to be caught by dusk on the
desert. If it had not been for a flat, she
would have been home by 4 o’clock.

She shuddered as the roughness of the
trail forced her to slow down near some
dark clumps of mesquite that lined the
toad. What was that shadow? Franti-

. cally Bobs stepped. on the gas, but it.was

too late. The shadow had become the
fast-moving form of a man, He was on
her running board in a second, pointing
a gun at her,

“Stop!” he yelled. “Stop or I’ll drill
you with this!” =

Bobs tried to throw him by turning the
car sharply into the desert, but he was
too quick. He switched off the ignition.

“You desert gals come wild, don’t
you?” the man snarled. “Come on. Hand
over the money.” ~

Bobs Turner was trembling so that she
could scarcely open her purse. As she
gave two silver dollars to him she saw
his: long, thick fingernails, like animal
talons, and tried to keep from fainting.

“Come on, sister, don’t try to bam-
boozle me,” the bandit said in a steely
voice. “Give me the pay roll.”

Bobs handed over the $120 she had
drawn from a Tucson bank that after-
noon for the ranch hands and the gun-
man jammed the money bag into a hip

DYNAMIC DETECTIVE, March, 1941,

Paul, wh, hanged AZ@ (Pima) April 13, 1923.

pocket. Suddenly she screamed a long,
terrifying scream that echoed back from
the hills. The man’s claw fingers had
reached out and ripped her dress !

“Don’t be afraid, sweetheart,” he said.
“That’s my trademark.” He jumped to
the ground and ran, the shadows swal-
lowing him quickly,

The newspapers called him The Claw.
Five times in as many twilights he had
waited for his victims along the 150 miles
of desolate, scorching desert that stretches
between Tucson and Ajo, perhaps the
loneliest, most forsaken trail in this
country. All of his prey had been women
and in each case he had ripped their
clothes.

When she told her story two hours later
to the Ajo authorities, Bobs Turner was
able to add considerable more detail than
her four predecessors, who had been so
terrified that they could not say whether
The Claw was young or old.

“He wasn’t a westerner,” she said.
“Didn’t talk like one and was wearing
dude clothes. Must be in his thirties, and
slender, Needed a shave badly. His beard
was so heavy, in fact, that maybe I
wouldn’t recognize him if I saw him

: ‘DYNAMIC

Hot in pursuit ¢
border patroln
the Arizona °
kept watch at
such as the or
the hope that
drive the not
out of his hi

shaved. But he \
ing. Not the ruffi

Back in Tucs:
sheriff's deput
mapped a cam
asked the newsp
warnings and or
of vigilantes t
desert trail. A |
at once with b
try to pick up tl

“This ripper
robbery,” said
Daniels who hac
Rider under Te:
“Something ho
belief is going t
don’t track hin

“What about
fornia ?” asked
can warn the t:
but tourists seld
They decided to
asking traveler:
Los Angeles. —

Two motoris
Rita hotel the
1921—after a
They were Pi
Colorado contr
a charming, «
Denver.

“T’ve got a |
of, Anna,” he s
started before

While he w

DETECTIVE

er witnesses
ured, the pair
i dollars on

y returned a
Ss part in the
‘w a 99-year
it McAlester

deemed too
She was

iberate mis-
» de Graffen-
tor Branson,

or attempted

1?” he de-
ior,” replied
out the Daal g
Graffenried,

But I can do
empted jail-
you to serve
Penitentiary.
embers shall
t as long as

to be taken
called Sher-

favor, Sher-
and send it
Beaumont, '

{ after first
of the en-

t.
th Paul.and

Both were
th attended
‘d for the
tion. Paul,
lair for me-
-ngrossed in.
e had once

1 temporary
ct the pat-

to make a
n officials.
disappeared

a warrant
rn. »=§Again

it year that
hnson had
cl on their
‘ly the next
at of mid=
ibout to get
they were

sped: past
he highway
. turned.
3uddy?” he

ck-up, who
rear seat.
t the next

curve and
‘s no car in

> said.
Instead a
n slumped

1 a scream.
acked.

OURS later, a group of curious
H farmer folk found the two bodies
lying in the weeds. Johnson was dead,
but his wife still lived. She gave an
accurate description of the slayer.

A huge posse was formed, but the
killer had long since left.

Several weeks later, Tucson, Ari-
zona, police arrested a man who had
been apprehended leaving the John-
son machine. He stated that his name
was Ray Mann, that he had been
inspecting the stalled car and was on
the point of reporting it to the Police.
Under severe questioning, he refused
to admit that he was the Johnson
slayer.

However, fingerprints were found
on the steering wheel. The finger-
paints matched his own. He was

rought to trial, but because of the
sketchy evidence, it resulted in a
hung jury.

A second trial was planned. While
awaiting this, a new man was ap-
pointed to the identification bureau.
His first act was to fingerprint and
mug all prisoners. Ray Mann balked
at this in his case. Suspicious now,
the police forced Mann to pose for
the camera. Then _ his fingerprints
were forcibly taken.

His picture was, printed on a circu-
lar, together with his fingerprint
classification. Copies were mailed to
official departments all over the mid-
dle west.

Less than twenty-four hours later,
word came in that the man was really
Paul Hadley, wanted in Oklahoma for
parole violation.

Once again he was questioned con-
cerning his participation in the John-
son slaying, and he pleaded guilty to
the charge. This time there was no
appeal. He received the death sen-
tence. Shortly afterward, he paid
with his life on the gallows.

This was the last straw for Ida
Hadley who had been dubbed; among
other things, a “tiger woman.’ Now
that her beloved was dead, she did
not seem to care to live, othing in
the prison interested her. On several
occasions, she attempted to commit
suicide. Finally, she was paroled, a
sick woman. 4

I went to see her at Goose Creek
the small town from whence she ha
started her life in such a happy man-
ner, only to have it end in tragedy.
No longer was she the beautiful
creature she had been when Paul had
wooed her. Her complexion, instead.
of creamy colored and satiny smooth,
was now roughened and yellowed.
The dark hair of which she had been
inordinately proud was brittle and
heavily streaked with gray. A hack-
ing cough rumbled continually in her
wasted lungs.

“It’s been a long time, Ida,” I said
upon meeting her. “You could have
made something of your life,” ,

“Tm sorry I couldn’t see it differ-
ently,” she replied. “I would be happy
today.”

I nodded. I didn’t want to tell her
about the ticket she had given to
Sheriff McCune who had, in turn,
handed it over to me to cash at Beau-
mont. It was the unused portion of
the check Sheriff Giles had bought
for her that memorable day in
Kansas City; an act of kindness she
had repaid with treachery.

Shortly after our conversation, Ida
Hadley died. Before she passed
away she murmured:

“Please forgive me for what I’ve
done.”

Tue Enp

FROM AUTHENTIC POLICE RECORDS

“h
ih

GORGEOUS
es ee

ROSE GARCIA

Ceuta

(Continued from page 7).

though it might be several hours be-
fore he rallied.

It was about that time that a friend
of the Cassadys remembered an
amazing incident that had happened
a week before. Mrs. Cassady, who
is a slender, dark woman in her thir-
ties, pleasant and not at all unattrac-
tive, had trailed her husband to a
tourist court—so the friend said—
where she thought her mate had a
rendezvous with Rose Garcia! What
had happened, the friend didn’t know.

On another occasion, a neighbor had
overheard the wife tell her. husband
in a strident voice, “I swear I’ll kill
you and that girl if I ever catch the
two of you together again! Youre
my man and I’m going to keep you.
Don’t let her come flapping her skirts
around here!”

Mrs. Cassady knew, then, about her
husband and Rose Garcia!

“You don’t like Rose, do you, Mrs.
Cassady?” the officers asked her.

“I hate her!” Her black eyes
snapped as she bit out the words.

an this modest home lived gorgeous Rose
Garcia,

“She broke up my home. She came
into my house when I was away, sick.
My children told me about it. Wilbur
and I had had many years of happi-
ness together until she came along.”

“Did you see Rose any time yester-
day or last night?” DeBaca asked.

“No,” she said decisively. “I never
would have done violence to her any-
way. I just wanted her to keep away
from my house and from my hus-
band.”

She twisted a handkerchief between
nervous hands, and added, “I feel in

my bones, though, that she is in trou-

ble. She has played around too much.”

While Knoblock and DeBaca await-
ed the arrival of the sister, Albu-
querque police attempted to pick up

_ the trail of the alluring Rose Garcia.

They found it easily enough, by in-
quiring at night clubs and dance halls.
But it was so webbed with male
adorers, both those in their youth
and others whose hair was turning
gray, that there was no separating the
strands.

If anything had happened to Rose
Garcia, the suspects would number a
score—playboys who might have
wandered too near the flame of her
exotic beauty and been singed.

She had been, in Albuquerque, a
butterfly of the night, a creature of

passionate moods which ranged from.

the fiery and tempestuous to the sad
and languorous. It was the inevitable
rebound that psychologists know. De-
nied the love of a man who was old

enough to be her father, she had
swung in a devil-may-care spirit to
the bright lights for the tinseled for-
getfulness that hours of gilded gaiety
would bring her.

Never, apparently, did the sensuous
rhythm of dances ‘or the sparkle of
champagne let her forget her moral
training. Officers found some men
who openly admitted that they had
propositioned her because of her
voluptuous beauty, but she had stub-
bornly refused to be compromised.

Her sister arrived in Socorro on the
3. p.m. bus. There was terror written
all over her face.

“Have you found Rose?” she asked
excitedly as Sergeant Roach, Sheriff
Knoblock, Justice of the Peace Bole
Ortega and DeBaca met her. Knob-
lock shook his head. in the funereal
silence that followed.

“When did you last see her?” he
asked. :

“Yesterday morning,” she said. “She
packed her things and left for the bus
station, only a few blocks away. She
was on her way to Polvadera then, to
our father’s home,”

She paused for breath and then
raced on, “She was with Teleforo
Armijo. He was going to see her to
the bus. I tried to reach him before
I came down here, but I couldn’t get
him on the ’phone.”

_ DeBaca interjected a quick ques-
tion. “And who may Armijo be?”

Shifting dark, concerned eyes from
one to the other, she answered readily,
“Just a boy friend. I’ve known him
for a long time and Rose met him at
my home.” -

Knoblock asked, “What do
know about him? Ig he all right?’

“I. should say he is!” There was
unusual emphasis in her tone, I
wouldn’t introduce my: sister to any-
one who wasn’t a gentleman!

“Teleforo was mighty good to her,
too. He took her out several nights,
to movies and dances. She told me
that she thought he was pretty swell.
Not that she was falling for him, you
understand, because she loved’ this
Cassady fellow.”

The sheriff went into an adjoining
room of the courthouse and picked up
the ’phone receiver.

“Give me Pat O’Grady at Albuquer-
que,” he said. DeBaca closed the door
so the sister wouldn’t hear.

“Hello, Pat,” the sheriff said, “I
wish you'd find a young man for me
by the name of Teleforo Armijo. He
seems to have been the last one to
have seen Rose Garcia, and from the
way her family acts, I think we’re
going to find her dead! There’s more
behind all of this, I think, than her
folks are telling. .

“The sister says that Armijo. lives
at 319% South First Street. And say,
Pat, would you mind peeing the
Greyhound bus line and see i any
ticket was sold yesterday to a girl
answering her description?”

Before the officers returned to the
sister, they checked again on Cas-
sady. Although he was talking wildly,
in a delirium, Dr. Franklin reported
that nothing he said made sense, The
physician figured, though, that in an-
other hour or two, the drug would
wear off sufficiently for the laundry
man to talk. :

“There’s something I forgot to tell

ou,” the sister said on the return of

oblock and DeBaca. “Shortly after
Rose left for the. bus, her sweetheart.
came and asked for her.”

Ib ae yy | Cassady?” DeBaca asked.
She nodded.

you

she screamed a long,
that echoed back from
in’s claw fingers had
»ped her dress !

, sweetheart,” he said,
nark.” He jumped to
in, the shadows swal-

called him The Claw.
any twilights he had
ms along the 150 miles
ig desert that stretches
nd Ajo, perhaps the
rsaken trail in this
prey had been women
he had ripped their

t story two hours later
ies, Bobs Turner was
rable more detail than
ors, Who had been so
‘ould not say whether
ig or old.
vesterner,” she said.
ine and was wearing
be in his thirties, and
have badly. His beard
fact, that maybe |
him if I saw him

‘DYNAMIC

Hot in pursuit of The Claw,
border patrolmen combed
the Arizona wastes and
kept watch at desert wells
such as the one above, in
the hope that thirst would
drive the notorious killer
out of his hiding place.

shaved. But he was nice look-
ing. Not the ruffian type at all.”

Back in Tucson that night,
sheriff's deputies excitedly
mapped a campaign, They
asked the newspapers to print
warnings and organized bands
of vigilantes to patrol the
desert trail. A posse rode off
at once with bloodhounds to
try to pick up the scent.

“This ripper won’t stop at
robbery,” said Sheriff Ben
Daniels who had been a Rough
Rider under Teddy Roosevelt.
“Something horrible beyond
belief is going to happen if we
don’t track him down first.”

“What about tourists going to Cali-
fornia?” asked one of the deputies. “We
can warn the townspeople and ranchers
but tourists seldom read the newspgpers.”

They decided to post notices in the hotels,

asking travelers to take another route to
Los Angeles.

Two motorists checked into the Santa
Rita hotel the next morning—Nov. 14,
1921—after a hard drive from Denver.
They were Peter Johnson, a wealthy
Colorado contractor, and his wife, Anna,
a charming, cultured club woman of
Denver.

“I’ve got a little business to take care
of, Anna,” he said. “Doubt if we can get
started before tomorrow.”

While he went to a bank to cash a

DETECTIVE

oat yes

check, Arina Johnson window shopped.
She was looking at a show window of
autos at the Dodge agency when a man
stepped up. He was a slender, neatly-
dressed, clean-shaven fellow in his middle
thirties.

“They’re beautiful models, aren’t
they ?” he remarked. Mrs. Johnson agreed
and they fell to discussing them. During
the conversation, she revealed she and
her husband were on their way to Los
Angeles.

“Say,” the young man exclaimed, “I’ve
got to go to Stoval, Arizona, on a deal.
Might I ride with you? My car’s being
repaired, It’s a bad road and I could show
you a short cut or two.”

Peter Johnson came up at that mo-

ment. “Sure,” he said amiably. “Glad to
have you. If there are two men along, I
guess it won’t be dangerous to take that
road.”

The Johnsons picked up the stranger
the next morning at the Dodge agency
and he volunteered to ride in the back
seat. Before sundown they reached Ajo.
The country ahead was even wilder than
that they had passed through. It was a
land of sand and greasewood and scrubby
cacti with a population of less than one
man for every 40 square miles. The
flashes of lightning and thunder from a
distant storm transformed the wasteland
into a Stygian nightmare.

After dark the stranger was oddly
silent and once or twice Johnson glanced

. pen NC Ee eee re Spy R

ey eee as .

1869, Constable Chester Ainsworth, livestock theft, rifles, (he allowed them to
remain in their cabin eating preakfast after the arrest- -they aeetece killing him
an 18 year old boy with him), arrested, convicted, sert..t¢ ath, executed

_, Nanging on hovember 18, 1900.

saw them kill and start skinning an ani-
mal belonging to his boss, and a war-

- rant was issued for their arrest. A Con-
| stable Ainsworth of Pearce was sent

ounty Sheri tt te
to arrest the Haldermans. On the way,
stop ranch of @ man iden-

| tified by The Epitaph as Mart Moore,

and asked the rancher’s 18-year-old son,

Ted, to guide him to the Halderman’s
cabin.

When young Moore and the police-

q ae man found the brothers, they denied

any guilt and said they willingly would

ride back to Tombstone to answer the

és | charge, Constable Ainsworth told them

to have their breakfasts first, as he and

Moore ‘rested and watered their horses.

A few minutes later, the brothers came

out of their cabin firing, and the Con-

“ aessetiongs . .Stable was killea instantly,
oore youth was fatally wound-

Death of Ted Moore ed, but managed to get on his horse

PaO es and ride back to his father’s ranch.

My: finriigiiindcl lave] Seite — shortly after telling of the at-

So Lr paper: os hopes i would Posses. searched the Arizona-New
t {> areien asucie in it-regasding:Lamarus Mexico area, and the Halderman bro-

L. Moore. If I’m not mistaken his son,
t —~ Ted Moore, was a Deputy Sheriff in price pes arrested dona incident

3 Tombstone and was killed by bandits
45 ... the last people to be hung in Tomb-
nd

eS een

al
n
n
y

rT near urg.

After two appeals for oa mop were
made—one to the Arizona Supreme

paper or tell us would be appreciated Court, one to President McKinley—the

' : Haldermans were executed, The Epi-
E Mrs. Blanche M. Backer —_taph reporie were jaunty as they
Pe

pi mt Lt oy endale, “Calif, climbed the steps to the gallows next
q Q : to the Cochise County”Courthouse in
‘y/ _ Ted Moore was not a Deputy Sheriff, Tombstone (now an Arizona State
: but was killed by the Halderman bro- Park), and joked with Sheriff White.
iy thers, a pair of small-time cattle thieves Bill Halderman told ‘the large crowd
rs, who were hung in Tombstone on No- in attendance that he hoped “today’s

vember 18, T9007~ experience will be a lesson for you
(= Tom and Bill Halderman were chased all.” —Bdisor.
Y) out of New Mexico in 1897 by a posse
lp ter them for cattle rustling. They
plead to fe alishe found odd jobs Eo MATRNND VU
e here, and then settled in an abandoned
P cabin at the foot of the Chiricahua
~ Mountains. The brothers bought a few
cattle, registered a brand, and then
started stealing cows, which they would
kill and dress and sell in the area.

In the summer of 1899 a cowboy

stone. Anything you can print in your

me Pi,
er

foes

Jo-GA4 Esk’

1 Mu a VAvatlod nd all eyes“ byyned.. inythub.d)= ty eit Seiden)
r ae it BLSosa Bhar tly wlbow, bie condemyyed), Bt iy Naas
pbb: Vigan

|GUNDEM BY mone pprearod:: ‘Phomus: Haldermap’ hee

Mighty tate
i pbheyjeag tin ’ct arge.,ef/ Pepuly. Bherl(l
: Beate ‘ ith an. and. willy WeHalderman +4 Xs
ma mies at’ ‘Doputy:sherlit Bravin, 8hor- 4:

. é “y
Sa.

pale “4 ant sit , ot AES, ‘Bolt ,Whlte gn. Rev, Blow foley ee
iit ah: muh ri +5 MW Lowsd: “glosgly:iay bieling down tne pare

ad BOS Bes ar Aes ‘H-l-row ‘steps to:the.scaffaid. : 42

SORT CTY Benes 3 ‘ a Ptpomas’: Halderman,:. the: younger dea Be

Sas Pat Li ie ‘| ‘prisoner, had" just: Femorged ‘from the}-¢4*

* >

182 Soe By SN) ‘alls door : and: facing ‘the, crawd sald, |.
Amey ae: ‘Hello, hombres,”’-.then.. placing his|43
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eat A Pepe 29 12540 g'clopee: “these! two" young men, ‘for-.| head: Haithen Yistened’ attentively, to}:
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The NATIONAL EXECUTION ALERT NETWORK is a project

of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Eor more information, contact: Pamela Rutter, NCADP

1325 G St. NW LL-B, Washington DC 20005 (202)347-2411
Peacenet Access Code--ABOLITION/ /Non-Business Hours Alert Answering Machine 202-347-2415
Partial Funding for the Alert Network is provided by the J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation,
the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute, the Boehm Foundation and the Unitarian Universalist

Foundation.

ALERT 92-3 - March 26, 1992
**EXECUTION ALERT**EXECUTION ALERT**EXECUTION ALERT**EXECUTION ALERT**

ARIZONA 6 APRIL 1992 GAS CHAMBER
DONALD EUGENE HARDING, (White), age 42, nas been on death row since January
1982. He was convicted of the robbery/kidnapping/murder of two males. Based
on the advice of his lawyer, who was recently out of law school, who had never
tried a capital case and who had conducted virtually no investigation, Harding
represented himself at trial and at his sentencing hearing. Harding, who Is
diagnosed as having organic brain damage, made only one objection during his
trial and presented no mitigating evidence. Although the ineffectiveness of
Harding’s lawyer has been acknowledged, the state of Arizona is continuing to
refuse to hear unrebutted evidence tht would warrant a sentence less than death.
Arizona has not had an execution since March 1963.
TAKE ACTION, CONTACT: Gov. Fife Symington

1700 W. Washington (602) 542-4331

Phoenix AZ 85007 FAX (602) 542-7601

CALIFORNIA 21 APRIL 1992 GAS CHAMBER
ROBERT ALTON HARRIS, (White), age 39, has been on death row since March 1979.
He was convicted of the kidnapping/robbery/murder of two white teenage males.

Harris suffers from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and Organic Brain Damage,
as a result of prenatal and childhood abuse. Fetal Alcohol syndrome is a term used
to describe the damage some unborn children suffer when their mothers drink
during pregnancy. Harris’s mother drank from the age of 6 and was known to have
drunk heavily during her pregnancy with Robert. FAS is an irreversible condition
which affects an individual's ability to anticipate the consequences of his or her
actions. Experts on this syndrome have agreed that Robert shows the physical and
cognitive characteristics of FAS victims. ,

Harris also suffered viscious child abuse at the hands of his mother, his father,
and later his stepfather. He was born 3 months prematurely after his father literally
kicked him out of his mother’s womb. At the age of 2, Robert’s father beat him
into unconesciousness. Robert was bleeding profusely and required hospitalization.
The severe child abuse which left Harris brain-damaged did not cease until he was
abandoned by his mother in a tomato field at the age of 14.

In an attempt to escape the violent world of his family life, Robert began
sniffing glue and inhaling gasoline when he was 8 years old. The inhalation of these
toxic solvents contributed further to his brain damage.

When Harris was 15 he was caught with others driving a stolen car. The
others were Claimed by their families but he was not. He was sentenced to 4 years
at a federal youth center. There he was diagnosed pre-psychotic, schizophrenic,
suicidal and self-destructive. At 19 he was released with a recommendation that
he seek treatment for mental health problems. He never received any.

California has not had an execution since April 1967.
TAKE ACTION, CONTACT: Gov. Pete Wilson

State Capitol

Sacramento CA 95814

(916) 445-2841 FAX: (916) 445-4633
**Note if you live in California or will be traveling there, many actions will be taking
place around the state. Contact Death Penalty Focus at (510) 452-9505 for further
information on how to help.

HRD NG, Bowatd Basen |

ARIZONA 3 JANUARY 1992 GAS CHAMBER
DONALD EUGENE HARDING, (White), age 42 has been on death row since January
1982. He was convicted of the robbery/kidnapping/murder of a white male and
female. Harding represented himself at trial at his public defender’s advice, no
mitigation was introduced. (AZ has judge sentencing only) Arizona has not had an
execution since March 1963.
TAKE ACTION, CONTACT: Gov. Fife Symington —
| 1700 W. Washington
Phoenix AZ 85007
(602) 542-4331

VIRGINIA 23 JANUARY 1992 ELECTR TION
HERBERT R. BASSETTE, (Black), age 46 has been on death row since November 1980.
He was convicted of the robbery/murder of a black 16-year-old male gas station
attendant. There is no physical evidence that links Bassette to this murder. The 3
co-defendants who charge that Bassette was the triggerman received suspended
sentences or no sentence. Bassette did have witnesses that testified he was with
them at the time of the murder.
TAKE ACTION, CONTACT: Gov. Doug Wilder

State Capitol (804) 786-221 1 |

Richmond VA 23219 FAX (804) 786-3985

UPDATES- James Russell, Texas, was executed September 19, 1991.
Warren McCleskey, Georgia, was executed September 25, 1991.
Michael Van McDougall, North Carolina, was executed October 18,
1991.
G.W. Green, Texas, was executed November 12, 1991.

There have been 157 executions in the United States sinkce the reinstatement of the
death penalty in 1976.

Slee. RSS -
nua a
National Execution Alert Network nn a w

c/o NCADP

1325 G St. NW LL-B
Washington DC “eylid f-
| Watt Espy

Capital Punishment
Research Froject
PO Drawer 277
Headland Ab. RT ae! a

THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC

A8 The Arizona Republic

Tuesday, March 31, 1992 ' |

Countdown for murder

Barring a last-minute stay, Donald Eugene Harding will go to
the gas chamber in Florence next Monday morning for the callous
murder 12 years ago of two men in Tucson. As always happens as

the countdown progresses, Amnesty
International has cranked up its

far-flung apparatus, and clemency
appeals are pouring into the state from
around the world.

“Urge you to commute death sen-
tence on Donald Harding,” reads a typical
appeal, this one from the group’s Austra-
lian affiliate. “Mitigating circumstances —
upbringing, brain damage — not heard
during trial. Last execution in Arizona 29
years ago. Harding’s execution therefore a
retrograde step.”

Amnesty International is not to be
blamed. It opposes capital punishment as
a matter of principle. Hitler had
survived the war, Amnesty International
would have fought to keep him alive. But
no one should be misled by propagandists,
however well-meaning.

“Upbringing” is not a legal defense
and the alleged “brain damage” is a hoax.
The two psychiatrists who examined
Harding at the time of his trial found him
mentally competent. Moreover, recent
appeals have been based on the spurious
argument that, at his trial 10 years ago,
Harding, with no legal training, repre-
sented Tinselt and therefore was denied
competent legal counsel. The factual
situation is somewhat more complicated.

a had three lawyers working
on his case for two years after his arrest,
but none of them stuck around for the
trial. The question is why, and the answer

is that the case was open and _ shut.
Harding had been arrested driving the car
of one of his victims. He had some of the
man’s personal effects on him. He did not
even attempt an alibi. This being the
desperate situation of the defense, Har-
ding’s own lawyer advised him to
represent himself so as to lay the
groundwork for later appeals alleging
incompetent trial counsel.

Even state Supreme Court Justice
Thomas Zlaket, who dissented when the
court recently refused to remand the case
for a a dpe was appalled by. these
tactics. “The attorney’s advice brings little
credit to the legal profession or to the
justice system,” he wrote last month.
“Advocacy, in my view, neither compels
nor permits such conduct.” Yet it is now
argued, not very convincingly, that justice
requires the courts to fall for what was no
more than a shyster’s trick.

If it were possible to substitute life
imprisonment for the death penalty —
actual life imprisonment, not the usual sly
dodge of commuted sentence and eventual
release — many would find that prefera-
ble. But in Arizona death is still the
prescribed penalty for reptilian murderers
such as Donald Harding, one of whose
seven known victims died fighting for air
while paged with a pair of socks and
bound by the neck to a bathroom faucet.

Until the death penalty is repealed, it
should be carried out.

Arizona Prepares Gas Chamber
as Final Appeals Seem Doomed

By LAURA LAUGHLIN ia
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES :

HOENIX—The room has been _
cleaned and checked
Aen empetean ae a and the invitations have gone
: ion that Arizona officials are pr i i
a grim one—the state's first execution in iearty 0 petce ae

Don E. Harding, 43, who has confessed-to seven slayings in *

four states, is scheduled to be led in i

: » is sck to Arizona’ at
five minutes af: tér midnight Monday. ° — i racaal *
———— other Death Row inmates have had false alarms in
: os ae pe besa is a chagce for a” surprise stay of
execution; many officials believe that Hardin red

end of his*appeals: “There's no rékson” wh Se should pol be

a 8
ome
ro

; ARIZONA: Officials Plan First Execution.

»,

f
a.

‘LOS ANGELES TIMES

Continued from A3 .
federal system, Arizona prosecu-
“tors believe last-minute appeals

FY will fail.

“We are in'the countdown mode
‘and all systems are go,” said state
Départment of Corrections spokes-
man Michael Arra.

“The department has even ob-
“tained the necessary environmen-

late stages.

Court records show that Har-
ding, an Arkansas native, spent
most of his life institutionalized or
behind bars. After escaping from
an Arkansas jail while awaiting
trial on a murder charge, Harding
allegedly went on a cross-country
crime rampage robbing, kidnaping
and murdering. He has admitted
slaying seven..people in Arizona,
Arkansas, Texas and_ California,
but authorities suspect him of nine
slayings in all.

In the Arizona cases, Harding
went to motels in Phoenix and
Tucson in January, 1980, gaining
entrance to two rooms by posing as
a security guard. He was convicted

of killing and robbing Allan Gage ~

in Phoenix and Robert Wise and
Mark Concannon in Tucson. In
Phoenix, Harding bound and
gagged his victim, who died from
slow asphyxiation. The Tucson
men were hogtied, beaten and shot
at-close range.

Defense attorneys want the exe-
cution postponed so they can pre-
sent evidence that Harding—who
represented himself in court—is
brain-damaged and not capable of
controlling his aggressions. Prose-
cutors say that Harding is a cold,
calculating killer whose mental
capacities. have been adequately
examined over the years.

After a Tucson federal judge
refused to grant a stay Wednesday,
defense counsel approached the
USS. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in

Since 1963

San Francisco, which is expected to
hear the case today.

« Paul MeMurdie; chief counsel for
the criminal appeals section of the
attorney general’s Office, said that
if the three-member panel rejects
Harding’s appeal, defense attor-
neys can.ask any of the other 24

‘judges to grant a stay so that a
_ hearing can be.held. Both sides are ©
prepared
- the U.S. Supreme Court this week-.

to take Harding’s case to
end. .

eanwhile, the Arizona parole

board was to consider Har-
ding’s. case this morning and is
planning to stand by for the final
three hours Sunday night in the
event of a last-minute request for a
rehearing.

Harding is scheduled to be
moved from ‘his Death Row cell to
a guarded room in the prison’s
death house at 4 p.m. Saturday. On
Sunday, he will be allowed to eat
his last meal and visit with family
or clergy members. If his appeals
fail, he will be led into.the gas
chamber clad only in boxer shorts
at 12:05 a.m. Monday. After he is
strapped into place, cyanide pellets
will be dropped into a bowl of
distilled water and sulfuric acid
beneath his chair.

Harding, who made his only
public comments so far to the Los
Angeles Times, said via a cassette
tape that his attorneys have ad-
vised him not to discuss his case.
But he did answer one question—
what he might order as a last meal.

“I’m thinking about ordering a
cyanide antidote with a side order
of Rolaids,” he said.

executed,” said Crarie kson' why he should thot be —{ |}. tal;permit—something unheard of
general who is an iene noi ieee stant state attorney [| { in 1963, the last time the gas
"Af the execution takes: izona’s death penalty laws. “chamber in the prison at Florence
lars Aled Starts es place, it will confe,15 days before killer | 3" was used.
5 asic n ig.to be put to nr California’s gas: : ar ;
4Harding’s: i Re Rep & Hy arcine’s case has been. on
ie ee an 18foot.chart the attorney ,. ae ‘A appeal since 1982, when he
prisoner can use, Bec map the appellate routes a condemned... | ..’ Was sentenced to die for the slay-
feat ayuteen-t - Because the case has been through the state; ings of two Tucson men. A -death
| Wwice and is on its second: round through the: | ::. Sentence for the killing of a Phoe-
| : ; Please see ARIZONA, A31°: nix businessman is in earlier appel-
_ “ . Sy | BARE

FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1992

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 1992 SAN FRANCS Co Chre nicl =

Atizona Planning to Use
Its Gas Chamber Again

Death row case is similar to California’s

ings. This condition causes him to ~

By Charles L. Howe
Special to The Chronicle

Florence, Ariz. .

The cases of two convicted
murderers who are scheduled to
die — one at the state prison here
and one at San Quentin — offer
some striking parallels as the
hour of execution nears.

Both men, for example, will
gulp hydrocyanic gas if their final
appeals fail.

If Donald Eugene Harding, 43,

keeps his date with the Florence
state prison gas chamber at 12:05
a.m. Monday, he will be the first
person executed in Arizona since
1963.

If 39-year-old Robert Alton Har- 7

ris goes to San Quentin prison’s gas

chamber April 21, he will be the

‘first person executed in California
_since 1967,

Legal motions in Harding’s
case ricocheted around the coun-
..try as the weekend approached.

On Thursday, Harding was.
granted a 20-day delay by the US. .

Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

By noon yesterday, an enraged
Arizona Attorney General Grant
Woods had sent a wire to the U.S.
Supreme Court in Washington,
asking Justice Sandra Day O’Con-
nor to quash the stay and let Arizo-
na get on with the business it has
-been trying to finish since 1980.

O’Connor, who is a former Ari-
zona colleague of Woods’, has sev-
eral options. She can take no ac-
tion on his request, which would
keep the 20-day stay in effect. She

can overrule the stay issued in San - -
Francisco and let the execution '

proceed. Or she can convene the
full court to hear Woods’ argu-
~ment for a speedy resolution.

If Woods gets his way, said a
source in his office in Phoenix, “it
is a pluperfect fact” that Governor
Fife Symington will reject an 11h-
hour appeal for clemency. With-
out Symington’s charity, Harding

is certain to die.

Like Harris, Harding would be

mourned by a minority. A poll of |

808 Arizona adults, published yes-
terday in the Arizona Republic, in-
dicates that 67 percent of them

want Harding executed. In a Cali-° ~

fornia Poll taken two weeks ago, 80
percent of those surveyed said
they favor the death penalty.

There are other similarities.
Both condemned men are white

and both are appealing their sen- ~

tences on psychiatric grounds.

Harding’s lawyers have offered -
depositions from neurologists .

claiming that he suffers from or-

‘ganic brain dysfunction, a condi- .
tion originating at birth and aggra- °
vated by a series of falls and beat- .

behave in a destructive manner
quite beyond his control, say the
neurologists.

Such evidence, Harding’s law-
yers say, was not presented at his
‘trial in 1980. Indeed, they claim
that Harding’s court-appointed
lawyer sloughed off his defense
because he saw Harding's case as .
hopeless.

Arizona courts have dismissed
_this argument, maintaining that
Harding’s neurological and psychi-
atric testimony has been heard at -
one point or another.

Both men are multiple killers.

two businessmen in Tucson in
1980. A third died of asphyxiation
after being robbed and hog-tied in .
his Phoenix motel room. Authori-
_ties say Harding is wanted on four
additional murder charges in oth-
er states, including California.

-- Harding and Harris came from

had a parent who died of alcohol-'
~ ism, both have been in trouble vir-
tually all their lives and both hurt
a lot of people before they finally
were sent to death row.

Harding is what penologists 7

‘call “state-raised.”

He was born dirt poor in 1949 in
. Goodrich, Ark., his umbilical cord
’ wrapped around his neck and

choking him by the time the doc- ~
S ete _available within the prison,” said

tor arrived. His father, a man he

barely knew, died an alcoholicina -

Veterans Administration hospital.

Harding’s lawyers claim he was -
beaten by schoolteachers, sodom-
ized by inmates and whipped with -

leather straps by guards when he
. first went to an Arkansas reform
‘school at age 11.

By 1980, Harding had acquired -
12 felony convictions and had es-
caped from prison in Arkansas. An
unskilled worker by even career
criminal standards, Harding is

~ listed as an “electrician” in his

prison dossier.

Like Harris in California, Har- ©
ding claims he now regrets the
murders and all the other trouble
he has caused.

tradicts him. Although Harding
. killed some robbery victims, he

' spared others. “Why?” an investi-

' gator asked after Harding had
‘been arrested.

replied.

Harding’s current lawyers —
_he has had more than 15 of them
-, during the 12 years he has spent .
spent on death row — maintain he
never said this.

If Harding dies as scheduled,

—_ -

Harding beat, robbed and shot ’-

impoverished circumstances. Both —

CHRONICLE GRAPHIC

he will be allowed a last meal of his
choice, “providing it is normally

Mike Arra, a spokesman for the Ar-
izona Department of Corrections.

Arizona provides a special form
for last meal requests and, over the
years, Harding has filled out three
of them. His last meal request,
which he has not updated, was fil-
ed on March 19, 1984, days before a
scheduled execution that was ap-
pealed successfully.

“Two large cheeseburgers with
mayonnaise, lettuce and tomatoes,
one large order of French fries.
Pepsi Cola and coffee. Pecan pie
and strawberry ice cream.”

His prison file, however, con- |

“They were judgment calls,” he

Lise ROING, WOTL 1d

- Justices delay:

~ execution of

Donald Harding

By Chris Limberis
The Arizona Daily Star

Donald Eugene Harding, the Ar-
kansas escapee and multiple mur-
derer who has moved closer to the
gas chamber than any other current
Arizona inmate, yesterday won a

stay of his Jan. 3 execution.
The Arizona Supreme Court or-

dered the stay after considering
written arguments presented by
lawyers that claimed Harding’s
medical and psychiatric conditions
had been ignored in his previous
proceedings.

The court considered the argu-
ments on Tuesday and set another
conference for March 17 to “fully
consider all of the medical, psycho-
logical and psychiatric exhibits sub-
mitted.”

His execution was rescheduled for

—— > april6 ril 6.

rece several inmates have
had execution dates set, including
Edward Harold Schad for Dec. 27,
their dates are expected to be re-
scheduled because they have more
avenues of appeal. Harding was con-
sidered the inmate who would die
first because he has neared the end
of the appeals process.

Even if the Supreme Court had

See HARDING, Page 2A

* s |
t o

Who
Wil» +o,

Pa eS a ~wue ‘Jie

Harding

33ed AZ (Pima)

. ae &UPAa«

“Continued from Page One

- denied a: ‘Stay, Harding still could
have petitioned - the .U.S. District
Court in Tucson, the 9th U. S. Circuit
Court of Appeals in San Francisco
and the U.S. Supreme Court.

However, the burden of proof has
shifted to Harding to show why he
should not be executed.

Arizona has not executed anyone
‘since Manuel A. Silvas died in the
gas chamber in 1963. Harding is one
-of 101 people on death row, includ-
ing one woman.

_. Attorney Carla Ryan, who has suc-
cessfully. represented numerous
death row inmates and who worked
to get Harding two previous stays,

said ‘that preparations for the Jan. 3

execution had created a tense at-
"mosphere on death row, which. she
visited Friday. -

. ‘Harding, 42, has been represented

is “in the latest push for a new hearing
by. “James Belanger . and Denise

«Young of: the Arizona. ;
_ sentation Project. :

é They. have. ‘argued’ that mitigating
é @ igribred when Harding,
swho represent himself during his
“To82 arial ‘on charges of murdering
‘two; salesman ina Tuc

pital Repre-

‘Court: J judge Harry Gin.»

Harding: ‘suffered a ‘twisted life
from‘birth that left him brain dam-
aged, they say.

Ryan _ said’. Harding, shuttled
among members of a broken family,
was abused as’a child and suffered
mental problems. These issues have
never been raised.

Additionally, Ryan said, because
Harding represented himself at a
trial that resulted essentially in no
defense, all the legal proceedings
have been based “on a record that’s
been a sham.”

Arguments in favor of Harding
say he was abused by a stepfather
and sent to the Arkansas State Hos-
pital at age 11. There a doctor wrote
of him: “It is amazing the degree of
psychopathy contained in a boy of
this young age.”

wwe One: meee: A as ue OTTER 7

yn motel, was.
Bi per ‘by Pima County Superior:

Peek /199e

‘in Ticker State Prison in Arkans

He. attempted: ‘suicide, was a

mental hospital, then back in prison

before his release at age 24. <a
Harding was being held ona mur-
der charge in 1982 when he escaped
from a county jail in Arkansas and
went on what authorities say was a
multistate rampage of 40 to..50
armed robberies and kidnappings.

In Tucson, he killed Martin Con-
cannon of Tucson and Concannon’ S
boss, Robert Wise of Mesa at the’ La
Quinta Motor Inn, 665 N. Freeway
Drive. The day before, he killed
Allan Gage in a Phoenix motel. °

Once asked why he killed siifie
people and not others, Harding’fe-
plied: “Judgment calls.” “

oes

Harding was erratic, alternately
brooding and abusive during: ‘his
trial and sentencing. He called prds-
ecutor Victor Wild a “scumbag dog.”
He also taunted Gin and after ‘re-
ceiving two death sentences, he
asked if the state intended to kill
him twice.

Ryan said Tuesday that if Hari-
ing’s sentence were carried out, sev-
eral other death row inmates would
die before Arizonans would rise up
to call for an end to the death Pe
alty. a

“Society needs to be slapped: in
the face before it responds,” stie
said. f.

Some ___ have
prompted to action.

A Tucson organization, calléd
Sanctity of Life: People Against Exe-
cutions, has been created and will
announce plans to oppose the death
penalty at a press conference today.

Among the founders of the group
is Katherine Norgard, a psychologist
whose adopted son, John Patri¢k
Eastlack, was sentenced to death: in
April after being convicted of the
beating deaths of elderly philanthro-
pists Leicester and Kathryn Sherrill
more than two years ago. :

County Attorney Stephen D. Neely
said yesterday that carrying out an
execution “would restore integrity
in the criminal justice system.”

already béen

@he Arizona Haily Star ]

Tucson, Thursday,

December 19, 1991

—<_

By Jeff Kirchmeier

n the early morning hours of
April 5, 1992, most states
turned their clocks ahead for

morning hours of April 6, 1992, the
state of Arizona turned back its
clock 29 years with the execution of
Don Eugene Harding.

I was one of Don Harding’s
attorneys. The day after the execu-
tion, a reporter told me that the
people of Arizona never knew why
Mr. Harding’s attorneys fought so
hard up to the last minute for the
condemned man. This article is my
explanation, along with an attempt
to correct some misconceptions.

People often ask, “How can you
work to help someone who caused
so much pain?” Often, defense
attorneys are associated with the
crime itself and as being “apologists
for murderers.”

Many people believe that defense
attorneys do not care about the
victims of violent crime. Yet long
after crimes are no longer in the
headlines, we read about the plight
of the victims every day and feel the
way all human beings feel: sorrow-
ful, sympathetic and angry.

Yet, the death penalty increases
the pain of the victims’ families by

Execution turned
U-2O- G9 22 bee

daylight saving time. In the early

soi

CORRESPONDENT

making them wait for the conclusion
of the punishment until they can get
on with their lives.

His given name was Don

There have been a number of
misconceptions about recent events.
For example: Don’s given name was
Don, not Donald; because of his
sentences, if he were not executed,
Mr. Harding never would have been

eligible for parole as long as he lived;

the obscene hand gesture — the
finger — was meant only for Grant
Woods; and some local television
stations interviewed people labeled
as “Harding’s: attorneys” who had
never worked on this case.

Everyone read about Mr. Har-
ding’s organic brain damage and a
little about the sufferings he endured
throughout his life. No court ever
considered the evidence we had to
present. Due to procedural rules, the
true evidence about Mr. Harding
was never before a court.

Had the evidence been presented
sooner, a court would have consid-

aia one

ered it, and perhaps Mr. Harding

back clock 29 ye

would have received a life’ sentence.
We will never know.” 2.
Two of the five justices of, the

_ Arizona = Supreme- Courtand., all: "what icials are:do:
“three. of. the Ninth Circuit judges o> Ask’ -yourself ‘about how proud” |»,
you are of the people who celebrated. |
“and drank’ as the hour of death

wanted to hear the evidence. They
never got to hear it. The Attorney
General’s office did not want them ©
to hear it. :

Ask hard questions

Charles Dickens once commented ©
on the suffering people go through.
waiting for their executions, “There
is a depth of terrible endurance in it
which none but the suffers them-
selves can fathom, and which no
man has a right to inflict upon his
fellow creature.” are .

That is what went on in Arizona; ~
that is what continues to go on in
Arizona.

People in Arizona need to ask
themselves some hard questions
about the death penalty.

Ask yourself why Mr. Harding
was executed when people who
commit worse crimes are sentenced
to life imprisonment. Ask yourself
what causes some people to commit
heinous crimes. .

Ask yourself why certain people
in this case were on television all of
the time while one side sought no

‘what your state officials are;doing:~ ~~

publicity for-themselves but only
wanted to save a man’s life. Ask
who benefits from’ executions. Ask

eh
MC ig

approached. Ask yourself why the

~ caring and the religious held candles

in mourning for both Mr. Harding
and the victims as the sodium-cya-
nide pellets dropped.

There is one reason that the death
penalty survives: hate. Ask yourself
whether. good has ever come from
hate. fa; ;

Hate only breeds hate. Fortu-
nately for us all, as one amateur poet |
noted, the reverse is also true:

“All earth would be a better place
if we could somehow learn —
the love we show each other now
would someday be returned.”

A little over one year ago, Don
Harding wrote these words in a
poem and sent it to a child at a
day-care class in New York. The
words may be a little corny and
optimistic, but I hope nobody ever
tells that child what happened to his
pen pal. .

Jeff Kirchmeier is a member of the
Arizona Capital Representation Proj-

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Grisly scene in

Tucson motel

at start of road to death row

By Chris Limberis

_ The Arizona Dally Star

When Judge Harry Gin gave Don
Eugene Harding two death penalties
for murdering two salesmen, the Ar-
kansas jail escapee looked at the
Pima County Superior Court judge
and asked if the state planned to “al
him twice.

Gin replied that once was likely to
be sufficient. ,

Harding then said the extra death
penalty should be given to prosecu-
tor Victor Wild, whom he called a
“‘scumbag dog.”

Harding’s journey through the
legal system, including reprieves -
and defeats, has been as erratic as
his life has. been violent... ,

His lawyers say he is brain-dam-
aged and unable to control his vio-
lent‘impulses. Prosecutors say he is
a cunning operator who undgystands
the consequences of getting caught:

- Represented himself

Harding represented himself at
his sensational trial in the spring of
1982. With a grade-school education
and an IQ. of 99, he presented no .
defense. He did not ask questions,

He did occasionally lash out. And
he grew enormously agitated when
nearly “100, grisly photographs of.

Harding” 'S journey
through the legal system,
including reprieves and
defeats, has been as
erratic as his life has been
violent.

-Harding’s victims, Robert Wise, 35,
and. Martin Concannon, 33, were
shown to him while being admitted
“into evidence.
After 25 photos of the murders
and autopsies were shown, Harding
said'he would agree to admit them
just so he would not have to look
at them. After 40 more were shown,
Harding asked to leave the court-
room. ve
That move has become part of his
death ante! appeal, on grounds.
that»Hard ngwas: le left with .no ; se
“fense While ie Wa WAS 8 ‘gone: Fen a

Right to be in court

But Jack Roberts, the assistant at-
torney general arguing for Hard-
ing’s execution, counters that Hard-
ing waived his right to be in the
court. He said Harding continued to
have representation from Dan
Cooper,'.‘an ‘assistant, public de-
fender, who remained in the court-
room and recorded several objec-
tions, . ;
But Harding’s defense had little to

work with. There was considerable

physical evidence. He was arrested —
driving ‘Concannon’s car; he had
both victims’ wallets and a piece of
their luggage; and he had the
.25-caliber gun used-in the killings. ;
His fingerprints were found. ‘at the
Tucson motel where ‘the men .were
killed, and he had made incriminat-
ing statements. to police.

“He could have had F. Lee Bailey’

(the celebrated defense lawyer) ‘and: .
he -was_ going’ to’ lose,” Cooper;said
during 4 hearing for.a’ new murder .

jaa,» whadbct pani

trial eight years ago..

_ Harding was given a 1 stay of exec-
ution in 1984, after an appeal based -
on complaints of ineffective trial
representation. ;

Cooper and Charles Babbitt, an as-
sistant public defender and brother
of then-Gov. Bruce’: Babbitt, ex-
plored an insanity defense but aban-
doned the idea.

In a hearing for a new trial shortly
after the conviction, Cooper testified
that he had chosen to have Harding
represent himself as a way to spare
Harding the death penalty, which
Cooper called “barbaric” and ‘‘ab-
horrent.” He also advised Harding to
threaten him in hopes of being ex-
cused from the trial, court docu-
ments show.

Cooper testified. later that Charles
_Babbitt proposed having Harding
"represent himself. Babbitt denied
that. ea

‘‘Outrageously unethical’

Cooper now declines to talk about
his actions, which have been de-
scribed by Harding’s current attor-
neys as “outrageously unethical.”

But Harding’s troubles deqpened
before the trial began.

In the Pima County Jail for more
‘than.a year but-still a year away
from trial, Harding attacked two
guards and was moved into solitary
confinement. News accounts said
one officer credited. another with
saving him as Harding was about to
plunge a knife into his chest.

Then Harding was charged with °
deadly assault on another. inmate
and was convicted in June 1981. He
‘was sentenced to a5: years to ue in

‘prison.;

Defense lawyers: gave. ‘a ‘sharply
different account of the inmate as- —
sault: Harding had straightened *
.paper clips and then filed them into “
points on the floor of his‘cell. The.”
paper clips could have been used as’
blow darts, the appeal said.

Defense argument.

“His attorneys say the death sen-
‘tence’ ‘on the murder convictions
should be set aside because the prior

to. her resignation | in ‘March '498}.

signed to transport inmates, had ex-
changed letters with Harding and
admitted during an internal investi-
gation that she did not relay to au-
thorities information about Hard-
_ing’s escape plans. — ,

For 12 years; Harding’s life has
bounced from appeal to appeal: to
Superior Court;:the state Supreme

conviction of assault on the inmate...
f was. invalid. my 4

Harding’ also’ Seutelp a Fetation-
“ship with a sheriff's députythat led

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Court, U.S. District Court, the. 9th .

U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; and
the U.S. Supreme Court.
Harding was last scheduled to die

on Jan. 3, but the state Supreme >

Court granted a three-month stay.
The same court voted 3-2 on March
18 to deny Harding a’ new hearing. .

And U.S. District Judge Alfredo =

Marquez, for the second time, de-

nied Harding a stay or hearing on

Wednesday.
. Word from Supreme Court &
Late Thursday,” ‘the ‘oth. ‘Circuit

granted Harding a stay to allow ar-

near death row in Cell Block 6, has
granted only one media interview.

Asked how he prepared, Harding
id, “You just accept it and deal

“I think they’ll go through with
with it.the best way you can.”

(the execution),” Harding told Ari-
zona Republic columnist E.J. Mon-
tini on Thursday. “I’m prepared. I’m

ready.”

preme Court to vacate the

The justices did so yesterday.

US. Su
%
to

th warrant is effective all day °

.quire at least 40 days. But Assistant

Attorney General Roberts asked the
Roberts emphasized that the
morrow.

'. ;Harding, moved earlier this week ‘ sa

from his cell'to an observation cell

guments to be filed, which could re-

the Tucson Street
‘arch of the area
of apparent sig-

ome of the street
Pacheco decided,

those transfers.
ught to tell what
sued to—”

nce to attend to.

' returned to the
lation of the dead
s disclosed noth-
untimely demise.
‘espondence even
reat or difficulty
ht have resulted
he people of the
th had ever men-
y reason to fear

over, that Leon-
ar friend, B. W.
panied him from
2 spent much of
they explained,
om on the other
vork in a small
it had remained
a job as a car-
Hotel construc-
ave begun work

located in his

; stunned at the
al slaying.

with Al in

arly eleven

aying cards

2 street car for

42, enemies who
¢ ’ + °
riend’s life, nor

STARTLING

of any trouble which’ might account for
the crime.

“Do you have any idea how much
money he had with him last night ?”
Pacheco queried.

The youth shook his head. “Not for
sure, although he probably carried five or
ten dollars. He must have made a dollar
or so in a crap game before he started
playing cards.”

If this were true, the sheriff reflected,
robbery might be the motive, although it
seemed strange that a holdup man would
overlook a watch which might easily be
worth about fifty dollars.

“Did you notice anyone in the Cactus
whom you might suspect of planning a
robbery—any strangers or anyone just
hanging around and acting in any way
unusual ?”

Young Wagner thought for a moment,
then shook his head slowly. “I can’t say
that I did, but then I didn’t know every-
body in the place and some of them might
have been strangers. Quite a bunch of
fellows was still there when I left.”

He named the bartender who had been
on duty at the time. Pacheco knew the
man well and decided to talk with him
immediately, even if it meant getting him,
too, out of bed.

“Sure I know young Leonhardt,” the
awakened bartender declared. “He’s been
coming in the place quite often lately.
Liked to play cards and roll the bones.
Pretty lucky guy, too.”

“Then he must have carried a bit of
money. with him,” Pacheco observed.
“How'd he do last night?”

DETECTIVE

The barkeep shrugged. “As far as I
noticed he won. I don’t know how much,
but I remember one time he opened his
wallet and I saw him counting what
looked like a fair roll of small bills—
maybe fifteen or twenty bucks.”

Pacheco nodded thoughtfully. There
had been no wallet in the dying youth’s
pockets, to say nothing of the roll of
bills. It was beginning to look definitely
like robbery. But he wished he could
find the solution to the woman angle of
the case.

In answer to other questions the bar-
keep shook his head without hesitation.
He had seen or-heard of no man who had
been running around town for any reason
disguised as a woman, nor had he noted
any strangers during the evening. He
was ready to vouch for all who had been
in the Cactus,

“W AIT, though—” he caught him-
self quickly, “There were a couple
of fellows—cowhands, I reckon they are
—who have only been in a couple of times
before. I can’t say I know anything about
either of ’em. They just started coming
in early last week and they appeared all
right enough guys. They were in about
the middle of the evening, had a few
drinks and watched the crap game, then
they went out and came back around
eleven o’clock. They had a couple more
drinks and left maybe ten or fifteen
minutes before Leonhardt did.”
Leonhardt, he added, had done little
drinking and certainly was not intoxi-
cated when he had left shortly before
midnight. The bartender had not noticed
whether or not the pair seemed particu-
larly interested in the young carpenter,
or had observed the roll of bills in his
possession. Pacheco took as
close a description of the two

as the bartender could remember and
turned back to his office at the county
jail. He found Meyer waiting for him.

“We may have a lead in that pad of
transfers,” the undersheriff reported, “if
we can find a way to make something
out of it.’ The serial numbers, he ex-
plained, were those of one of several pads
which a company official declared had
been stolen from the office of the street
railway.

“They have no idea who stole them,”
he continued. ‘The office wasn’t broken
into so it must have been somebody who
had access to the supplies during the day-
time.”

“Have they been checking to see if any
of them are being passed on the cars?”
Pacheco queried.

“Not much, I guess. Only a few of
them have come to light and in each case
the conductor failed to notice who used
it

“Tt may be,” the sheriff mused, “that
we'll have to solve this case by tracking
down a thief. Keep that pad and we'll
have a talk with some of the street car
employees.”

At the police station, they found Mar-
shal Hopley discussing details of the in-
vestigation with his officers. In none of the
places which had remained open, mostly
restaurants and an occasional saloon,
were. they able to learn anything of a
suspicious pair seen around town. : No-
body had noticed a strange woman talking
in a masculine voice, or a person in
women’s clothing who appeared to be a
man masquerading as a female.

One doubtful clue had come to the mar-
shal’s attention. Before boarding his
train, the brakeman, Plummer, had called
to report that he had talked with a yard
workman who had heard several persons
running down the railroad tracks at about

[Continued on page 53]

—_—__CCCC
57-_

as here at this
next morning.
cted thief, yet
ig out of Ven-
ing. along fa-
iursday morn-

‘d, “the condi-
d suggest that
ry long after

t. “So some-
shortly after.
here, nor any
killed Venters
k Venters’ car
re. Now, was
Crews?”
‘ews had come
fter they were
‘na terrible
Both of those
lere’s no sign
3 to Oberbeck,
iggled enough
pillows.”
r admonished,
rother he. was
it looks to me
uilding up an
a few days.
onsidered
hange his
locality to

ng at!” Jones
en trailing one
‘b and August

: for Venters’
taker, the offi-
1 to test their
the cafe where

ck go by here
e pretty wait-
ag

his first name

vered. “That's :

know for him,

k to the court-
ind Simmons
e information
ely identified
h whom-Ven-
Dees’ tavern

e scrap of in-
tely filled out
lephoned him

iurder awhile
t means any=
ters was ace
ife, Mrs. Vera

s when he in-
‘rs’ friendship
anned only to
Jones wasn’t
k had plotted
so clever ia
ord went out
idio network:
beck for the

3s Venters.”
voman a few
recalled hav-
"on the
s driving

oringfield |

i seen at the
vell known to
. ubers of the

appeared in
he really had

a
%

PPR ETI

tee Ke

Bae aie

EDT

‘been fishing: after all, His story checked

perfectly and he was shown to be abso-'
lutely clear of any suspicion. « . - ;

- All trace of Oberbeck and the maroon
car vanished for several days. Then the
Wichita, Kans., police radioed that they
had picked up Oberbeck and the maroon
car. A detective.had seen the.description
in a Denver police bulletin and had run
across Oberbeck trying to sell the car.
Posing as a prospective buyer, the de-
tective got enough of an identification to
warrant arresting Oberbeck.

The latter readily admitted his identity,
but denied. the murder. When Venters’
billfold was found in his possession, how-
ever, and the trousers he was wearing
were identified as having belonged to the .
dead soldier, he waived extradition and
accompanied Sheriff Jones and Trooper
Wagoner back to Lebanon: There a
charge of murder was filed against him.

UNDER questioning, Oberbeck

changed his story three times in two
days. Twice he admitted murdering Ven-
ters and once he denied it. Feeling was
running high in Laclede County and Pros-
ecuting Attorney Jean Paul Bradshaw or-
dered him transferred to the Green
County jail at Springfield for safekeeping.
There he waived preliminary hearing and
finally told the story on which he staked
his life.

“It was self-defense,” he said one after-
noon, leaning back in his chair with a
swagger and staring around at the circle
of questioning officials.

Bradshaw’s round, expressive face set
in a mask as he glanced at Sheriff Jones
and motioned to the stenographer.

“Go on,” the prosecutor ordered.

“Venters and I_had been running
around together. On that Wednesday
night he told me he had a date with a
girl. I told him if his girl had a friend,
I’d go along. Well, figure how I felt
when we drove down to Conway and out:
to my place. He pulled up in front of
the house and said:

“«This is the place?

“There wasn’t anybody at home that...

night. So I told him I knew the: folks
and..we went in and went to bed. The
next morning, .after the kids and my
brother left, I got a box of pictures. One
was of my wife and her sisters. I showed
him the picture and asked him which one
of the women he had the date with.”

“Which one did he say?” Bradshaw
questioned.

“He pointed to Vera, my wife,” Ober-
beck sneered. “I told him, ‘I ought to
kill you. That’s my wife.’ Well, he
jumped up and we slugged it out with
our fists for a minuté. Then he grabbed

_ up a big wrench and came at me. I picked

up the hammer and hit him.on the head.
He fell back on the bed and I swung the
hammer around and hit him on the chin.”

Oberbeck said that, suddenly realizing
that Venters was critically hurt, he
started to pick up the bleeding soldier and
take him to a doctor.

“Then I saw he was dead,” the killer
said callously; “so I just opened the cis-
tern and threw him in.” j

Oberbeck strenuously denied that he
had planned to rob Venters and steal his
car, but his statement to his brother about
planning to be gone stood against him.

August Oberbeck stuck with his story,
however, when he went to trial in the
Green County Circuit Court before Judge
Guy Kirby on a ‘change of venue on De-
cember 6, 1943. The Venters family hired
Robert C. Fields, an able attorney of
Lebanon, as special prosecutor and he
and Bradshaw had the further help of
Prosecuting ‘Attorney William Collinson
of Green County. Under their relentless
hammering Oberbeck’s sneering, confi-
dent manner gradually began to fade.

At a night session on Saturday, Decem-
ber 11, the twelve men found Oberbeck
guilty of first degree murder and set his
penalty at life imprisonment. Before the
end of the year he was dressed in at Mis-
souri State Penitentiary at Jefferson City.

(The name Robin Crews is fictitious for apparent
veasons.—The Editor.)

TRANSFER TO
THE GALLOWS

[Continued from page 29]

the hour of the murder. Pacheco and
Hopley hurried to question the workman,
but found little of value in his informations
He had caught only a glimpse of two fig-
ures and heard the voices of two men as
they ran down the tracks from the direc-
tion of Court Street, several blocks dis-
tant. The intersection of Court and
Alameda, the officers realized, was several
more blocks from the railroad, leaving
only a remote possibility that the pair had
been connected with the killing.

At the morgue in which the autopsy
was being conducted, they found that the
doctor had already recovered one of the
bullets. Only slightly damaged in its con-
tact with the victim’s skull, it confirmed
the physician’s’ earlier belief that Leon-
hardt had been shot with a .32 revolver.

As dawn broke on a bright Sunday
morning, Pacheco and Hopley, forgetting
sleep,. assigned every available man to
sover the various angles of the case. One
of the first things decided upon was’ a.
‘ : * Dee wank Ra eV

thorough check on all known police char-
,acters and persons of dubious reputation
found possessing .32 caliber guns. An-
other was a complete shakedown of the
railroad yards and hobo jungles. Special
attention was turned on that section of
town toward which the two persons had
run down the tracks,

The sheriff and Hopley made their next
move back to the scene of the shooting,
where they made a careful daylight search
for any possible clue that could have been
overlooked before. They found nothing
and turned their attention to questioning
residents on down the street. But no one
had seen or heard anything of significance,
excepting those who had merely heard
the shots fired.

Hours went by without a single devel-
opment from any of the various phases
of the investigation to hearten the sleuths.
By noon Pacheco and Hopley had turned
their attention to the questioning of street
railway employees. None could offer any
suggestion as to who might have been
responsible for the stolen transfers. Con-
ductors said they had accepted several on
their lines without noting who had passed
them. They could only promise to watch
closely for any others that might show
up. |

A list of those who had been in the
Cactus, Saloon during the latter partof

Saturday evening. was checked and no,

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» started out from Columbus,” Wagner said -
frankly. “I lived in’a small town not far _
out and had worked but two or .three

‘suspicious persons were noted aside from he
-the two strange cowharids. Several’ of
‘the card’ players’ had observed them

watching the game.. Invited to sit in, they
had given the excuse that they would be
leaving ‘soon, yet they had’ continued |
drinking and watching the game. for:
nearly an hour before they left. I
“We've got to find that pair,” Pacheco’
said gravely. “We'll check every ranch!
in the country, if necessary.” }
Undersheriff Meyer was assigned the
task of directing a canvass of ranches and
farms, beginning with those nearest .to
Tucson; for some trace of the mysterious
cowboys. Marshal Hopley turned his per-

sonal attention to running down numer- .

ous tips reported by his men during the
day while Pacheco concentrated on the
background of the victim and his associ- |
ates. He also wired authorities in Colum-
bus, ‘Ohio, to investigate the possibility
that some.enemy from the slain youth’s
home town might have followed him to
the West. Cg
Monday morning a message from the
police of the Ohio metropolis revealed no
inkling of an enemy of young Leonhardt
in .Columbus. The youth was described
as a person of excellent character, and.
he had many friends. Not so much was
known of Wagner; it was not believed

that the two had -been friends for long _

before they had left together for the West...
Pacheco and Hopley waited until the
youth had finished work for the day, Then
they asked him to drop in at headquarters
for further questioning. :
“T didn’t know Al very well before we

weeks in the city. That’s where I met Al.
He told me he wanted to go out West
because the doctor told him he had some’
kind of lung trouble and he needed a dry
climate. I wanted to take a trip some-
where, so we decided to leave together.” .

He said there had never. been any
trouble between them, His reason for
leaving. his friend’s rooming house was
solely a matter of convenience.’

“T left the Cactus early Saturday night,”

he explained, “because I was ‘tired and ©
‘it’s quite a little walk to my house after

I leave the. street car. Besides, I was
broke and I’d alreadyborrowed a.couple
dollars from Al when I lost in the crap
game.” ~ PE Mia
A thorough search of his room revealed
no sign of the y+ i they sought. ‘There
was no evidence of a gun, or ‘any.of the .

- stolen street car transfers. Also, members

of the household recalled ‘positively ‘that
the young man had been heard going to
his .room almost as the hall clock had
struck the midnight hour. It was mani-
festly.clear that he could have. had no
possible connection with the crime.

,more’na year ago.” "

Fo ry

listened to ‘the-descriptions' they gave and
pointed at-once:toward a corral. “You'll -

“find them two over there,” he. said. “Don’t

‘ask me nothin’ about ‘em, They’ve onl

been with us a couple of weeks.”
The officers recognized ‘their quarry
from ‘among several others workin
around’ the. stock. One was slim ‘an
‘dark, with a prominent nose, the other
chunky and. sandy haired with a scar
across his left cheek from the upper lip.
Pacheco ‘came’ directly to the point,
pulling from his pocket the revolver which
he had taken from the second hand shop.

“Which one of: you fellows sold this in ,

Tucson yesterday?” '
The slim one frowned as he reached
for the weapon. Turning it over in his

hand, he gave it back. “That was mine,” —

he said casually, “I decided to get rid of
it because I got me a good six-gun the
other day. .I got no need for two guns.”
Pacheco observed him through: nar-
rowed eyes. “You didn’t want to get rid
of it for another reason?” he ‘suggested.
“Maybe because it killed a man?”
The cowhands exchanged swift, won-
dering glances, The slim one shook his
head. “We don’t know just what you're
aimin’ at, Sheriff,” he said earnestly. “It
ain’t. killed. no man since I had it, an’ I
brought it with’ me from Fort Worth

They readily furnished as reference the
name ‘of .a’ rancher for. whom>they had

worked’ for ‘nearly ‘six months in the vi- .

-Cinity of Safford, declaring they had left
the job only two weeks.before and been

“in Tucson onvonly four occasions since

taking their ‘new work. Both. declared

er ad néver ridden on the street car
and h f

ad no-idea where its office was lp-

‘cated. Shown the pad of trarisfers picked .

up near the murder scene, neither evinced
the faintest flicker of recognition, >

SKED about their visits to the Cactus .

Saloon on the night of the crime, they
told a story of their coming and going
‘which corresponded with what the officers
had already learned, They denied knowing
Leonhardt or any of the others in the
pe and declared that immediately after

eaving at shortly after 11:30 they .had

_ taken a room in‘a cheap hotel.

’s quarters, the of-

‘Searching ‘the pair

.ficers found. nothing to.incriminate them.

Back in Tucson, a clerk in ‘the hotel
aroos that they had gone to their room a.

night. ~~ ni
~ “Well,” Pacheco sighed, “I guess this is

‘ the end of the line for now. What's next?”

. Meyer and!Hopley shook their heads
glumly. There seemed little hope now of
ever bringing: the killer to justice with
only the’ doubtful lead. of the ‘transfers.

Two more days of futile investigation ~~\Weeks passed. Only an. occasional
robbery broke the monotony of routine |

passed. Then suddenly came what looked
like the break which’ was anxiously
awaited. A’ second hand dealer reported
to Hopley that two strange cowboys had
been in his place an hour before and sold

him a..32 caliber revolver.

"afternoon, they decided to dela
tra

His description of the two men, the
marshal noted with mounting excitement,
tallied closely with that of the wante
pair, They had given no names ‘or ‘ad-
dresses, but during the course of conver- :
sation the store owner recalled that one
of them had mentioned. working for a
prominent cattleman whose. ranch was
nearly twenty. miles from the city. | -

Hopley got in touch, with Pacheco and
Meyer without delay. Since it be ty >

to the ranch yntil morning.
“The next day an ‘obliging’

Wa tie 2

for Hopley and Pacheco and their, forces.
‘Several stores were entered in the night-

time and*merchandise and money were

stolen: ‘A pastor's study was entered and
‘a typewriter.taken... While doing what
they could to run.down the robbers, they

-most in their’ minds,’.And thus Pacheco
developed a hunch...’ aj
“If you'll-recall,” he pointed out, “we
had several of* the same kind of jobs

ulled before Leonhardt was murdered.

quiet: It-strikes me -that the same party

» or parties “have'.been doing ‘the ‘whole .
eit | usiness sag: tnntaine spe Jcrten ma
fav ansi¢ ’

" readily yerified the claim of the two buck- -

good .ten or fifteen minutes before mid- .

nevertheless were able-to keep the seem- '
“ingly hopeless problem of murder fore-

_ Then for a.couple of weeks things were.

“There’s just one thing that

’ “If you’re right, we’ve

‘bery why none of those transfers: have >”.
shown up on the carssince the killing!” °«
reflectively. ' -
be yar
's the. .°
at the transfer theft was.an inside > ~

Hopley regarded . him
i 4 May,
wrong with that,” he said, “and that
fact t

job. The place wasn’t broken into so it~ :

had to be someone who was trusted. So
far we haven't found anybody in such a
position who is a good suspect either as,

-a robber or a murderer.”

Pacheco nodded slowly. “You're right
as far as you go. But I still believe if we.
go to work on those robberies and have:
any luck we’ll hit our quarry’s trail.”

Meyer slapped a hand on his chair arm, :

We've got lists of everything that was
stolen besides money. There’s a lot of
stuff that no one person, or his friends, °
is going to use. To get anything out of.
it they'll have to sell it somewhere. We
can make a check on every place in
town—” ‘ :

Following the undersheriff’s sugges-
tion, a close watch was planned on second ~
hand and pawn shops. Other merchants.
were asked to cooperate by reportin
mediately anyone attempting to sell any
merchandise which night have
stolen.

It was a long chance but it brought’.
amazingly quick results. On the morning» ”

- of Monday, February 10, Mrs. Kate Flem-<>
ing reported the robbery of her millinery.

shop. Among the articles stolen were~

~ several pairs of gloves and other women’s:

apparel. The police grimly and quietly

tightened” their. watch’ of places ‘where . ©

they might be disposed of.

The following morning

of the Bonanza Store, a place whi

. in general wearing apparel. In’a whis-.“~
“per, the merchant explained that a couple“.
‘at that moment were waiting in his store «

for him to purchase a half dozen pairs of”
ladies’ gloves, explaining that they had '

bought them by mail'from New York and

found that they did not fit.

still stood talking with the proprietor.
-. Mills covered the pair While Pacheco

. made certain that neither was armed."The. . :

woman began sobbing objections ina
husky, almost maculine voice: She in-
sisted the gloves had been purchased by:

- mail, as they had explained to the pro- 9)
-prietor. Her companion, a young man of ,, .

about 23 with narrowed, darting eyes, in-

dignantly but nervously confirmed her

words. oy
“We'll see ‘about that,” Pacheco said

icily.; “But first, who are you? Where: ~
do you live?” : A S
The youth gave his name as Edwin W.

a year and a half.. If you -want a refers, »

‘ence, see the superintendent of the-street’.

ot a chance. °

im-..

‘been ©

poe . ma Pacheco, ten ts.
ceived a phone call from the proprietor ~
oh dealt.

2 a

The sheriff rushed from his office. On 3.
the way to the Bonanza he picked up ;
. Officer-Tom Mills on his downtown beat.
Together they entered the mercantile”
establishment and Pacheco noted with. .
grim satisfaction that a man and woman <

an ee|
2

ork Pett

os
‘

t
ad
~
x

" n

Py ae
Se

4
ie

3 : oie

se, xn Pi Bie

EE ee oe 3
eons 2 Sek eerie . fone Elks

puzzle dropping. into place. A woman
with the deep voice of a man, an athletic
figure... her husband a former em=-
ployee of the street railway...

He nodded slowly. with a disarming:
grin. “Supposing I tell you some things
about yourself that you think -aren’t
known—about the transfers you stole
from’ the office and the money you
knocked down on the cars—” .

The youth flushed, his eyes wide. “I
never stole anything. I just quit because
I was tired of the job.”

But a search of. the couple’s room in
the hotel after they had been lodged in
detention quarters at the police station
brought forth damning contradiction to
his words. Among-the first discoveries
were several pads of the stolen street car
transfers. Numerous articles tentatively
identified as: taken in several recent
robberies were found in a closet hiding
place. The pastor’s typewriter sat on a
table. And in a bureau drawer was a .32
caliber revolver, recently cleaned .and
fully loaded!

Evidence mounted rapidly. The gloves
were identified by Mrs, Fleming as those
stolen from her store Monday morning,
and the revolver was traced to a hard-
ware store where the proprietor positively
identified Hawkins as the purchaser
several days before the Leonhardt mur-
der. The street. railway superintendent
confirmed the youth’s statement that he
had boarded at his home and been an
efficient employee of the street car sys-
tem, but that several times he had been
suspected of taking cash from his runs.

EEKING to obtain further informa-

tion from the wife before attempting
‘to pin Hawkins down under the mounting
pile of evidence, Pacheco, Meyer and
Hopley talked with the woman for an
hour. She maintained staunchly that she
knew nothing of her husband’s being in-

volved in either robbery or murder, that .

he had told her he.ordered the gloves from
a New York firm to give her for a birth-
day present. She said, however, that he
frequently spent nights away from their
room and that she had no idea how he
obtained the income for their livelihood.
“He told me-he had saved . some
money,” she sobbed. :
The youth listened sullenly as the evi-
dence of numerous robberies was laid
before him: Suddenly the revolver was
thrust into his hands. A look of fear
flashed over his dark features as Pacheco

said: “While you're thinking it all over -

you might -as well: get ready to admit

that this is the gun with which you shot

young Leonhardt. We're going to prove
it, anyway!”

Young Hawkins fidgeted through a
,moment of strained silence,

“All right,” he said at last, “I guess
you’ve got me on some of those robberies,
but I never killed anybody.” be

“No?” the sheriff mocked. “Yet you’re

..the only one who had a pad of those
transfers with certain serial numbers
that were stolen, and you dropped them
right - where Leonhardt. was shot—
‘probably when you bent over to take his
money.”

. Cold sweat glistened on the accused

petty thievery which had begun yseveral:
“years ago in California: and finally:sr,

sulted “in” a’ 20syear “termi in® Folsom:
Prison we ats Sain
Arriving in ‘Tucson‘in April,-he. chad

- obtained work as'an' extra, motorman ‘and nM

“conductor on ‘the streetcar line.

“I made good money. while-I worked, ~
but I never liked-to work and that’s why -

I started robbing. again. I met my wife
on the street car and we were married in
‘July. I'd saved" three hundred dollars
when I: quit.. But‘ that’ wasn’t much, so I
had to‘do something. _-
“The night:Leonhardt was shot I didn't
plan on robbing anybody.-I’d wanted to
get out but my wife didn’t want me to
go. We. went-for a walk about eleven
o'clock, stopped in for some ice cream
cand then went on down Alameda Street.

I never knew this Leonhardt, but hee

came along there and made some re-
‘marks to my wife as we passed, I stopped
and said something to him and. he came

“back, We tussled for a minute and I told:

my wife to run on back to the room. I

didn’t. want. her. to get hurt. -Legnhardt '
kicked me and said’ some more things.

about my wife, so I pulled my gun and
shot him.” ., .. + ;

There was no-explanation of why. he
had been carrying the revolver and he
denied.that he had.taken any money from
his helpless-victim. The entire-story was
inconsistent with the previous ‘evidence,
with the, exception of the woman's
running from the scene first,. This served
to: convince the officers that she was
actually. innocent of any part in the
crime. eee: 4 ; j

In the weeks that followed, further

investigation failed to reveal evidence to
implicate the confessed killer’s wife; and
the unfortunate young woman was re+

leased from custody. On May 4, the Pima ;

County Grand Jury indicted Hawkins on
three counts of robbery and one of mur-
der and ordered him, held.for the apr

proaching term of the Arizona Territorial”

District Court.

On May 13, he entered a plea of not’
guilty before*Judge John H. Campbell
and a delay, in his case was granted at the
request of his attorney. But on July 6,
after an pnsuccessful.attempt by counsel

to. have’ Hawkins declared insane, ‘he™

changed his plea to guilty and was

promptly~ sentenced..to. death on. the
{ . ? ie

gallows.\. -

Little more than a month later—on
August 14,'1908—he calmly ascended the
“steps to a specially constructed platform
beside, the county jail in Tucson, There
was ho sign of fear on’Edwin Hawkins
pale features as he watched the final
preparations being made. In a clear voice,
he addressed ‘the assembled crowd, ex-
pressed regret for his act, complimente
“the officers; for” their. kindness and.

efficiency... +, ae a doontes
“I’m expecting a message from my

wife,” 4re said hesitantly as the hood was

brought forward. “Otherwise I’m ready.

- Why. couldn’t. we wait—maybe a half

hour?” é

The request was granted. He.smoked |

‘some’ cigarettes, talked again. to the
hushed multitude, stared back.at the door
that seemed never toopen. 2. A

_ Then a messenger appeared. Hawkins
took .the paper eagerly, read. it, over
several times. Finally:he tore it into bits
and faced the waiting hangmany, .

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DESERT MADMAN

(Continued from page 19) been looking
for. The Miami telegram said that the only
William Estaver in that city had been
drowned in a sailing-boat accident about
four months before. The Miami Chief of
Police requested further details.

Sheriff Daniels lost no time. He tele-
phoned the Miami officer and gave him
all the facts of the Johnson murder.

“Well,” the Chief said, “there were some
who thought Estaver’s death mysterious.
They hinted at foul play,, but we’ve never
been able to get any concrete evidence of
this. It’s mostly hearsay. Hold on a minute.
Someone just handed me the Estaver file.
Let me glance at it.”

Daniels could hear him talking with one
of his men. Then the Chief resumed the
conversation. “The description of Estaver
that you have given me seems to tally with
one of his friends, a fellow by the name
of H. O. Kendrick. I’ll see what information
I can dig up about him and call you back.”

“Fine,” the Sheriff replied. ‘‘This whole
business is mighty strange, and until we
can get to the bottom of it I’m going to have
an armed guard put over Johnson and see
that he doesn’t leave the hospital, and that

_no one communicates with him.”

Instead of taking the wounded man to
the Yuma hospital, the fast ambulance that
had gone to Stoval had brought him to St.
Mary’s Hospital in Tucson, where his condi-
tion was improving. A deputy was sent
there at once,

@ THE BODY of Mrs. Johnson had been re-
moved to a Yuma funeral home.
Shortly after the formation of a posse

to track down the desert killer, rain had

started falling and had hampered the search.

But now it was in full swing again. They

were searching through Indian villages and

along the Southern Pacific Railroad’s tracks.

This search was under the direct super-.
vision of Sheriff Polhamous, one of the
West’s most famous manhunters. His idea
was to keep the killer bottled up on the des-
ert until found. There were few water
holes in the area and the fugitive would
have to come to one of these eventually,
he figured.

Late in the afternoon the Miami Chief
called back. “We don’t have much on Ken-
drick,” he told Sheriff Daniels. “But we’ve
got a line on a woman he ran around with.
Her name is Alice Grant. Seems she was
in show business at one time and came here
with Kendrick, who sold automobiles for
a while at the Buick agency. This woman
went along with him to turn on the charm
when his prospects were men, and it’s said
she often put over deals for him that he
might not otherwise have made. She’s pretty,
and a blonde. She’s about five feet four, and
somewhere around twenty-six or seven.
She was supposed to be from Indianapolis,
living somewhere around Butler University.
You might check with the Indianapolis
police.”

“Thanks,” Daniels replied, ‘‘we’ll do that
immediately. And let me know if you dig.
up anything else.” ,

The Indianapolis detectives didn’t have
much trouble locating Alice Grant. They
picked up the first trace of her at a little
grocery store'near the university. From
there they traced her to a bakery, the pro-
prietor of which knew the whole family.
Her parents were hard-working people and
had established themselves as honest, God-
fearing citizens. They attended the Baptist
Church regularly and were well thought
of by their neighbors.

Miss Grant was at home and greeted the
officers with a smile. :

“Surely I know Mr. Kendrick,” she said. ’

“What about it?”

“You were in Miami with him, were you
not?”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“When did you last see him?”

“About a month ago.”

“Where?”

“In Los Angeles. I came away and left
him there.”

The girl was becoming noticeably ner-
vous and one of the detectives suggested
that she sit down and tell them all about
it. ‘We suspect Kendrick of murder,” he
told her bluntly, “and the best thing you
ean do is talk.”

A startled expression came over her face.
“Murder? Is it as bad as that?”

“We believe he murdered a woman.”

She turned pale and then sank into a
chair, visibly shaken. “All right, if it’s as
bad as you say, then I’d better start at the
beginning. I met him here when he was
selling cars. I fell madly in love with him
and he induced me to go. to Miami with
him. He got a job selling automobiles and
we lived there for about three months. He
was a natural-born salesman and could
sell a car to anyone who had the price of
a down payment. But finally he got tired
of it there and we drove to Tucson, Ari-
zona. It was frightfully hot and he de-
cided to go on to Los Angeles.

“We drove across a desert road, between
Tucson. and Stoval.. It was little more
than a cow trail. Right after we left Ajo,
which is part way, the water in the car
radiator got to boiling and we stopped
under some paloverde trees to let it cool
off. Later we discovered the car had burned
out a bearing and we waited for hours for
someone to come along. Finally an old
Ford came by. The Mexican driver prom-
ised to send back help. After about two
more hours a tow car came for us. After we
left, I discovered I had forgotten my black-
‘beaded bag. It had about $300 init.” -

She said Kendrick told her that it would
be perfectly safe, that there wouldn’t be one

chance in a thousand of anyone finding ate

until they returned for it.
Kendrick sold his car in Los Angeles

‘for $1,200. He told her things didn’t look

any too good there and he wanted to look
around for a while before settling down.
“Why don’t you run back to Indianapolis
and see your folks, meanwhile?” she quoted
him as suggesting. He said he would find a
job and send for her. On his way back
to Tucson, where he had promise of a job,
he would pick up the purse.

M@ SHE AGREED to this, she continued,
and took the train for home. She hadn’t
heard from him since.

“Did he know anyone named William
Estaver-in Miami?” one of the detectives
inquired.

“The name’s not familiar to me,” she
replied after a moment of reflection. “What
did this Estaver person do?”

“All we know is that he owned a sailboat.”

She seemed puzzled. “No, I don’t remem-
ber him.” r

“What else happened on the desert?

Anything that might suggest Kendrick .

planned to commit a crime near that spot?”
The girl looked frightened. She hesitated,
but was urged on by the eager officers.
“Well, yes, something was said. I thought
nothing of it at the time. In fact, this is the
first time I’ve thought of it since. While
we were: lying under the paloverde trees,

he said, ‘Say, honey, wouldn’t this be a-

swell layout for a holdup guy? Out in
this lonely country he could get away with
anything, even murder. Did you ever see
a place so lonely?’ I told him I had never

Uo i ey:

been in such a lonely place and thought
nothing of his remark.” She hesitated a
moment. “Was this murder you speak of
near there?”

“Yes, right at that very spot, apparently.

. It was about ten miles west of Ajo.”

She shuddered and got up to light a’ciga-
rette. “I never dreamed he had such a thing
in mind. I thought it was just a passing
fancy of his and let it go at that. He always
seemed such a nice fellow, kind-hearted and
honest. I still can’t believe he’s guilty of
such a thing.”

“Was that his real name—Kendrick?”

“Well, it’s the name he’s gone by for a
long time. His real name is Paul Hadley.”

When this information was flashed back
to Tucson, Sheriff Daniels puckered his
brow. “Paul Hadley? That name sounds
familiar to me. Seems to me we've got a
circular here somewhere about him.” He
dug down through a stack of circulars in
his desk and after a few minutes came up
with one across the top of which ran the
legend, WANTED!

“That’s the bird!” the Sheriff exclaimed
exultantly. “I remembered him because he
and his wife killed a very good friend of
mine—Sheriff Jake Giles—on a train bound
for Texas. Boys, we’ve got to find him, and
when we do we'll take him dead or alive.”

The escapades of Hadley, which had led
to the shooting of Sheriff Giles, had oc-
curred in March, 1916. The year was now
1921,

MW HADLEY WAS working as an automobile
salesman in Beaumont, Texas, where he
had married Flo Hodges. As a successful
salesman with a good income, he could-not
resist the temptation to spend money at
cafés and on other women, among them a
cigar-counter girl named Ida Floyd. Flo
finally divorced him and he married Ida.
His second wife put up with him, but it
wasn’t long until he was in trouble. In an
attempted swindle he slugged a Beaumont
merchant over the head with a blackjack
and fled with Ida to Kansas City, where he
was soon arrested on a telegraphic warrant.
Sheriff Giles went to Kansas city to re-
turn the fugitive, but the State had no
charge against Ida and did not want to pay
her fare back to Texas. However, she pre-
vailed upon Giles, with the age-old plea
that it was love for her man, and he big-
heartedly bought a ticket for her.

The train was rolling through Oklahoma
when suddenly the passengers in Car 13
were deafened by a shot, followed by two
more. ;

Standing in the aisle, a smoking revolver
in her hand, was a slender woman with
murder in her eyes. “Get back to your seats,
you fools!” she shouted. “First one that
makes a false move gets drilled, see!” _

The body of a man had slid to the floor
and he now lay there, his life’s blood slowly
draining onto the aisle carpet.

A man whom the passengers had pre-
viously seen handcuffed was now going
through the pockets of the man on the floor,
taking his gun and keys.

The slender woman reached up and pulled
the cord. The train came to a stop with
such abruptness that it threw the passengers
forward against the seats in front of them.

“Don’t anybody try to follow us,” the man
warned, “If you do, you'll get just what he
got,” and he nodded toward the figure on
the floor.

Night had fallen, and once the two
stepped from the train they were lost to
sight.

It wasn’t long until the conductor was
telegraphing the news along the railroad.
Sheriff Giles had been killed by the wife
of his prisoner—the woman ‘he had been
kind enough to take back to Texas with
him because she had pleaded love for her
husband,

A week later Paul and Ida Hadley were

caught ir
posed as
Both w

accused o

because o

and convic

however,

tempted j

neered w!

guilty and

Hadley w:

in the Ok]

He foun
turned his
early 1921
the admir:
lock had sv
granted a
that he mi
ileges were
is ample }
had courte

At any r
Hadley wa
listed as a
tiary.

The circu
cleared up
the Johnsc
left foot w
that he ha
This cleare
prints, one
had been f
It also brou
of the gallo

Finding }
wife was st
the reason
latest love.

The fugit
tall, had se
front teeth,
the exclusic
His hair wa
and he alw:

Sheriff P
gitive was
Having hun
life, he kne:
quarry bott)
would not }

deputies at
railroad ri;

Meanwhi!
opments, sh«
the desert
Stoval for :
crime.

A girl of
well-to-do r
thirteen day
she had be
between Ajo
down for a
from behinc
road and ste

“Stop this
revolver.

The girl s\
to throw hin
ately, leanin
ignition.

“What do 5

“T saw yo.
bank today,

The girl h:z
the same ba
had cashed }
unaware at
watched. Th

} and was the
- hands.

She protes
The gunman
front of her c

The girl sc

“Let me ha

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Her hands

P scarcely oper

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eee

BRS Sree.

DESERT I

ALTER F. CRONK, of Stoval, Arizona, was standing in the doorway _

of his home watching a car approaching across the desert.
“That fellow must be drunk,” he remarked to his wife as the oncom-
ing auto lunged crazily into a ravine and came up the incline weaving

from side to side.

A few moments later the Dodge car slid to a stop directly in front of
the house and the driver motioned frantically for Cronk to come to his

side. “I need some help, friend.

My wife’s dead and I’m seriously

wounded. Notify the Sheriff there’s been a murder and call the doctor.”

Cronk saw a woman slumped at the
driver’s side. She apparently was dead.
The seat was covered with blood.

“Didn’t have a chance,” the motorist
mumbled. ‘That fellow shot her and
then turned his gun on me. It happened
after we left Ajo.’ Ajo, midway be-
tween Stoval and Tucson, was on the
desert cutoff.

Cronk helped the wounded man into.

the house and quickly telephoned for a
doctor. He then notified Sheriff James

Polhamous at Yuma, sixty miles west of.

Stoval, which is on Highway 80, con-
necting Phoenix and Yuma. The desert

cutoff connected Stoval and Tucson. Al- ~

though much shorter than the regular
highway, this road was rough and few
motorists, other than those who lived in
the sparsely settled area, used it. It was
known as the jackrabbit highway.

The doctor came immediately and
bandaged the motorist’s wounds, pending
his removal to a hospital in Yuma. He
was put to bed in the Cronk home. He
had been shot once in the chest and twice
in the neck and would be lucky if he
pulled through. He identified himself as
Peter Johnson from Denver, where he
was a building contractor. The dead
woman was his wife, Anna.

He said he and Mrs. Johnson were
‘motoring to California and had stopped
overnight in Tucson. The next morning,

as they got ready to leave the Dodge -

Automobile Agency,~a young man had
approached him, saying he wanted to go
to Stoval. Not knowing where that town —
was, Johnson got out a road map and the ©
hitch-hiker pointed it out to him, reveal-”

ing that there was a cutoff. across the

desert, which would save many miles.

“I didn’t know what a tough road it
was,” Johnson went on, “so I agreed to ©
try it. It was dark by the time we got to |

Ajo and I was worried about the road. ~
After leaving Ajo, we struck what ap-—

peared to be only a trail and I thought -

we were surely lost. This fellow said he —

would get out and take a look. The next
thing I knew he had a gun on us and was ©
demanding my money.”

“Fork over that dough you got at the

MASTER DETECTIVE,

bank in Tucson,” the hitch-hiker was
quoted as having demanded. Johnson
reached in his coat pocket and drew out
a wallet containing nearly $1,000. . He
handed it over.
“T think ’ll take your wife along, too,”’
the gunman said, a fiendish gleam in his
» eyes as he leaned over the dashboard
light. ‘He reached for Mrs. Johnson just
as her husband crashed his fist against
the bandit’s face. —

Pushed backward by the blow, the
man fired point-blank, the bullet striking
Mrs. Johnson in the temple, killing her
instantly.

Driven té a point of desperation, her
husband threw open the car door and
lunged. at the hitch-hiker. A -bullet
caught him squarely in the chest and
‘drove him back against the car. Two
‘more bullets struck him in the neck and
he went down.

For a moment the gunman hovered
over the fallen motorist. Apparently
convinced that he was dead, he turned
and fired two-more bullets into the body
of the woman.

Johnson was down, but he had not lost
consciousness. He heard the murderer
walk away into the brush. Why he had

not taken the car and left them there was .

a puzzle, for it was miles to any human
habitation. |
The wounded man lay for.a long time
listening to the weird calls of the coyotes,
wondering if the bandit would come back
‘for the car. After a time he found he
had sufficient strength to get on his feet.
* Groping for his wife’s wrist, he felt the
i pulse, She was dead.
Climbing back into the auto, he man-

’ aged to get it started. He knew that he
was only a few miles from Stoval, but it

- was long past daylight when he finally
_ drew up in front of the Cronk home.
Johnson’s mind was still clear when the
deputies arrived, and he retold his story
- in detail. ~
“Did this. fellow tell you his name?”:

“Yes, he introduced himself. But I

don’t remember now what it was. You
might be able to find out from the Dodge
_ agency in Tucson. He seemed to know

1945

January,

everyone around there,” Johnson said.

Officers were dispatched at once to
Tucson and Yuma, while others went to
the scene of the crime. By. now High-
way Patrolmen were arriving by the
dozens and the Sheriff’s deputies had
plenty of help.

Footprints at the crime scene indi-
cated there had been two gunmen, for
one print was shorter than the other.

“The other fellow must have been
tenitings here,” one of the deputies
pointed out. “Either that, or Johnson’s
story is haywire somewhere.”

While a search of the desert was being
organized, two men sped back to see the
wounded man, but he insisted there was
but one bandit, whom he had described
as slender, about thirty, fairly handsome
and well dressed. He had been a good
conversationalist, Johnson said, and
could discuss many subjects intelligently.

He had seemed well posted on current

events and his actions had aroused no
suspicion until the moment he had pulled
a gun.

“TI was never so surprised in my life,”
the victim continued. “I took him to be
a businessman, or perhaps a salesman
who had had a little hard luck. I’m wary
about picking up hitch-hikers, especially
éut in this country where there are long
stretches of wild lands, yet this chap’s
friendliness and good manners com-
pletely fooled me.”

Johnson said he had not been more
than a few feet from the car at any time,
yet the two sets of footprints had been
found in the brush near by.

There was a bullet hole in the wind-
shield of the Dodge. Whether it had been

made from a bullet fired from within the

ear, or from without, the officers could
not determine. This might explain the
presence of the second gunman, they
thought. The glass was removed and
sent to Tucson for examination,

In that city, at the Dodge Automobile
Agency, no one remembered the hitch-
hiker. No one had seen him get into the
Johnson car. If he had been hanging
_around there, he had not been noticed.

It was learned at one of the Tucson
banks that Johnson had cashed a bank
draft there two days before, after prop-
erly identifying himself. He had stated
at the time that he was a visitor in town.
He had made no mention of going to
California.

At the hotel where Mr. and Mrs. John-
son had stayed, it was said by one of the
maids that they had seemed to be a happy
couple. She had been about to enter the
room when she discovered it was occu-

The
differe:

pied. “Oh,
told her, ‘©
girl had ma
ence while :
trip to San |]
While thi:
was under
office of She
a young mar
in Ajo on t!
Said that tw:
hands, had V
flashed a ro)
fellows well
than a few dc
got all that c
The fact t}
left in the des
apparently w
officers all a).
other auto ne
which was u
story the visit
this belief.
A search fo;
Once, but the
no trace of the

anson said.
at once to
ers went to
now High=
ing by the
eputies had

scene indi-
gunmen, for

he other. —

” have been.
he deputies
or Johnson’s
‘e, ”
ert was being
ack to see the
ted there was
iad described
rly handsome
i been a good
, said, and
5 intelligently.
ad on current
id aroused no
he had pulled

od in my life,”
took him to be
ps a salesman
uck. I’m wary
xers, especially
there are long
yet this chap’s
manners com-

not been more
car at any time,
prints had been
vy.

le in the wind-
sther it had been
from within the
ie officers could
ight explain the
| gunman, they
is removed and
jination.

sdge Automobile
bered the hitch-
him get into the
id been hanging
t been noticed. —
ie of the Tucson
d cashed a bank
ofore, after prop-
f. He had stated
a visitor in town.
ition of going to

fr. and Mrs. John-
said by one of the
»med to be a happy
about to enter the
rered it was occu-

By HUGH

McVANEY

¢ The witness swore the killer was ‘itnea yet two.

different footprints. appeared on the crime . scene.

pied.

told her. ‘‘We don’t mind at all.” The
girl had made up the room in their pres-
ence while they. happily discussed their
trip to San Diego.
While this-phase of the investigation
_ was under way there. walked into the
».. office of Sheriff Ben Daniels in Tucson”,
a young man who claimed he had. been.
in Ajo on the night of the crime. He ”™
said that two men he knew, both ranch
hands, had walked into a pool hall and
flashed: a roll of bills. “I know those
fellows.well-and they never have more
than a few dollars at a time.. Where they’
got all that dough. is a mystery to me.”
The fact that Johnson’s car had been

- left'in the désert, and the lone killer had

apparently walked off, had puzzled’ the
officers all along. Had there been an-'
other auto near by, they had wondered,
which was used by the robber?’ The
story the visitor told seemed to stimulate
this belief.

A search for the two suspects began at

once, but the Ajo authorities could find
no trace of them.

“Oh, come right in,” Johnson had *

. Meanwhile, a girl cashiee at the Dodge:

agency in Tucson recalled that a man
answering the killer’s description had ~
applied there about two <weeks. before

for a job. He had presented some refer- _

ences from Miami, Florida. |
‘/ “Right. atithe time thete was no job
available,” the cashier, said), ‘‘and ‘J, told

“him he might come back Iater, He did
come back a couple of days later and
‘talked with:me through the window. , He
seemed eager for a' job and .wanted me
to go out with him, but I refused’ It was.
that Visit which impressed on my mind
his looks and mannerisms. ‘He seems in
every. way to have fitted uM description
of the hitch<hiker.” ° ks

“Did you take down hig name?”

“Yes, I made a note of_it’ and here it’
‘is. He said his name was William Estaver
‘and that he worked in Miami at one
time.”

A. telegram was imifiediately dis-
patched to the Miami police, and the an-
swer that soon came caused the Tucson
officers to forget all about the two. ranch
hands they had (Continued on page 62) -

The criminal (above) discovered

that the

desert can strike back

@ An intensive search for the"

Mad-

man" was conducted by Sheriff's posse

and thought
hesitated a
‘ou speak of

. apparently.
of Ajo.”

light a’ciga-
such a thing
ist a passing
t. He always
\-hearted and
.e’s guilty of

Xendrick?”
yne by for a
aul Hadley.”
flashed back
yuckered his
name sounds
we've gota
sut him.” He
f circulars in
utes came up
hich ran the

iff exclaimed
m because he
sod friend of
a train bound
find him, and
ead or alive.”
vhich had led
tiles, had oc-
year was now

an automobile
xas, where he
; a successful
. he could-not
‘nd money at
among them a
a Floyd. Flo
married Ida.
th him, but it
rouble. In an
d a Beaumont
h a blackjack
City, where he
aphic warrant.
sas city to re-
State had no
\ot want to pay
wever, she pre-
ie age-old plea
an, and he big-
for her.
ough Oklahoma
gers in Car 13
‘ollowed by two

noking revolver
2r woman with
ck to your seats,
‘First one that
illed, see!”

slid to the floor
2’s blood slowly
ret.

igers had pre-
vas now going
an on the floor,

d up and pulled
to a stop with
the passengers
front of them.
w us,” the man
t just what he
the figure on

nee the two
were lost to

ynductor was
the railroad.
i by the wife
he had been
o Texas with
{ love for her

Hadley were

caught in a farmhouse where they had
posed as elopers.

Both were brought to trial. Ida was
accused of doing the actual shooting, but
because of her charms the jury freed her
and convicted her husband. At another trial,
however, when she was accused of an at-
tempted jail break, which she had engi-
neered while awaiting trial, she was found
guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison.
Hadley was sentenced to ninety-nine years
in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

He found prison life unbearable, yet he
turned his mind to profitable work and by
early 1921 had invented a lock that won
the admiration of the prison officials. The
lock had such promise that the prisoner was
granted a sixty-day leave of absence so
that he might try to market it. Such priv-
ileges were unheard of prior to this, which
is ample proof that the scheming convict
had courted the confidence of his keepers.

At any rate, the sixty days expired and
Hadley was among the missing. He was
listed as a fugitive from the State Peniten-
tiary. ‘

The circular on him set forth one fact that
cleared up much of the mystery about
the Johnson murder. It stated that his
left foot was smaller than his right, and
that he had to wear specially made shoes.
This cleared up the enigma of the two foot-
prints, one shorter than the other, which
had been found at the scene of the crime.
It also brought Hadley nearer to the shadow
of the gallows.

Finding him was now the big job. His
wife was still in prison, which was perhaps
the reason why he had not married his
latest love.

The fugitive was five feet, eight inches
tall, had several gold fillings in his upper
front teeth, and he wore black bow ties to
the exclusion of all others, it was revealed.
His hair was combed in a pompadour style
and he always wore neat clothes.

Sheriff Polhamous was certain the fu-
gitive was’ still somewhere in the desert.
Having hunted men on the desert all his
life, he knew pretty well when he had his
quarry bottled up, and he was sure the hunt
would not be long drawn out. He posted
deputies at all the water holes and had the
railroad right-of-way watched carefully.

Meanwhile there had been other devel-
opments, showing that Hadley had haunted
the desert cutoff between Tucson and
Stoval for about two weeks prior to the
crime.

A girl of eighteen, the daughter of a
well-to-do rancher, now revealed that just
thirteen days before the Johnson murder
she had been traveling in her roadster
between Ajo and the ranch. She had slowed
down for a bad wash when a man leaped
from behind a clump of brush near the
road and stepped on the running-board.

“Stop this car!” he shouted, waving a-

revolver.

The girl swung the auto sharply, hoping
to throw him off; but he clung on desper-
ately, leaning over and switching off the
ignition.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“I saw you draw that dough out of the
bank today. Give it to me.”

The girl had, as a matter of fact, visited
the same bank in Tucson where Johnson
had cashed his check. But she had been
unaware at the time that she was being
watched. The money was for her father,
and was the weekly payroll for the ranch
hands.

She protested that she had no money.
The gunman reached over and yanked the
front of her dress open.

The girl screamed and drew back.

“Let me have that money or I’ll do worse
than that.”

Her hands trembling so that she could
scarcely open her purse, she produced the

roll of bills and handed the money over to
him. He reached over and patted her
shoulder. “Thanks, baby! How about a date
sometime?”

She started the car and sped away.

This holdup had been reported, but
somehow had not been connected with the
Johnson murder until the girl, in company
with her father, went to the Sheriff’s office
and had a look at the photo of Hadley.

She shuddered when she saw it. ‘‘That’s
the man, all right. I’ll never forget him,”
she said.

Out at St. Mary’s Hospital in Tucson
another victim of the outlaw also was having
a look at a photo of Hadley. “That’s the«
fellow!” he exclaimed. “It’s not only his
face, but he’s wearing a bow tie just like
the one the killer wore.”

Johnson, who was recovering rapidly now,
was elated over the fact that the slayer of
his wife had at last been identified. “I want
to get well so I can help you hunt for him,”
he told the deputies.

The earlier precautions of having an
armed guard stationed at the hospital had
been removed soon after, for it became ob-
vious that Johnson had had nothing to do
with the crime. Being a stranger in the
country, and. the circumstances having
aroused the suspicion of the authorities, it

©. ists .

was only natural that they wished to take
no chances. Johnson, it soon was revealed,
was a contractor of no little importance in
Denver. He was thoroughly respected and
was considered one of the city’s leading
citizens. His wife, too, had won a high place
in the community life of their neighborhood.
They had sought to combine business ‘with
pleasure in a trip to San Diego and had paid
dearly for their carelessness in picking up
hitch-hikers.

Three days after the ‘killer had been
identified as Hadley, James Sleigh, a signal
maintainer, and J. S. Sullivan, a Southern
Pacific detective, left Stoval on foot to
examine possible hiding places along the
railroad. They had proceeded about three
miles when they came to a soft embank-
ment above the tracks.

“Looks as if something walked up that
incline,” Sullivan remarked as they ap-
proached,

“Probably a cow,” Sleigh ventured. “Some
of these fences need attention.”

But as they neared the spot, they saw
the tracks had been made by a man.

“Well, I’ll be darned!” Sullivan exclaimed
as he stared down at the prints. “Do you
see what I see?”

“Yes, one’s shorter than the other.”

“Looks like he crossed over here,” the

AACA AAA ALAC

The Weehawken |
Robbery

A well-known detective agency operates
a bank-messenger division in the New York
area and fulfills contracts for payroll de-
liveries. Their system of delivery is cal-
culated to be robber-proof. Three guards
carry the payroll to the point of delivery.

The bag containing the money is of special
design. It has two handles, which are
gripped firmly by two of the guards. The
third guard remains with the armored car.
In the center of the bag, between the han-

dles, is a wire trigger that can be pulled .

in a split second. When this happens, four
smoke cartridges within the bag are ex-
ploded, and thick, black smoke pours out
of perforations in the side of the bag,
forming vapor that will blind, temporarily,
all persons in its proximity.

On July 21st, 1944, at 11 am., guards
crossed the Hudson River on the ferry from
Manhattan at 42nd Street on their way to
Weehawken, directly opposite. They had
a payroll of $27,542 destined for employees
of the John J. McGrath Stevedore Company.
Alighting from the ferry, the detective
agency men, William Koch and Charles
Claire, took a tight hold of each handle of
the precious bag and proceeded toward
Pier K, where the McGrath pay-shack stood.
It was a distance of about four hundred
yards.

First they crossed a parking lot and
gained the private driveway, which was
the most direct route. Beyond this was
a railroad spur, and then the shack. It was
now 11:30. Halfway on the private drive-
way, three men came toward the guards.
There was nothing suspicious in their ap-
pearance. On the contrary, they looked
like the railroad men the guards usually saw
on this trip. They wore the typical. long-
peaked caps and denim clothes of rail-
roaders. Suddenly, at a stride’s distance,
guns appeared in the hands of these men.

‘Don’t pull that trigger wire,” said one,
“or we'll blow your heads off.” They knew
about the smoke cartridges!

Simultaneously, two seized the handles
from the guards, while a third slid the gun
out of Koch’s holster. Claire had no gun.
Events reeled off fast before the astounded

eyes of the guards. A black Buick pulled
up. Two robbers with the bag entered
quickly; the third covered them and at the
same time dropped a burlap flap over the
rear license plate. Two more steps and he,
too, was in the car.

There was no mad getaway. At ordinary
speed, the Buick rolled on to Pershing
Road, skirted the police booth and veered
into Boulevard East.

Other than the victims of the holdup,
only one witness saw what had taken place—
Howard Tyle, an employee of the Duffy
Construction Company, who happened to
be in the parking lot a short distance from
the driveway. He, too, was under the illu-
sion the men were railroaders, and the
unusual gestures he observed seemed to
him to be merely horseplay—until he saw
the guns and witnessed the slick getaway.
Then he jumped into his own car and gave
chase. But when he reached Boulevard
East and 49th.Street, the Buick was lost
in the traffic.

Report of the robbery came to the county
police booth in a matter of seconds. An
alarm went out. But—the robbers had
disappeared.

Descriptions were vague. Nothing was
at variance with the commonplace, except
the boldness, precision and timing with
which the job had been done.

There had been only one departure from
the normal: usually the detective agency
that furnished the guards notified the police
booth when the payroll was on the way.
Then, an escort met the guards at the ferry
and flanked the cargo of money across to
the pay-shack. For once, no warning
reached the booth. What element of clue
there may be in this fact, only the police
know. If it was an accidental oversight,
the swift appearance of the black Buick on
the scene, with whatever men were in it at
the time, showed that the gang had pre-
pared even for the eventuality of the cus-
tomary escort.

As to the outcome—this is in the realm
of patient piecing of the infinitesimal
elements that has brought fame to many
a detective.

- The robbers escaped the pulling of the
wire. trigger this time. But smoke will get
in their eyes somehow.

—WALTER ROWLEY

RARPAARAAAPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAS

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nal states,
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‘Arkansas, called in to compare notes

on the Harding case. All the while, the’
bereaved were making preparations in
Tucson and Mesa, Arizona, to inter
their loved ones, Bob Wise and Marty
Concannon, two decent, hard working .
men who’d died such a senseless death.
Martin Concannon’s griefstricken
widow experienced a great deal of
difficulty in understanding how a man
ten inches shorter than her husband
could have subdued the former Green
Beret trooper and his boss, Robert
Wise. Initially, after she’d first learned
of Harding’s height, she’d felt strongly
that the accused killer had an accom-
plice. A Tucson detective gently

. explained that a .25-caliber pistol

amounts to a potent equalizer. .

' A Pima County Grand Jury indicted’
Harding on seven major felony counts
in connection with the brutal bondage
murders of Wise-and Concannon
charging him with-two counts of
1st-degree homicide, two counts of
kidnapping, two counts of armed
robbery and one count of car theft.
The Associated Press reported that
police had firmly linked Harding to a
rabid series of multiple crimes
including a total of six murders. Most
of his victims were securely tied and
gagged.’

No explanation was forthcoming as
to why Donald Harding had chosen
to execute some, but not all of his
victims. Two security officer badges
were found in his possession at the
time of his arrest in Flagstaff. Police
were convinced that he’d used the
badges to commit many of the motel-
hotel oriented slayings. At his subse-
quent arraignment, held on February
6, 1980, before Court Commissioner

Gordon S. Kipps, Harding pleaded not

guilty to all seven felony charges. It
was during this phase of the lengthy
proceedings destined to follow that the
legal system relative to the seven felony
counts against Harding became

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Hog-Tied, Gagged And Flectrocuted!

(continued from page 47)

warped and grossly distorted. Har- :

ding’s court appointed public defender
filed a motion with the court demand-
ing that a restraining order be issued
to prevent the police from questioning
his client unless he was notified in
advance. ;
The public defender also harshly
criticized Pima County lawmen
because they’d already questioned his
client without him being present. In
another motion filed with the court,
the public defender requested that

Harding’s bond either be reduced from,

$1 million to $50,000 or else he be
released on his own recognizance.
Somewhat surprisingly, the requests
were accepted and recognized by the
court and a date was scheduled for a
hearing.

To be sure, a suspect can, under his
rights as defined in multiple Supreme
Court decisions, decline to discuss the
crime of which he is suspected or
accused. He can also demand that his
attorney be present during the course
of any interrogation. But any homicide

investigator who declines to attempt.

to open avenues of dialogue with a
murder suspect could be said to be
guilty of dereliction of duty. As far as
even considering the’ release of a
county prison escapee accused or
suspected in six brutal murders, the

motion approaches the ludicrous.

On the very next day, Harding was
linked to:the Dallas, Texas, homicide
committed there on about December
15, 1979. The connection was esta-
blished by a Texas ballistics expert who
used a bullet test-fired from the pistol
belonging to Harding to compare it
with the slug which had killed the

‘Dallas victim, identified as Stan.

Blanton, 27. A perfect match was
made. Tucson authorities also pro-
vided a murder of test slugs to
numerous other law enforcement
agencies throughout the country
subsequent to Harding’s arrest.

Judge Thomas Meehan had saga-.

ciously declined to accede to the two
motions filed by the suspect’s legal
representative. Pima County sleuths

‘continued to visit Harding periodically

in his cell in their attempt to gain his
cooperation and one occasion, he
asked them to call his mother in Little
Rock, Arkansas, and tell her he was

“alright, which they did. Always the

accused declined to discuss his crimes

with the police. In all instances, they.
48

)

would break. off the interrogation
‘immediately, In one such case, they
) were with him just three minutes.

Another defense motion was filed
on Harding’s behalf by the public
defender requesting that the accused’s
case be returned to the grand jury. Dan
Cooper, counsel for the defense,
contended that the original hearing
had not ‘‘been fair’’. He declared that
several police statements were mis-
leading and that the publicity accorded
the sensational case had tainted the
grand jury’s proceedings. Charges and
warrants had by now been drawn
regarding all crimes previously
outlined involving Harding, including
one out of Nebraska for armed
robbery. It was mid-April, 1980, and
the State of Arizona indicated that it
fully planned to try Harding on three
counts of murder before giving any
consideration to other holds and
wants. ,

Homicide detectives in Phoenix and
Manicopa County had firmed up their
case against the suspect in the death
of Allan Gage, 38, the handicapped
victim found gagged and bound in a
motel room there January 24, 1980.
‘Tucson police also solidified their case
against Harding relative to the Wise-
Concannon slayings to the prosecu-
tor’s satisfaction. The motion to return
the case to the Pima County Grand

Jury was denied by presiding Judge -

Harry Gin. Harding’s bond remained
at $1 million.

In late April, 1980, Assistant Public
Defenders Dan Cooper and Jeff
Bartolino attacked the accepted
system of assigning trial judges to hear
cases. They had failed to have their
way with Judge Gin, who assigned the
case to his own docket and who had

the reputation of meting out the death .

sentence when it was merited. Superior

Court Judge Ben C. Birdsall later
quashed this motion. Donald Eugene
Harding spent the next twelve months
confined in the Pima County Jail
awaiting trial on the seven felony
counts.

He proved to be a recalcitrant,
unruly inmate and spent considerable
time in isolation. He was viewed as
being a rebel without a cause. On

Thursday, February 26, 1981, while’

being returned to his isolation cell after
undergoing a psychiatric examination
at the Kino Community Hospital, he
balked at the doorway. It was 11:30

: } ;
a.m.. and several guards moved in to

help-assist him into his cubicle. Several

minutes afterward, Harding hailed the

detention supervisor, Charles A.
Morrison, and with a considerable
show of remorse, asked if he might

_ be allowed out of his cell long enough

to apologize to the jailers for his
conduct. Among his other attributes,
Harding was a convincing actor, a
talent he employed to attain the
confidence of many of his past victims.
Morrison let him out and proceeded
to walk him down the corridor to the
jail office. Midway down the long
hallway, Harding spotted Detention
Officer Greg Vernoy, 24, standing
inside an office with his back to the
corridor door, :

Without ‘a second’s hesitation,
Harding whipped out a contraband
knife and grabbed Vernoy from
behind in a-deadly choke hold.
Morrison leaped to the rescue and he
and Vernoy managed to subdue the
maddened inmate, whom they dis-
armed. Harding had his knife poised,
ready to plunge the blade into Ver-
noy’s heart when Morrison sprang to
the rescue. Vernoy was so infuriated
that it reputedly took a number of his
fellow officers to restain him from
attacking his would-be murderer. No

one knew exactly how long Harding .

had the shiv. It was possible that he’d
been packing it while visiting the
psychiatrist...

After he was returned to his cell,

‘Harding rasped, ‘‘I’ll get him (Vernoy)

soon.’’ Jail officials found two more
knives concealed inside empty cells.
They later came to suspect a trustee

of having supplied jail inmates with’

knives. Prisgners are quite creative in
manufacturing ‘‘shanks,”’ jail jargon
for illicit blades, honing porkchop
bones, toothbrushes and even combs
to a razor edge keenness on the
concrete floors of their cells. Harding
had suffered a nose bleed and a cut
hand during the melee. No one
doubted that he’d meant to kill
Vernoy. .

- Charges were filed relative to the
assault with a deadly weapon. Harding
was found to be guilty as charged by
a jail hearing officer and sentenced to
60 days in solitary plus the loss of all
special privileges for 30 days. It meant
no color TV, no radio or commissary
visits and no visitors. Harding was
quite displeased with his sentence, and

testimony established that he’d thrown ..

a cup of urine on a guard who helped

(continued on page 50)

1 he RRR EL TF EN QIN St 2

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Hog-Tied, Gagged And Electrocuted!

(continued from page 48)

place him inside his cell.

Oddly enough, it was developed
shortly after the hearing held on March
4, 1981, that Donald E. Harding had
sparked a romantic involvement with.
a 24-year-old female deputy in March,
1980. It was during this span of time
that the deputy was assigned the task
of transporting prisoners between the
jail and court. The two kited love let-
ters back and forth, and in one,
Harding confided that he planned to
feign an illness to obtain a stay in the
hospital, where he planned to escape.
The love-stricken female deputy failed

’ to report this crucial information to
. her superiors. When found out, the

deputy resigned rather than accept
disciplinary action.

Fully two years after Harding’s
arrest, the big question on the lips of
many people was, why in hell hadn’t
he been brought to trial? A trial date
had not even been set. A total of 26
pretrial pleadings had been filed by the
accused’s counsel for the defense, 14
of which remained unheard. The
man’s court files were so thick and
bulky that clerks kept them intact with
heavy rubber bands. It took a total of
four hours just to skim through the

reams of motions, postponements,
continuances, etc. Other jurisdictions
who wanted Harding for trial were
stymied irlasmuch as Pima County,
Arizona, had top priority. No one
seemed to know what happened to the
right to a speedy trial concept. Much
of the undue delay could be credited
to the defense.

They had filed a rash of motions
which verged on the preposterous and
were indeed described as being
frivolous by a judge. One who suffered
greatly throughout the lengthy ordeal
was Concannon’s widow, who moved
back to Ohio to be with her family,
all of whom harbored feelings of
bitterness at the prolonged delay. Only
one Tucson detective was able to
establish any kind of a rapport with
Harding. His name was Stephen
Bunting. He’d gone to Flagstaff to
bring the suspect back to Pima County
and had been one of the first to quiz
the suspect. Bunting had asked his
prisoner where he’d been at the time
Wise and Concannon were slain.
Harding had replied, ‘‘On the planet
Jupiter.”’

Sometime later, the murder suspect
asked Detective Bunting, ‘‘They didn’t
suffer, did they (meaning his seven

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victims)?’’? About the California
victim, Harding was astounded to
-Jearn that the body hadn’t been located
and had exclaimed, ‘‘They haven’t
found the body? Can we get this over
with faster if I confess?’’ Most
assuredly, matters could be concluded
quicker with a confession and pleas
of guilty as charged. But Harding’s
two court-appointed public defenders
ae?

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would have lost a case if their client
was allowed to take the most expedient
means to resolve his dilemma. They
persisted in fighting the prosecution
tooth-and-nail.

Donald Harding’s trial finally got
underway on Wednesday, April 22,
1982, in Tucson before Judge Harry
Gin. Victor A., Wold, Pima County’s
chief deputy for criminal prosecution,
was present to represent the State of
Arizona. The defendant had sacked:
both of his public defender lawyers
and had been granted permission to
act as his own counsel. At the start of

the trial, Harding requested that he .

be allowed to delay his opening
statement until the prosecution rested
its case. His motion was granted. The
prosecution gave every indication that
they planned to seek the death penalty
for the defendant in the event of a
conviction. Harding’s trial took less
than a week to hear. Deputy County
Attorney Wild submitted 100 grisly.
photographs and more than 100
physical pieces of exhibits into
evidence. Security was immensely tight
to preclude the accused from taking a
hostage or making good an escape.
Accused of seven murders and
suspected of being involved in over 40
other major felonies including kid-
nappings and armed robberies, he was
infamous as a heartless, cold-blooded
killer who could be expected to go-for-
broke if given the slightest opportuni-
ty. In fact, during the trial, he’d told
one of his warders that he fully
intended to pull some kind of a caper
which would compel jhis guards to
shoot him. It might have been that he
was simply trying to psyche the
contingent of deputies assigned to
courtroom security, but no one took
any chances. :
The only time that the defendant

appeared disconcerted was when Ro--

bert Wise’s widow mounted the

witness stand to tell of Harding’s”
mysterious visit to her home in Mesa, °

quite some distance from Tucson and
shortly after he’d murdered her
husband. He was driving Concannon’s
car and had obtained his victim’s
address from papers in Wise’s brief-
case and wallet. No one knew what
he’d had in mind or what it was that
had prompted him to resume his flight
without harming anyone else. Hard-
ing, acting as his own defense counsel,
did not cross-examine this witness.
The jury required just five hours of
deliberation on Tuesday, April 27,

(continued on next page)

BRN

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where
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the prosecution

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re Judge Harry
Pima County’s
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ent the State of
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. At the start of

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| was when Ro-
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home in Mesa,
om Tucson and
murdered her
ag Concannon’s
od his victim’s
in Wise’s brief-
one knew what
vhat it was that
‘esume his flight
one else. Hard-
defense counsel,
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e hours of

April 27,

iat page)

1982, before returning to the court-
room to advise Judge Harry Gin that
they had found Harding guilty on two
counts of Ist-degree murder, two
counts of armed robbery, two counts
of kidnapping and one charge of car
theft. May 19 was set as the date when
the convicted slayer’s fate would be
determined. As usual, there was a
slight delay after which Harding was

brought before Superior Court Judge
Harry Gin to be sentenced. He taunted
the judge and called the prosecutor,a
“‘scumsbag dog,’’ before hearing
himself sentenced to two death
penalties and 89 years in prison.

His conviction and the imposition
of the death sencence cleared the way
for other trials in other cases. In
October, 1982, he was transferred

Ghost Of Christmas Past

(continued from page 23)

years, she said. ‘‘Not vengeful, but
there is so much hurting. I hope the
men who killed him are punished.”’

To Bronx DA Merola, William
Patrick Brennan and Robert Alvarez
were both ‘‘vigilantes who shared the
same philosophy — and that was
white supremacy. This has all the
earmarks of a racial killing.’’

Alvarez, a jobless auto mechanic,
had been driving the Mustang at the
time of the murder Merola said, while
Brennan was '‘the shooter.’’ The
suspects belonged to ‘‘a vigilante
group, not necessarily organized, but
a bunch of individuals who shared the
same philosophy.’’

While he was talking, detectives,
armed with a search warrant, entered
Brennan’s apartment, where they
found his room plastered with hard-
core pornographic photographs, they
said.

They also found a white shield like
those worn by the police, which he
assertedly carried inside his clothing.
There were also scores of gun and
police-equipment magazines addressed
to a ‘‘Detective Sgt. Brennan,’’ and a
key apparently for handcuffs.

At one time, Brennan had sought a
job as a prison guard with the New
York City Department of Corrections,
paying the application fee. However,
he flunked his physical and was
deemed ineligible for appointment.

At about the same time as the
Johnson murder, there were four other
racial murders in the same general area
that remained unsolved. Authorities
said that they would now be re-
investigated. DA Merola also warned
that perjury charges were under
consideration for some of the witnesses
who allegedly supplied. false informa-
tion in the investigation.

‘Some people in the neighborhood
actually obstructed the investigation,”’
he charged.

The authorities did not recover the
murder weapon, but in a vacant lot
where Brennan. had reportedly been
firing a weapon:a few days before his

arrest, they did recover some spent
bullets. Théy were turned over to
ballistics experts for comparison with
the bullet that killed Johnson. Of
course, William Patrick Brennan and
Robert Alvarez must be presumed
innnocent until and unless they are
finally convicted in the courts. To
family and friends, they are entirely
innocent.

“T feel it’s highly unlikely that Bob
was involved in this,’’ Alvarez’s
brother said. “‘I understand it happened
on a Christmas Eve, and.I can’t
remember a Christmas Eve. that Bob
hasn’t been with the family.’’

Despite its unhappy racial past, the
Kingsbridge community must also be
given a clean bill of health. Integration
has largely been achieved, and where
once there was hate and suSpicion,
there is now a tolerant spirit of live
and let live —not die and be killed.

under heavy security to the Maricopa
County Jail in Phoenix to stand trial
for the murder of Allan F. Gage. Gage
was allegedly robbed at gunpoint by
Harding in a Phoenix motel and then
hog-tied and thrown face down upon
the floor with his face thrust deep into’
a pillow. Helpless and unable to move
a muscle, Gage died an awful death
from suffocation.

Harding was also convicted at the
conclusion of his trial for murder in
the first degree, armed robbery and
auto theft. On November 24, 1982, he
was given his third death sentence..He
still faced murder trials in California
and Texas as well as the one he’d been
charged with in Arkansas. Shortly
after his arrest, an Arizona lawman
asked Harding why he’d killed some
of his victims and let others survive.
‘‘Judgment calls,’’ he’d replied
laconically as if he enjoyed playing
God. ;

He has appealed his three death
sentences on the grounds that he was
chained and shackled during the two
trials and that, therefore, the jurors
were prejudiced. The Arizona high
court upheld the convictions and
sentences but admitted that Harding
might have a point. He was scheduled
to die on December 14, 1983. It was
reset for March 28, 1984. That date
was also stayed and a third one
imposed. In the meantime, Harding
is alive and well on Death Row in the
Arizona Pen.

Firebug Became His ‘Twin Sister

(continued from page 19)

have a need to direct fires toward
human beings in close quarters, like
hotels and theaters. They will tell you,
later, they want to kill happy people.

‘‘All pyromaniacs have a strong
resentment against either a real or
imagined hurt inflicted on their
personal lives. For relief, they set fires
for sexual excitement to ease the
resentment.’’

On the humid morning of June 4,
1983, the first puzzling fire happened
at the Washington Hotel, in a: shabby
neighborhood on the fringe of Miami.
The hotel was unoccupied and was due
for razing. But at the time of the blaze,

about 10:30 a.m., six workmen were |

trapped on an upper floor. ;
Somebody locked the doorway to
the stairway where these men worked
and put a match to gasoline-soaked
papers against that door. ,
‘‘We got them out safely,’’ noted
Detective DeLeo. ‘‘But it was a fire

set to kill. And we had two witnesses
saying a nicely dressed girl'ran from
the scene when the fire engines
arrived.’’

The arson sleuths didn’t pay much
attention, at first. Then on June 6,
there was a mysterious blaze on the

stairway of the well-occupied Sheldon: ~

Hotel. Exactly 59 guests were asleep
at the approximate time of the fire,
shortly after 2 a.m., and the alert arson
police, accompanied by Fire Depart-
ment investigators, quickly established
‘unusual aspects’’ about this blaze.
Fire exit doors on various floors had
been cleverly jammed — the door first
opened, then slammed shut on ‘‘rag’
insertions’’ so they would not open
when pushed by guests trying to flee
down stairways. But if these fleeing
guests rushed through the untouched

- doors on the second floor, a smoking

(continued on next page) »
51

ieee ed

Court turns down

killer’s appeal

Stage set for Ist execution since 1963

By Pamela Manson

and Abraham Kwok
The Arizona Republic

The Arizona Supreme Court on
‘Wednesday turned down a request
. to consider commuting the death
sentence of Donald Eugene Har-

ding,- setting the stage for the™

State’s first execution in almost
three decades.

In a 3-2 decision, the -high court
declined to accept.the case of the
triple slayer, who is scheduled to
be.executed April 6.

Officials with the Arizona At-
torney’s General’s Office said the
appeal to the Supreme Court was
the last one available and that
chances are good Harding will go
to the gas chamber as scheduled.

Neither of Harding’s attorneys,
James Belanger or Denise Young,
could be réached for comment
Wednesday, but Belanger has said
his client has at least one more
appeal possibility in federal court.
‘.. Belanger has not said, however,
whether he or his associates would
file any more motions in an
attempt to block the execution.

Wednesday’s decision brought
relief to some of the victims’
relatives.

“I’m extremely. glad. I’m
looking for an absolute end to
this,” said Jeri Wise, whose hus-
band, Robert Wise, was one of two
businessmen who were hogtied,
beaten and shot at close range

~— See APPEAL, page A10

OVER

Appeal is rejected,
state’s Ist execution
in 29 years nears

|—NPPEAL, from page AI

> |
= ‘during a 1980 robbery at a Tucson
/motel. Harding also is under a death
|sentence for the murder of a man at a
a ‘Phoenix motel, but is ‘slated -to be
> | reXecuted for the Tucson slayings.
= | | Wise and other relatives said they
S| ‘have been emotionally taxed by the
— | appeal process of the case. a
oe | “He didn’t grant Bob Wise o
“S. | Marty Concannon any appeals,” Jeri
& | ‘Wise said. “And he has availed
himself of the justice system for 12
years. There are simply no words to
=| express how I feel.”
a | |
z Won 3-month reprieve
fe | Harding was to have been executed
x Jan. 3, but won a three-month re-
a prieve to give the court more time to
a consider arguments that his sentence
Le should be commuted to life. Lawyers
3 for Harding had argued that their
S client’s brain damage called for

leniency.

_ His attorneys said Harding’s brain
damage, caused at birth when his
umbilical cord wrapped around his
neck and choked him, have caused
impulses he can’t control.

But the brain damage and abuse
Harding suffered while growing up
never were addressed as mitigating
factors at his sentencing.

But prosecutors said that Harding’s

case has been thoroughly examined.

and that his appeals are groundless,
He was convicted of the murder of

- inside their Tucson motel room.

ee)

Allan Gage, who choked to death at a
Phoenix motel on Jan. 25, 1980, after
being bound and gagged. Hours later,
Wise and Concannon were found
bound, gagged and shot in the head

6 red PT TIO Soret

€ U AA

Recent rulings by the U.S. Supreme
Court and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals upholding the death
penalty and limiting appeals have
pushed Arizona closer to its first
execution in more than 29 years.

The U.S. and Arizona Supreme
Courts also have rejected claims in:
recent cases that killers deserve life
imprisonment rather than execution if
they are retarded or suffer other types
of brain damage.

100 on death row

There are 99 men and one woman
on the state’s death row. -
Prosecutors with the Arizona At-
torney General’s Office said several i
other inmates also are getting closer to

ee
f

77 Deter

( eutz)

execution. Among them is Willie Lee
Richmond, who has. been on death MR
row since 1974, longer than anyone in

the nation.

Since January 1910, when someone
started keeping track,.63 people have
been executed in Arizona. Twen-
ty-eight of the condemned prisoners
were hanged, and the rest died in the
gas chamber. :

The last person. executed ‘in’ Ari-
zona was Manuel Silvas, who died in
the gas chamber March 14, 1963.

Harding” Ss.
exdeution :
put on hold

Battle now goes
to U.S. high court

By Chris Limberis .
The Arizona Dally Star }

- Multiple murderer Don Eugene
Harding, scheduled to die in Ari-
zona’s gas chamber Monday morn-
ing, was granted a stay last night by
a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
panel. “

‘Harding, ‘43, ‘sentenced to death in
1982 for the slayings of two busi-

nessmen in a Tucson motel, is not .j
assured a permanent or lengthy re-

prieve from the execution set for
12:05..a.m.,.at., fhe state prison in
Florence.

Assistants to Attorney General

Grant Woods are seeking to have the
stay vacated by the U.S. Supreme
Court.
' A spokesman for Woods said last
night that the Attorney General’s Of-
fice “faces an uphill battle” to get
the stay overturned to allow Harding
to be executed.
- Jack Roberts, the assistant attor-
ney general who has long argued
that Harding should be executed,
anticipated the stay and prepared
briefs for the Supreme Court even
before Harding’s appeal was denied
by U.S. District Judge Alfredo C.
Marquez on Wednesday.
. Denise Young and James Be-
langer, Harding’s lawyers from the
Arizona Capital Representation
Project, could not be reached last
- night.
The three-judge panel, which or-
See HARDING, Page 2A

Arizona Daily Star

Continued: tron Page One.

dered the stay based on the sentenc-
ing portion of Harding’s case, gave
Harding’s lawyers 20 days to file
supplemental arguments and gave
the Attorney General’s Office an-
other 20 days to respond.

Judges said oral arguments may
then be scheduled. No evidence was
presented to mitigate the death.sen-
tence given by Pima County Supe-
rior Court Judge Harry Gin.

Harding put on no defense to the

killings of Martin Concannon of Tuc- °

son and Robert Wise of Mesa. He

also is under the death penalty for ©

killing Allan Gage in a Phoenix
motel the day before the Tucson
murders.

Dan Cooper, an assistant public
defender who represented Harding,
told Harding to represent himself.
That action became a key part of
Harding’s previous and current ap-
peals.

Harding’s lawyers also are argu-
ing that the brain damage he suf-
fered from birth and exacerbated by
years of abuse in and out of prisons
and other institutions, rendered him
incapable of making intelligent
choices.

The 9th Circuit panel upheld
Harding’s death sentence in. 1987
and was highly critical of the move
to have Harding represent himself.

Young said Cooper’s behavior was

Sie. “outrageous and unethical” and said. .
ae a he abandoned Harding in addition to.

—— providing grossly poor representa: ©
~~ tion leading up to the trial. Kaci
Rejecting the 1987 appeal, J udge
Robert Boochever and the other two» .

judges on the panel saw the move as_

a deliberate way for Harding to con-
tend he was denied a fair trial be-’ <i

cause of ineffective counsel.
“We cannot countenance deliber-

ate efforts to inject error,” Boo-

chever wrote in 1987.

In U.S. District Court in Tucson on -

Wednesday, Marquez. said the de-.
fense move was a “game,” and that

Harding chose the tactic and was.

now “stuck” with it.
Neither Roberts nor Woods sould

be reached last night, but spokes- .

man Steve Tseffos' said: “When

you’ve dealt with the 9th Circuit as -

long as we have this is not unan-
ticipated.

“We have said all along that this°
issue will be-decided at the Supreme.
Court. We now know that we need
five justices at the Supreme Court to

overturn the stay. We are facing an |
uphill battle.” Harding is scheduled

to be moved this weekend from his
observation cell near death row toa
holding cell in a separate building
that houses the gas chamber.
“We'll be working all the way up -
to the deadline Sunday night,”

Tseffos said. The gas chamber has -

been idle since March 1963, when
convicted murderer Manuel Silvas
was executed.

First Edition, Tucson, Friday, April 3, 1992

" ee g “ae Py =
i rad MOE SASS Ss fasta EEE FES y ee:

Al2 Sot., April 25; 1092 The Buhrratiel Californian

RE -

in. execution:

PHOENIX (AP) —- State House
members, disturbed by. agar acry
counts of the'slow death of the first...
mah executed” in he state’ S gas |.
chamber ‘in 29 years ; have: voted to ‘|’
switch from gas to lethal injection. |

The change to a method pre- -
sumed more, humane passed: the
House 41-7°and now goes to the
Senate. If approved there the mat-
ter ‘would be put before voters. in
November as an amendment to the
state .Constitution, which specifies
the use of gas. ‘

The change was. proposed early —
this:year, but didn’t gain significant
support until the April’ 6 execution
of triple murderer Donald Eugene |
Harding. in the gas chamber at the .
state prison in Florence. ===»

Harding wasn’t pronounced. dead, .
until 10 minutes after two cyanide —
pellets were dropped ‘into a bowl of»
sulfuric acid beneath his ‘chair. Wit-.
nesses described a ‘gruesome § scene .
of Harding gasping, Shuddering and
desperately making obscene ges-
tures .with both: “Strapped-< -down
hands. |

The . campaign toe change gained q
momentum this week when" neigh-
boring California had its first execu-
tion in 25 years. Robert Alton Harris ;
had. to sit strapped, \ «

chamber chair whil ye}: :
was rejected. F

Arizona, Mar nd* an
nia are the only states ee os
the sole method. of, giscclionencr
Carolina and Mississippi us
injections, © hae hs oa oe ee <
The, Arizona: amen ment was ins,
troduced by: tae Rep,’ Lela Steffey, « ;

who favors. the. death ; ‘penalty and
wontee that pane ) penal con- ce

‘

C—_

efub/;

N
0
uy
~~

[hioen,

EJ MONT] 3-177
Republic Columnist 72,

Our killing
ffers from
urderer’s

‘Fo was wrong about the death penalty. I
I was wrong when I said that if we kill

killers like Donald Eugene Harding,
then we're no different from them.

That’s not true.

I’ve learned this after having followed the
long and expensive effort our state —
meaning us — has made to kill Harding.
We've been at it for years. We're still at it.
Someday soon, we may succeed, and
Harding will become the first person to die
in Arizona's gas chamber in nearly 30 years.

Donald Harding never took that long to
plan a killing. His murders were brutal and
chaotic. He'll be in prison his whole life for
them, however long.that may be. That’s one
of the many differences between us and
Harding.

. «If we kill him, none of us will go to jail.

Another way we're different is that
Harding has never been able to afford an
attorney. We can. In fact, we've spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to
get Harding killed. Harding's
court-appointed lawyer, on the other hand,
actually advised Harding to defend himself,
which gocs a long way toward explaining
why Harding is on death row. It also leads
into another way we differ.

Harding is brain-damaged. We're not. At
least, not medically speaking.

Three prominent doctors, including one
who testified against Harding at his trial 11
years ago, say he suffers from an organic
brain disorder that “substantially impaired
his ability to conform his conduct to the
requirements of the law.” Which brings up
another difference between Harding and us.

Be ©

We must like killing

There's no evidence to Suggest that
Harding actually enjoyed killing.

We do. We must.

There's no other explanation for having
Spent so much of our time and moncy
trying to kill Harding and the other inmates
on Arizona’s death row.

For example, our reason for wanting to
kill Harding can't be to keep us safe. We're
safe from him now.

And the reason for killing him can’t be to
Save taxpayers’ money. We’ve probably
Spent more money trying to put Harding in
the gas chamber than we would have spent
letting him live out his life in prison.

And we're not trying to kill Harding out
of any “eye for an eye” sense of justice. We
don’t sentence killers equally. We choose to
kill only some of them.

* Which leaves us with only one
explanation for why we want to kill
Harding. Or anybody else, for that matter.
We like it.

Maybe killing is an acquired taste, like
eating raw fish. Arizona Attorney General
Grant Woods, the most vocal proponent of
killing Harding, got a taste for killing after
he entered politics.

- Asa public defender for a man named
Murray Hooper, Woods argued against the
death penalty, saying his client was
innocent. Now, Woods is eager to kill and
even says that Hooper was guilty and
deserves to dic. Proving that even as a
defense attorney, Woods was a good
prosecutor,

A deaf ear to hearings

"As for Harding, Woods doesn’t want a
judge to hear any new evidence that might
get Harding's sentence reduced to life in
prison. He’s been trying to keep the state
Supreme Court from granting such a
hearing and he won his point Wednesday.
The attorney general recently told a
Republic reporter, “There is overwhelming
Support for the death penalty.”

Meaning, I guess, that we should kill
Harding, no matter what.

"None of Harding's previous attorneys
explored the possibility that he was
brain-damaged. That didn’t happen until his
case was examined by the Arizona Capital
Representation Project. Woods doesn’t
want a judge to hear any of that, however.
He just wants Harding dead.

This desire to kill was once explained by
psychiatrist Karl Menninger, who said,
“The great sin by which we are all tempted
is the wish to hurt others.” How we act on
that temptation, by the Way, points out

+ another important difference between
Donald Harding and us.

Harding couldn't resist the temptation to
hurt others, and he acted on it, becoming a
lone killer. We can’t resist the temptation,

_ either. But we act on it as a group.

witen eo TES eee te ene 8 AER em tt beta 8 18 de ss eee sene te

wasereo sy --

pe A

14A—Reno Gazette-Journal

THE WEST

Court clears way for

execution in Arizona

PHOENIX — The U.S. Supreme Court
on Saturday lifted a stay that had blocked the
scheduled execution of a triple murderer, which
would be Arizona’s first execution in 29 years,
The Arizona Board of Pardons and Paroles will
hold a clemency hearing today for Donald
Eugene Harding, 43. The hearing is the last step
before he could be executed, said Assistant
Attorney General Jack Roberts. After the
hearing, required by state law, the board could
recommend a reprieve or that his sentence be
commuted to life in prison, or it could do
nothing. The execution is set for Monday.

Sunday, April 5, 1992

Arizona Conducts First Execution in 29 Years}

Snteian t —

| -~ al, “Ke
\—+.£P» f 4) v-<

@. #~ oa Dic Susy -TG1b suT Sin-

outan individual for investigation
first place.

, “Under the test the Court applied to-|

vernment need not show,

Eines ion before starting an eens
Rather, predisposition wou

be edoquately established after the

fact if a suspect, unlike Mr. Jacobson,

“promptly availed himself” of an op-

unity presented by Government

agents to commit a crime.

FLORENCE, Ariz., April 6 (AP) —
Arizona conducted its first execution in
29 years today, putting to death a triple |
murderer who made obscene gestures |
while he was strapped in the gas cham-

r.)

- The ae Donald Eugene Har-
ding, 43 years old, was executed just
after midnight after a flurry of ap-'
peals. He was ced dead 104°
minutes after cyanide pellets were

‘dropped into a bowl of sulfuric acid

beneath his chair to release the gas. |
As he waited, Mr. Harding gestured

as if to urge the executioner to get |.
started.*At least twice, once while in |}
the throes of death, Mr. Harding ex- ||:
tended his middle finger. At the time, ;

he had straps across his forearms.
Mr. Harding wag sentenced to die for |
the 1980 murders af two businessmen,
Robert Wise of M Martin Con-
cannon of Tucsen,*Wifo were robbed, .
hogtied, beaten and shot in a Tucson -
hotel in 1980.
He was also convicted of killing a
man in similar fashion a day earlier in

@ Phoenix motel and was linked to at
least three other slayings, one in Ar-

kansas and two in California.

It. was the first execution in Arizona .
since 1963,.when Manuel Silvas died in .
the gas chamber for fatally shooting
his estranged pregnant girlfriend.

Mr. Harding became the 168th per-
son put to death since the United States
Supreme Court allowed states to re-

sume use of capital punishment in 1976.

Since then, 36 states have put the ,
déath penalty back in the books, and
Arizona became the 19th state to carry

it out. Delaware conducted its first
execution in nearly 46 rs on March
14, when Steven Brian Pennell was put
to death. On April 21, Robert Alton
Harris is scheduled to die for the 1978
murder of two teen-agers in Califor-
nia’s first execution in 25 years.

Late Sunday, the Arizona Board of
Pardons and Paroles refused to recom-
mend that Gov. Fife Symington grant
‘Mr. Harding a reprieve or commute his

sentence to life in prison.
Late-hour appeals were rejected in

Federal judge in Tucson, a Federal
appeals court and the United States
‘Supreme Court.

Defense lawyers had told the parole
board that Mr. Harding suffered brain
damage at birth that prevented him’
from restraining violent impulses.

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turn by the state Supreme Court, aJ’

_—

HAWKINS, Edwin W., wh, hanged Tucson, AZ on August 14, 1908

* country. Yet here was
‘as a direct challenge to
ement officers. These
ough the head of Chief
his evening meal. ‘The
‘oorbell interrupted his

the door, recognized his
prietor of a restaurant
rber ushered his guest
m, offered him a cup of

uid the visitor, “J just
you some information,
the undertaker’s.”
at him hopefully, “You
1 is?” :
it shook his head, “I
he said, “but I can
The dead man and
were in my place yes-
they’d been drinking

seen either of them

zed. “It seems to me
ind town but I don’t

de the second man?

I didn’t pay much
'd say he was a tall,
‘orties, I’m afraid [I
ed than that.” Be.
escription he could
He left the house
to his supper.

Was breaking,
Sheriff Fred Lynch
Ss. All night he had
n and again he had
ot the oddly dressed
East Allen Street

recurring to the
‘ the man had been
as incredible that
1to the bitter cold,
its minus his shoes
at last conjecture
that the man had
1¢ had been found.
to believe, under
the body had been
Street steps after
ommitted.
ne of thought for
aly he sat upright
had occurred to
at this moment,
e than a hunch.

of bed, quickly
self. He confined
© cup of coffee.
vas at the house
2n found almost
rs ago.

nt of the house
' them had laid
ce? It appeared
t them thought
> of the others.
that it had most
t the neighbors.
ige 50]

STARTLING

J. VICTOR BATE

FROSTY desert moon bathed

the Old Pueblo in a sparkling

nocturnal brilliance that ri-
valed the clear light of day. With the
exception of a few reluctant individuals
lingering in saloons or along the streets,
Tucson, Ariz., was asleep. A still, peace-
ful calm reigned over the sprawled ex-
panse of the city’s low ’dobe rooftops. It
was three days before Christmas, a few
minutes past midnight, Sunday morning,
December 22,

Suddenly the tranquil silence was shat-
tered by a sharp blast of gunfire. Then ,
a second shot and a third rang out. The
dull thud of running feet echoed down
Alameda Street, growing fainter in the
distance,

Seconds later Tucson was still again,
awaiting the melodious call to early morn-
ing worship, :

Less than half an hour later R. E.
Plummer, passenger brakeman for the
Southern Pacific Railroad, strode briskly
along Alameda Street toward the depot,
where he was scheduled to begin an early
run. He stopped short, peering into the
shadows of the hedge gate before the
Yates home, one of a scattered row of
dwellings. The sound he had heard had
come from a human throat, he was cer-
tain, uttered by a man in extreme agony.

Slumped upon the hard baked earth,
just inside the gate and partly across the
walk to the front door, he saw the inert
figure of a man. As he watched, spell-
bound for an instant, the victim groaned,
attempted to raise himself on an elbow.
For a bare second a paltid, blood-smeared
face, contorted in anguish, was held in
the moon’s full glow, then fell with a
choking gasp back into the shadows.

A swift look around revealed no other
presence. Plummer spoke to the suffering
one but received no answer. He shook
him gently, spoke again, but the only re-
ply was a tortured moan. The veteran
railroad man knew there was but one
thing to do—notify the authorities and
summon aid for the wounded man. Beyond
that he was powerless to help the sufferer.

Plummer strode up the steps and
rapped on the door in front of him, briefly
apprised the startled residents of his dis-
covery, and used their telephone to pass
the word on to the police station. Then
he hurried on to catch his train.

DETECTIVE

hee

Within a few minutes a patrol wagon
bearing Officer James Sullivan pulled up
in front of the home on Alameda Street.
The policeman was quickly joined out
front by the Yates family and by several
near neighbors. The victim was identi-
fied as Albert Leonhardt, a young carpen-
ter from Columbus, Ohio, who roomed in
the Yates home.

Most of those assembled said they had
been awakened by the sound of shots some
time before. But hearing no further dis-
turbance, none had seen fit to investigate
beyond a glance out the window, which
had revealed nothing’,

Sullivan saw that the matter of first
importance was getting the victim to
medical aid, possibly reviving him suffi-
ciently to obtain a statement which might
disclose details of the attack. With the

MITES Ine HA ND Srey

" RDP pr oy KR!

ror
s

Soh of

i
REE

aid of neighbors, he made the stricken
man as comfortable as possible and hur-
ried with him to the police station. There
he summoned a physician, and while
awaiting the latter’s arrival he and fel-
low officers tried vainly to coax words
from Leonhardt’s lips.

Before medical attention could reach
him, the young fellow died. The doctor,
arriving a few minutes later, made a swift
appraisal of the fatal injuries. Shortly
he stood up, faced the officers grimly.

“You’ve got a murder case on your
hands. This man was shot twice, once
in the abdomen and once near the brain.
Either shot was enough to be fatal.”

He expressed as his opinion that the
shots had been fired from a small caliber
weapon, probably a .32. An immediate
post-mortem was decided upon, in the

STARTLING DETECTIVE, August, 1944

hope of retrieving one or both of the

slugs as a basis of further judging the -

type weapon from which they were fired,

A search of the victim’s pockets re-
vealed a valuable gold watch, $1.40, and
numerous masculine incidentals,

Sullivan quickly notified his chief, City
Marshal Joseph S. Hopley, and, at his
suggestion, he placed another call to
Sheriff Nabor Pacheco. The - latter
brought his undersheriff and chief inves-
tigator, Henry Meyer, and together the
four officers hurried back to the scene of
the crime.

O NE of the first things they noted was
a trail of blood indicating that the

victim had been shot nearly a half block
away and had “rege to drag himself
almost to the door of his rooming house
before losing consciousness. As they be-
gan a careful search of the ground they
were confronted by a youth and a girl
who emerged from a near-by hotise.

“We heard the shots and saw some
people running,” the young man began.
“We thought we should tell you about
Sti?

“That’s good,” said Pacheco. “Did you
recognize them—how many were there ?”

The youth held the hand of the girl,
who stood nervously behind him; “We
didn’t recognize them,” he replied. “We
were standing on Dora’s porch saying
good night and we heard some rough
words as if somebody were Starting an
argument. But it was quite a distance
away, over behind these bushes here, and
we couldn’t see anything. Then we heard
three quick shots and two people started
to run. They went down toward Court
Street and disappeared—”

“We were too frightened to look out
and see what had happened,” the girl ex-

plained. “We went into the house and: I
told my parents. We were still talking
and wondering about it when we saw the
police wagon drive up the first time at
the Yates house.”

Pacheco nodded impatiently, turned
back to the young man..““What about the
two you saw running? Could you de-
scribe them ?”

The youth shook his head. “Not very
well. They ran quite fast and the moon
was shining on the other side of them.
But one was a woman—”

“Now wait, John,” the git! interrupted.
“You know what we thought—one of
them was dressed like a woman, but re-
pain her voice and the way she
ran?”

The youth nodded thoughtfully, “That's
right. We both thought it was strange,
Sheriff, the way she hoisted her dresses
and ran just like a man. She started

running before the last shot was fired and

she turned back and called something to
the other one. And her voice was deep
and coarse |”

“Well, that’s something,” Hopley noted
quickly, “I’ll get a couple of my men to
look around town for a pair like that
pronto. No matter if one of thetn was a
man in women’s clothing, or a woman
with a man’s voice and manner, some-
body may have noticed them around,”

“While you're at it,” Pacheco sug-
gested, “have your. men inquire if young
Leonhardt was seen anywhere, maybe
with this same couple, around midnight.”

Suddenly Meyer, who had been search-
ing with a lantern along the walk in the
direction in which the pair had taken
flight, called out: “Here's something,
Maybe it has nothing to do with the shoot.
ing at all, but it hasn’t beet here long—
there’s no dust collected on it.”

It was a pad of transfers such as were

issued by conductors on the Tucson Street
Railway. A further search of the area
revealed nothing else of apparent sig-
nificance,

“We'll have to get some of the street
car people out of bed,” Pacheco decided,
“and make a check on those transfers,
At least the numbers ought to tell what
conductor they were issued to—”

Meyer departed at once to attend to.

that detail and Pacheco returned to the
Yates home. An examination of the dead
youth’s room and effects disclosed noth-
ing to lend a clue to his untimely demise.
Nothing among his correspondence even
remotely suggested a threat or difficulty
with anyone which might have resulted
in murder. Nor could the people of the
house recall that the youth had ever men-
tioned an enemy, or any reason to fear
for his life,

THEY recalled, however, that Leon-
hardt had a particular friend B. W.
Wagner, who had accompanied him from
Ohio and with whom he spent much of
his time. Only recently, they explained,
Wagner had taken a room on the other
side of town, near his work in a small
machine shop. Leonhardt had remained
because he had obtained a job as a car-
penter on the new Heidel Hotel construc-
tion, where he was to have begun work
onday morning,
agner was readily located in his
rooming house. He was stunned at the
word of his friend’s brutal slaying,
“Why,” he gasped, “I was with Al in
the Cactus Saloon until nearly eleven
o’clock. He was still there playing cards
a I left to catch the street car for
ome.”

He could think of no enemies who

might have sought his friend’s life, nor
. STARTLING

of any tro
the crime.
“Do y
money |
Pacheco
The you
sure, altho
ten dollars
or so in a
playing cz
If this \
robbery m
seemed sti
overlook :
worth abc
“Did yc
whom yot
robbery—
hanging <
unusual ?’
Young
then shoo
that I did
body in th
have bee:
fellows w
He nan
on duty ¢
man well
immediat:
too, out o
“Sure |
awakened
coming 1:
Liked to
Pretty lu
“Then
money. v
“How'd |

DETEC

riar was chief
es. He’s now
nuty. (left)

imlet near

‘ation over
ir of shoes
Hadley had
st, a mer-
swore out a
y had been
ad later se-
‘eased and
ed his pres-
1 Ida Light-
ot make his
olice head-
hen that he

The ar-

.en issued.

igh in the
decided to
e had been
he landlady
several days

‘orgia,” the
vhere.”

i about the
that Hadley;
‘er, after ani
f Hadley, I
where Ida

‘ia with her
s ago.”
met by an

“ve got
fore Hadley

FROM AUTHENTIC POLICE RECORDS

First Gun-Girls

SHERIFF GILES. His kindness brought
him death—and from his own gun!

went to Georgia, he came into my store with his
wife and bought over a hundred dollars worth
of clothing. He charged them saying he would
be back later to pay.’

“You positive that ne was going to Georgia?”
I demanded.

“Well, no,” replied the merchant, “but since
the papers said something about Hadley being
arrested in Kansas City, I wanted to be sure
that I could get my money back.”

I thanked the man and went on. By this time
I began to suspect a joker in the woodpile. I
hadn’t taken a dozen steps when I met another
merchant. He, too, related the same experience
that the first had told me.

There was only one way in which to
straighten out the entire affair. I went to see
Judge R. L. Rodgers whose offices were in the
Alexander Building. If Hadley’s father was in
Georgia, then Judge Rogers would know all
about it, since he had been the boy’s guardian
in a semi-legal manner.

I stated my case to the Judge and he nodded
slowly.

“Yes, Paul came to me the other day and
said that he was going to visit his foster father
in Atlanta, Georgia, Mr. Friar,” he said. ‘Paul
told me that he had had the sanction of the
police department to do so. I imagine that
you’re checking up on the slaying of Sheriff
Giles.”

“Yes,” I said. “Since the Kansas City police in-
formed me that the sheriff was returning a man by the
name of H. O. Kendrick, I felt there was some mistake.”

The Judge leaned forward. In his hand he held a
letter.

“Then Hadley must be the one you are looking for,”
he said. “You see, Paul’s foster father’s name is Ken-
drick. The boy must have been using his adopted name.
There’s only one way to clear this up. Contact the

HOMESTEAD! This is the cozy, old home of the late Sheriff Jake Giles.

Atlanta. police. They’ll know if he’s in town.”

I did just that. An hour later I received a message
from them stating that Paul Hadley had not arrived
in the southern city. Then Kendrick and Hadley were
one and the same. But where did Ida Lightfoot come
in? She had not been arrested in the mid-western city
else the police would have notified us of the fact. Also,
Sheriff Giles would not have taken the girl with him in
returning his prisoner, for he was a man who never
infringed upon regulations.

I immediately made arrangements to go to Muskogee,
Oklahoma, to return the body of Sheriff Giles. I left
early the next morning with one of the sheriff’s
brothers. We stopped at Dennisson, Texas, long enough
to pick up Lee Simmons, a close friend of Sheriff Giles
and later head of the Texas prison system.

Marshal Frank Jones was at the Southern Pacific
Depot to meet me.

“Did you catch them yet?” I asked eagerly as we
shook hands. .

“Not yet,” replied Marshal Jones. “I started a posse
about half an hour after the slaying, but we lost them
somewhere. It’s your man, Hadley, all right. Some of
the train passengers identified him and the woman.
Come over and take a look at the luggage we took off
the train.”

We went over to his office. There were several ex-
pensive pieces of leather goods standing in one corner.
Upon two of the bags were stamped gold initials,
P, V. H. All of them were packed with filmy clothing
which undoubtedly had been purchased from the mer-
chants in Beaumont.

“Must be about five hundred dollars worth of clothing
in these bags,” said Jones.

“Tt didn’t belong to him,” (Continued on page A8)

‘chased
skipped

les who
morous
of the
levoted
her and
d been
P’s wife
iy sea-

srritory
h_ fine-
success.

raided
the wo-
he net.
aty had
lookout
ir sher-
is char-

led, the
an two
il roads
e Union
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kept a
» posts.
iley and
d in. El
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mtinued
lay and
Georgia,
ounding
he look-

p came
lan re-
ife had
iad at-
itile es-
that the
uld not
a short

the flee-
t all of
ry. Still,

It was
iced the

man and
vy on we
ad other
in and
tah.”
i by the
the be-
ed up at
1 woman
“Tt was
r broken
is. Then

r living
cotah, had
search of
hastily at

tarted to,

ted some
om view.
od that it
He was
he was

startled by a voice. He looked up.
Around the side of the stack came a
young man with a disarming grin. He
pointed down to the prone figure and
whispered:

“My wife. I saw you coming across
the field and decided to warn you not
to awaken her. We eloped from her
father’s home.and have been trying
to get to Texas where I live.”

“Why didn’t you take the train?”
demanded Ennis. “That .would be
much easier than walking. such a
distance.”

Ennis had noticed that the woman’s
shoes had been worn to shreds. Her
feet had been bleeding.

“We don’t have any money,” con-
fessed the man. “Maybe you can help
us out with a bite to eat.”

“Sure,” answered Ennis. “Wake her
up and come along to the house.

uess the wife can fix up something.”

Mrs. Ennis could and did help them.
Ten minutes later, the pair was sit-
ting at the table, gulping down veg
food rapidly. Between, mouth uls,
the two contributed their story. |

“We've got to get out of'here in a

hurry,” said the man. “My wife’s ©

father is most likely searching for us.
We don’t want to be caught. Maybe

you can: give us a ride to some rail- ~

road depot, Mr. Ennis.”

- “Tf ean take you over to Checotah,”
offered Ennis. “There ought to be a
train coming through there late this
afternoon.” '

“Not a chance,” said the man. “Her
father would be laying for us there.
We've got to get a train. somewhere
else and on a line other than the
Union Pacific.” Boss

Ennis looked at his wife. He shook
his head slowly. cars

“What did you say your name
was?” he demanded.

“Didn’t say,” answered the man,
“but it happens to be Henry Milton.
I’m from Houston, Texas.”.

“Well, I might be able to help you
out later in the day,” ‘said Ennis
finally,” but I’ve got to get into Che-
cotah with a load of corn. If you
want to wait until I come back we'll
see what can be done.”

During all this time, the girl had
remained silent, wolfing down her
food. Often, she cast shy glances
about her and at her new husband.
Mrs. Ennis’ heart warmed to the girl.
She gave the young woman a pair of
shoes to replace the tattered ones she
wore.

The pair agreed to wait until Ennis
returned from his trip. It was while
he was in Checotah that farmer Ennis
contacted Sheriff McCune of Mclin-
tosh county. ‘

“About that man and woman that.

shot Sheriff Giles,” he said. “I found
a pair sleeping in one of my haystacks
this morning and they acted pretty
suspicious. The man gave me a ha

story of having slope? with his girl.
He also told me that he was from
Texas. He offered me twenty-five
dollars if I would take him to some
railroad station so they could catch a
train. That’s what made me _sus-
picious. He said that they had just
enough money for train fare—but he
ups and offers me twenty-five for the

trip.”

Fire they still at your house?” de-
manded Sheriff McCune. '

“Sure,” replied Ennis. “Said they
were going to wait until I returned.”

With several of his deputies, Sher-
iff McCune hurried out to the Ennis
farm—only to discover that the pair
had already left. Mrs. Ennis stated

that her two boys had hitched a team

to the carriage and had taken the

couple westward.

Sheriff McCune and his men gal-
loped down the road, following the
carriage tracks. About six miles dis-
tant, the sheriff halted his men.

“They’re either heading for Porum
—or this is another trick to sidetrack
us,” he said.
as we go along.”

“Keep a sharp lookout -

“Wait a minute, Sheriff,” cried a -

depity. “There comes a carriage
now.” :

‘The men rode ahead and stopped
the vehicle. On the front seat were
the two Ennis boys. They stared at
the sheriff in wide-eyed wonder.

“You the boys who took that man
and woman to Porum?” he demanded.
“Come on, speak up!”

“Yes, sir,” answered one of the
youths. “But we didn’t take them all
the way to town. We got suspicious;
we didn’t want to get into any trou-
ble, We left them off about two miles
this side of Porum, and they went on
afoot.” st bee

The boys were allowed to continue

their homeward journey while the.

sheriff and his men went on to Porum.

A thorough search of the town failed.

to produce the couple. The ticket
agent at the Porum depot denied that
anyone had purchased tickets for
destinations out of the state. Sheriff
McCune became suspicious.

“Those boys didn’t tell us the
truth,” he said. “I’ll bet they were
bribed to keep their mouths shut.
ba ho question them again.” —

/Upon being re-questioned, the boys
Ring 7

It was near this little town of Porum, Okla., Y

that the Hadleys were captured as they tried
to reach the Midland Valley Railroad.

professed innocence. | Finally the
sheriff threatened them with prison
if they didn’t tell the truth. This
loosened their tongues rapidly.

“We took them to Hiram Moun-
tain’s house,” sobbed one of the boys.
“The man gave us twenty-five dol-
Jars. He told us that if we let any-
cone know where they were, he would
kill us. The woman stuck a gun in

my stomach to show they meant what.

they said.” ‘

Satisfied that the boys were telling
the truth, Sheriff McCune hurried to
the’ Mountain home. At his-hail, Hi-
ram Moutain came to the door.

“What do you want, Sheriff?” he
called. :

“Bring out that couple you're
hiding and be quick about it,” ordered
Sheriff McCune. “They’re wanted for
killing a peace officer.”

“I ain’t got anyone here except the
old lady,” whined Mountain.

“Bring ’em out or we'll fill you and
everyone else in that house full of
lead!’* roared the sheriff.

There was a sudden commotion
from within. ;

Then a woman stepped out into the
sunlight. Hands above her head, she

-FROM AUTHENTIC POLICE RECORDS’.

moved with supple grace. Her lus-
trous black hair fell from her shoul-
ders in waves. Her dress was in tat-
ters but she still made an appealing
picture. There was a .45 calibre re-
volver stuck in her belt.

Behind her came a handsome
young man. It was Paul Hadley. A
mirthless smile played about the cor-
ners of the girl’s lips as she came
abreast of Sheriff McCune.

“Hello, rube!” she said. “What a
swell law you are. Took you all this
time to catch up with us?” ‘

The sheriff smiled back grimly as
he relieved her of the gun and dis-
armed the man. Then they were taken

‘back to Checotah to await transpor-

—

- I came back,

, charged.

-wasn’t anythin

tation to Eufaula, county seat of Mc-
Intosh county, where they would be
brought to trial. As the pair was be-
ing rushed into the jail at gun point,
a photographer stepped up. ok

‘Just a minute, please!” he said.and
leveled his camera.

An oath escaped the girl’s lips. She
swung her manacled hands in a quick
sweep. There was ‘a crash as. the
shattered camera. struck the ground. -
. “We don’t want our pictures taken,” .
gritted. “Don’t try it a second

ime.” j x

UFR being questioned, both ad-
mitted their identities and their
part in the slaying of Sheriff Jake
Giles. ‘ Par:

Ida Hadley persisted in treating the
entire situation lightly. She joked
constantly’ as she was being ques-
tioned. It was at this point that the
officers were able to view at close —
range one of the most cold blooded
slayers they’ had ever encountered. °:
Accustomed to handling toughened *,,
killers, the girl was something new |
to them. "

“Sure, I killed Sheriff Giles,” she
said time and again. “I went out to
the ladies lounge to see that my gun
was working bi yn It was. When

put the muzzle against
him and pulled rag trigger.
0 it.’

“Did you kill him with his own
gun?” asked Sheriff McCune.

“I should say not!” replied Ida
Hadley. “I used my father’s gun. He’s
sick in Beaumont right now.” - ’

The guns taken from the pair had
been examined. It.was found that
Hadley’s pistol had not been dis-:
da’s had been fired twice.
Thus, it was pointed out that the irl
had been the actual slayer, a fact
she did not deny. More than. once
Paul Fladiny ‘pleeie® with her .to. re-
main silent. She took no heed of this.

“f did it all for you, Paul,” she
said. “I just couldn’t bear to think
of you being in prison. I thought this
was the best way out, but it wasn’t
such a good idea, was it?” :

The pair was placed in separate
cells while awaiting trial. Great in-
terest was evinced in them, and each
day brought a new yc of persons °
who talked with Ida Hadley. She
often created a minor sensation with
her “water cure,” as. she called’ it.
When some person or persons came to .
talk to her and she tired of their
convérsation, Ida merely dashed wa-
ter upon the visitors until they re-
treated. Still this did not discourage
the two daughters of a prominent
Oklahoma family from going into her
cell: to speak with her. '

“Are you very comfortable here?”
asked one. .

“Pm quite comfortable,” answered
Ida. “Everything is just fine and ’'m

here

Police Commissioner Russell de-
tailed a special force of fifty officers
to guard the few remaining State’s
witnesses. They were brought into
court under heavy guard, and were,
likewise, guarded in their homes.

Every unknown —- entering the
court was searched for weapons.

Every precaution was taken to guard
against violence. ‘
Nevertheless, several witnesses,

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES

In March of the following year,
after all their appeals had failed, the
convicted kidnappers, who had been
caught and brought to justice by good
detective work, were_lodged in the
State Penitentiary at Joliet. ‘

That closed ‘the final chapter in this
unique case. ; stag

But recently an epilogue was writ-
ten. Petitti filed a petition for parole.

The writer of this article communi-

This photo, taken in 1933, shows Billy Ranieri, his father and his sister as they reviewed the’

infamous kidnaping case with a court attache in Chicago.

while on the stand, suddenly quailed
and became mute. From somewhere
in the crowded courtroom some satel-
lite of the Black Hand had given them
the terrifying death sign.

During the trial, which was one of
the most sensational ever held in
Chicago’s Criminal Court, Petitti cre-
ated a flurry of excitement by threat-
ening to kill a witness who was wait-
ing to take the stand against him.

And when Billy Ranieri and his
father stepped to the stand and “put
the finger” on him and Cappellano, he
sank down in his rolls of fat and eyed
them balefully.

His look said clearly enough: “You
will suffer for this!” .

Father and'son left the courtroom
surrounded by detectives who es-
corted them home and stood guard at
the house.

For many months thereafter, it was
necessary to safeguard the Ranieri
family from the vengeance of the
Mafia.

Yet, despite all Mafia threats, and
all its insidious power—and thanks to
the thorough work of the Chicago
‘Police Department—the State pre-
sented to the jury an ironclad case
against Petitti and Cappellano. The
jury found both guilty. i
_ Petitti sighed audibly with relief
when his punishment was fixed at
twenty-five years. Evidently he had
feared he would end up in-the electric
chair.

The same Reiton sentence was given
to the elder Cappellano, who muttered
in protest.

appellano’s son was acquitted.

The verdict was returned three days

before Christmas—December 22, 1928.

cated with Ellis E. Cox, secretary of
the Illinois State Division of Pardons
and Paroles, and asked for the Board’s
decision on the matter.

The reply of Secretary Cox was

- emphatic and to the point:

“At a meeting of the Parole
Board, the following order was
entered in the case of Angelo
Petitti, No. 3628-E, Joliet: Appli-
cation for definite sentence parole
denied.”

(Editor’s Note: In the late summer
of 1939, the campus of St. Viator’s
College at Bourbonnais, which figures
importantly in the foregoing story,
appropriately became the site for the
newly-founded Military Institute of
Criminology. >

August 3, Oscar Carlstrom, former
attorney general of Illinois, announced
that Lieutenant Colonel Calvin God-
dard, founder of the Scientific Crime
Detection Laboratory of Northwest-
ern University, Chicago, had accepted
the deanship of the new institute.

THE END

DON'T FAIL TO GET
YOUR COPY OF
COMPLETE DETECTIVE
CASES
JULY ISSUE ON
SALE MAY 15—15¢

‘I said bitterly. “Hadley purchased

this material just before he skipped
out of the state.”

I was thinking of Sheriff Giles who
would ‘no longer tell his humorous
stories to large gatherings; of the
nine children who had been devoted
to their father; of an aged mother and
father whose sheriff son had been
their only support. Tlie sheriff’s wife
had died the previous holiday sea-
son. cae

LL of the surrounding territory

» had been ‘searched with fine-
tooth-comb precision without success,
All likely hideouts had been raided
in the hopes that Hadley and the wo-
man would be. caught in the net.
Ranchers throughout the county had
been informed to be on the lookout
for the pair, and to notify their sher-
iff if they noted any suspicious char-
acters about,

The search had now redoubled, the
posse having added more than two
dozen Muskogee citizens. All roads
were blocked. All trains of the Union
Pacific were searched for miles along
the way. Railroad detectives kept a
close watch at their respective posts.

Word was received that Hadley and
the woman had been sighted in El
Reno, Oklahoma, but this turned out
to be false. The rumors continued
to pour in throughout the day and
night.. The authorities in Georgia,
Alabama, Louisiana.and surrounding
states were warned to be on the look-
out for -the pair.

In far off Minneapolis, a tip came
through that a man and woman re-
sembling Hadley and his wife had
been arrested when they had at-
tempted to hold up a mercantile es-
tablishment. Again we knew that the
tip was false, for Hadley could not
have traveled so far in such a short
time.

By this time, the search for the flee-
ing pair had covered almost all of
the western part of the country. Still,
Hadley could not be found. It was
Marshal Frank Jones that voiced the
suspicion first.

“Some one is hiding that man and
woman,” he said. “From now on we
‘search every house, barn and other
likely place of concealment in and
around Muskogee and Checotah.”

Once again the posse, led by the
doughty marshal, started at the be-
ginning. The trail was picked up at
the spot where the man and woman
had alighted from the train. It was
followed through fences, over broken
pasturage and across streams. Then
the trail was lost again.

Charles Ennis, a farmer livin
about ten miles west of Checotah, ha
gone out to a haystack in search of
some livestock. He glanced ge at
the mound of hay, then started to
turn away when he sighted some
clothing partially hidden from view.
Closer investigation disclosed that it
was the body of'a woman. He was
about to go closer when he was

startled by a
Around the si:
young man wilt
pointed down 1
whispered:
“My wife. I

‘the field and d

to awaken her
father’s home
to get to Texas

“Why didn’t
demanded En:
much easier
distance.”

Ennis had nc
shoes had beer
feet had been |

“We don’t h
fessed the man
us out with

“Sure,” aniw
up and come
Guess the wife

Mrs. Ennis cx
Ten minutes 1:
ting at the tak
food rapidly.
the two contril

“We've got t
hurry,” said
father is most
We don’t wan!
you can give 1
road depot, Mr

“IT can take »
offered Ennis.
train coming t
afternoon.”

“Not a chan
father would |
We've got to :
else and on :;
Union Pacific.”

Ennis looked
his head slow]:

“What did
was?” he deme
- “Didn’t say,’
“but it happen
I’m from Hous

“Well, I mig!
out later in
finally,” but I’.
cotah with a
want to wait u
see what can b

During all t
remained siler
food. Often,
about her and
Mrs. Ennis’ he:
She gave the 5
shoes to replac
wore.

The pair agri
returned from
he was in Chec
contacted Sher
tosh county.

“About that
shot Sheriff Gi
a pair sleeping
this morning <
suspicious. The
story of havin:
He also told r
Texas.
dollars if I wo
railroad station
train. That’s
picious. He sa
enough money
ups and offers 1

trip.”

“Are they sti
manded Sherif!

“Sure,” repli:
were going to \

With several
iff McCune hu:
farm—only to
had already le

He of

treated quite well.”

When the two girls began to ply
her with more questions, Ida merely
walked over to the water basin and
returned to dash it in their faces.
With startled cries, they withdrew in
confusion.

The capture of the pair was a ma-
jor sensation, for up to that time, no
woman had undertaken such drastic
measures to deliver a husband from
the law. And the newspapers began
to tout the woman as being a “gun
moll,” a name which both pleased
and angered Ida Hadley.

As. vain as she was, Ida continued
to take great care of her personal ap-
pearance. When she wanted a: comb
or hair brush, it was brought to her
promptly. Once she handed her jailor
twenty dollars with the instructions
to bring her back some hose and
shoes.

“IT don’t want anything cheap,” she
warned. “Get me a ten dollar pair
and. the “best silk stockings you can
find. I’m. going to see Paul tonight,
and I want to look my best.”

Even with the death penalty star-
ing her in the face, Ida still thought
of Paul. Sheriff McCune: permitted
her to speak with her husband once

‘ina while through the bars of his

cell while a heavy guard was placed
about the pair.

Meanwhile, evidence was. bein
gathered to present at the time o
the trial. C. C. Hulquist, one of the
passengers on the train where Sher-
iff Giles had met death, stated that
he had heard a. muffled explosion
when the train had been about ten
minutes out of Muskogee and near

the McIntosh county line. The train ‘

crew also verified that the first signal
was given as they were crossing the
boundary line near’ Checotah. The
prosecution wanted to be positive of
this location, since Muskogee is in
one county and Checotah in another.
Should: the case be brought up in
another county, it might result in
a hung jury.

Shortly: afterwards, Ida and Paul
Hadley both pleaded guilty to the
slaying of Sheriff Giles. Neither of
— seemed to regret the terrible
act. : ,

“I suppose you two’ realize what
will happen now,” said Sheriff Mc-
Cune. “It looks as though you'll both
go to the gallows.”

“I guess we will,” murmured Had-
ley. “If I had my choice, I would
take the gallows rather than life in
prison.”

- “Not me,” cried Ida, “I’m not go-
ing to take a rap on this. Me for the
wide open spaces.”

For several days after that short

interview, Ida Hadley was strangely
silent. And then one night she called
her jailor over and whispered some-
thing in his ear. He looked down the
long corridor. Then he bént and
opened the cell door.

Silently, she sped over to her hus-
band’s cell. They kissed several
times. . :

“Be a good boy, Paul,” she whis-
pered. “I’m crashing out of here as
soon as that jailor turns his back
enough. for me to get past him.”

“He might shoot you,” said Paul.

“He hasn’t got a n,” answered
Ida triumphantly. “I noticed that
first.”

She returned to her cell, smiling
broadly at the jailor. He smiled in
return and stepped behind her, in-
tent on closing the door as_ she
walked in.

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES

But Ida had other plans. She spun
about suddenly and dashed for the
outer cell corridor door. A key ‘was
in the lock. She -gave it a nimble
twist. It opened. The guard shouted
as she passed through to the sheriff’s
office,

Sheriff McCune had heard the
shout and was about to enter the
corridor when Ida Hadley burst out
upon him. Thrust back by the sud-
den onslaught, the woman had
reached the outer door before the
sheriff could pull his gun.

“Step past that door and you're
dead, Mrs. Hadley,” jhe said calmly.
“Take your choice of a trial or a
bullet.” :

Ida Hadley put on a free show in this jail
for the populace of Checotah, Okla.

Ida turned. She stared at the gun,
then at the man behind it. She turned
slowly and went back to her cell.

“At least I tried,” she said as the
door clanged shut.

On the 22nd day of June, Paul and
Ida Hadley went to trial before
Judge R. P. de Graffenried in Dis-
trict Court. The most damaging tes-
timony of the trial came when
Charles H. Swartz, an oil operator,
told of having gotten on the train at

Kansas City with Sheriff Giles. He

had implored the kindly sheriff to
handc the pair because he sus-
pected they were up to some mis-
chief,

“I went to the station with Sher-
iff. Giles,” stated Swartz. “It was
while he was buying the tickets that
the woman came over and spoke to
Hadley and the Sheriff. It was then

ql ~

wes

f SMR Py Ay

a”

Sheriff Giles was mortally wounded just be-
fore the Katy Limited drew up to this station
at Checotah, Okla,

that I learned she was Hadley’s wife.
Both of them begged Mr. Giles to buy
her a ticket to Beaumont, Texas, so
that she could be with her husband.
She. told the sheriff that she was
broke.”

“And did Sheriff Giles purchase the
ticket?” asked Prosecuting Attorney
Fred P. Branson.

Swartz nodded. Thus it was made
clear that the slaying had been pre-
meditated, and that Ida Hadley had
elected to carry out the plans. This

was proved when other witnesses
testified that, when captured, the pair
had over two hundred dollars on
their persons. -

On the ath the jury returned a
strange verdict. For his part in the
slaying, Paul Hadley drew a 99-year
sentence to be served at McAlester
Penitentiary.

But Ida Hadley was deemed too
beautiful to be sentenced. She was
found not guilty!

Appalled at this deliberate mis-
carriage of justice, Judge de Graffen-
ried turned to Prosecutor Branson,
his face crimson.

“What is the penalty for attempted

. jailbreak, Mr. Branson?” he de-

manded.

“Ten years, your Honor,” replied
Branson.

“I can’t do anything about the jury
verdict,” said Judge de Graffenried,
turning to the woman. “But I can do
something about your attempted jail-
break. I now sentence 7 to serve
ten years at McAlester Penitentiary.

“As for this jury, its members shall
never serve in this court as long as
I am judge!”

Just before they were to be taken
to McAlester, Ida Hadley called Sher-
iff McCune to her.

“I want you to do me a favor, Sher-
iff,” she said. “Take this and send it
to Deputy Friar in Beaumont,
Texas.”

Sheriff McCune agreed after first
inspecting the contents of the en-
velope Ida had handed him.. It was
an unused railroad ticket.

At McAlester Prison, both Paul.and
Ida behaved quite well. Both were
kindly treated, and both attended
cultural classes provided for the
prisoners of that institution. Paul,
who had always held a flair for me-

chanical work, was soon engrossed in.

an intricate lock that he had once
worked upon. .

In 1922, he was given a temporary
parole in order to perfect the pat-
ented mechanism.

He had been ordered to make a
weekly report: to prison officials.
About a month later, he disappeared
from sight. Once again a warrant
was issued for his return. Again
death lay in his wake!

It was in August of that year that
Mr. and Mrs. R. L. Johnson had
stopped in a Denver hotel on their
way west. They arose early the next

‘morning to escape the heat of mid-

day driving. They were about to get
into ‘their machine when they were
accosted by a youthful man.

“My car is stalled at the edge of
town, sir,” he said. “I wonder if you
would give me'a lift there?”

“Hop in,” answered Johnson.

The Johnson machine sped: past
the city limits and into the highway
stretched ahead. Johnson turned.

“Where is your car, Buddy?” he
asked.

“Right here,” said the pick-up, who
had been riding in the rear seat.
“Slow down and stop at the next
bend.”

Johnson negotiated the curve and
came to a stop.: There was no car in
sight.

“T don’t see any car,” he said.

There was no answer. Instead a
revolver cracked. Johnson slumped
down into his seat.

The woman turned with a scream.
Once again the revolver cracked.

OURS later,
farmer folk |
lying in the weed
but his wife stil]
accurate descript

A huge posse '
killer had long s

Several weeks
zona, police arres
been apprehende
son machine. He
was Ray Mann,
inspecting the st:
the point of repo:
Under severe qui
to admit that h
slayer.

However, finge
on the steering -
prints matched
brought to trial,
sketchy evidence
hung jury.

A second trial
awaiting this, a
pointed to the i
His first act wa:
mug all prisoners
at this in his ca:
the police force:
the camera. T'!
were forcibly tak

His picture wa:
lar, together w
classification. Co
official departme:
dle west.

Less than twe:
word came in tha
Paul Hadley, wan
parole violation.

Once again he
cerning his partic
son slaying, and !
the charge. This
appeal. He recei
tence. Shortly
with his life on t

This was the
Hadley who had
other things, a “t
that her beloved
not seem to care
the prison interes
occasions, she at
suicide. Finally,
sick woman.

I went to see |
the small town f)
started her life i:
ner, only to hav
No longer was
creature she had
wooed her. Her
of creamy colore
was now rough:
The dark hair of
inordinately pr«
heavily streaked
ing cough rumb|
wasted lungs.

“It’s been a lo
upon: meeting he
made something

“Tm sorry I c
ently,” she replie
today.”

I nodded. I di
about the ticket
Sheriff McCune
handed it over tc
mont. It was t!
the check Sheri
for her that
Kansas City; an
had repaid with

Shortly after «
Hadley died.
away she murmi

“Please forgiv
done.”

STORES: way We ee Peale. Ve
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eis

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Ye ee Seka PY
ce radi
ee ny ty

B/S

’

ie \ Y Ne ; ere
NBR he opal Sie [yells oad
Decembe mx?

Sunday,
eg Aa, ‘
‘ Cotigt ie Aweks

seh
asa”

Arizona Days‘A Ri Oe

- : ;

~ Gattle-Stealing Killers’.
a fter Long Trek

vie BR
Vy
%
se
ai
gh ]

‘ % Stiles ,
1 ng ts my ; ' ‘ Troe i co he a
Vos Pane OL By ROSCOE,G. WILLSON. |. Beak ces

' In.the spring of 1897, two 3 aA ae

$e i Hos Sere ey 3
brothers, Bill giders © se Ry
«man, came“Mnto Tombstone loak- kya)
Sng@for jobs.:\They did not: say: ie
-"\ ‘much about’ their past lives, but’:
+. “from occasional conversations jt". 4
-{ | was gathered that they had come ‘|
‘ originally from, Texas, and more>
recently ‘from’ New. Mexico.
Somehow . the Og yi ge Wet ky A.
* goon gained that the. ere. fy.
mans ‘had gis chased’ out-of “7,4. . brothers to answer a charge of
New Mexico because of ‘their y cattle: stealing. - :
~ | Jong roping activities., ?' i> +. . Eker sennperne, teeinprpalsiaint
PaAL yee ' . ; O.. / : oe : } § & e at. 3
Their ropes had reached. to "Moore's ranch on Turkey Creek -4;

far, and had snared too’'many'| <.. ‘
‘ d ves running with'}'/.°.and asked 18-year-old Ted Moore
ache genera bry ning with |. ‘ to. guide:.him. to Halderman’s..

mothers that did not’ bear’ thel{ 4
Halderman jumped » up ° brand..{:\"...,.--Tedagreed: to this and the two
Then, too, they, had apparently - “\ 3 get oft at once, eee
liked..the taste‘ of. their-neigh-'{.:° Se ‘Arriving: ati the Halderman’s.
‘+. s bors fats yearlings , better ‘thans{:\.>') they found the boys about to sit.
“<3 their’own. The result’was their |" ' * \. down to. dinner and Ainsworth at:
leaving. New. Mexico two jumps |). ¢\, once apprised them of the pure
-ahead of a cowman, posses..7):2f 0/1’ - PORE of his visit. hs
Tears eae h Sy 4 os Dhat’s all damned nonsense,”
-' AT TOMBSTONE the Haldere:}.)- -. (gaia Tom, ‘We never killed no-
ta fq =. Mans soon picked up jobs, Bill} (> body’s ‘cattle. Walt ‘til we cat
Ase “a ny . ag teamster for Bill Sanders, who | ~!.:’. ‘and ‘we'll: go’ with you. They

rar wis tO 7

. aw
be a de

Syd 4

Tey Ae
“Be

=
sty
x

xs
ee
<
naw
a

>
TS Sy
eee
3
+
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oe
é
.

mie
-

oat

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ere
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pig fas
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2 ers
rs °
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—
ate ®

elas

‘was cutting mining timberssini}". ” °.dan't nobody prove nothin’ on base
the Chiricahuas ;;and “hauling pied ccs ug et . e155
them to the Commonwealth miney),"..+.°°) “Allright,” agreed Ainsworth, / Fi

£56, bes ae f
i, rf at\Pearce, and-‘Tom as‘a cawboy ¢’ “3; “Bat your grub and throw a few.” $8 meet ce ‘

. -' “con-a Sulphur Springs ranch. y+." 1)’. elothes in ‘your » warbags, and ah 3 cle a ate:

‘ ' “Tom, in his range riding atthe." we'll pull out. We'll go out and eyes
Dts Re aay SE Lee foot of.the Chirlcahuas, found’aj). * take. the saddles off our horses ¢y\+ Teg
hoe pats eS epee deserted cabin with a corral, noty’'s''":'" and cool them off while you're ba ai, Gwen ah peg :

yn een seer ae SS} < far’ from’ the now vanished: post} 4, getting ready.” RS acy pak
AX he Oreo Ese A). « ottice of Wilgus, and, after some}:")*" -.\"" \ arwswonTH AND YOUN hint ach gen
Ter Seis SRE ’”. reconnoltering,: ‘took possession}... meq went’ out to the horses be- Sta ft |
OAR IN 864 ee WA i of it, “and ‘soon’ was. joined WOE cea, : og On oe 6 | Ae ery |
a ep Bj ‘ WAG = .'») side: the cabin, removed the Besipy. fe olay
8 Bill, They at‘once bought'é few F<: ci" ‘gaagles, and after watering them, Ff citooro eases by
Be Bees cows, Tecorded’a brand,'and'be~t. <"..,- were standing beside them-when jr RR es
Bye ads hs : 3) gantagain’the.same game‘thatr,,”".., Se ha tad
i ony Soe Lee R 1S URIS =e re fOr" + Tom’ Halderman suddenly came Sipder GoM toy
fora ai se 4-7 hh oe had driven: them from New. Mex- 4°.‘ ‘\Daround’acorner of the cabin: Ripe Vena ELD :
ae : ta er ete stae'that fs. ye wate Oe pistol in his hand, end ee RUD EAN HN
; It was nat long-thereafter thatil.”'./! without-warning shot Ainsworth _{ fi Seca |
*: -< the alerticowmen of the vicinity) =) 3 “ igh rede eye ry |
£ : ‘ se 4 through@the body, killing him :@:}))s Re : |
“oe began tq suspect their game, and} iy: ‘ instantiges Ae Rep ies 2° Yt f
Les eEe The i] while it,is somewhat difficult to) -.2. °"\sS Almost’ at ‘the same moment .ffce IRE Sl, :
(Pa Ro Se 7s prove- <he rT As gy ee jpa"G1 » Bill Halderman stepped from be- USE Sptede Sed p
Per heds ; weaned Tee ee ee Os vs Wlnd the’opposite corner and put ibe Spee es ab
eh it. trouble at ‘all in proving sthat; °°. a'slug into-young Moore. wus at
ae ae the beef: that, came from inside)... Stunned for a ‘moment by the ¥ Sy
IPN AL _ a steershide carrying .a neigh!” .<\'plew: of: the, bullet, ‘Ted,’ badly, |
wh Ne ees ’. bor’s brand did not’belong to they) -"<¥+" ;
a wth Ouse , ' Haldermans, consequently when, | Bade
Be Sd eee t ". ‘a .cowboy--for!‘a neighboring,” eee
4

road .

ol ag S- 8B 4 Aye ; ; Bos ” : } Jy a es pape
ee “SEO 5 ps Rees |. ranches, from:e8 placevof:cones. etic
“ eo ye > ORYe p ’ Be : 4 : i ge cealment,° saw the boys ’ shoot); SeNee ?

2 one. So

: : ' Bg 1 v4 x :
; and proceed to skin'and dress‘it,~: we 3. a) , Ne \
he loped ‘off home and, reported -, eiwe ih ae ENO
‘the matter to his boss. °)' tall aay MadrecWeae ty weet ft

Ft
uri€

ie Soe

Rian
died A Pe 4 Re A fl neral -services of: ‘
‘at his b. ers. um’: Mansfel Ot Mae worth, who died Monday -will
++): (ithe «granddaughters “<i place Thursday at 5 p.m. from the
“a Foon Mansteld, thelr - father «48 j <2 Arizona Mortuary chapel. "The Tuc’
te no “making Yuneral arrangements here. 3 son police, of which Mr. Ainsworth by:
type ee Sart ' T0800.) 3 “Mary: Ainsworth of Los bis stan of Siero te be in ire >
Ose, : j ae tall he i amadl ns Bed service,’ carrying sergeant’s badge); -.
4 BF d,” last * tall. > nein tena RAE bo Sepia iil act as pallbearers, with 6
‘ibe Wel *: Se te Tentative. c e- po thé

g the retirement-age

ae Dihcnak” ‘When

4 he, was operating his stabics here} 2='
~a he was dered one of the.

<4 ix,

~) Ed

an 53)

youngest da ‘ seyase
th her husband yesterday}, fir

nd the funeral K

, ed
a and

kone “e
Me eh ie oe Cat
x! be. oN < Pi A Aad
724" i Pees eS ae Se
Me a age en yy a
TE ae ET oe
MPSS RN fice e™ 5 0S
rere *

| Active pallbearers chosen yester> f=
aaj day are Serg C. McLaugnilin, 3
TR cee (As W. Forbes ; “eee
." 39 Patrolmen
» Comacno, C.
“4° The police and

Fe ie RE: ave.
. . wwe

wk pvettnn

ot ae

AT - EOANE TY”

igh

neer i Peace;

<
a8

Final rites gor’
Bo 4 rok from & heart
Sr Deep e* been tentative

AR of Chester Ainsw

RGF} officer who' was-6h s
eee the ‘ Holdermans,-“ngtoriqus - weaterD Feet
Soar outlaws, in the early caya of ATIBORA pete ey
Me] Coming to Arizona sim. 1697, Mr. brag

; proprigtor . sf, i bug

SF.

as
y rea

opened a ity sola
hig business 69 ‘Tucsone-=5|
ing in. Naco, he'o & stage.

between there; By ks

peat
Ede ee

* &\

at Yuma. He was acmember of ‘the i
Pima gounty: hoard «of aupery
during the years I914@el§es'" Yc ee
Prior to hia cares? easa. olty ‘Olsle | cee
cer, Mr. Alngworth \waaira's deputy | sas
sheriff wnder Gherltf Rye Miles‘ trom foacG

4 A mat ae
1916 to 4920,7. He. was given: B Des: is bere
TEATS thon: in” the Zpalice : Aepartinend PES ira
aed ray January, WABI ess ee Cy
Sew » He ig aurvived by

-
e”,

a‘plater, Mra, An-| gare
“prother, Will [tees
George ‘of Utica We Fas
a Pt vers, ys. Bally ng
wood, ‘and Mrs.”
A bambre. Racal Lines arsine
, RY n ig

A gs pbk

Ce hae
me ESE 4 s

PF peek ae

ASM BS So SRY Oe
REA pees Sas ae Ui ‘ ‘ rs
Cy rhe rays aes, Si 4 ‘ % { tae es eer ; hi 7 a
- ares ‘S) CA, ot! ay me * - i : t}- r td ii =: “4 és ¥
ATA ; a fi ee aes WN By! pe ty a A my eas if
(ss Mba me ae Ca its IPS a = ; mammal «ot e Beh Sue? Fs, nh a | | Bs
GRR aE CAT ‘wounded, Jeaped ‘onto lis rsa, Stee BP ny! SOR SEI Ne aE pee
; which, tortunatel fa Sides fiat OT PRN oy 4
bridle, but ‘was bar Re Bee pies bar an
a : .

cote 8

iis

- Arriving home in practically.a- geesus Piccn spranos Wa he arn AAIen Bate ae AT

gctcy: dying condition, ‘Ted lived long, So %
Wary enough to tell what had happens?” “s :
ed Sle he fia “i ;
<4 (PHE‘MOORES«-sent 8 man i é

flying to. Tombatone to notify’

POEM, MP ET TE

ES Be :

Ord. Bone east rs aS
| ae RRs : $ ¥
Si aD PREG hips Fei as
8 wad 6 oy =
re ahs “s =< ao is cf ey at Ye
“ eK soa } be iy :
bo hee eae agg ithe sheriff and to bring a doctor, |ieray aah ale: Pr
wel Mee SE cde Ted, howevery: died before meds: | esi Nap tee AY ae
FLAY eins “Year ical aid could ‘arrive. Word was'' ay Reeeek ye te Aa Janta A
pees ‘x4 then spread ta the nearest ranch. | hy Bes ° a Rel . ee.
PEs Wa We 4 YY ottS¥y (es and a posse WAS organized OS! 1g hab ny, rote yi baa hay kee yh kes bee
7 ‘ab: = ‘quickly ’as possible, but too Yate: ee ag AT TIDE TINE set for the v Rowe die INS GE
“2 yee ee 9 in the evening tp hope to-catch |ieteogy hanging a Jarge-crowd of spec- jx" + eat hes se a Sons -
Pails iysvets$ the Heldermans before idarke'.* Rite i eae aa to He? ia a WY 7k Boni, ray . te (oH
Sesh dt ART MAE A AGE [1 However,’ this’ cowman posse, OR i) | phd cighaposiced OSA TE ps ae fon atte ene:
rn ge Asn ot peste went: to: the: Haldermans’ . lacey | _oreclon etter of the court : Be sy Pa Uwe aie geeks S
yonbeaelat (We Vee : a ' . ; e birds yi 4 . Ba ; é AYP, te Pe ce ga ee re Z"
a EET eR ater dey oy eareh aboutthe; {CAs (the;-Haldermans were fii 88S Uy ste ty eae
eee S a>: buildings they found two whale! - brought to the scaffold they ap~- BORG ah fie 2op jet HE tiie We Hit
‘ Sarees aoe ‘shed., | ..j isp ‘peared cool; even jaunty, and }..37 Ges ie Lae Rest e REO Mie {ABR |
ir Tags ip : 4:3 peeves hanging.in, @ shcd., TCA bes | : . 894.45 Sy re Sli e Pe cse: tt ga E
‘ ‘er y ee ‘i oe much ‘less. nervous than many eeei us Saher eakenat NOES ERG. 5 8 EE
: ae NEP TO It was’ afterwards. ascertained;. eased (-of the: onlookers. ‘They seemed |... Pa (tees , Viay Me
sit Ae Pea that the ‘Haldermans, had been » Eee oe oe rcicae eo taal tale: talielig eroess 4
beg aly Pitts AA te nt te killing their neighbors cattle and: rg: “freely to Sheriff ‘White and to “Pye es 1 jie’ We
oe ire erie 5 ‘selling the beef at distant mines,’ Gees 3 ..the crowd + Le erge ke pete rede!
| Ric” 0 4 ties a The followjng morning investi: e “pray: ‘for: us. povEr Por t ts Fs
dA Aci} gation showed thege cacter. 1s Pee ighouted, with a grin, as he took” oe i i * oe Ys
OS Teetenaetbemyey shooting Ainsworth s horse, hadwipfsey] the black cap from the sherilf Aaa ed, 1 a chea ses «gs ay
Farge. ; run away and escaped capluls . ie and put it over his head. , » PC Ge PAG eae Wate
tye: Pa: tee ek a <j and that ‘the; Haldermans, nob pica Bill was equally at ease, “Let hy Se Lea Te ae ire hs Gi
; , y Pf es having any .other ve ap yen al oi5°. “this be a lesson ‘to you fellers,’” es SANE he ees . iy Cap nce y |
NS oe ful ba dently near, had set on on ny: 3 he said-just. before the black cap. ferry irik TT aT ct Ot ee
pete Spee into: the (Chiricabua’ mountal rs was.adjusted. Os Rey EEE % “ee af
+" asf MY TILA T?-MORNING’ 7Sheritl, Axa “rAWhen' the levers were pulled ome ae
ae eee 7 “ ‘oY White’s posse, arrived, and’the, ih “1 they both dropped and quickly esti
pets ye tay sherill’s ‘men>and the cowmen /.[3 are], passed into eternity, with scarces pj 5/2.
BM eee split up. nto: small,” parties ‘and’, 2723 f{ ly a quiver. '** cn re e aes,
ota Wedel eV took out torpry :to “pick-up? ther’ fe “yhei*' (Note; It'has’taken some two 33 eh eee
Irie $ if: ft ‘killers’ trail, through the’ rough; Kyeeiiy7 years to collect the data on ‘this- pea)
eT ete ‘mountains. +; Ted’s . father“ and? |itge4 story, s which ‘finally emerges pp “af
Ss oy. - Bill :-Knott *found their aisign’. on largely due’to the on-the-scene ¥|4¥h%)2,.
seer lays Sash leading: into” country toosroyen jrnds "fh knowledge of Earl M, McCutch- jj: «3: :
ABN Ls ged ee ea ee) Lor horses, ‘turned theirs loose, . icky. | an, now living at Dewey, and to [ixir~
ieee hes the SG AS Resa and continued trailing: onfoot.':s, Sees the newspaper clippings from the [zieyarcdisc wo!
Ee get oD She fae Ag sappeia Three. days later- Deputy Sid/|Seee files - of7the ‘Arizona Pioneers ke fe Size, ene
ed hs) dy Pa eee ra OS 8 y 3% . ' RUT Re H : pss ak Le a ne
hav"? i obh* | sauheeney 2} 234 Mullen’ and‘ his ‘posse found the ® japan Historical Society, of ‘Tucson, of fs eie jes ST PS
SSeS a ts i Ra Haldermans, footsore and: weary),., ge 4 which Judge Sloan's ' daughter, HESS
ee ¥ (ae ‘ at .Hill's yanch,' not’ far: from’ bagi: Eleanor, is secretary. RGW) ee i.
BPH Sy ES Aa aes Lordsburg, They; surrendercd ee HEC
ie Satire $day Sat ae without, a fight. § EE pine go * :
al; (Taken | o Tombstone they wer Mea Re a, Sash "
tried for’mur ep before» Distr}¢ Ree NRA ays w
\ Judge Georg Be ‘Davis:and 6G} ? ee OE ae eT yates ay {cephes ' " ’ os Ver yh
_tenced'totbethanged,\|An’ apps gas BUR whup Re Sp chee BSE Po oat Re Cae ea sat
rid’ wag: taken") to, the<" territorial || Rape e rai eete he ils oe Meet stan! et wt
= supreme”. cqurt.: which,) wit EN es oy Fs fy en eed creer Bates Senn ed e
7

(FG
Se as |
aw

Pas
wit net

ed of Judges Fletcher *M, Doan, * Oyen
_ Chiet: Justice ‘. Webster , Street,” bts és

“4 ae
’ re
ras

«4
i:

7 eee
vee US

: . ‘ ” m= 24.*' hig) ort be
and Richard\B;,' Sloan,’ where the’. enees
sentence was: reattirmed, -Even : 4 Rats

President. McKinley was,8R eal-5 eee 2
ed to for’a ‘pardon,’ but re used * bees See

add
e

tye ef
ee
in ays 2 2
ler’:
Re att

- ytone ‘jall yard, “te © Ty ARs 7h
hs se 08

ft
ZS
ok
Re

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EX
ae
seep la

s-
eg
Ae

; ' ) [ete eat ad ¥
it, and Gov,,N. Oakes Murphy, | \eneias t0 rag Peeetes (124
then set) ther Dapeng Yin tart era east 4 Ligh ye, Ree
cS 00n sn b} \ bees os ea a AY Sar, ff yee
18, 190 ’ atin { fur oe rity. ait

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connects the prison to the governor’s office.

deadly hydrogen cyanide gas.

acid.
_when he finally takes that

Harding would get his last meal there. He also

Should his attorneys fail in his appeal, Harding
would have a last visit with clergy.:He would be al-

will be moved from death row in Cell Block 6 of the

The vote might come too late for Harding, 42.
State prison in Florence to the “condemned” room —
The holding cells are cages to the side of the gas

chamber. Inmates who come here are guarded con-

_tinuously by two corrections officers.

how Arizona should execute those sentenced to

death.
lowed to meet with family up to six hours before the

two holding cells adjacent to the gas chamber in the
execution, which is scheduled fof. 12:05 a.m.

death house, a tan plaster and windowless buildin
that sits north of an inmate industrial work yard.

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EEA FE RAAT ET LE EH NSE ENT TE ET PE III FP TY TEES 27 TAY AT PE NNT TN RETRY EY

DATE
INMATE STATE SEX RACE EXECUTED
Hammond, Jerry Alabama M B
Hammond, Karl Texas M B
Hampton, Lloyd Illinois M W
Hance, William Henry Georgia M B
Haney, Judy Alabama F W
Hansem, Tracy Mississippi M W
Happ, William Florida M W
Harbason, Edward Tennessee M B
Hardcastle, Donald Pennsylvania M B
_ Harding, Donald as Arizona M alee WwW

Donald Harding,

P: Beaty et sigethre as a security guard, entered the —

“Phoenix motel room of Allan Gage. Harding bound the victim’s hands

Hardison, Richard Nevada M B
Hardwick, John G. Florida M WwW
Hardwick, Kenneth Florida M W
Hardy, James California M WwW
Hargrave, Lenson Florida M W
Harich, Roy A. Florida M W
Harjo, Gerald Oklahoma M N
Harper, Eddie Lee Kentucky M W
Harrell, Ed Alabama M B
Harries, Ronald Tennessee M W
‘Harris, Benjamin : _ Washington M

_ law enforcement officials in the Pacific Northwest. Attorneys for Harris
claim he is insane.

156

and feet with adhesive tape and stuffed a gag in his mouth. He then
took Gage’s wallet and identification, stole his car, and drove to

Tucson. Gage was left lying face down on the floor of the motel room, : : AN a ©
~where he died from. ‘asphyxiation. Harding used the same security.

guard ruse to kill and rob two men in a Tucson motel. Harding was ar-

rested in Flagstaff. two days later, and was in possession of Gage’s wallet and identification. ”

4-24-91

Benjamin Harri
of Jimmie Lee Turner, who was shot to death outside his home.
Harris, according to testimony of a psychologist, believes his convic- .
tion to be the result. of a conspiracy involving the Ku Klux Klan and >
Green River killer, a serial murderer who has been sought for years by |

Harris, Curtis Paul Texas B
Harris, Danny Ray Texas M B
Harris, David R. Texas W

: was jecnitenced to die for the 1984 contract ailling-

DEATH ROW

ihe

Harris,

On J
teen-ag
on par
19-yea)
needed
their li.
warm |
sits on
since A

Harris.
Harris,
Harris,
Harris«
Hart, G
Hart, J
Hartm<
Harvey

Hasket

Inei¢
and mt
brother
death ¢<
stated |

Hatch,
Hatche
Hathor
Hattaw
Hawki!
Hawkii
Hawkii

DEATH ROW

age 12

re ed to roll

’

I, Donna Leone Hamm, declare as

follows:

1. Don Eugene Harding was ex-
ecuted in Arizona's gas chamber
on April 6, 1992,° beginning at
12:18 a.m., just over a week ago.
I knew Don for about’ eight
months prior to his execution..
Don had asked me to witness his
execution so that I might tell
his family and the families of
others on death row what actual-
ly happens when one is killed by
lethal gas. Despite strong app-
rehensions, I. agreed to honor
his request.

2. Upon my arrival at Arizona
State Prison, Florence, Arizona,
I was escorted by a prison off-
icial to the chapel where other
witnesses for Don Harding were
waiting. As a group, we avoided
talking about what we were about
to see. Instead, we shared mem-
ories of our personal human ex-
periences with Don and his

out his final wishes. We were in
the chapel for nearly an hour,
during which time a prison off-
icial had us draw numbers from a
box. This number established the
order in which we would enter
into the viewing area and where
we would stand in proximity to
the viewing windows of the gas
chamber. I drew number eighteen.

3. At approximately - midnight,
all the witnesses for Don, for
the state and_ from the media,
converged on the sidewalk to
walk over to the death house. No
one spoke. The only noises I
could hear were my own footsteps

and the sounds from some inmates:

in the darkened cellblocks holl-
ering at us as we passed by
their windows. We filed into the
death house in the pre-designat-
ed order; as a prison staff mem-
ber checked off our lottery num-
bers. I stood in the second of
* three rows, directly behind
where Don was seated in the gas
chamber. Three sides of the oct-
agonal gas chamber had windows
for viewing. As we entered and
took our places, the blinds were
drawn. When all the witnesses
were assembled, an official ann-
ounced that Don's last appeal
had failed and the execution
would proceed. The door to the
death house viewing room was
closed and an officer was order-
up the blinds.

4. Don was strapped to the metal

ith rous black rest- twitching. For the
per ti He wan fecsie avay from Minutes I stood there, his hand 10. A little more than a week
us, dressed oniy.in his under- never stopped contorting in biz- later, I am still in shock over
vear. I had been warned in ad- =re ways- His body, -especially what I witnessed. I awake during
pas ; . his back and neck, had turned a the night startled and unable to
ee =< 0 (amen) 0 4 eee 4 he 4 (ene 9 § j <r
\ = ;
ff Anotien Countny to be |
\ Heand wn?
= Stephanie Wilkinson of Amnes- \
A’ ty in Australia is looking for I
N some people to submit articles |
{ i} about the death penalty to her
HW} for publication in church mag- \f
| azines down under. If you have. W
/ any to submit please. shoot them @
W to: : j 7K
Mrs. S.M.Wilk
00-2790 : 4eqUINN qWuIed P.0.Box 518
SVXSL HOLSNOW WiSe-8222 x1 uolsnoy : Seven Hills N.S.W. 2147 © |
el, 11S6x08 Od | AUSTRALIA
Siva ning YHOAVSQNS ° : } |

Wi-

be eee Dy eb

% a A a

family, and spoke about carrying.

ee) f §

Volume I] Number 3
—

vance of the ritualistic execu-
tion policies, and observed my

fellow witnesses take on behav-_

jor which could only be descr..b-
ed as “execution etiquette": an
unspoken but pervasive feeling
that we were expected to act
civily and with detachment to
‘the coming events. However, I
was struck with a. feeling of
overwhelming despair as Don Har-
ding, in the name of our govern-
ment, had indeed been . literally
and figuratively dit fi of his
humanity.

5. I watched Don turn to look at
one of his attorneys. He. forced
a slight smile, but could not
disguise the child-like - terror
in his face.. He turned the other
direction and I believe he was
looking. for me. He never knew I
was there, as he could not see
the people standing directly be-
hind him. He moved around in the
chair, as much as the restraints
would allow. He seemed to be
mumbling to himself. He was ag-
itated and fidgety. Knowing Don
as I did, I realized that his
agitation.was born of his tragic
desire to control one tiny as-
pect of this utterly dehumaniz-
ing spectacle. He wanted it to
be quick and painless.

6. About 60 seconds after the
blinds were lifted, the pellets
were released under his chair. I
heard the loud noise as they
were dropped into the acid. It
took about 5 seconds for the
mist,-and the, first trace of
fumes, to reach him. At that
point, Don's naked back inflated
against the chair as if he took
a deep:.. breath. His head. was
“thrown back violently against
the chair and he turned his head
from side to side. He jerked and
twisted as if gasping for air.At
the same time, his body buckled
against the straps. Severe con-
vulsing began, and continued
throughout. Even through the

thick glass of the gas chamber,I’

heard him moan a low, guttural
sound of. sheer torment. I prayed
for him to go quickly.

7. At one point, I was unable to
sustain watching this prolonged
suffering alone. I broke from my
assigned standing spot and walk-
ed over to Don's minister. We
held on to each other and with
his arm around my shoulder, I
noticed how badly I was shaking.
From that position I could
closely see Don's hand and arm
almost two

aa 9 | — em
ee

ee 6 —— R e4

= Ss
—— pL SS SSS Ys

deepening red. His head flung
back and then dropped against
his chest. The convulsions caus-
ed his body to shake so badly
that I momentarily thought the
chair would shake. The
and gasping lasted about 7
minutes until his head: dropped
to his chest for the last time.
Finally, he appeared to be dead,
but I noticed what appeared to
be involuntary movement of his
left hand. I continued to _ pray
that this spectacle be over.

8. I saw a prison doctor ap-
proach the glass from the other
side of the chamber, in front of
Don. He gazed dispassionately at
Don's now - quieted body and
quickly moved away from the win-
dow and back into the shadows on
the front side of the chamber.
Soon, a prison official announ-
ced to the witnesses that the
execution was complete. It had
taken ten and one-half minutes.
The last look at Don was one I
will never forget. Where minutes
before his body had been hot red
it was now slumped over and was
ashen grey/beige - the antisep-
tic color of the gas chamber it-
self. The prison officials
ordered the blinds to be closed.
The door to the outside opened
and we filed out.

9. Nothing in my life prepared
me to witness the prolonged,
ritualistic torture of another
human being. I have struggled to

put this experience into any
kind of human perspective. I had
spent a lot of time imagining

painful death before. My Father
burned to death in a plane crash
when I was 21 years old. He died
brutally and his body was char-
red beyond recognition. I am
still plagued — twenty -three
years later- by gruesome images
of his unspeakable suffering in
the last painful seconds of | his
life. Nonetheless, as I watched
the agony suffered by Don. Hard-
ing, I knew that his torment was
far worse and much more prolong-
ed than that experienced by my
Father. I am told that my Father
probably died in 30 seconds. Don
endured his torture for ten. and
one-half minutes. Hig...suffering
was palpable and sickening, and
I felt it like a cloak draped
over my body... I winced with
every convulsion, moan, and
every desperate contortion.Those
ten and one-half minutes were
the longest and most harrowing
moments of my life.

spasms

sleep because of the terrifying
“euffocating to

images of Don
death. The images of his convul-
sing and with his hand

my mind forever.

11. I am humiliated for my fel-
low man. Don's punishment was to
torture him in view of 25 wit-%
It was not the act of
civilized people. He suffered in
discernible agony for over ten
I talked with Don's
but
I could not bring myself to tell

nesses.

minutes.
family about his execution,

them just how brutally he died.

Death by gas is barbaric, and an

inhumane infliction of torture.

I declare under penalty of per-
true
and correct to the best of my
. Geclara-

jury-that the foregoing is

ability, and that this
tion was executed on April
1992 at Tempe, Arizona.

14,

Donna Leone Hamm

VSS
Death « Watch

The following is a listing of

‘

condemned prisoners in the U.S.A.

with "active" execution dates as
of this writing. We realize some
of these individuals may have
had their dates postponed to
allow the courts to further con-
sider their appeals, and unfur-
tunately, some may heve ‘been ex-
ecuted es scheduled. We will do
our very best to keep you posted

*as such information becomes sava-
ijeble to us.

09/15 Virginia Willie L. Jones
09/17 Texas''" “Irineo Montoya
09/17 Texas David Long
09/18 Texas Kar] Hammond
09/18 Texas Cornelius Goss
09/21 Texas ' Warren: Bridge
09/22 Texas Andre Lewis
09/22 Texas James Demouchette
09/24 Texas Ricardo A. Guerra
09/30 Texas ‘Danny Harris
10/08 Texas Bernard Amos
10/17 Texas. Clarance Lackey
10/23 Texas Joseph Faulder
10/23 N. Carol'a John S$ Gardner

10/30 Texas Delma Banks, Jr
11/10 Texas Alvin Crane
11/11 Illinois Lloyd W. Hampton

11/18 Texas Jeffery Griffin
(Editor's note: Horrible as is
this list, we are sure it is not
complete as regards other states.
This information is very hard to
Obtain, Readers in other states
are asked to please send to us
any available information . they
may have on probable dates.)

clenched
to the chair will be etched in

‘Tueson, Sunday, February 2,,1992

| Ghe Arizona Daily Star

Section B — Page Seven ;

- aanameeaeeaall

ses sees

‘ By Neil Bibler
; The Associated Press

PHOENIX - — Almost 29 years alee Arizona
last executed a murderer, debate over the death
: penalty is heating up.
;, .. The state is as close to carrying out an execu-
‘tion as it has been at any time since the U.S. Su-
‘preme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
tie2> That’s prompted efforts to outlaw executions,
‘and to change the method the state uses to put
-¢riminals to death.

~~. 4 Skirmish expected in the House Judiciary
' Committee tomorrow will be the first legislative
debate over the issue in 16 years.

The committee is scheduled to consider a res-
‘Olution, proposed by Rep. Lela Steffey, R-Mesa,
, that would ask voters to replace the gas chamber
‘with an execution method she says is more hu-
‘mane — lethal injection.

Rep. Benjamin Hanley, D-Window Rock, says
‘he'll try to amend the resolution — intended for

ithe November general election ballot — to use it
:as a vehicle to abolish the death penalty.

Arizona’s last execution took place a few min- ,

‘utes after 5 a.m. on March 14, 1963, when Manuel
, E. Silva, 42, was put to death for emptying his
.38-caliber handgun into a Casa Grande mother of
four.

Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death
penalty, there have been 160 executions in 17
states. About 100 people are waiting on Arizona’s
Death Row, but appeals have kept them alive.

The first of them to be executed likely would
be Donald Harding, who killed three men during

armed robberies in 1980. Officials say he has

largely exhausted his appeals.

He was scheduled to die shortly after the first
.Of the year, but the state Supreme Court granted

-him a stay to give the courts time to consider.

‘arguments that he is brain-damaged and there-

~~“ support capital punishment. |
just want It to be done in a humane
way.”’ - be

“Rep. Lela Steffey

-y Mesa Republican

fore shouldn’t be put to death.
His execution is now set for April 6.

The closeness of the date. seems, to have

_ spurred debate.

So have public statements by Attorney Gen-
eral Grant Woods, who is pressing for executions
to be carried out.

Woods says he is doing so because his oath of
office requires it, but he also says he approves of
the death penalty. A simple matter of justice, he
calls it.

At the beginning of a year, nine of the state’s
most prominent religious leaders launched a cam-

- paign against the death pena & and ng the

public debate.

- “America has never, been lobitivtabie with
the death penalty,” says Louis Rhodes, executive
director of the Arizona shaet ‘of the American
Civil Liberties Union.

Many view the debate as a 5 moral issue, but
Rhodes says the ACLU opposes it because it is

“very discriminatory,” with minority group mem-

bers more likely than whites to be executed. He
acknowledges that chances capital punishment

‘will be abolished soon are “probably pretty

slim.”

Hanley’ S$ amendment, and a separate bill he
also plans to introduce, would do away with the
death penalty entirely. Sen. Manuel Pena, D-
Phoenix, says he will introduce a similar cam-
paign in the Senate.

Debate over Ariz. death penalty is renewed

Steffey says she will fight efforts to amend
her measure changing the method of execution.

“T support capital punishment,” she said Fri-
day. “I just want it to be done in a humane way.”

Since statehood in 1912, Arizona has executed
63 people, 28 by hanging and the rest in the gas

chamber, according to records at the Arizona His- |§

torical Society records in Tucson. *
It was a botched execution in 1930 that
prompted the change to the gas chamber.

Eva Dugan, sentenced to die for killing a
Tucson chicken rancher, was a heavy woman and
when the trapdoor of the gallows dropped beneath
her, the noose around her neck literally tore her
head from her body. It’s said that syphilis had
weakened her spine, contributing to the gruesome
disaster.

. Gov. G.W.P. Hunt was the first prominent Ari-
zonan to press for an alternative to hanging when
he told the Legislature it was time for “something
more humane than the rope.”

Twelve men were awaiting the hangman in
1914. Hunt granted reprieves in expectation that

lawmakers would honor his call, but it was voted

down,
Arizona voters did do away with capital pun-

‘ishment in 1916 through an initiative.

But it didn’t last.

Papers of the time spoke of a spiraling mur-

der rate.

Arizona had become the prey of criminals
from Texas, Nevada and New Mexico who knew
they didn’t face the noose here, the papers said.
Mob rule became the order of the day in some
towns, and vigilantes carried out their own hang-
ings.

Voters restored the death penalty by another
initiative just two years later.

Arizona followed Nevada’s example by
changing to use of the gas chamber in 1934.

By Hipolito R. Corella
The Arizona Daily Star

A hazardous materials team was
called to monitor toxic cyanide gas
levels during the autopsy Monday of
executed .murderer Don Eugene
_ Harding, officials said yesterday.

- The Pima County. ‘Medical Exam-:
-iner’s Office , ,called- the hazardous

‘said she could smell cyanide gas

body was.stored, said Tucson Fire
Departmen pokssman aye. Larry

1g as ‘executed with cya-

nide gas. early. ‘Monday morning at
the state Prison in Florence.

Burkett said” ‘that. fully suited

members: “of the team inserted a

nide. The levels were found to be
safe, Burkett said.

“They did some gas readings to
-make sure the (cyanide) level was
not toxic to the autopsy team,”’ said
Doug. .Scoopmire, an. investigator

aminer’s Office.:

“We don’t. deal ‘with this every-
day,” Scoopmire said. “Occasionally.

we have a cyanide suicide but .

jer re not that i Sreiuent :

Toxic- -gas monitors.
join Harding atte |

Hi materials ‘team. ‘aftera clerk there>~:

inside the cooler where Harding’s _

tube into the bag that-held Harding’s ... prison in Florence. :

* body,: ‘and measured hydrogen. cyan

“We just took the necessary pre-
cautions,” Scoopmire said. “They
proceeded with the exam and no-
' body got ill.”

Burkett said the hazardous ma-
terials team stayed: inside the
“highly ventilated” examination
-room. throughout: the autopsy to
“measure gas levels. |

“We:monitored levels- of any air-
borne gases that might be present,”
during the autopsy, Burkett said.

Burkett said the cyanide levels
were found to be. safe, , if exposure
did not exceed 40 hours, °

Harding, 43, who. 12: years ago’
hogtied and shot to death two sales-
men in a Tucson motel, was exe-

‘cuted early Monday morning in Ari-
zona’s gaS chamber~ at the state

“Harding was the 64th person exe-
cuted in Arizona and the first since
1963, when Coolidge tavern owner
Manuel Silvas was put to death for
the murder of his lover, . ;

A few minutes after Harding was

' killed, a four-man execution team

with the Pima County Medical onal “released the lethal gas from the

-' “death house,” put Harding’s body

inside a. hearse.and drove to the
county examiner's office, said Mi-:

“See HARDING Page 26

Tucson, Thursday, April 9, 1992

f
|
|
|
|

ww ‘

Continued from Page 1B

chael Arra, spokesman for the state
corrections department. igs

Arra said he did not know what"
type of protection the execution“
team used to transport Haring 3

_body.

Arra said inmates are exacutea:

| wearing only their underwear be;'

cause clothing can absorb the cy: '

~ anide poison. 4
_. Harding’s body. was released:
Tuesday to a Tucson mortuary. ,

-* Cyanide gas cannot be detected at:
- small'levels. At high levels, like the:

concentration that killed Harding, it»
would probably smell like almonds, |
said Richard C. Dart, director of
clinical toxicology at University

» Medical Center.

Dart said the level of cyanide in-
side Harding’s body would have

_ been too small to affect anyone in a :
- well-ventilated room.

“Tt would not even make the most t -

sensitive person ill,” Dart said. “But:

I don’t blame them for being con:."
_cerned.”

Cyanide kills a person after it
enters a cell and blocks oxygen. The —

brain and the heart are the first af-

fected because they are the most ac-

__ tive and receive the most blood flow,
Dart said. 2

A lack of oxygen to the brain can”
be lethal within five minutes, half.
the time it takes to stop the heart. ~~

Harding ~—

{ 4
re VS
Sees

Killer’s bid
for new trial
termed ploy

The Assoclated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — The death
sentence of an Arkansas prison
escapee for a 1980 double murder in
Tucson was upheld Monday by a
federal appeals court, which found
he had acted as his own lawyer in
an unsuccessful ploy to get a new
trial.

Rejecting Donald Eugene Har-
ding’s attempt to “create a fool-
proof defense,” the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals ruled that he had
made a knowing and intelligent
choice to represent himself and was
not entitled to take advantage of

defects in his own defense.

Harding could appeal to the U.S.
Supreme Court.

Harding was convicted of fatally
shooting Robert A. Wise, a prod-
uct-sales manager, and Martin L.
Concannon, one of his salesmen,
whose bodies were found in a
Tucson motel room in January
1980.

Police said both men had been
tied up and Wise had been beaten
repeatedly. Harding, arrested while
driving Concannon’s car, was con-
victed of two counts each of mur-
der, armed robbery and kidnap-
ping.

After the Arizona Supreme Court

upheld his convictions and death | | §

sentence and the U.S. Supreme
Court denied review, Harding be-
gan new proceedings in state and
federal courts. He contended he
was denied a fair trial because of
ineffective legal assistance.

The appeals court said the public
defender who represented Harding
before his trial, Dan Cooper, had
advised him that he had no defense
and that his only chance was :o act
as his own lawyer and create errors
in the trial that would lead to a
reversal,

Harding sought, and was
granted, permission to represent
himself after being questioned by
the trial judge and told of the
possible sentences he faced.

The appeals court, upholding a
ruling by U.S. District Judge Alfred
Marquez, said any errors caused by
Harding’s faulty self-representation
did not warrant reversal.

“We cannot countenance deliber-
ate efforts to inject error,” said
Judge Robert Boochever in the 3-0
decision.

THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1987

F-Poeniiy A. =

ys VALLEY/STATE WATCH

Outside consultant sought

+ : rizona’s gas chamber, unused for more than

scheduled execution Jan. 3.

_. Department of Corrections staff in Florence.

’ re

for test of gas chamber

28 years, has yet to be tested by an outside
consultant for Donald Eugene Harding’s

State prison officials have scrambled to hire a
mechanical engineer to test the effectiveness and
safety of the gas chamber, which has been tested by

‘A formal request for proposals from engineering
firms to evaluate the gas chamber was withdrawn
_more than a week ago.

“Prison officials now are seeking less-formal bids

Donald Eugene
Harding

~-of not more than $10,000 via telephone in hopes of

having an engineer observe a test of the chamber,
corrections spokesman Michael Arra said.

~’ Prison staff has maintained the gas chamber and
“tested it on a twice-a-year basis with live poison,
cyanide,” Arra said. State law allows for execution
only by lethal gas.

« The test would be one of numerous steps taken by
prison officials this year to prepare for the state’s —

t first execution since 1963.

Monday, December 16, 1991 The Arizona Republic B3

852

For the reasons we expressed earlier con-
cerning the unavailability of this type of
action under the citizen suit provision of
the CWA, we believe that the court’s deci-
sion was based on the APA."

This circuit’s decision in City of Las Ve-
gas v. Clark County, 755 F.2d 697 (9th
Cir.1985), further supports our conclusion.
The USFS implies that language in City of
Las Vegas stating that Sea Clammers
“precludes suits brought under 28 U.S.C.
§ 1831 and 42 U.S.C. § 1983,” 755 F.2d at
708, necessarily means that suits brought
pursuant to the APA and 28 US.C. § 1331
also are precluded. However, in City of
Las Vegas, the court was interpreting the
impact of Sea Clammers with respect to
an implied right of action, see 453 U.S. at
15, 101 S.Ct. at 2623-24, and section 1983.
Moreover, the court explicitly recognized
that the district court may have had juris-
diction under 28 U.S.C. § 1331(a) to review
the Environmental Protection Agency’s ac-
tion under the APA. City of Las Vegas,
755 F.2d at 704. We conclude, therefore,
that judicial review is available under the
APA.

The district court states that even if it
were to consider the CWA claim on the
merits, it would reject it. The court stated
that it had considered the views of the
witnesses regarding the impact of the clear
cuts on the river and that while it recog-
nized that activities associated with the
timber harvest may cause discoloration and
turbidity, these charges would be “minor
and transient.’ The court therefore denied
plaintiffs’ request for injunctive relief.

The Oregon Water Quality Standards are
more complicated than plaintiffs allege.
For example, although the regulations re-
quire that existing high quality waters be
maintained and protected, the regulations
also set guidelines for nonpoint source ac-
tivities. In particular, the regulations state
that “(logging and forest management ac-
tivities shall be conducted in accordance

16. The APA does not itself provide jurisdiction.
Califano v. Sanders, 430 U.S. 99, 105, 97 S.Ct.
980, 984, 51 L.Ed.2d 192 (1977). Federal ques-

tion jurisdiction is based on 28 U.S.C. § 1331.

Id. at 107, 97 S.Ct. at 985; Glacier Park Found. v.
Watt, 663 F.2d 882, 885 (1981).

834 FEDERAL REPORTER, 2d SERIES

with the Oregon Forest Practices Act soas -

to minimize adverse effects on water quali-
ty.” Or.Admin.R. 340-41-026(7) (1986).
The regulation to which plaintiffs refer
concerning the ten percent cumulative in-
crease in natural stream turbidities in the
Willamette Basin also provides exceptions
for “limited duration activities necessary to
_. accommodate essential dredging, con-
struction or other legitimate activities.”
Or.Admin.R. 340-41-445(2)(c). The regula-
tion further states that the limited duration
activities may be authorized provided that
“all practicable turbidity control techniques
have been applied” and a permit or certifi-
cation authorized under sections 1341 and
1344 of the CWA or under Or.Admin.R.
141-85-100 et seg. has been issued.’7 Or.
Admin.R. 340-41-445(2)(B) (1986).

[8] We believe, however, that plaintiffs’
allegations and the regulations may raise
questions of material fact concerning
whether the water quality standards of the
Willamette Basin will be violated and
whether defendants have obtained the nec-
essary authorization. We therefore re-
mand this issue to the district court for a
determination on the merits of whether
summary judgment is appropriate on the
issue of whether the activities accompany-
ing the timber harvest will violate the ap-
plicable regulations.

We do not express any opinion concern-
ing whether or not the matters involved
preclude APA review because the matters
constitute agency actions committed to
agency discretion by law.

Vil.

Defendant Bugaboo argues that plain-
tiffs’ claim for injunctive relief is barred by
the doctrines of laches and unclean hands.
Bugaboo’s argument concerning laches is
meritless. Plaintiffs have timely pursued
their claims. With respect to Bugaboo’s
charge that plaintiffs are guilty of unclean

17. Although a permit or certification may not
be required for nonpoint source activities, other
restrictions in the regulation may apply.

HARDING v. LEWIS
Cieelaigi834 F.2d 853 (9h Cir. 1987)

hands because they were engaged in dis-
obedience at the site of the timber sale, the
district court specifically found that Buga-

” poo failed to establish that any of the par-

ties engaged in the demonstrations were
plaintiffs’ agents.

Vill.

In conclusion, we find that plaintiffs’
NEPA claims are entitled to the levels of
administrative review set forth at 36 C.F.R.
§ 211.18(f). We therefore reverse the dis-
trict court’s holding on this issue and va-
cate its conclusions concerning the merits
of the NEPA claim. The district court
should grant appropriate injunctive relief
while plaintiffs pursue their administrative
remedies. We affirm the order segregat-
ing the “Spotted Owl” claim. We remand
to the district court for a determination on
the merits whether summary judgment is
appropriate on the CWA claims brought

under the judicial review provisions of the
APA.

Plaintiffs’ request for attorney fees un-
der the Equal Access to Justice Act, 28
U.S.C. § 2412(d) is denied. Although we
rule against the USFS on some of the
claims, we cannot conclude that the govern-
ment’s position was not substantially justi-
fied. See Sierra Club v. Marsh, 816 F.2d
1376, 1390 (9th Cir.1987). Each party shall
bear its own costs.

AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN
PART, VACATED IN PART and RE-
MANDED for further consideration in ac-
cordance with this opinion.

AVMs

Donald Eugene HARDING,
Petitioner—Appellant,

Vv.

Samuel A. LEWIS,
Respondent-Appellee.

No. 86-2057.

ited States Court of Appeals,
Ninth Circuit.

Argued aiidSubmitted March 11, 1987.

Dec. 21, 1987:

Defendant who had previously been
convicted of first-degree murder, armed
robbery, kidnapping, and one count of theft
petitioned for habeas relief. The United
States District for the District of Arizona,
Alfredo C. Marquez, J., 641 F.Supp. 979,
dismissed defendant’s petition, and defend-
ant appealed. The Court of Appeals, Boo-
chever, Circuit Judge, held that: (1) state
trial court did not have to hold evidentiary
hearing, regarding defendant’s competence
to validly waive right to counsel; (2) mur-
der defendant who had the equivalent of
high school education, who had sufficient
prior experience with criminal justice sys-
tem to be aware of benefits of counsel, and
who was expressly advised by trial court of
possible penalties and complexities in case,
“knowingly and intelligently” waived right
to counsel; and (3) attorney’s advice to
defendant, that he should insist on repre-
senting himself as means of injecting error
into proceedings, was not per se ineffective
assistance of counsel.

Affirmed.

1. Habeas Corpus @113(12)

; Court of Appeals reviews de novo dis-
trict court’s decision on petition for writ of
habeas corpus.

2. Constitutional Law <=268.1(5)

Due process requires that state court
initiate hearing on defendant’s competence
to waive counsel whenever court has or
should have good-faith doubt about defend-
ant’s ability to understand nature and con-

detective went on. “Or maybe he was try-
ing to catch a freight. Do any freights stop
here?”

Sleigh replied that the freights, and even
passenger trains, stopped there when the
signal up ahead was against them.

“No,” Sullivan said, “in that case he
wouldn’t be catching a train going into
town; he’s too wary for that. He’d want
to go the other way. Like as not he’s
working his way around the town. Let’s
see if we can follow his tracks.”

The footprints soon disappeared in the
rocky desert. That is, they disappeared
to all eyes except those of experienced
desert manhunters, and Sullivan happened
to be one of those.

“He’s in a pretty bad way,” he observed.
“He’s weaving, which means he’s weak
from hunger, or has been wounded. But
since we’ve had no reports of anyone shoot-
ing at him, he’s probably hungry. We might
come upon him any time now. These tracks
were made this morning or late last night.”

They went on, Sullivan moving slowly
at times as his eyes sought disturbed peb-
bles and trampled weeds or grass. At one
place the fugitive had stopped to rest. He
had lain down under a paloverde tree. From
the looks of the crushed vegetation he had
lain there quite a while, the detective
pointed out. “Might have slept here last
night, even. Trouble with these fellows
is, they take one look at this desert and
figure they can walk across it in a couple
of hours. Sometimes it’s taken a couple
of days, or even a whole week, and they
walk so hard to get it over with that they
spend their strength. They don’t know
what the desert can do to a man until they
have tried it.”

The detective halted momentarily to
survey something in the distance. About
two miles ahead, two tiny specks were
wheeling in the sky, like fighter planes
circling over an enemy.

“Buzzards,” Sullivan observed.
sign.”

“Do you mean he’s dead?”

“No, just the opposite. Buzzards. will
follow a sick animal, man or beast, for
days sometimes, keeping their eyes on it,
waiting for it to drop. They have an uncanny
sense of approaching death. It’s probably

“A good

from the way it acts and walks when it’s
sick. Those birds are watching something,
following it. See, they don’t stay over one
spot long. They keep shifting gradually.
Now watch a minute and maybe we can
tell which way it’s walking.”

They watched a while and Sullivan noted
the object below the buzzards and that
they were coming a little nearer.

“It’s lost, and it’s a man, all right! He
probably lost his directions when he awoke
this morning. There was no sun and he
headed right into those mountains. Now
he doesn’t know where he’s going.”

They went forward slowly, setting a
course that would head off the wanderer,
guided by the circling buzzards which con-
tinued to wheel patiently. .

At last they were in a spot where the
fugitive might emerge any moment. Sul-
livan had drawn his revolver and was wait-
ing, crouched behind a greasewood clump.

Suddenly he saw the man’s head and
shoulders bobbing along, and then his full
form as he staggered forward. He came on
blindly, not seeing the two men crouched
twenty feet away.

“All right, Hadley, put up your hands or
Yl kill you!”

The crisp command rang out over the
desert just as the fugitive stumbled. He
caught himself and threw up his hands,
turning slowly to see where the voice came
from.

The man’s lips were swollen and cracked,
his eyes bloodshot and his clothing ripped
to shreds. But he still wore the black
bow tie.

“Give me some water,” he pleaded. “I
got to have water.”

Sleigh handed him a canteen and then
had to fight him to get it away from him,
lest he drink too much at once.

He denied he was Hadley. He said he
started out from Stoval three days before
to walk across the desert and had become
lost.

_ “Funny you didn’t follow the railroad
tracks in that case,” the detective remarked.
“We trailed you right across the tracks.”

“Didn’t see any tracks. You must be
mistaken.”

Sullivan guarded the prisoner while the
signal keeper went back for horses. Later

STATEMENT OF THE hk ee
ACTS OF CONGRESS OF AUGUST 2:
Monthly at Dunellen, N. J., f

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County of New York 58.
Barre me, ca pnceety Public,

Dworkin, having been

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to wit:

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in Macfadden Publications, Inc.:

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oseph Miles

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the captive was taken to Yuma, where he
still denied he was the killer. “I’m not
Hadley,” he insisted. “I never heard of him.”

Sheriff Polhamous got out the Hadley
file and began laying photos and circulars
on the desk in front of the prisoner.

“All right, I’m Hadley. Let’s get this
business over with. You think I mur-
dered those people, don’t you? Well I didn’t.
I was going out into the desert to get $300
my girl had left in her purse under a tree.
We were riding along when a couple of
fellows rode out of the desert and began
firing at us. They shot the Johnson couple
and took their money. Then they robbed
me, taking the $500 [had on me. They were
going to kill me, but I escaped from them
in the darkness. Later I saw by the paper
that I was wanted for the crime and I got
scared. I took to the desert and I’ve been
there ever since. I wish one of the Johnsons
were alive. They’d tell you I didn’t do it.”

It was immediately obvious to the officers
that Hadley thought he had killed both.

Sheriff Polhamous made the most of it.
‘If Johnson were alive and walked in that
door right this minute, he would identify
you as the killer, wouldn't he?”

“Not if he were honest. If he told you the
truth, he’d say that I had nothing to do
with it.”

“Well, he’s going to walk in that door
sometime today. We’ll wait and see what
he says.”

“What do you mean, he’s going to walk
in that door? He’s dead.”

“No, you’re mistaken. You thought you
finished him off, but he pulled through.
He’s leaving the hospital in Tucson today.”

“I got to see him before I’ll believe that.”

Later the prisoner saw Johnson and the
latter immediately identified him. But what-,
ever thoughts were in Hadley’s mind stayed
there. He had nothing to say.

At the trial it was shown that the bullets
found in Mrs. Johnson’s body had come
from the .32 caliber gun Sullivan had taken
from Hadley at the time of his apprehension
in the desert. But the defense made much
of the hole which they claimed had been
made by a bullet fired from outside the
ear. They also stressed Hadley’s claim
that two men started shooting at them.
They talked about the two billiard players
who had visited an Ajo pool hall, flashing
a large roll of bills, maintaining these were
the men who had attacked the Johnson
party. Hadley himself told a convincing
story from the stand, so convincing that
the jury disagreed, in spite of the fact that
Hadley’s gun had fired the lethal bullets.

But the second jury was not so gullible.
Meanwhile the two billiard sharks had
been found. The money they had flashed
that night had belonged to their employer,
for whom they had sold some cattle, they
proved. They were out of the picture.

The verdict of guilty came after only
twenty minutes of deliberation.

Known as the Desert Madman, Hadley
was hanged at the Arizona State Peniten-
tiary on June 13th, 1922, within sight of
the desert that had licked him.

Hadley never admitted knowing Estaver.
and the mystery of his death from drowning
never has been cleared up completely.
Somehow Hadley obtained Estaver’s iden-
tification cards and used them. That he had
something to do with the drowning there
is little doubt in anyone’s mind.

Alice Grant was cleared of any com-
plicity in Hadley’s crimes. She had thought
him to be a hard-working and honest auto-
mobile salesman and had promised to
marry him after he obtained a divorce, but
he did not tell her that his wife was in
prison.

Nore: The actual name of one of the char-
acters“mentioned in this article has been with-
held and a fictitious one substituted: namely,
Alice Grant—Eb.

wife. Opening
the wounded
ar. As he did
’n nor moved.

e in the back
‘k

scovered three
all on the left

cond counted.
< the previous
Gila Bend, 35
‘member what

mpened towel.
ened. ‘Anna’s

“ou need your

or train No. 3,
for a curve.
and stop that

seat of their
; time, Cronk
a mile north.

Jim Flanagan, the engineer, jammed on his air brakes and
jerked his whistle in a staccato signal for the conductor to come
forward.

The train ground to a stop. Conductor Walter Dorsett swung
off the front coach and ran up, followed by Special Agent Pat
Sullivan of the railroad police.

“A man’s been shot,” Cronk explained. “We need a doctor
bad.”

Sullivan took one look at the unconscious figure in the back
of the Buick, then ‘spoke from his long familiarity with gunshot
wounds. “Better take him to Yuma. I don’t think he’ll make it,
but we'll put him in the front coach and tell Flanagan to high-
ball it in.” He turned to Cronk. “How did it happen? What
do you know about it ?”

“Nothing. There is a dead woman in the car too.”

Sullivan jerked around to look in the Buick again.

“Not our machine. In his.” Briefly Cronk explained every-
thing he could. 7

“Might be murder,” Sullivan said. “You get this old man
to the hospital. I’ll go into Stoval and call the sheriff in Yuma
on the railroad wire.”

Dorsett, Sullivan and Cronk lifted the badly wounded man into
the coach. As they climbed back down the steps No. 3 was
already rolling. |

“It’s queer business of some kind, all right,” Sullivan said.
“That desert road you're talking about comes in from Ajo and
Tucson. Too bad the old man couldn’t talk. If you’ll drive me
into Stoval—it’s only about a mile down the road—I’ll phone the

a See gee

; PHOTODIAGRAM: shows how
investigators, backtracking
the death car, came -upon a
number of .clues at the. mur-
der scene, How could the
wounded man drive so. far?

“uwyHAT’S WRONG with that man?
and so early in the morning too.”

Spurred by ‘his wife’s words, Walter Cronk glanced down
a rutted desert road joining the highway from the south-
west. He watched the weaving approach of the new Dodge
touring car.

It rocked crazily as its wheels climbed out, then dropped
back into the rutted tracks, “Something wrong, sure,” the
husband. agreed. | ;

The Cronks, touring west from Denver, had spent the night
of November 15 in a sandy draw one mile east of Stoval, Ariz.
An experienced camper, Cronk had been busy over his break-
fast fire. He stood up now. The Dodge was moving slowly.
There were two figures in the front seat.

The car came abreast of the camp. He could see the driver,
an elderly, gray-haired man in a khaki shirt and mackinaw
coat.

The driver’s eyes lifted from the road as the machine stopped.
He saw the campers. “Help! Please help! I’m hurt!”

Cronk. raced across the desert floor.

Reaching the auto, he saw the second figure in the front seat
was an elderly, motherly woman, well dressed. She was lean-
ing against the man’s shoulder staring straight ahead.

The leather cushions, the floorboard, the instrument panel,

the whole interior of that front compartment was covered with
blood.

‘He must be drunk,

“Tye been shot!” the driver gasped weakly, then dropped

forward against the steering wheel.

(hai -y Rhee

“Help the woman, Clara,” Cronk called to his wife. Opening
the left front door, he slipped his arms under the wounded
man’s shoulder and started to lift him from the car. As he did
so he could see why the woman had neither spokén nor moved.
She was dead.

Her skull was split open. There was one hole in the back
of her head and a second wound lower in her neck,

Stretching the driver on the ground, Cronk discovered three
bullet holes in the man’s shoulder, neck and arm, all on the left
side. -

“Get some water, Clara,” he urged.

The wounded man needed a doctor. Every second counted.
But where would they find help? Just before dusk the previous
evening they had passed through the last town, Gila Bend, 35
miles to the east. Desperately Cronk tried to remember what
town there had been on the map to the west.

Mrs, Cronk came back with a canteen and a dampened towel.
She bathed the old man’s face. Finally his eyes opened. “Anna’s
dead, isn’t she ?” ‘

“Don’t try to talk, now,” Cronk counseled. “You need your
strength.”

Far in the distance the Southern Pacific passenger train No. 3,
westbound for Yuma and Los Angeles,whistled for a curve.

“Get the car, Clara. We’ll drive to the railroad and stop that
train. Never mind the camp outfit.”

The Cronks lifted the old man into the back seat of their
big Buick. The train whistled again, closer this time. Cronk
headed across the desert to the right-of-way half a mile north.

+ Regt ees

Tin epran es
r) EL y Sm
ay oo

# if
EY hs

Jim Flanagan, th
jerked his whistle in
forward.

The train ground
off the front coach
Sullivan of the rail

“A man’s been s!
bad.”

Sullivan took one
of the Buick, then :
wounds. ‘Better ta
but we'll put him ir
ball it in.” He tur:
do you know about

“Nothing. Ther:

Sullivan. jerked a

“Not our machir
thing he could.

“Might be murc
to the hospital. I’!
on the railroad wir

Dorsett, Sullivar
the coach. As th
already rolling.

“Tt’s queer busi

“That desert road
Tucson. Too bad
into Stoval—it’s o1

THROUGH THE efforts of Sheriff Ben
Daniels of Tucson it was established
that the slayer watched an intended
victim cash $1,000 in express checks,

sheriff and then we’ll go. back out to your
camp and wait.”

UMA, COUNTY SEAT and nearest

city of any size, was 50 miles west.
Sullivan realized it would be possibly a
couple of hours before Sheriff J. H. Pol-
hamus could reach the scene.

They returned to the Dodge touring car.

in ‘the middle of the. desert road near
Cronk’s camp. Sullivan studied the body
of the woman slumped in the front seat.
“She’s been dead at least 12, maybe 15
hours,” he judged. “If we go through the
baggage we may’ find something.”

Cronk. pointed to a celluloid envelope
strapped to the steering wheel column.
“That car registration might tell you
who they are.”

The Dodge was registered to Peter
Johnson of West Arapahoe. Street,
Denver.

With a carefulness born of long ex-
perience, Sullivan checked the license
on the registration slip against. the num-
bers on the plates, fs 9 car all
right,” he said. “We shouldn’t move the
body, so let’s look in the back seat.”

There were suitcases and boxes on the
floor and the cushion, but there was still
room on the seat’ for a man to squeeze
in, “The way this is stacked,” Sullivan
said, “it looks like there was a third per-
son in the rear here.”

The S. P. officer and Cronk unloaded
most of the luggage. Lodged between
two of the suitcases and on the floor they
found five empty brass cartridges.

Sullivan picked up one, sniffed it, and

* glanced at the cap end. The shell had been

fired from a .32-caliber Mauser automatic.
Apparently Peter Johnson and the
dead woman had been shot by a passen-
ger in the back seat. How had the killer
escaped? What was the motive? If the
Johnsons were traveling from Denver to
California, why had they selected that
tortuous jackrabbit desert trail? If they
had come from Tucson, they had chosen
a poor route by going through Ajo.
Sheriff Jack Polhamus, a big, weather-
beaten ex-cattlernan, reached Cronk’s
camp accompanied by Yuma County At-

40 torney H, H. Baker, at 25 minutes past

a at aa Ot a a CARTES 0d

Pia cot

‘9

LOSER IN ONE trial, District Attorney
George Darnell dug into the record of the

defendant. The evidence which he uncov-
ered there resulted in a trip to the gallows. |

11 on the morning of November 16.

Polhamus and Baker listened to Cronk’s
story and then heard Pat Sullivan relate
what he had discovered in his search of
the car. ,

“The man’s name is Johnson all right,”
Baker said. “The train crew found his
wallet and left word for us at Welton
when they stopped for water. There was
something over $900 in’ the pocketbook.”

Sullivan whistled softly. Apparently
robbery had not been the motive for the
crime.

The sheriff made a brief examination

of the. body. “I think you are about right:

on the time of death,” he told Sullivan.
“She was probably shot before dark last
night.”

He lifted a woman’s purse from the
seat, opened it and spread the contents
on the right front fender. “Here’s a
book of printed checks with the name
Anna Johnson on them. She must be
the old man’s wife.”

Baker turned to Walter Cronk. “I
suppose you folks are anxious to get
on your way?” he queried.

“We want to be in San Diego tomorrow
night, but if there is anything more we
can do here...”

“T don’t believe there is,” the county
attorney said. “However, we'd like to
have your statements and an address
where we can reach you. If you and your

_ wife could stop in Yuma and tell your
story to my stenographer there, it would
speed things up and leave us free to go
ahead with the investigation at this end.”

The Cronks promised to do this.

In the meantime Polhamus had replaced
Mrs. Johnson’s things in her purse. “I’m
going into Stoval,” he said, “and tele-
graph Denver. They can probably give
us some information about the Johnsons.
And I'll wire Sheriff Ben Daniels in
Tucson and see if he can pick up their
trail there. The undertaker from Yuma
and the coroner from Welton should be
here by the time we are ready to leave.”

Baker nodded. He realized that time
and distance were both working for the
killer, If the Johnsons had come over
the old road from Tucson, the assault
must have taken place in the 40 miles of

lonesome desert between Ajo and Stoval.

The Cronks departed. Baker and Sulli-
van stayed with the corpse while Pol-
hamus completed his business with the

maenailroadtelegrapher in Stoval. The under-

taker arrived, accompanied by Deputy
Sheriff G. O. Johnson of Yuma County.

Polhamus ordered Johnson to watch the
car while he, Sullivan and Baker back-
tracked on the road to Ajo.

The weaving path of the Dodge was
easy to follow. As they drove across the
desert dotted with thirsty ironwood, mes-
quite and palo verde, all three officers
marveled at Johnson’s ability to negotiate
the twisting: road.

“It must have been agony,” Baker said
softly, “weak as he was and with his wife
on the seat beside him dead.”

Sullivan nodded. - “I have been figuring
he was going to check out, but a man
who could come through this will give
the docs a lot of help.”

“If he doesn’t pull through,” Polhamus
observed, “we may never know what
happened.”

ITH EACH MILE their admiration

for Johnson’s courage increased.
When the speedometer on the sheriff’s car
had logged 17 and six-tenths mile, the
sheriff pulled to a halt.

“The Dodge stopped here,” he said.
“Johnson had trouble getting her going
again.”

’ They went over the ground. The story
was there, plain and convincing to their
trailwise eyes, but there were no shells or
blood spots to fix this as the murder scene.

“Johnson might have spent the night
here,” Sullivan suggested. “It would have
been the smart thing to do.”

Four and a half miles farther on they
found another place where the Dodge had
been parked. The officers searched the
ground carefully. Here there were flecks
of blood, one set of small footprints, and
the sheriff retrieved two more brass shell
cases which had been fired from a .32
Mauser automatic. -

The tracks led north and west across
the desert. “Our killer left these,’ Pol-
hamus said. “He might be heading for, the
railroad or the highway.”

The sand was too soft to retain more
than a blurred impression of the foot-
prints. They were small, but details of
sole and heel were lost. .

“I think we’ve crossed into Pima Coun-
ty,” Baker said. “At any rate, we’re close
to the line.”

If the killer was headed north he was
bound to strike the railroad, the highway
and the Gila River. He could then follow
any one of these three avenues, either east
or west. To the south Ajo was the only
white settlement between this desert spot
and the Mexican border.

The slayer had at least a 12-hour start.
It was useless.to try to follow him on
foot, but there was still a chance he could
be cut off before he reached the security
of civilization.

After marking the spot so they could
locate it again, the three officers headed
back for Stoval. They reached Cronk’s
camp at 20 minutes past 4. Johnson and
the Dodge were still there. Mrs, John-
son’s body had been taken to Yuma.

“McGaw, the railroad telegrapher, sent
word by a section (Continued on page 57)

(Co

» he said.

missing the |
disliked this
wild boy, anc
him down. ‘
from his fam

Searcely b
actually gone
planned to vi:
boro, 125 mi
time—Little
room as he p:
that her lock
case she owr

“Said she
row explaine
I don’t want
her. She too

That seen
clothes were
garments hz
hangers and

“What tin

“Early thi
“T walked |
waited until
you're throu
to bed. You
_ Little sho
Johnson. — |:
bacco. We
first, if we |

E WAL}
way to.
were not v
Camille and

a \t

Test

* Continued from Page 1B
at the time. The air permit has since
<been issued for the gas chamber.
‘Arizona corrections officials later
began the search for a mechanical
engineer to test the gas chamber.

_- Mike Kowren, puchasing man-
ager for the Corrections Depart-
ment, told the Arizona Business Ga-
zette earlier this month that the

- department lacked the staff and
equipment to certify the safety of

‘ the gas chamber.

Kowren declined comment to The

.. Arizona Daily ‘Star last week. But .

;.Arra said Kowren. was explaining
» only that corrections officials who
_have tested the gas chamber are not
certified mechanical engineers.

_., As the request for proposals was
being written, Sam Sublett, deputy
_;, Warden” of the state prison~ in

Florence, discussed testing and the

.,.beuchter..

“Bos. Leuchter was expected to bid on

acthe job,. but the process was
scrapped when Leuchter’s informa-

quest for proposal),” Arra said.

Léuchter gained some notoriety
in 1985 when, while serving as a wit-
ness in a Canadian trial of a man
who said that accounts of the Holo-
caust, in which 6 million Jews were
kilied by Nazis, were a hoax.

The man was convicted of. pub-

‘lishing false news in a pamphlet that

said there were no gas chambers at
Auschwitz.

Leuchter has said that gas cham-
bers at Auschwitz and two other con-
centration camps could not have
worked. He has said that buildings
he inspected at.the camps showed
no signs of residues from lethal gas
and that buildings were so poorly
built. that. gases would have
escaped.

Arra said Sublett did not have
“knowledge of the baggage, if you
will, carried by Leuchter.”

The state Attorney General’s ‘Of-
fice, which is pressing for resump-

_ tion of executions, is staying out of
., any discussion about the prepared-
a erayon of the gas chamber with ee a—

ness of the gas chamber.

chamber in proper working condi-
tion,” said Steve Tseffos, press sec-
retary for Attorney,General Grant

“it ls not our concern.
Obviously, if we proceed,
we would like the gas

_ chamber in proper wee

condition. Our efforts are .
aimed at cairying out the
law, and the law has been
that Mr. Harding Is to be
executed.”

Steve Tseffos
Attorney General’s Office

Woods. “Our efforts-are-aimed at

carrying out the law, and the law has.

been that Mr. Harding is to be exe-
cuted. We’ll leave any problems of
the gas chamber in the proper
hands, the Department of Correc-
tions.”

Prison officials now-hope that a.

phone bid can be accepted tomor-

row or the next day and that a test

may be run by the end of the week...
The test would follow a review on

é Tuesday:by the Arizona ‘Suprerig ayia ag
“Tt isnot our: concern. Obviously, a ee
“if we proceed, we would-like the gas =.

Court. of Harding’ S case,

e the ‘gas chamber than any of the: ‘101
~ other inmates on death row in Ari+

zona. He is scheduled to die at 12: 05 ;

Harding,.42, is closer- to:reachinte

a. m. on Jan. 3.

* Paul | McMurdie, who inouitors
death row cases as the chief counsel
of the Attorney General’s Office’s
criminal appeals section, said Hard-
“ing has exhausted his regular routes

of appeal, Harding now has the bur-

“den of showing why his execution
Should be. stayed.

. Harding was convicted in 1982 of
"murders in Tucson and Phoenix.
After escaping from an Arkansas
county jail, Harding went on a cross-
country rampage. In January 1980,
he posed as a security guard in Tuc-
son at the:La Quinta Motor Inn, 665
_N: Freeway, where he killed two sa-
“lesmen, Martin Concannon of Tuc-
‘son and Robert Wise of Mesa,

Harding beat Wise with a lamp_
and stuffed socks in Concannon’s
mouth before shooting them and
fleeing in Concannon’s car,

In Phoenix, Harding bound and
_ bagged Allan Gage in a motel room,
and the. man died’ from asphyxia-

: Jarding’s: execu-
on: nessed “by, up to 27 :
people, “including: six who can be
there at. Harding’s ‘invitation and
“seven media Tepresentatives, -

__ tion “found its way into the RFP (re-

Ghe Arizona Daily Star

Lig gt

eh AS
See

Tucson, Sunday, December 15, 1991

ae Be

The NATIONAL EXECUTION ALERT NETWORK is a project
of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
For more information, contact: Pamela Rutter, NCADP

1325 G St. NW LL-B, Washington DC 20005 (202)347-2411
Peacenet Access Code--ABOLITION//Non-Business Hours Alert Answering Machine 202-347-2415
Partial Funding for the Alert Network is provided by the J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation,
the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute, the Boehm Foundation and the Unitarian Universalist
Foundation.

ALERT 91-8 December 12, 1991
**EXECUTION ALERT**EXECUTION ALERT**EXECUTION ALERT**EXECUTION ALERT**
ARIZONA ___ 3 JANUARY 1992 GAS CHAMBER

(This is updated information on Donald Harding.)

DONALD EUGENE HARDING, (White), age 42 has been on death row since January
1982. He was convicted of the robbery/kidnapping/murder of two white males.
Based on the advice of his lawyer, who was recently out of law school, who had
never tried a capital case and who had conducted virtually no investigation,
Harding represented himself at trial and at his sentencing hearing. Mr. Harding,
who is diagnosed as having organic brain damage, made only one abjection
during his trial and presented no mitigating evidence. Although the ineffectiveness
of Mr. Harding’s lawyer has been acknowledged, the state of Arizona is continuing
to refuse to hear unrebutted evidence that would warrant a sentence less than
death.
TAKE ACTION, CONTACT: Gov. Fife Symington

1700 W. Washington

Phoenix AZ 85007 (602) 542-4331

TEXAS JUVENILE 7 JANUARY 1992 LETHAL INJECTION ~
JOHNNY FRANK GARRETT, (White), age 27 has-been on death row since September
1982. He was convicted of the rape/murder of a 76-year-old white nun. Garrett
who was ]7-years-old at the time of the crime has a history of drug and alcohol
abuse. He also has been in and out of state institutions since age 14. He has been
diagnosed as being chronically psychotic and has suffered some head injuries. No
mitigation was introduced at his trial or sentencing.

Bishop Matthiesen and the sisters of St. Francis’ convent have been very
outspoken against the execution of Johnny Garrett.

TAKE ACTION, CONTACT: Atty Gen. Dan Morales Gov. Ann Richards

PO Box 12548 PO Box 12428
Austin TX 78711-2548 Austin TX 78711-2428
(512) 463-2100 (512) 463-2000
FAX (512) 463-1849
NORTH CAROLINA 17 JANUARY 1991 GAS CHAMBER OR LETHAL INJECTION

ANSON AVERY MAYNARD, (Native American), age 49 has been on death row since
December 1981. He was convicted of the murder of a white male. Since
Maynard’s arrest, he has maintained his innocence. He was offered and refused a
plea to second degree murder with parole eligibility in ten years at the time of his
1981 trial. Maynard’s white co-defendant agreed to testify against him at trial and
was not prosecuted.

Maynard would be the first person of color executed in North Carolina since
October 27, 1961 and the first Native American to be executed in North Carolina
since December 30, 1949. Maynard would be the first Native American to be
executed in the United States since January 11, 1951.

TAKE ACTION, CONTACT: Governor James G. Martin
State Capitol
Capitol Square
Raleigh NC 27601-2905
(919) 733-9490 FAX (919) 733-2120

The NATIONAL EXECUTION ALERT NETWORK is a project
of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
For more information, contact: Pamela Rutter, NCADP

1325 G St. NW LL-B, Washington DC 20005 (202)347-2411
Peacenet Access Code--ABOLITION//Non-Business Hours Alert Answering Machine 202-347-2415
Partial: Funding for the Alert Network is provided by the J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation,
the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute, the Boehm Foundation and the Unitarian Universalist
Foundation.

ALERT 92-2 February 21, 1992
“EXECUTION ALERT**EXECUTION ALERT**EXECUTION ALERT**EXECUTION ALERT**
OKLAHOMA 10 MARCH 1992 _LETHAL INJECTION

ROBYN LEROY PARKS, (Black), age 37 has been on death row since October 1978.
He was convicted of the murder of a gas station attendant. Mr. Parks was denied
by the Pardon & Parole Board 4-1 for a recommendation of clemency. The
Governor does not have executive clemency power without the recommendation
of the Pardon & Parole Board.

OKLAHOMA 13 MARCH 1992 ETHAL IN
OLAN R. ROBISON, (White), age 45 has been on death row since April 1981,

Robison was convicted of the robbery/murder of 1 white male and 2 white females.
There was no mitigation on Robison’s behalf introduced at his trial. Robison’s two
co-defendants received llife sentences. Robison was sentenced to death, after the
trial judge granted a prosecution motion to prevent a sister of one of the victims
from testifying that Robison should not be given the death penalty.

TAKE ACTION ON OKLAHOMA CASES, CONTACT:

Gov. David Walters OK Pardon & Parole Board

State Capitol 4040 N Lincoln Blvd. Ste 219

Oklahoma City OK 73105 Oklahoma City OK 73105

(405) 521-2342 (405)427-8601

FAX (405) 521-33353 FAX (405) 427-6648
ALABAMA 20 MARCH 1992 _ T

__ELECTROCUTION
LARRY HEATH, (White), age 40, has been on death row since February 1983. He was
convicted of the contract murder of his pregnant wife. The two co-defendants
who actually committed the kidnapping and murder were given life sentences.
TAKE ACTION, CONTACT: Goy, Guy Hunt
State House
11 S. Union St.
Montgomery AL 36130
(205) 242-7100 FAX (205) 242-4407

ARIZONA 6 APRIL 1992 GAS CHAMBER
DONALD EUGENE HARDING, White), age 42, has been on death row since January
1982, He was convicted of the robbery/kidnapping/murder of two males. Based
on the advice of his lawyer, who was recenily out of law school, who had never
tried a capital case and who had conducted virtually no investigation, Harding

Arizona has not had an execution since March 1963.

TAKE ACTION, CONTACT: Gov. Fife Symington

" 1700 W. Washington (602) 542-433]
Phoenix AZ 85007 FAX (602) 542-760]

State scrambling to atl
gas chamber tested

i. By Chris Limberis

The Arizona Daily Star
Arizona’s gas chamber, not used

_ for more than 28 years, has yet to be

tested by an outside consultant 19
days before Donald Eugene Hard-
ing’s scheduled execution.

State prison officials have scram-
bled to hire a-mechanical engineer
to test the. effectiveness and safety

of the gas. ‘chamber, which has been.

tested by Department of Corrections

. staff in Florence.

A formal request for proposals
from engineering firms to evaluate
the gas chamber. was withdrawn
more than a week ago after infor-
mation given a deputy warden by a

self-styled “executionexpert” from _

Massachusetts was. included in the
state’s request. .

The expert, Fred “Lauchter;: ‘of
Malden, Mass., had written a report
in which he said gas chambers at
three Nazi death camps could not
have worked.

Prison ‘officials now are seeking
less formal bids, of not more than
$10,000, via telephone in hopes of
having an engineer observe a test of
the chamber, said Michael Arra, De-
partment of Corrections iors
man.

“If none can be found, we’re sim-
ply going to go ahead and we will

rely on our own people’s testing of
it,” Arra said.

“The concept was that it would be
a good idea to have an outside ex-.._
pert, a second opinion if you will,’
since this has not happened in 28

years,” Arra said.
Prison staff has maintained the
gas chamber and “‘tested it on a

. twice-a-year basis with live poison,
cyanide, ” Arra Said.

“State law allows for execution

Ke only “by lethal gas. -

‘The test would be ‘fie: of numer-.
ous. steps taken by prison officials
this year to prepare for the execu-
tion while various death row in-
mates have. alternately been sched-
uled to be the first: to be executed in
Arizona since 1963, when Manuel E.
Silvas was executed, Fifty-five peo-
ple have been executed around:the
country since the: Ws S. Supreme
Court ruled in 1976. to allow the
death penalty.

. Corrections officials. were “sur-
prised in May when ‘the state. De-
partment,of Environmental Quality
notified ‘them that no executions

could be carried out until’ the Cor-

rections Depariment received a per-
mit, enabling cyanide gas to be. re-
leased through a 30-foot-high pipe
after an execution.

ae°

Five executions were scheduled ~>

See TEST, Page 5B

The Avizong Baily | Star

Tucson, Sunday, December 15, 1991 ie

(1)

By-Chris Limberis
The Arizoria Dally Star
-@2ELORENCE — -Lawyers for Don
Etigene Harding lost-their fight last
night to: keep the multiple murderer
out of the'gas chamber for his sched-
filed execution at 12:05 this morn-
ing.

The state Board of Pardons and
-Parole late last night denied a re-
prieve requested by Harding’s de-
fense attorneys.

BA EN

izona Hai

"\ Attorneys Hal Sheets and James

Belanger, of the Arizona Capital
Representation Project, told the
board that Harding, 43, should be
given a reprieve because of his life-
long brain damage and ineffective
defense‘during his 1982 trial in Pima
County Superior Court.

The hearing began at 9 a.m. and
recessed at about 7 p.m. so Sheets
and Belanger could review confi-
dential prison files on Harding that

BANG ERR

" First Edition, Tucson, Monday; April 6, 1992

board

they had not been previously pro-
vided.

When a stay issued Thursday by
the 9th US. Circuit Court of Appeals
was lifted Saturday by the U.S. Su-

preme Court; Harding was moved -
from an observation cell in -Cell’

Block 6 to the “Death House” in the
central yard of the prison.

In a stark cage with a metal bunk,
a metal desk welded to the floor and
a toilet, Harding was under constant

watch by two guards and was in eye-
-Shot of the gas chamber.

. Before being transferred, Hard-
ing talked with the Rev. Ralph
Fowler, a-Tempe minister who said
he has visited Harding 31 times over
the last five months.

Harding, whose lawyers contend

. was the product of a tortured life,

including years in the infamous Ar-

"Kansas State Prison, wanted to de-

fiver a message to the public.

Cap

The message is that from age.10 to
30, Harding spent only 1% years out
of juvenile institutions or prison and
that his crimes of burglary and rob-
bery never totaled more fae $200,

: Fowler said.

Harding, Fowler said, ad not
trying to blame society,” but
pleaded for society “to stop creating
monsters,” Fowler said. “Donald is
sorry for what happened.”

Asked what he would say to the

35¢ U.S./50¢ In Mexico

52 Pages

families of his victims, Harding told
Fowler, “I would say I’m sorry. Of
Course that would not bring them
back. My family is also victims. I
brought it on me and everybody,” :" ”
Sheets ended-one portion of fils
argument yesterday with the affida-
vit of a witness to five executions
who detailed the gruesome effects
of the gas chamber, including the
condemned person’s convulsions,

See EXECUTE, fees, 2A

Patra

“ee

The Associated Press

honking occurred yester-
set a deadline of 7:30 a.m.
striking workers to either
manently replaced.

' be put in a position where it
show its teeth.”

vision news in Tehran was
vith government accounts of
ttack and angry rhetoric
the rebels.

he pursuit of the hypocrites,”
‘wscaster said, “high-flying
y jets today destroyed one of
ises.”’

dad said eight Iranian planes
irt in the early-morning raid,
casted 15 minutes. An Iranian
ad his crewman were taken
‘r by Iraqi officials.

Iranians have about 60
‘an-made F-4 fighter-bomb-
cording to the International
e of Strategic Studies, but
out 20 are believed to be in
2 order. The rest have been

* ecause of a lack of spare
ited States cut off .

ion in 1979.
ian

Execute

Continued from Page One
urination and defecation.

Harding, on death row for 12
years, will be the 64th person exe-
cuted in Arizona and the first.since
March 13, 1963, when Manuel Silvas,
a Coolidge tavern owner, was killed
for the murder of his lover.

His execution will bring the na-
tion’s total to 168 since the U.S. Su-
preme Court reinstated the death
penalty in 1976. -

Harding was convicted of mur-
dering car-tool salesman Martin
Concannon, 33, of Tucson, and Con-
cannon’s supervisor, Robert Wise,
35, of Mesa. Harding, who had posed
as a security guard to gain entrance
to their motel room, bound and beat
the men in their room at the La
Quinta Motor Inn, 665 N. Freeway,
before shooting them in the head
and chest at close range on Jan. 25,
1980. we! igsihae tes mie

Hours earlier, Harding had used
the same technique“at..a Phoenix
motel. There he tied and gagged
Allan Gage, who died of asphyxia-
tion.

Harding was arrested on Jan. 26
while driving Concannon’s car
around Northern Arizona University
in Flagstaff. He might have gone un-
noticed had he not aroused suspi-
cion when he tried to park in a res-
tricted lot.

Evidence against him at his trial
in Pima County Superior Court was
overwhelming. He had the wallets of
his victims and the .25-caliber pistol
he used to shoot them. His finger-
prints were all over the motel room.

He offered little resistance when
he was arrested and ‘appeared re-
signed to his fate.

“I deserve whatever you do to
me,” he told a Tucson Police De-
partment detective after declining
the detective’s coat to shield him
from subfreezing temperatures.

The murders capped a multistate
rampage that began when Harding,
then awaiting murder charges,
escaped from an Arkansas county
jail.

Harding spent most of his life be-
hind bars or in institutions. He twice
attempted suicide. One of those at-
tempts occurred at the age of 16,
after he was sentenced to the infa-
mous, tortuous Arkansas’ State
Prison,

Harding’s troubles began‘literally
at birth.

He was born at an aunt’s house in

Asked what he would
Say to the families of his
victims, Harding told
Fowler, ‘‘l would say I’m
sorry. Of course that would
not bring them ‘back. My
family Is also victims. |
brought it on me and _

}

everybody.!” °°,

rural Arkansas without the aid of a
doctor, who was 90 minutes late be-
‘Cause of car trouble. With the umbil-
ical cord: around his neck, Harding
struggled for his first breath. He also
was jaundiced. :

Two doctors who treated Harding
at the Child Guidance Clinic in Little
Rock said: Harding suffered . from
brain damage. Several other neurol-
ogists who examined Harding for his |
lawyers also testified that he suf-
fered from organic brain damage.

Arizona’s capital punishment laws
underwent numerous revisions:and

, court challenges culminating‘in the

Supreme Court's action in“1990:'to

uphold the state’s death penalty: . ce
' It was the Supreme Court, in‘an’ *

emergency action Saturday, that
cleared the way for Harding to die:
The court voted 7-2 to vacate a

. 2-day-old stay issued by a three-
' judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit

Court of Appeals. Justices John Paul
Stevens and Harry A. Blackmun dis-
sented. a ae

The stay would have given Hard-
ing perhaps more than 40 days be-
yond today’s execution date.

The 9th Circuit, which had denied
& Harding appeal in 1987, gave his
lawyers 20 days to file arguments,
the state Attorney General’s Office
20 days to respond, and then 14
more days, if needed, for additional
briefs. Oral arguments could have
been scheduled then.

The matter was sent to the Court
of Appeals on Wednesday after
Judge Alfredo C. Marquez of U.S.
District Court in Tucson rejected for
the second time Harding’s motion
for a stay.and a new hearing.

Harding was scheduled to die on
Jan. 3, but the state Supreme Court

mental health and his trial lawyers’;
work.

Then on March 18, the state’s high.

court, by a 3-2 vote, upheld Hard:~
ing’s death sentence. as
With the Attorney General's Of-.
fice aggressively battling Harding's;
appeals, the Arizona Department of.
Corrections appeared to take ne Nis
steps to prepare for execution. “ahe
Much time was devoted to the gas;
chamber and the “death house’.
where the gas chamber is located

Prison crews plastered the fors:
mer red-brick building, painted the:
interior a medium blue and added
new cabinets to an area that'sépa:.

rates the holding cells from the’gas:.

chamber itself. They even planted?
flowers outside. ‘ #OB
The state also was forced to getan

- air quality permit. 10%

Harding was convicted in 1982 fol:’
lowing a bizarre trial in which? he?
was left to defend‘himself but raisée!

no defense. : aah

ing’s appeals; faa
Dan. Cooper,. assistant Pima
‘County public defender, said he had”
Harding represent himself as a las{-"
ditch effort to spare him the death
penalty. .
Cooper also had Harding threaten
him in order to be excused from the
case. a

Harding attorneys Denise Young:
and Belanger of the Arizona Capi-
tal Representation Project, said,
Cooper’s behavior was “outra—
geously unethical.” apie

The move left Harding with no:
representation at his sentencing. ,

But Jack Roberts, assistant ‘attor,;
ney general, argued that Harding’
and Cooper made the move to formr
the basis for an appeal. Per

Judge Marquez agreed. uD

The execution is likely to touch dff
several more among the 100 prison!!
ers on death row. Dates have been:
set for two. da 90!

Donald Edward Beaty, convicted’
of killing a Tempe newspaper car~-
rier, is scheduled to die on May 227:
Robert Wayne Vickers, who has:
killed two fellow inmates, is sched-

That became'a key part of Hard

considered arguments about nig’

gave hima three-month stay while it _uled to die May. 29. “Et
ha a eerie
- ¢ 7 i 2. Page Thirteen
= wee fh Sy se . wooo : :
|" ARIZA TUE Sow Az
See ly Syr

Don’t blame
feminism for
| waning families

_ By Myriam Marquez _
© 1992 Orlando Sentinel
~ RLANDO, Fla. — Is feminism a lost cause, a.

1 fe

“a

teas

Childhood

was cruel -
to Harding

“I knew that things were doomed
and shaped by things that,had hap-
‘pened to me.” —: Don Harding in
a 1990 psychological evaluation on
why he did not stop. his life of crime
4 release from federal prison in
1979

By Chris Limberis
The Arizona Daily Star ,
‘ Don Eugene Harding’s dark life is
scheduled to end early tomorrow
much the way it began 43 years ago.

Harding will be strapped into a
metal chair in the gas chamber at
the state prison in Florence. -

4/5/42

He will gasp ‘for air. Instead, he. |

will breathe cyanide gas that will
shut down his body within minutes. .

Harding entered his violent world’

gasping and choking. The umbilical
cord was wrapped around his neck,
cutting off oxygen. and.-probably.
causing initial. brain, damage,,The -
doctor ,who: was to. delive ei in

was, 90 Tlnutes lates’ Ada Ys ‘ ‘ Vy ty i

Execution set tonight:

~ Harding is to be executed shortly ©

after midnight tonight for his brutal
‘killing of Martin Concannon and’
‘Robert: Wise 12 years ago in. a Tuc-
son motel.
‘-The murders. came. only wecca

See DARK LIFE, Page. 7A. apa

om ieee

—

HA Sy

Dark life

Continued from Page One
after. Harding killed another man in
a Phoenix motel,’ capping a. multi-

state crime spree that began when _

Harding, ‘then ‘awaiting murder
charges, escaped from an Arkansas
county jail. .

Harding’s lawyers, Denise Young
and James Belanger, of the Arizona

' Capital Representation Project, a

group of defense lawyers funded
with the help of grants. The project
is based at the Arizona State Univer-
sity College of Law.

They have fought to keep Harding
out of the gas chamber. They argue
that his troubled birth and tor-

mented childhood. and the abuse‘he .

suffered in Arkansas institutions left
him brain-damaged: and unable ‘to

control his impulses.

Doctor came late

Don Eugene Harding was born on
March 1, 1949, in the rural Arkansas

town ‘of Goodrich. His. father and |

aunt:delivered him, and when a phy-
sician finally arrived he was strug-
gling for air. He was also jaundiced.

Court papers that include medical
and ‘psychological evaluations por:
tray a dismal life. .

His father, described. in various.
files’ as a “gambler, drinker and
liar,” abandoned Harding, his older
brother, Darryl, and their mother,

_Maycle. He later died a skid row
rank Vee AR Eg

el * 3 : .
Mother “‘immature”’ 5.

Harding's mother, a factory
worker, was a “very immature and
narcissistic” woman who was un-

able-to care for her boys, according .

to a report prepared by a doctor
treating Don Harding at the Child
Guidance’ ‘Clinic in Littie Rock.

’ Harding’s.* mother remarried.
When her new husband, Fred

Browh, came down with tubercu- :

logis; the family moved to the Ma-
sonic Institute, a tuberculosis sani-
tarium in Booneville, Ark.

» Maycle Brown was a nurse’s aide
atsthe sanitarium and lived in. Sepa-
rate quarters from her boys. © ¢

‘ Don Harding was . regularly
beaten at the-sanitarium by nurses

and staff members. When‘he once «.

wet.his bed, a nurse, dunked his face
in a. toilet.

Shuttled between homes -
- The’ family left the sanitarium

after ‘about 144 years, and. Harding

was ‘shuttled. between his mother
and ndparents before settling
with t is mother:in-an impoverished
areaof North Little Rock ‘along’ the
Arkansas River.-

_ His. parents and grandparents
noted:that as a child Harding would
staré, but his eyes would not follow.

-Harding’s mother: conceded that
her second:.husband also was a
drunk. He was: abusive, and. the

“young Harding witnessed his step-

father beating his mother, — .
Harding’ was’, shifted between

schools where! he,was constantly tru-

ant, aggressive and defiant.’ :

_ He picked fights, and when a a child

would ask to be left alone the young
‘Harding would respond: Nobody’ s
going to tell me what to do.”

Peacefultine

At times there was a glimmer of »
: life without violence. Fora: period.
when Harding. was 10, his;mother
was involved in a church, and Hard-
-ing was the mascot for the Sunday
school basketballteam. — **.

Harding would sometimes sing to
his mother after school. But his were
not typical children’s songs.» They
were about his confrontations, in-
cluding how he had once Waete
redhead down the hill.”

It was during this period that a
doctor noted that Harding had left a
“suicide note (he slashed his wrists
at age 9) that he was going to jump in
_ the river.” Harding also told the doc-
tor that “when his throat gets dry,
. people seem small and far away.”

“Desire to kill’
Harding, the doctor said in a Feb-
ruary 1960 report, ‘expressed the

desire to kill and choke people.”
When he was examined the next

ee
“It is amazing the
degree of psychopathy

‘contained In a boy of this

young age (Don Harding).
‘His brather.. . . has none
of these characteristics:
The primary difference.
appears:to. be'the -

demonstrated minimal...

brain damage.”

Dr. Sam Clements
Arkansas physician

: \

month, Harding was didgnosed as
having brain damage and epilepsy.
In a later report, a doctor noted
that Harding’s mother said her son
‘ reported “‘a ‘spell’ during which Don
had asked his brother Darry] if his
‘head looked bigger.. Don told his
‘mother: ‘I had-a feeling I wanted to
hurt or kill Darryl.’ ” .
Dr. Sam Clements, who treated
Harding in Arkansas, wrote in a July
~ 15; 1960, report that the Child Clinic
could give Harding “little hope.”
'-“Tt is amazing the degree of psy-
chopathy contained in a boy of this
young age. His brother, only two

— years older and reared in the same

environment, has none of these.
characteristics. The primary differ-
ence appears to: be. the, demon-
strated minimal: brain ; ;, damage,”
_ Clements wrote... i:

- Harding’s mother’ reported that
her son suffered several blows to the
head asa child; including” falling
from a crib and: being 1 struck: i a
’ swing. ee Pit

A criminal at 41:

Harding began his “crimibal ca-
reer at age 11, when he.was arrested,
‘for joyriding. Five months later; and
after the fifth referral: to: the. juve-

ies

— nile court, Harding was ‘sent’ to.'the

Arkansas Boys’ Industrial School. -

He was in and out of that‘facility,
_his home and the state mental: hospi-
‘tal and, at age 16, was. sente anced. ac

the: Arkansas. State Penitentiary

after’ an ‘arrest in California. Ale

a ‘Harding’s’ ‘lawyers also <attribute’
Harding's behavior and illness. to~"
that prison, the subject of books and

the:. movie “Brubaker,” ‘which
chronicled the abuse, torture, kill-
ings and efforts for reform.

Harding again attempted suicide
in the penitentiary.

Released in 1974, Harding was un-

able to-adapé to life outside and was ~

arrested on federal conspiracy,
charges for which he served five:
years.

Three-state crime spree

Harding was paroled in March

1979 and arrested two months later
on homicide charges in Arkansas.

He escaped from the Pulaski County -

Jail and began what authorities, say
was a crime spree through Texas,
California and Arizona. ::

In Phoenix on Jan. 24, 1980, Hard-
ing:posed as a security guard -to
enter the motel room of Allan Gage.
He bound Gage, gagged. him .and

_Stole his wallet and car, Gage ‘died of
asphyxiation.

Harding drove to Tucson and used
the same technique to enter a La

Quinta Motor Inn room occupied by
Concannon, a former Green Beret
and a car-tool salesman, and Wise,
who was Concannon’s boss.

Harding bound and beat the men.
He beat Wise so badly that pieces of
a wooden lamp were driven into his
head .and.mouth.,Concannon was
blindfolded and gagged with socks

and his his throat slashed. Both men.

were shot in the head and chest at
close range.

Took victim's car

Harding took Concannon’s car
and drove to Wise’s Mesa home, hy
where he asked Wise’s wife; Jerry,

for “Bob.” Harding left after seeing

‘a dog and Wise’s 11-year-old daugh: ©

ter.

Harding wandered unnoticed
until the next day while driving Con-
cannon’s 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass
around Northern Arizona Univer-
sity. An NAU police officer, who had
told Harding not to park.in a re-
stricted lot, was suspicious of Hard-
ing’s Southern accent, the Ohio li-
cense plates on Concannon’s car and
Harding’s clothing. He ran a check
of the plates, and Harding was ar-
rested later hy Flagstaff police.

When Tucson detectives arrived
and asked Harding where he had
been the previous day, Harding re-
sponded: “On the planet Pluto.”

Later as he was escorted in the

subfreezing temperatures, Harding

was provided a detéctive’s coat. °
“You don’t have to do that,” Hard-

ing told “the detective. “I deserve ©

whatever you do to me.”"
Psychiatrists testified .

For his death sentence appeals,
Harding’s attorneys enlisted the aid
of several psychiatrists, who say he
suffers from severe brain damage.

Harding’s “organic dysfunction

.. substantially reduces the likeli-

hood that the killings were premedi- ~

tated,” said Dr. Jonathan H. Pincus,

chairman of neurology at George-
_ town University School of Medicine.
a

~ Neurologist changed mind

fi “Mr, Harding's. illness causes fits

cof! ‘violent’ impulsive’ rage which: he

‘Cannot limit, and which are distinct
from ; ‘seizures’ involving involun-
tary: motor: activity. Such outbursts

"result from’ loss’ ‘of inhibition im-

posed by brain damage and are
likely in stressful situations or under
the influence of alcohol or sedating
drugs,” Pincus said in a 1990 affida-
vit.

“The fact that the victims were
apparently bound but unharmed for
a substantial period of time and the
extreme violence of the killings sug-
gests that the killings took place in
one of these impulsive, neurologi-
cally triggered rages.” :

Young and Belanger believe that
a Tucson neurologist who reversed
his opinion most strongly supports
Harding’s claim.

‘Dr. Harvey Goodman examined
Harding nearly 12 years ago and

- concluded that. although. Harding

suffered from organic brain dam-
“The fact that the
victims were apparently

.bound but unharmed for a

substantial period of time

and the extreme violence...
of the killings suggests
_ that the killings took place

in one of these Impulsive,
neurologically triggered

rages.”

Dr. Jonathan H. Pincus
Georgetown University

vies oe be

age, “his criminal acts were mostly
psychosocial..

“AS a result of -the fecent ad-
vances in medical knowledge and
my own accumulated knowledge, it
is no longer my opinion that psycho-
social factors mostly determine the
aggressive or impulsive behavior of
an organic brain syndrome patient
like Harding,” Goodman said in a
1990 affidavit.

“Violent behavior syndrome”

“It is likely that Harding suffers
from a pervasive form of violent be-
havior syndrome related to organic
dysfunction,” Goodman said.

* Jack Roberts, the assistant attor-
ney’ general who is arguing for
Harding’s death, faulted Goodman
and Pincus for not reading Hard-
ing’s entire record.

“Young and Belanger also contend
that Harding should be spared the.
‘gas chamber because his trial law-

’ yer told his client to represent him-

self'and later advised Harding to

‘threaten him.

Roberts said Harding has no claim
that the information was not pre-
sented at trial or when he was sen-

. tenced.

“Who better than Donald Harding —
to tell the court about how Donald
Harding grew alt Roberts asked
—last week. sate

> Tueson, Sunday, March 22, 1992

he Arizona Jailp Star

Killer’s lawyer plans new appeal
as state readies gas chamber

PHOENIX (AP) — The cyanide
gas will once again fill the state’s gas
chamber this week in what prison
officials call a “wet test.”

It's an annual ritual, but this year
it’s being conducted a week after the
State Supreme Court refused to re-
view the case of triple-murderer
Donald Harding. He’s scheduled to
be executed on April 6.

Arizona has 99 men and one
woman on death row, but Harding is
as close as the state has come to an
execution in 29 years. Manuel Silvas,
who was convicted of killing Casa
Grande housewife, was the last per-
son executed in the state when he
died in the gas chamber March 14,
1963

Nationwide, 166 people have been
executed since the U.S. Supreme

Court restored the death penalty in
1976

Running out of options

Harding is running out of options.
His only legal hope is that U.S. Su-
preme Court will reconsider the
case in light of new evidence that
shows he has organic brain damage
that may contribute to a violent dis-
position.

If Harding fails on the federal
levef again, he_can be saved from
the gas chambér only by a reprieve
from Gov. Fife Symington, who
hasn't said what he would do in such
a case.

However, state Attorney General
Grant Woods has said he is commit-
ted to carrying out the’ will of the
people regarding Harding.

“The state has decided what the
appropriate punishment should be
and the courts of Arizona have said
what is appropriate now after 12
years of appeals,’ Woods said after
the Arizona Supreme Court declined
to take up Harding’s case on
Wednesday.

“It’s just another last-minute, des-
perate attempt to frustrate the pro-
cess.” ° :

Harding’s lawyer, Denise Young
of the Arizona Capital Representa-
tion Project, said that Harding has
gone through the six main state ap-
peal stages and the three federal ap-
peal stages.

She said, however, that new medi-
cal evidence discovered by the
project — which provides legal
counsel for death-row inmates —
shows Harding has organic brain
damage and that no court has con-
sidered this evidence.

‘Tragic’ history

““This man’s history has been
tragic,’ she said. “Newly discovered
evidence clearly warrants a life sen-
tence. Why Arizona’s Supreme Court
réfused to recognize this, I don’t

"know, but.1 fully expect the federal

_ court will.”

Religious leaders and some state
legislators have also ralli i
the death penalty as Harding’s date
with the gas chamber approaches.

1984 Star photo

Donald Harding's execution Is now set for April 6

“YT am disappointed and appalled
that the only answer to the issue that
the state of Arizona can come up
with is capital punishment,” said
Bishop Joseph T. Heistand of the
Episcopal Diocese of Arizona in a
statement. ‘‘The state’s answer to
murder is murder.”

Others, including the Lutheran
Church, the Society of Friends, the
United Church of Christ, the Presby-
terian Church, the Roman Catholic
Diocese of Phoenix expressed their
opposition in January.

Bills in both state House and Sen-
ate have stalled at the committee
stage. Lawmakers also tried to rein-
troduce legislation abolishing the
death penalty, but it found little sup-
port.

_ Little sympathy for killer

The wife of one of Harding’s vic-
tim’s has little sympathy for her hus-
band’s killer.

Harding, then a prison escapee
from Arkansas, hogtied and mur-
dered Robert Wise and fellow sales-
man Martin Concannon Jan. 25,
1980. It is for those murder convic-
tions in Pima County that he now

- faces the gas chamber.

Harding also received another
death sentence in Maricopa County
for the murder of a man in a Phoe-

nix hotel room, but Harding’s attor-
ney said the case is still in the pre-
liminary appeals stages.

“If they could give me an absolute
guarantee that he would be put away
for the rest of his life, I could live
with that,” the victim’s wife, Jerry
Wise told The Mesa Tribune.

She said Harding showed up at
her Mesa house after killing her hus-
band, and that she too would be dead
if she hadn’t gone to the door with a
big dog by her side.

But defense attorneys for Harding
claim their client has been dealt a
great injustice from the beginning.

“Mr. Harding’s who case has been
shocking from the beginning to
end,” Young said. “His lawyer com-
pletely abandoned him during the
trial and advised him to represent
himself. He asked one question dur-
ing the whole trial and presented
no mitigating evidence at his sen-
tencing.”

Birth Injury

Young, Harding’s attorney, said
Harding was born with his umbilical
cord wrapped around his neck,
causing organic brain damage.

The disfunction, she says, pre-
vented Harding from forming the in-
tent to be guilty of first-degree mur-
der and may have contributed to his

‘‘The state has decided
what the appropriate
punishment should be and
the courts of Arizona have
said what is appropriate
now after 12 years of
appeals.”’

Grant Woods

Attorney General

tendency toward violence that
judges noted as an aggravating cir-
cumstance in his death sentences.

“The most important evidence we
have is that the very doctor that told
counsel at the time of the trial that
brain damage didn’t have bearing
on the crime, now Says he is wrong,”
she said.

Wise said she doesn’t agree with

|
|
|
|

defense attorneys that Harding’s |

brain damage contributed to the
killing spree. She said he knew what
he was doing.

“He had the presence of mind to
locate my house in Mesa in the dark,
in a town I’m sure he had never been
before,” she said.

m ~wA Vie

euemeuntiio
eo

ee ee ——

Pee es

SR he et RYE Re ei RO LIE a Niet ents eng meee
pt

_Appeal seeks to halt

nies nial

4 ‘April 6 date put in doubt by new motion |

cen Abraham Kwok

. ec: ‘and Dee Ralles
i tine The Arizona Republic

ts ‘ “Ten days before he is scheduled to

“die in Arizona’s gas chamber, attor-.

-neys for . convicted -murderer Don

*"Bugene Harding .on Friday filed a.

motion to block the execution.

wa te.tbhe. motion, which essentially ...
be executed in nearly three decades.
His defense attorneys have pres-.

marks Harding’s last round of appeal,

contends that the death ‘sentence
imposed on Harding is flawed because ,

such mitigating factors as his brain
(damage and traumatic childhood were _

$ , Rot introduced before his sentencing.
“"* The motion ‘asks for ‘Teversal of
““~ . Harding’s conviction and death sen-
tence, Saying that newly discovered
Ma ‘evidence probably would have re-
»- sulted in an acquittal or a finding of
: * guilt on a lesser charge if it had been
known at the time of trial.
“<., The filing, in U.S. District Court in
Tucson, came on the heels of a 3-2
«=, “zdecision by Arizona Supreme Court
“9 Justices on March 18 that rejected a
request to consider commuting Har-
_ding’s sentence to life in prison.
-.«State prosecutors interpreted Fri-
ac’day’ s filing as a strategic attempt by
<Harding’s attorneys to delay his
“April 6 execution, because: the court
will not have time to rule on the
appeal before that date.
«If District Judge Alfredo Marquez

san

. demonstrate

turns down the motion,: it can be
taken up by the 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Prosecutors on Friday already were
preparing a motion to the nation’s

‘high court arguing that the execution |

go forward. -
Harding, 43, stands to Decone the
first inmate on Arizona’s death row to

ented physicians’ reports. indicating
that Harding has an organic brain

. disorder that Causes - ek mata
impulses.

- The action Friday came as no
surprise to the state Attorney Gener-

al’s Office, which last week filed an
“anticipatory motion” arguing for the
denial of any further appeals.

In the motion, prosecutor Jack
Roberts argued that none of the
claims has any bearing on “factual
innocence” and that Harding cannot
that a “fundamental
miscarriage of justice” would occur
should the court deny the motion.

But defense attorneys say in their
appeal that Harding was advised by
his trial attorney to represent himself,
advice that caused profound prejudice
to his case.

Harding was sentenced to death in
the 1980 slaying of three men at a
motel.

Pee fe Seis y ey te a

Saturday, March 28, 1992

The Arizona Republic

Ba: *:

pats

and
next
yling
ving

have -

yard —

1ade
1sen

vusimlesses that

Ar zovn Kepyp! id

heen X

Murderer Harding deserved

| punishment for his actions
™ Contrary to what E.J. Montini says, there

jwas a reason for executing Donald

|. Harding: punishment.

Yes, punishment, the consequence that
Mr. Harding had to pay for his actions. His
acts of torture and murder earned the

_ death penalty. He was guilty.

The state of Arizona did not pick an
innocent man off the streets and brutally
murder him. That is what Mr. Harding
did, and that is why he was executed. He
understood his crime and he understood
his punishment.

Perhaps Mr. Harding’s death will not

- deter other murderers, but we as a society

need to teach that there are consequences
for all actions, even such extreme conse-
quences as those. —

7 ee

Politically astute force.

; p.A3

San Francisco Chronicle

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 1992 THE VOICE OF THE WEST

Arizona Planning to Use
Its Gas Chamber Again

Death row case is similar to California’s

By Charles L. Howe
Special to The Chronicle

Florence, Ariz.

behave in a destructive manner °
quite beyond his control, say the

1
The cases of two convicted Peurologists. :
murderers who are scheduled to Such evidence, Harding’s law-
die—one at the state prisonhere _yers say, was not presented at his

and one at San Quentin — offer” trial in 1980. Indeed, they claim ~ |.

some striking parallels as the that Harding's court-appointed —
hour of execution nears. lawyer sloughed off his defense
Both men, for example, wil] because he saw Harding’s case as .

gulp hydrocyanic gas if their final hopeless.
appeals fail. Arizona courts have dismissed .
If Donald Eugene Harding, 43, this argument, maintaining that :
keeps his date with the Florence Harding’s neurological and psychi-
state prison gas chamber at 12:05, atric testimony has been heard at -
a.m. Monday, he will be the first one point or another.
person executed in Arizona since. ° Both men are multiple killers.
_ * 9G bs Harding beat, robbed and shot -
If 39-year-old Robert Alton Har- two businessmen in Tucson in.
ris goes to San Quentin prison’s gas* 1980, A third died of asphyxiation :
chamber April 21, he will be the: ‘after being robbed and hog-tied in
‘first person executed in California his Phoenix motel room. Authori-
-Since 1967, — ties say Harding is wanted on four
Legal motions in Harding’s additional murder charges in oth-
case ricocheted around the coun- er states, including California.

..try as the weekend approached. Harding and Harris came from
On Thursday, Harding was: impoverished circumstances. Both —
granted a 20-day delay by the U.S.. hada parent who died of alcohol-.
; Court of Appeals in San Francisco. . ism, both have sie in b pen pl vir-
tually all their lives and both hurt
Arizona Attorney General Geog , 4108 of people before they finally

Woods had sent a wire to the U.S, Were Sent to death row.

Supreme Court in Washington, Harding is what penologists

asking vee Sandra Day O’Con- : “call “state-raised.” as

nor to quash the stay and let Arizo- rar Si

na get on with the business it has: He was born dirt poor in 1949 in
been trying to finish since 1980. _ - Goodrich, Ark., his umbilical cord

* wrapped around his neck and
O’Connor, who is a formér Ari- . ee

zona colleague of Woods’, has sev-
eral options, She can take no ac-

tion on his request, which would Veterans Administration hospital.
keep the 20-day stay in effect. She

can overrule the stay issued inSan- . _Harding’s lawyers claim he was -
Francisco and let the execution’ beaten by schoolteachers, sodom-
proceed..Or she can convene the ized by inmates and whipped with ,
full court to hear Woods’ argu. eather straps by guards when he
~ment for a speedy resolution. . first went to an Arkansas reform

If Woods gets his way, said a school at age 11. a ;
source in his office in Phoenix, “it’ __ By 1980, Harding had acquired °
is a pluperfect fact” thatGovernor 12 felony convictions and had es-
Fife‘Symington will reject an 11h- . caped from prison in Arkansas; An.
hour appeal“for’clemency. With- “unskilled worker by even career

tor arrived. His father, a man he
barely knew, died an alcoholic ina

ings. This condition causes him to ~~

CHRONICLE GRAPHIC

he will be allowed a last meal of his

choking him by the time the doc- ~-Choice, “providing it is normally

.available within the prison,” said

. Mike Arra, a spokesman for the Ar-

izona Department of Corrections.

Arizona provides a special form
for last meal requests and, over the
years, Harding has filled out three ,
of them. His last meal request,
which he has not updated, was fil-
ed on March 19, 1984, days beforea -
scheduled execution that was ap-
pealed successfully. or

“Two large cheesebulgers with _
mayonnaise, lettuce and tomatoes, *

out Symington’s charity, Harding ;:criminal standards, Harding is one large order of French fries. ©
is cirtain to die. ” eee oe listed’ as an. “electrician”. in -his _ Pepsi Cola and coffee. Pecan Pie,
; “prison dossier. “~~ and strawberry ice cream.”
Like Harris, Harding would be __ eo ee ‘ug ‘
mourned by a minority. A poll of -"__ Like Harris in California, Har- “~#——— << —

. killed some robbery victims, he
* spared others. “Why?” an investi-
There are other similarities,. 84tor asked after Harding had
Both condemned men are white “been arrested. eee pe
-and both are appealing their sen- .~ “They were judgment calls,” he
tences on psychiatric grounds. replied.

Harding’s lawyers have offered _ Harding's. current lawyers —
depositions from neurologists he has had more than 15 of them.

claiming that he suffers from, or-.;\ during the 12 years he has spent ,
ganic brain dysfunction, a condi-, Spent on death row — maintain he _
tion originating at birth and aggra-: never said this...

vated by a series of falls and beat- :

If Harding dies as scheduled, i ie

eee. .

B4 The Arizona Republic

Saturday, November 2, 1991

Woods: January execution possible

Idea premature,
advocates for
convicts claim

By Pamela Manson
The Arizona Republic .
‘The state’s first execution in more
than 28 years could come in January,
Arizona Attorney General Grant
Woods said Friday, but a group
representing death-row inmates said
said the prediction i is premature.
:Woods, in a written statement, said
that Donald Eugene Harding has
exhausted his appeals and faces a
Jan. 3 execution.
i“We’ve never had someone go all

through the federal system and had a

warrant of execution issued” since
! 3, said Paul McMurdie, chief
funsel of the criminal-appeals_ sec-
tion ;
‘Other inmates have come within a

_day of a scheduled execution but still

have had remedies in court available,
he said. However, Harding has
exhausted the federal-appeals process,
McMurdie said.

But James Belanger, a lawyer with
the Arizona Capital Representation
Project, said that it is too soon to
expect an execution.

“I think it’s premature for the
attorney general to be speculating
about the merits of any individual
case,” Belanger said.

Harding, 42, is under three death
sentences. He was convicted of killing
a man at a Phoenix motel during a
1980 burglary and two men at a
Tucson motel the next day during a
similar crime: He faces execution in
January for the Tucson slayings.

McMurdie said a recent USS.
Supreme Court decision that limits
appeals by death-row inmates makes
an execution more likely.

Four other inmates in the state also

are nearing the ond of their appeals,
McMurdie said. He said Willie Lee
Richmond, who has been on death
row since 1974, probably will be the

' next inmate to exhaust his options.

Richmond, who was convicted in a
1973 slaying of a Pima Community

College student during a Tucson
robbery, has been on death row longer
than anyone else in the nation.

The last person executed in Ari- |.

zona. was Manuel E. Silvas in 1963.
There are 102 people on the state’ S
death row.

—

SLY ache

E.J. MONTINI
Reppblic, Columnist

i w ees ay
i Na 4 i id
'

Felon offers

nvitation to.
‘as chamber.

"ve tie invited to stand by and watch .
a man be killed. The time and date
have been set. The place. The.

edure. Recommended attire is - byeaall

aesslike; shirt and tie, I’d guess. Except
he condemned, whose dress will Ky

al. He’ll be in: his underwear. © «:; 2) yw.

1e invitation was 8 formal. RSVP whi th
‘yed. 5
vhost for the evening is Donald s

ne Harding, the man who will die

2 my eyes if all goes as planned.

wding is scheduled to be executed

ly after midnight, Jan.\3, in the gas

(ber at the Arizona State Prison at

nce.

nder state law, witnesses must be

»nt. The director of the Arizona.

artment of Corrections is required to
ea physician, the state attorney general

“at. least 12 reputable citizens.” That
ip:could include law-enforcement:
cers, prosecutors, politicians, perhaps
n someone close to Harding’s two

dia.

fhe condemned’s witnesses

The law also allows the condemned man,
or woman to invite two members of the

Alergy, along with up to five other people.

Last week, one of Harding’s lawyers

telephoned me and said, “Don wantsto * *
include you among the people that he gets ae

to invite to the execution,” :
“Why-me?” I asked!2#*\5) |

“Well,” the lawyer told me, “Don said~ ~
that if the execution happened, he wanted;

someone there who was not handpicked by
DOC.”

arder victims. And members of the news. gy

> I wasn’t schioled to tei one of them. Py ,

boo

ch,

_ Reporters covering an execution are not,
‘as Harding suspects, handpicked by the
‘Department of Corrections. The department
makés a list of news organizations permitted
to send representatives to an execution. The
Arizona Republic is on the list and can send
whomever it chooses.

Another Republic reporter has agreed to
accept that assignment.

It’s not something I wanted to do...

But there is a difference between being
asked to witness an execution as a news
assignment and being asked to watch it,
essentially, as a favor.

I don’t owe Donald Eugene Harding any m

favors.

View on death penalty

I’ve never spoken to him or corresponded
with him. I don’t pity him or feel sorry for
him. I suspect he knows that. He also’:
knows, however, that I don’t believe he
should be killed by the state.

I don’t believe anyone should be. Killed by::

the state. By us.

Harding was convicted of the Jaiuary
1980 murder, kidnapping and robbery of
Martin Concannon of Tucson and Robert
Wise of Mesa. They were a couple of men
on a business trip. The double murder.
occurred after Harding had escaped from an
Arkansas jail, where he was being helt on
another murder charge.

Harding has been on death row since -

1982. His current lawyers hope to postpone

the execution, as has happened several times

in the past. If they fail, Harding will be the »-
first man killed in Arizona’s gas chamber ‘in

28 years.

He wants me to be there if that happens.
Powder-blue witness room |

He wants me to stand in the witness

room — a room that is painted powder-blue

and has a stucco finish on the walls, as if it :
were the empty bedroom of a child — and
watch. There won’t be chairs in the room,
I'm told. Only Harding will sit. He will be
‘strapped into his chair, alone, in the gas
chamber.

He wants me to be there, looking at him
,;through a window, as cyanide pellets fall °
#i into an acid mix near his feet and the gas
f * Fises. And to write about what happens

* after that.
* I told him I would.

But not as a favor. At least, not a favor
}.to Harding. What happens should the gas

i ‘fill the chamber that day wouldn’t matter to.

4 him, anyway. It would mean, however, that
PArizona i is back in the business of killing.

be And since we rent the room and pay.for

i? :the invitations, and because, afterward, .we

foun bp the , I figure it should matter 4

, to us.:

THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC

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=. SUNDAY
NOVEMBER 24, 1991
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‘Death sentence affirmed for FuCsOn d

SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) — The death sen-
tence of Arizona double killer Donald E.
Harding was affirmed Monday over Harding’s —
contention that he was mistakenly advised to

. defend himself by his former lawyer.
“The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals re-"

jected Harding’s claim of ineffective as-
‘Sistance of counsel in his brutal 1980 killing of
-two men in a Tucson hotel.

Harding. was sentenced: to death in 1982,

after his former public defender, Dan Cooper,
spent two years trying to exclude evidence,

delay the trial and develop. an insanity de= . 2:

fense.
» His conviction and sentence had been pre-

viously upheld. Monday’s appeal was a habeas
_ corpus petition, which argues constitutional
errors in his conviction.

‘on defending himself in the hope of injecting ae.
~ fundamental ° error that would, ‘cause a. Te- wee

versal.
Following an extensive hearing and warn-

_ing to Harding of the risks, he was allowed to _
_act as his own attorney with panes as an my

advisory counsel.

“create a foolproof defense.”

‘Cooper advised Harding just, prior to the the three-judge panel.

start of the trial that his only hope was to insist ...

The court refused to allow Harding. tov use
the scheme of. acting as ‘his’ ‘own: lawyer to: :

jouble killer,

“We have already determined that Harding
was a knowing and willing participant in this’
scheme,” wrote Judge Robert Boochesyer do for.

oe $25 “ i
“We cannot allow this tempting gambit | for’.
“counsel and: client,” Boocheever wrote. 4 ey
Harding was convicted of the brutal shoot-
ing and beating murders of Martin L. Concan-

non and Robert A. Wise at the La Quinta Motel

in Tucson, Jan. 26,1980. -

bed,.savagely beaten and shot at pela
range.

Concannon also ¥ was bound and shot. He was *
found with socks pushed into his throat. ,

[sion

ee ee ee ee Ee inte Os reer eS

‘Wise was tethered and | hog-tied to fie tact hotel, -

aemeccinal

- Arizona’s first execution since 1963

Se 2 a FS

aE Dee

Tire gg
t

_ could be Jan. 3, atto

PHOENIX (AP) — Attorney General Grant Woods
said yesterday that Arizona will execute its first prisoner
in 28 years in January, but a lawyer for the death-row
inmate said there still are legal avenues to pursue.

In a.prepared statement, Woods and an assistant
attorney general said murderer Donald Eugene Harding

-has exhausted his appeals and most likely will go to the -
‘gas chamber Jan. 3.

» The Jan. 3 date was set in an execution warrant
issued Oct..16 by the state Supreme Court.

“We have never been this close to an execution

.. before,” said Paul McMurdie, chief counsel of the at-
“ttorney general’s criminal appeals section. “Harding is

‘the state’s first death-row prisoner” in modern times
to go completely through the federal court system and
exhaust his appeals. Arguably, he now has nowhere to

-turn.”
The last execution in Arizona was that of Manuel E.

. Silvas, in 1963. Nationwide, 155 people have been exe-

Execute

ney general says —

cuted since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to
resume enforcement of the death penalty in 1976.

Woods cited in his statement the recent U.S: Su-
preme Court case of McCleskey vs. Zant, in which the
high court ruled death-row inmates may not file repeti-
tive federal court appeals. .

-McMurdie said it is highly unlikely that state courts
will look at Harding’s case again: “The courts have al-

| ready affirmed his conviction and sentence, and it is

unlikely that they would want to consider his case

again.” pees ; |
However, James Belanger, a lawyer handling Hard-

ing’s post-conviction reviews, said there are issues in

his client’s case that have come to light in the past three
years that neither state nor federal courts have ad-

dressed.

Belanger said he thinks “it’s premature” for Woods
to “speculate about any one case.” Woods “‘is talking

See EXECUTE, Page 3B

. for killing Allan Gage by as i i i
phyxiation in Phoenix an
for the fatal shootings of Robert Wise and Martin on

cannon in Tucson.

Continued from Page 1B

about the case of McCleskey vs. Zant

‘ and that case
wouldn t apply if there has been a fundamental miscar-
riage of justice, such as evidence that has not been con-
sidered by the court before.” -

There are several issues in Harding’s case where —

the merits have not been addressed,” Belanger said.

Belanger would not discuss specifi
specifics, but said he
itn another attorney for Harding are in the midst of

ine a wee , :
ae 7 petition for review with the state Supreme
Harding, an Arkansas prison esca

, 7 pee, received sep-
arate death sentences in Maricopa and Pima epeaties

All of the murders occurred in: motel rooms to

which Harding gained
guard. 8 gained access by dressing as a security

Harding, now 42, was arrested on Jan. 25, 1980, in .

Flagstaff driving Concannon’s car, He was convicted

of the Tucson double homicide in April 1982 and of the

Phoenix Slaying the following October. |

On Oct. 16, the state Supreme Co
; urt issued execu-
tion warrants for Harding and inmates Edward Herald
Shad Jr. and Ronald Turney Williams.

Shad is scheduled for execution Dec. 27 ‘and Wil-

liams for Jan. 10. But neith
federal appeals. — aa exhausted state or

FEES

Ghe Arizona Daily Star

—_ mm hs

Tucson, Saturday, November 2, 1991

pl"

20> eee

-———— =| a ao ae Ge Ge

a eee Geese as UW

(continued from page 34)

Taken into the sheriff’s office, Mr.
and Mrs. Hawkins maintained they
had bought the gloves honestly.

“‘This is an outrage,’? Mrs. Hawkins
complained. ‘‘Can’t one engage in a
legitimate business in this town without
the law meddling in it?’’

“Hold it,” Meyer snapped. Turning
to Hawkins, he said, ‘‘This is quite a
coincidence. Only this morning I
learned from Ohio that your wife’s
inheritance amounted to only $175.”’
Then to the sheriff, Meyer remarked,
“‘Remeber my hunch about those
Streetcar transfers? Well, Hawkins
here is a former trolley conductor. If
he can’t explain why he burglarized
the millinery store, perhaps he can tell
us why he killed Leonhardt. And as
for you, Mrs. Hawkins, that voice of
yours is a dead giveaway. Remember
that night you two jumped the fence,
after killing Leonhardt? You said to
your husband, ‘Come on, hurry!’ The
couple who saw you jump that fence
and heard you say, ‘Come on, hurry!’
thought you were a man masquerading
as a woman.”’’

Suddenly the woman’s defiance
wilted. She reeled into her husband’s
arms and leaned against him for
support,

Hawkins refused to make a state-
ment. They were locked up while
Pacheco and Meyer went to search
their room.

Meyer discovered soon enough why
he had found nothing during the brief
preliminary search he had made weeks
before. Nailed to the wall was a large
painting which covered a row of
storage shelves. Here the officers
found a pile of loot taken in recent
burglaries. In a shoe box were several
pads of street-railway transfers.

The first search brought to light no
gun, so the officers dug deeper. In a
suitcase, wrapped in an old slicker,
they found a .32-caliber revolver, and
a few hours later they traced it to a
local hardware store, where it had been
purchased by Hawkins two days
before the Leonhardt murder.

Meyer and other officers had called
at the same store to inquire about the
sale of firearms, and had been told
none had been sold recently. The
proprietor explained this, after
examining his records, by saying that
a clerk he had discharged shortly after

the slaying had sold the revolver and
had no longer been employed when
the investigators called. No one else
had remembered selling such a
weapon.

Hawkins, it was discovered, had
served a term in Folsom Prison, Calif.,
for robbery, prior to coming to
Arizona.

Realizing that he would be convicted
of murder, Hawkins made every effort
to save his wife from facing the same
charge. He maintained that she knew
nothing about his robberies, that he
had told her he sent to New York for
the gloves and that she really believed
he had a right to dispose of them. He
apparently wanted the officers to
believe also that his wife knew nothing
about the pile of loot cached in their
hotel quarters.

““How about her being with you the
night you killed Leonhardt?’’ he was
asked.

“‘She was with me all right, but she
wasn’t there when the shooting
commenced. We’d gone for a walk,
when we came upon this fellow. He
was drunk and made an insulting
remark to my wife. I started to beat
him up. I told my wife to go on ahead
and wait for me. She ran ahead and
then I started hitting him with my fists.
He was a much more powerful man
than I thought, and he knocked me
down. He was going to kick me and I

4 1ealized 1 Nad nil him, t got up and
ran to catch up with my wife. She
asked me what all the shooting was
about and I told her this fellow had
shot at me. She didn’t even know I
Carried a gun.”’

The officers believed none of this,
of course, and tried to obtain a
statement from Mrs. Hawkins. She
refused to admit anything, maintaining
that she had not witnessed the shooting.
Her story, which coincided with
Hawkins’ confession,remained un-
changed after several days of inter-
rogation.

The State planned to accuse her as
an accomplice, but the officers failed
to produce sufficient evidence, and no
indictment was voted against her.

On May 13, Hawkins entered a plea
of Guilty, and threw himself on the
mercy of the court.

Judge John H. Campbell of the
Territorial District Court said, ‘‘In a
brutal slaying such as this, there can
be no mercy.”’ He sentenced Hawkins
to die on the gallows, and on the
morning of August 14, 1908, the killer,
after his execution had been delayed
30 minutes until a message from his
wife reached him, was hanged in the
courtyard at Tucson.

Though Hawkins maintained he had
shot Leonhardt during a fight, the
officers believed the motive had been
robbery.The fact that Leonhardt’s
wallet was never found seemed to
justify this theory. *

TLRS

Indiana Vice

(continued from page 29)

dead, and notified the coroner’s office.
Deputy Coroner Ronald Borden
determined: that Vlahovic had been
shot several times in the right arm,
chest and back. The car appeared to

have been ransacked, and the contents’
of the open glove compartment were .

strewn about.

Gary Police Detective William
Kennedy tracked down Valerie Macon,
a 21-year-old prostitute, and arrested
her for the murder. After being
advised of her rights, she signed a
Statement admitting the homicide. In
her statement Macon said she had been
walking along Broadway in Gary in
the early morning hours when Vlahovic
pulled alongside in his late model car

‘and offered her $65 for her sexual

favors.

She said they drove to a secluded

area around 38th and Fillmore Streets

and parked in the alley. There, she
said, the would-be customer declared
he was not going to pay her, and
threatened her with a knife.

She said she pulled a .32 caliber
revolver from her purse and shot the
man twice. After she fired the first two
shots, Vlahovic put his hands over his
face, and she fired two more times.

Despite the prostitute’s claim that
Vlahovic had threatened her with a
knife, police could find no weapon in
or around the victim’s car.

Crawford’s office again moved to
prosecute the suspect, and on Fe-
bruary 2, 1986, a jury found Valerie

(continued on page 38)

TIae

ICR SERIE TE

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IVIUNGIT§ttiIUG IU FEIG UCGIIUYVS
(continued from page 33)

“‘I don’t know what else I can tell
you,’’ Hawkins went on..‘‘I lost my
job with the company because they

‘ said I was stealing nickels. Hell, I never

took a single nickel in my life. I didn’t
have to. But with half the conductors
knocking down a little here and there,
they had to have a scapegoat — and I
was it.’’

As a matter of routine, Meyer and
the sheriff checked on Hawkins with
the superintendent at the car. barns,
and were assured that he was okay.

“*T really don’t think Ed ever stole a
nickel,’’ the boss said. ‘‘But the
company had to make an example of
somebody, and they picked on him.’’

This was discouraging to the
officers, and especially to Meyer, who
had his own theories on the case.

Meyer decided, nevertheless, to go
a little further. Obtaining a search
warrant under the circumstances
would be difficult, so he watched his
chance and slipped into Hawkins’
hotel room while the man’s wife was
out doing her shopping. His brief
search revealed nothing.

Weeks passed, and the Ohio
authorities. did not reply to Meyer’s
query. He wondered why. ;

On Monday, February 10, more
than two months after Leonhardt’s
murder, Mrs. Kate Fleming, owner of
a millinery shop, reported that during
the night her store had been entered.
Burglars had made off with goods

consisting of dress waists, laces, silks

and gloves, and valued at $200.

The next morning, the proprietor of
the Bonanza, a store which dealt in
general wearing apparel, talked with
a.man and woman who offered-to sell
him a;:half-dozen pairs of women’s
gloves at.a figure far below the
wholesale price. .

**I don’t understand how you can
sell them at that price,’’ the merchant
said. ‘‘Not that I won’t buy them. I
will — but only if you can prove you
came by them legitimately.’’

“*These are the last of a shipment,”’
the man replied. ‘‘We want to get rid
of them in a hurry. If you insist, we

‘can wire New York for confirmation

that we bought them; but at the price
we’ve quoted, I would have to ask you
to pay the cost of the wire.’’

The man was so willing to send the
wire, provided the Bonanza would pay

340

for it, that the merchant, John Baskin,
was inclined to take the gloves at the
price quoted.

While he was still considering the
matter, his wife came in from a back
room. She looked at the gloves and,
while doing so, nudged her husband.

“‘Wait a minute,”’ Baskin said, ‘‘I’ll
talk it over with my wife.’’

He went into the back room with
her.

‘‘I heard that some gloves were
stolen from Mrs. Fleming’s millinery
shop,”’ his wife said. ‘‘Why don’t you
call her up and see what kind of gloves
they were? These might have been
taken from her place.’’

Baskin quickly called Mrs. Fleming,
who confirmed the theft. When she
described the gloves, Baskin became
alarmed. ‘‘Call the police,’’ he said,
“fand tell them to hurry over. I’ll keep
these people here as long as I can.”’

Going back into the store, Baskin
told the couple that he would take the
gloves. ‘‘But you’ll have to wait a
while,”’ he said. ‘‘I left all my monéy
at the house and my wife has gone for
it. She’ll be right back.”’

The man and woman contented
themselves by looking over Baskin’s
merchandise.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Fleming called
Sheriff Pacheco, to whom she had
reported the theft, and told him to
hurry over to the Bonanza. ~

Pacheco, alone in his office at the
time, buckled on his six-shooter and
hurried out, picking up Officer. Tom
Mills at the corner... |

But when they arrived, they were
told the cours. had left, saying any,

TREE MURDERS

“they apparently became suspi-
cious,’’ Baskin said. ‘‘I saw the man
go to the window and look out, and
then he nodded to his wife. He told
me they would come pack in a few
minutes.’’

As the sheriff sat waiting for the pair
to return, Baskin and his wife described
the couple. Mrs. Baskin said the
woman had a very coarse voice, almost
like a man’s; her hair was cut short
and, in other ways also, she seemed
masculine.

Mrs. Fleming who had hastened
over from her millinery shop while the
officer was conferring with the
Baskins, identified the six pairs of
gloves as those taken from her store
the night before. Anxious to trap the
pair, Sheriff Pacheco decided to hide
in a back room and wait, while Officer
Mills loitered across the street. But the
couple did not reappear.

Undersheriff Meyer, meantime,
walked into the sheriff’s office and
found a letter addressed to him from
the police officials of Ohio. It
informed him that the estate of Mrs.
Alice Chase of Cleveland, Ohio, had
been closed out by the administrator
and that the sole heir, Mrs. Bessie
Hawkins of Tucson, had received $175
from the sale of a lot. There had been

no other property or assets.

Meyer set out at once for Hawkins’
hotel. There he learned that Mr. and
Mrs. Hawkins had stepped out. It was
nearly lunch time, so he headed for a
restaurant down the street where he
knew Hawkins dined occasionally.

He found the pair at the counter.

- ‘Come on over to the. office,”’ he
said. “The sheriff wants to talk with
you. ad : :

“What? s this all about?’ Mrs.
Hawkins demanded.

It was the first time Meyer had
heard her voice, and its huskiness
intrigued him.

‘Come along,”’ he said, ‘‘and we'll
find out.’’ ;

On the way to the sheriff’s office,
Meyer met the sheriff and Baskin.

‘“‘There they are now!’’ Baskin
exclaimed excitedly. ‘‘They’re the
ones.’’

Pacheco quickly informed Meyer of
the circumstances, and Meyer smiled
to himself. He was glad he had the
pair in tow for he had a sudden feeling
that his theory was about to bear fruit.

(continued on page 36)

tern on a
ag. Then
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ag man and
lattering to-
stepped for-

ward and held up his hand.

The Ford wheezed to a panting halt.
Two ’teen-aged boys sat in the front seat.

“Where you kids going?” the young man
asked,

“Checotah,” said one of the boys.

“How would you like to make twenty
dollars?” The young man snaked a leather
wallet from his pocket.

The youngsters’ faces brightened. But
one of them asked cautiously:

“What you want us to do?”

“T want you to turn this car around and
give us a lift.’ The young man flipped a
$10 bill from his wallet and held it out to
the oldest boy. “Is it a go?”

“You bet!” said the boy, and eagerly
snatched the money.

In a minute or two the rattle trap old
car was rattling back in the direction from
which it had come, with the gleeful young-
sters chattering in front and the jaunty
young man and his ornamental companion
bouncing up and down on the back seat.

After jogging over five miles or so of
rutty road, the boy at the wheel called over
his shoulder : ‘

“How much farther you wanta go, mis-
ter?”

“Keep driving till I tell you to stop.”

Another five miles of rough riding. The
young man. was leaning from the car, scan-
ning the shaggy countryside. Suddenly he
called to the boy:

“Stop here!”

The boy stopped his car and looked about
at their loncly surrounding.

“You sure this is where you wanta go,
mister? They ain’t nobody livin’ near
here.”

The young man handed him another $10
bill, “There’s the rest of your money.” He
obtained from each boy his name and ad-
dress, then added: “You kids want to make
another twenty dollars?”

“Sure, sure!” they chorused.

“Okay. Here’s all you need to do.” He
impaled them with a steady eye. “Don't
either of you say a word to anybody, not
even your families, about seeing me and
this young lady. If anybody should ask you
about us, just say you never saw Us. You
understand ?”

The boys nodded assent.

“All right. Do that, and T’'ll send an-
other ten dollars to each of you. But if
you ever say anything to anybody”—the
young man slid a finger across his throat—
“P']} come back and slit your throats. Re-
member that.”

The boys, bewildered and somewhat
frightened, solemnly promised to remem-
ber, then started back along the road in
their rickety Ford.

The young man and the girl waited till
it had disappeared from sight. Then they
walked back in the same direction.

They turned into a narrow dirt road
that wound upward to a dense woods. Pres-
ently they, too, were lost from sight.

Arevt NooN THAT DAY Farmer Ennis
£@& hitched up his team and started to
town with a load of corn. Four miles from
home he met Sheriff McCune of MclIn-
tosh County coming his way with a posse
of citizens.

“Howdy, Sheriff!” he shouted, halting
his horses. ‘Lookin’ for somebody ?”

“We're lookin’ for a young feller and a
gal,” said the sheriff. “You seen anything
of them?”

“Why, no,” said Ennis, shaking his head.
After a moment’s thought, he added:
“Come to think of it, Jeff Lee mentioned
seein’ such a pair. They was headin’ that
way.” And he pointed ina direction oppo-
site from that taken by the young man
and the girl.

The sheriff and his men turned around
and started back, and Farmer Ennis drove

REAL DETECTIVE

on, chuckling to himself. His ruse cer-
tainly had thrown the pursuers off the trail
of that nice young eloping couple!

He drove into Checotah, about one-thirty,
to find the town seething with excitement.
But all the wild talk he heard about the
girl killing an officer of the law only deep-
ened his self-satisfaction. He remembered
what the young man had said about her
father: “He might even tell them we had
committed some terrible crime—murder,
for example...” And he kept his mouth
shut.

But when a neighbor called to him,
“Want to see the man she killed? His
body’s at the undertaker’s,” he was assailed
by a fearful doubt.

He hurried to the undertaking estab-
lishment, looked at the body of Sheriff
Giles—and realized, with a shock, what a
ghastly mistake he had made.

He ran back to the street and almost col-
lided with Sheriff McCune, returning from
the fruitless quest he had sent him on. In
an excited voice he babbled everything that
had happened that morning.

The sheriff and his men were off pell-
mell in the direction taken by the fleeing
couple. Later they were joined by Chief
Deputy Friar and Marshal Jones, who had
thrown a ring of guards in a 50-mile circle
around the section.

The officers found no trace of the fugi-
tives, but they did find the two boys in the
T Model Ford.

The boys, remembering the young man’s
promise and threat, stoutly denied having
seen either him or his girl companion. The
sheriff, after questioning them, was on the
point of letting them. go; but Marshal
Jones, of longer experience in such mat-
ters, detected an unnatural nervousness in
the boys’ manner and decided on a strata-
gem to trap them.

Perceiving the futility of questioning
them, he made a pretense of searching the
back part of their car, then stood up, hold-
ing a handkerchief.

“You kids are lying!” he bellowed with
mock anger, and waved the handkerchief
at them, ‘You had that pair in this car.
Here’s the handkerchief the man dropped.
Now, then, where did you take them at

The frightened youngsters stared at the
handkerchief, then at each other, and then
both broke down and poured forth in a
rush everything they knew.

The marshal put the handkerchief back
into his pocket, from which he had taken
it, and climbed into the seat behind the
boys.

“Drive as fast as you can to that spot,”
he told them.

But when they reached the desolate spot,
with the others crowding close behind, it
seemed they were again frustrated. A
lonelier, more abandoned place it would
have been hard indeed to imagine.

—* sHREWD old officer walked back
along the road, followed by Sheriff Mc-
Cune and the others. They came to the
winding dirt road that led snakily up to the
clump of trees and moved upward along its
uneven surface, choosing their steps and
proceeding slowly, for it was quite dark

now and the road was rough with roots,

rocks and deep ruts.

When they drew near the thicket they
discerned a pale light beyond the trees.

“D’you know who lives over there, Sher-
iff?’ asked Marshal Jones.

“Hiram Mountain,” said Sheriff McCune.
“Lonely old man. Sort of recluse.”

As they approached the shadowy old
house through the inky darkness, a dog
barked warningly, and a moment later the
marshal noticed a light go out in an upper
room. The lower light continued burn-
ing.

In response to the sheriff's knock, the

door was opened by a gaunt old man, who
held a kerosene lamp above his head and
peered into the outer darkness. He recog-
nized Sheriff McCune and said:

“Oh, hello, Sheriff. What you doin’ here
this time o’ night?”

“We're after the pair of outlaws you're
hidin’, Hiram. Stand aside and let us in.”

The old man wagged his head. “I
reckon you’re mistaken, Sheriff. I ain’t
hidin’ nobody—”

“Theyre in the upper room of this
house,” Marshal Jones cut in. “Stand
aside. We're coming in.”

The officers barged inside and up the
rickety stair, their revolvers in hand.

At the head of the steps they found a
door. They tried the knob. The door was
locked. Marshal Jones, standing back from
the door, called through the panel:

“Come out of there with your hands in
the air!”

No answer.

“Come out,” he repeated, “before we start
shooting.”

Another ten seconds of silence. Then he
placed the muzzle of his gun against the
en and fired two shots, shattering the
ock.

They flung the door open and rushed
inside—and_ stood flabbergasted.

The room was empty !

They quickly saw, however, what had
happened. The window stood wide open,
the curtain flapping in the breeze, and
when they ran to it they beheld a lively
commotion in the yard below.

Their quarry had dropped safely from the
window to the ground—only to fall into
the arms of the men who were closing in
on the house.

4 Fae OFFICERS HURRIED OUTSIDE. Unlike
kindly Sheriff Giles, they took no
chances with their prisoners. ‘They hand-
cuffed both securely.

The girl stood glaring at her captors,
her raven hair tumbling about her ex-
quisite face, a stream of vituperation pour-
ing from her lovely lips.

nicked Mountain, observing matters with
sad disapproval, muttered dolefully:

“Its a shame the way you men keep
houndin’ these young ’uns. All they want
is to be left alone, so’s they kin elope
and git married.”

So they had told him the same story
they had told Farmer Ennis and his wife.

The girls’ first question, when arrested,
was: “Did the old sheriff die?”

When told that Sheriff Giles was dead
she said with a flash of white teeth:

“Serves him right! I meant to kill him.”

“Why did you want to kill him?” she
was asked.

“Because,” she said, with a tender glance
at her silent young husband, “he arrested
Paul.”

“Where did you get the gun?”

“It’s my father’s gun.”

“How did you happen to be on that
train in the first place?”

“Tt was like this: I was with Paul in
K. C. when the cops nabbed him. When
the sheriff came to take him back I begged
to go along. The sheriff said he had no
warrant for my arrest and it was against
the rules, but he was a friendly old cuss
and he did what I wanted.”

They were locked in separate cells of
the McIntosh County Jail. The girl sat
on the edge of her cot and stared silently
at the floor. Her glossy black hair was in
wild disarray, her pretty dress was wrinkled
and soiled, and her shoes and stockings
were scuffed and torn. Her large eyes
welled with tears.

There was one person, however, whom
she longed to see with passionate yearn-
ing, and that was the young man with
whom she was so desperately in love.

He was confined in a cell diagonally op-
posite hers, and by straining: against her
bars she could catch a glimpse of lhim—
if and when he came to his door. She would
stand there by the hour, calling to him
softly:

“Paul! Paul! Are you all right? Let
me see you, Paul.”

But Paul, brooding on his cot, paid no
attention to her. He neither answered her
nor went to his door, but only sat there in
moody silence, oblivious to her pitiful
pleading.

There came a day, however, when, after
another ineffectual attempt to see her hus-
band, she broke down and wept heart-
brokenly. After an hour or so of sobbing
she dried her eyes and begged the jailer for
a brush and comb.

With these, and a bit of cracked mirror,
she made a brave attempt to burnish her
hair and pretty her face.

T LAST SATISFIED that she had made

herself as attractive as possible in the
circumstances, she again called the jailer
and made another request.

“T must see Paul!” she pleaded. “I'll go
crazy if I don't see him. Please, won't
you let me out, just for a minute, so 1 can
go to him? Vil come right back, and you
can watch me all the time.”

The jailer hesitated. This was distinct-
ly against the rules, but it was late at night,
he was alone in the jail, the other prisoners
were asleep, and...

“All right,” he said, and unlocked her
cell door. “But make it snappy.”

She sped to her husband’s cell, shook the
door and called to him in an eager half-
whisper :

“Paul! Paul!”

Paul, dozing on his cot, sat up and
stared at her sleepily.

“Come here, Paul. I must see you.
Please!” Her low voice was tense with
passion.

He rose groggily and walked to the door,
and she stretched cager hands to him be-
tween the bars, tried to kiss his face, sob-
bing and whispering all in a breath:

“Oh, Paul, I’m so happy to see you
again! .. . I’m going to do something for
you. Something that will surprise you.”

“What you talking about?” he demand-
ed, pulling away from her. “You gone
nuts ?”

“You'll see! I’m going to—”

“Time’s up,” said the jailer, and took
her arm.

She started obediently back to her cell,
after blowing a kiss to her husband, who
returned sleepily to his cot.

The jailer released her arm as_ she
reached her cell, and in that instant she
smashed both her fists into his face, send-
ing the astonished man reeling backward;
and then she was racing frantically to the
door at the end of the corridor.

This door opened into the sheriff’s of-
fice and at the moment it was unlocked.
She was through in a flash, slamming the
door behind her, and in another second
she would have been outside in the street.

But at that precise moment, fortunately,
Sheriff McCune happened to walk into his
office. :

The sheriff took no chances. He whipped
the gun from its holster and jabbed it
against the girl’s abdomen.

“Back inside, Ida. Mustn’t try any tricks
like that around here.”

She went meekly back to her cell, her
shoulders drooping dejectedly.

“Well, at least I tried,” she said. “I
only wanted to get outside so I could smug-
gle a saw to Paul.”

Coe SHE HAD KILLED Sheriff Giles on a
railroad train, traveling at high speed,
there was some question about jurisdiction.

REAL DETECTIVE

It was finally established that the fatal shot
had been fired within the border of Me-
Iutosh County; and so, on June 22 that
year, Ida and Paul Hadley, bride and
groom, went to trial for murder in the
McIntosh County District Court, with

‘Judge R. P. de Graffenried presiding.

The trial ran five days and ended in one
of the most astonishing verdicts in crim-
inal court history.

During those five days Ida Hadley was
the cynosure of the crowded court. With
her large brown eyes demurely downcast,
when not looking appealingly at the jury,
with her luxuriant black hair burnished
to a fine sheen, her slim body clad in a be-
coming frock and her legs in silk stock-
ings, she was highly ornamental in the
drab courtroom.

Paul, contrariwise, slouched in his chair,
oblivious to his. beautiful bride—the only

HARD KNOCK

Enoch (Nocky) Johnson, At-
lantic City, N. J., political
boss, is shown on way to
start a 10-year sentence for
evasion of his income taxes.

person in the court to evince indifference
to her.

It was proved beyond doubt that it was
she who fired the bullet which ended the
life of Sheriff Jake Giles, and it was equal-
ly clear that her husband had nothing to
do with the actual shooting. Yet, when
the jurors filed back to their box on June
27, their verdict was:

Paul Hadley was guilty of murder and
his punishment should be 99 years in
state’s prison.

Ida Hadley was not guilty!

When Judge Graffenried had recovered
from his astonishment he looked at. the
jurors, his face purpling, and administered
a blistering reprimand.

“Never,” he told them, “have TI seen such
a gross miscarriage of justice. Never, so
long as I sit on this bench, will any of you
serve on a jury again. I feel that I should
apologize for living in a state where such
a thing as this can happen.”

The irate judge turned to Prosecuting
Attorney Fred P. Branson.

“Mr. Branson,” he asked, “what is the
penalty in this state for attempted jail
break ?”

“The maximum penalty, your Honor, is
ten years imprisonment.”

“Ida Hadley,” said the judge, “stand
and face the court.”

Ida stood up, her eyes wide, wondering
what was coming,

“IT can do nothing about the jury's ver-
dict,” the judge said to her. “but T can do
something about your attempt to escape
from the McIntosh County Jail. I sen-
tence you to ten years in the Oklahoma
State Penitentiary.”

The girl gaped at him for a moment or
two as if not comprehending; then, as the
significance of his words dawned on her,
she crumpled back in her chair with an
inarticulate cry and turned to her husband
in dumb appeal.

Afterward, when both were taken to the
State penitentiary at McAlester, it was for
her husband, not for herself, that she
grieved.

“Poor Paull’ she moaned. “Lf only
there was some way | could help him!”

ut PAUL, AS 1T happened, did not re-
B quire her help. He did very well with-
out her. Paul Hadley, in brief, had not even
begun his criminal career.

At McAlester he became a “model pris-
oner” and was granted certain privileges
not always accorded prison inmates. He
told the warden he had an idea for an in-
vention which—of all things !—would he a
combination burglar alarm and burglar-
proof lock, and the warden gave him the
time and tools to work on this contrivance.

Later, in the Summer of 1922, he was
granted a temporary parole so that he could
perfect his invention and get a patent on it.

His parole required him to report every
week to the State Parole Board, and so
he did—the first week. Then he felt the
urge to ‘travel.

He traveled as far as Denver, using
various names and partly disguised _by
spectacles and a sprouting moustache, and
there he saw a chance to make a neat haul.

It started in a Denver hotel, while he
loitered near the clerk’s desk. A_ pros-
perous-looking man and his wife stopped at
the desk to pay their bill, and the man in-
quired about roads to the Southwest.

Hadley, observing them, noted the man’s
thick roll of money and the woman’s dia-
mond rings. He also noticed, by flicking
an eye at their bill, that they were Mr. and
Mrs. R. L. Johnson.

As they turned away from the desk, he
lifted his hat and greeted them pleasantly
with a smile:

“Pardon me for introducing myself. My
name is Henry Milton. Are you two, by
any chance, driving out U. S. Highway
12?”

“We are,” said the man.

“Then I wonder if you would mind do-
ing me a favor. My car broke down on
that road, just outside of town, and if it
isn’t too much trouble . . .”

“No trouble at all. Glad to help you.”

The three walked out to the strect, where
the Johnsons’ car stood at the curb. John-
son and his wife climbed into the front
seat and young Hadley seated himself be-
hind them, still thanking them very pro-
fusely.

When they had left Denver behind and
reached the open country he leaned for-

ward and _ pointed
in the road.
“My car’s just
said.
Johnson slowed (|
He looked about.
“But there's no c:
Hadley reached :
out a gun. He poi
and said in a britt!
“Forget it! I \
in your pocket. Ar:
moves, or I'll sho
The kindly mot:
awares, jerked ar
stared at the gun :
at the glittering-ey:
had befriended.
“W-why,” he sp:
He never finishe:
cracked sharply
across the wheel,
His wife utte:
“You’ve killed hi:
frenzy for the gu:
Again the gun c:
back in her seat, +
Hadley put the
stepped from the «
monds from the ws
husband's pockets,
to the roadside. ‘I!
wheel, and drove
there.

Fo A MATTER
aimlessly about

ago. That record
don’t know the nan
had it when he cam

“Then if he did.
didn’t have it w:
destroyed the wrap:
here from the stor:

Mrs, Leonard kk
room and began to
from further quest:

Sheriff Campbell
deputy, and Deput)
with Coél out onto
canvass for suspect
the attic. Finding t
brought it downsta’
records. He sprea
the broken pieces
tedious task faced |
on knowing the nan

While he was
returned.

“T’ve run onto a s
of explaining to d
sheriff. “He's the
drayman. _Yesterd:
parked downtown 1:
noon until seven.
wanted hauling d
locate him.”

“Do you have hin

“No. But I'm ¢
now and thought \:
along.”

“Anyone say an
think he could hay

“Yes.” Spud lit
he’s been sweet
several months.”

REAL DETECTIVE

REAL
DETECTIVE

“Merciful heaven! It’s Jake Giles!”

He shouldered his way through the crowd
and stood staring down at the dead man.

“You know this man?” asked the doctor.

“Know him? Of course I know him.
One of my oldest friends. He’s Jake Giles,
sheriff of Jefferson County, Texas.”

“And who are you, please?”

The man identified himself as Charles H.
Swartz, an oil operator of Muskogee, Ok-
lahoma.

“I was afraid something like this’ might
happen,” he muttered.

“Why do you say that?”

“Jake and I boarded the train at Kan-
sas City. I saw he had a prisoner, and
there was also a young woman with him,
and I told him he’d better handcuff the pris-
oner, but he only laughed and said: ‘No
danger of this fellow trying to escape. I
know him too well” That was like Jake;
always jolly and casy-going.”

With the dead man’s identity established,
news of the tragedy was telegraphed to
Beaumont, Texas, Jefferson County seat;
and as the Limited resumed its interrupted
journey, the town marshal of Checotah and
a posse of citizens started back along the
right-of-way in a search for the fugitives.

EANWHILE, IN Beaumont, Texas, the

mystery deepened. The slain sher-

iff’s chief deputy, John T. Friar, aside

from his shock at the news, was puzzled

by the name “Kendrick,” given in the tele-
gram.

Sheriff Giles had not been looking for
anybody by that name. And certainly he
had not been looking for any young
woman.

Who, then, was the handsome young
man whom the sheriff had refused to hand-
cuff? And who was the beautiful young
woman who accompanied them—deliber-
ately to murder the sheriff?

The sheriff had gone to Kansas City to
arrest a man named Paul V. Hadley, and
no woman was included in the warrant.
The warrant for his arrest had been sworn
out by an official of the Beaumont agency
of the Paige Motor Company, charging
embezzlement.

Paul Hadley was known in Beaumont as a
sort of dashing young ne’er-do-well. Quick-
witted, breezy, strikingly handsome, he had
a way with women—and with men also.
He was an automobile salesman, and a
good one.

Not much was known about his past, for
he hadn’t lived long in Beaumont, but. it
was understood that his parents had died
when he was a child and that a wealthy
Georgia couple had adopted him.

In his hot-blooded youth he had run away
from his foster family, had become a wan-
derer and had finally landed in Beaumont,
where he met and married a girl of fine
background.

This marriage, however, was doomed.
There had recently arrived in Beaumont
from a village near Houston, known as
Goose Creck, a surpassingly beautiful dark-
eyed girl bearing the euphonious name of
Ida Lightfoot.

Ida got a job as a clerk at the cigar
counter in the Alexander Building, and it
was there that Paul Hadley met her—and
was instantly captivated.

Violent proof of his infatuation was later
given publicly, when she had an argument
with John West, Beaumont shoe merchant,
over a bill for a pair of shoes. Hadley,

TERROR IN HIGH

who was with her, objected to West’s atti-
tude and soundly pummeled the shoe dealer.

West swore out a warrant for Hadley’s
arrest on a charge of felonious assault,
and Hadley was arrested and locked in jail,
He was released on bond, and his first act
was to divorce his wife and marry Ida
Lightfoot.

Soon thereafter he disappeared, and an-
other warrant was issued for his appre-
hension, charging forfeiture of bond.

When word came from the Kansas City
police that a man answering Hadley’s de-
scription was under arrest in that city, the
Paige Motor official swore out a warrant,
charging him with embezzlement ; and Sher-
iff Giles, bluff and hearty, started for Kan-
sas City to bring the prisoner back.

ND Now Sheriff Giles was dead, cold-

bloodedly murdered by an unknown
woman, and with his dying breath he had
gasped a name, likewise unknown—‘‘Ken-
drick.”

Who was “Kendrick” ?

Chief Deputy Friar, pondering — that,
thought he saw the answer. He was sure
of it when he learned that Ida had dropped
out of sight at the same time her new hus-
band disappeared.

And the whole thing became crystal clear
when he heard that Judge R. L. Rodgers,
who had an office in the Alexander Build-
ing, had received a letter from a man who
signed his name as J. F. Kendrick.

Kendrick, who gave his address as 255
South Boulevard, Atlanta, Georgia, wrote
that he was searching for his adopted son
and heir, known as Paul Hadley, and asked
the judge’s aid in finding him.

Judge Rodgers stopped at the cigar coun-
ter in the lobby of his building and asked
Ida if her boy friend, Paul Hadley, was
really the heir of a wealthy Mr. Kendrick
of Atlanta. Ida replied that he was, and
Paul, who strolled in at that moment, read-
ily admitted that his foster father was J. F.
Kendrick, Atlanta millionaire.

It was quite clear now that the mysteri-
ous “Kendrick,” whose name, Sheriff Giles
had gasped with his dying breath, and Paul
V. Hadley were one and the same person,
and that the beautiful brunette who had
murdered the sheriff was Hadley’s bride,
née Ida Lightfoot.

Chief Deputy Friar strapped on his .45
and started at once for Checotah, Okla-
homa. With him went a number of friends
of the slain sheriff, including Lee Simmons,
who later became head of the Texas prison
system, and Frank Jones, who as a deputy
U. S. marshal had more than 30 years ex-
perience in hunting criminals.

Deputy Friar and Marshal Jones took
charge of the hunt, organized searching
parties, started a systematic search of the
whole countryside.

The exact spot where they had left the
train could not be ascertained, but it was
believed to be somewhere between Che-
cotah and Muskogee, and the hunters spread
out from either side of the railroad tracks,
moving in widening circles, beating every
foot of the rugged terrain.

fy gees ar Abour four o'clock that
raw March morning, D. J. Ennis, a
farmer living on an isolated farm about
eight miles from Checotah, rose as usual
and went to his barn to feed and water the
stock.

He shoved back the barn door and

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 59)

stepped inside and hung his lantern on a
peg, just as he did every morning. Then
he stepped toward the haymow—and ab-
ruptly stopped, rubbing his eyes and staring
in sudden consternation.

Lying before him in a bed of hay were
the bodies of a man and a woman, en-
twined in a loving embrace.

He got his lantern and shed its light
on their faces and saw that both were young
and good looking and very well dressed.

ie tapped the young man’s shoulder and
said:

“Hey! Wake up! What you two doin’
here?”

The young man sat up dazedly, blinking
against the light, and looked bewilderedly
at the farmer. His bewilderment quickly
passed, however, and his lips parted in a
toothy smile.

“Til have to explain,” he said, combing
the hay from his tousled hair. “You: see,
this young lady and | are trying to get
married...”

The girl, awakened by their voices, sat
up sharply at this point. “Phe young man
put his arm around her and drew her close.
He kissed her lips and brushed the tangled
hair back from her lovely face.

“IT was just explaining to this man, dar-
ling,” he said, “about our elopement. I was
going to tell him how angry your father
was and how he is chasing us...”

“Oh, yes,” she put in, smoothing her
dress. “If father ever catches us—”’ She
broke off a little breathlessly and looked
searchingly at the farmer’s face. “I hope
we can trust you,” she said. “My father is
a terribly stern man.”

“Well, well,” said Farmer Ennis, grin-
ning broadly, “no use you two stayin’ out
here. Come on inside and be comfo'table.
I’ll have Ma fix some breakfast for you.”

NSIDE THE farm kitchen, they sat: down

to a steaming hot meal prepared by Mrs.
Ennis, and as they ate they expatiated fur-
ther on their plight.

“My father,” said the girl, lifting her
liquid dark eyes to look at the farmer and
his wife, “is so bitterly opposed to my mar-
rying Harold that he would do anything to
stop it. Why,” she said, looking in child-
like appeal from one to the other, “he
might even call the police!”

The young man looked up from his plate
with a troubled expression.

“But I am really worried,” he said, “about
her father notifying the police. It would
be just like him to do that. He might even
tell them we had committed some terrible
crime—murder, for cxample—anything to
get us arrested and put in jail.”

“Don’t worry about that,” said Farmer
Ennis. “If the sheriff or his men come
nosin’ round here I'll take care of em.
I'l] tell "em we never seen you.”

“Will you?” The young man jumped
up and joyously gripped the farmer’s hand.

“Shucks, no bother at all. Sorry I can't
do more. Only too glad to help you young
COMER srikecee

With profuse thanks, the happy young
couple presently left the farm house, the
young man first looking cautiously up and
down the road—“Just to make sure the
police aren’t after us,” he explained to
Farmer Ennis.

Walking briskly down the road through
the morning sunshine, the young man and
the girl saw a Model T Mord clattering to-
ward them, and the young man stepped for-

ward and he’

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ward and pointed ahead to a lonely spot
in the road.

“My car's just around that bend,” he
said,

Johnson slowed down and came to a stop.
He looked about.

"But there's no car here,” he said.

Hadley reached in his pocket and pulled
out a gun. He pointed it at Johnson’s head
and said in a brittle voice:

“Forget it! TP want that. roll of dough
in your pocket. And don’t make any funny
moves, or I'll shoot you sure as hell!”

The kindly motorist, taken wholly un-
awares, jerked around in his seat and
stared at the gun aimed at his head and at
at the glittering-eyed young man whom he
had befriended.

“W-why,” he sputtered, “you scoundrel.”

He never finished the sentence. The gun
cracked sharply and he pitched forward
across the wheel, a_ bullet in his head.

His wife uttered a shrill scream—
“You've killed him!”—and_ reached in a
frenzy for the gun.

Again the gun cracked, and she slumped
back in her seat, shot between the eyes.

Hadley put the gun_in his pocket and
stepped from the car. He stripped the dia-
monds from the woman’s fingers, rifled her
husband’s pockets, then dragged them both
to the roadside. Then he slid in behind the
heel, and drove off and left them lying

ere. :

OR A MATTER of three weeks he drove
aimlessly about the Southwest, travel-

REAL DETECTIVE

ing circuitously to dodge pursuit, and
miraculously he managed to evade the man-
hunt which had been started soon after
the bodies were found.

On a sultry Summer evening he drove
into Tucson, Arizona, the car coated with
desert dust, his clothing disheveled and face
unshaved,

As he alighted from the car, two detec-
tives walked up, wiped the dust from the
license plate and noted its number, then
turned to him.

“This your car, buddy?”

“No,” he said. “I was just looking it
over, and it looks to me like a stolen car.
I was going to report it to the police.”

“Okay; you can come along and report
it now.”

At police headquarters, where he gave
his name as Ray Mann, he repeated what
he had told the detectives. The questions
grew more pointed, but he adroitly parried
them.

The police finally accused him pointblank
of murdering the Johnsons, which he in-
dignantly denied. Nor could any amount
of questioning shake his denial.

Nevertheless he was booked on a charge
of murder and eventually was brought to
trial.

It seemed futile. There was little or
no evidence against him. He had thrown
away his gun, pried the diamonds from
their settings and sold them and spent the
dead man’s money, and there was nothing
to connect him with the crime except his

being found near the Johnsons’ car.

The trial ended in a hung jury.

While the prosecution was preparing for
a new trial, a new manager took charge of
the State Bureau of Identification, and this
man immediately started fingerprinting and
“mugging” all prisoners awaiting trial,
among them the prisoner known as) Ray
Mann.

A police circular, bearing his fingerprint
classification and photograph, was dis-
tributed to all law-enforcement agencies
throughout the West, and soon there came
word from the Oklahoma authorities that
“Ray Mann,” charged with murder, was
really Paul Hadley, ex-convict wanted for
violation of prison parole.

At his second trial the jury promptly
decided his fate. It was death by hanging.

Soon afterward he died on the gallows.

pa Haptey, née Ida Lightfoot of Goose

Creek, Texas still imprisoned at McAles-
ter for her attempt to free him from jail,
had been overjoyed when she learned of
his escape from prison, but now, when she
learned of his execution, she gave way to
uncontrollable grief.

She lost all interest in life after that, and
twice the prison authorities prevented her
from committing suicide.

Finally she pined away and died—of a
broken heart, it seemed.

According to the prison doctor, her
dying words were:

“Paul! ...I1 love you....-

REAL

DETECTIVE

ago. That record was a new one, and I
don’t know the name of it. My husband
had it when he came home.”

“Then if he did,” the sheriff said, “he
didn’t have it wrapped up, unless he
destroyed the wrapping paper on his way
here from the store.”

Mrs. Leonard looked wildly about the
room and began to cry. She was excused
from further questioning.

Sheriff Campbell sent his son Dean, a
deputy, and Deputy Spud Atherton along
with Coél out onto the town for another
canvass for suspects, while he climbed to
the attic. Finding the talking machine, he
brought it downstairs with a number of
records. He spread the newspaper with
the broken pieces on a_ table. A long
tedious task faced him, but he was intent
on knowing the name of the record.

While he was at the job, Atherton
returned.

“Pye run onto a suspect that'll have a lot
of explaining to do,” Atherton told the
sheriff. “He's the Burlington Junction
drayman. Yesterday he left his truck
parked downtown from four in the after-
noon until seven. A couple of merchants
wanted hauling done, and no one could
locate him.”

“Do you have him in custody ?”

“No, But I’m going over to his house
now and thought you might want to come
along.”

“Anyone say anything that made you
think he could have shot Leonard?”

“Yes”? Spud lit a cigarette. “They say
he’s been sweet on Mrs, Leonard for
several months.”

PASSION BREEDS THE BLUES

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 35)

Sheriff Campbell straightened, forgetting
his jigsaw. “Who says that?” he barked.

“Several townsmen. At least he’s worth
a once-over. Maybe he can tell us where
he was while the merchants were trying to
locate him, why he left his truck alone so
long, and why he was missing during the
hours that correspond with those during
which Mrs. Leonard says she was held
prisoner.”

“PH go along,” the sheriff said. “We'll
bring him back here. We don’t want too
many people to know what we're doing.”

S$ THE PAIR of officers approached Ash-

brook’s small frame house, they heard

the strains of a song. The melody

sounded familiar, but the sheriff couldn't

recall just what it was. Atherton knocked.

A tall, slender man, about 65, opened the
door. “What do you want?” he asked.

The record was still playing. Suddenly
the name of the piece came to Sheriff
Campbell. That was the St. Louis Blues!

“We want to ask you a few questions,”
Campbell said. “You'll have to come along
with us.”

“Unless you’ve got important business
with me,” Ashbrook said, “Yd rather not
go. I’ve got to get supper, and then go
over to the church. I’m janitor there, you
know, and there’s prayer meeting tonight.”

“Tt’s important,” the sheriff said. ‘Get
a move on.” Shrugging, Ashbrook turned
inside, stopped the record, and soon was
ready to accompany the officers. At the
Leonard home, he peered at the pieces of
record on the table.

“What are you trying to do with that?”

he asked huskily. “Are you trying to
patch it up so it'll play?”

“Sure,” said Campbell. “It’s a clue we’re
following.”

He began to hammer queries at the
drayman. Ashbrook said he had left his
truck and gone to the river, two blocks
south of Main Street, to shoot a dog for
aman. ‘The dog had gotten away from
him, and it had taken him three hours to
catch it, he said, and dusk had settled when
he finally finished the job.

“T can show you,the man I did it for,” he
stated. “You can find the dog’s carcass,
too—with a shot behind the left ear.”

“What kind of a gun did you use?”
Campbell asked.

“A 38 Smith and Wesson.”

“Well,” said the sheriff, after a moment’s
thought, “how can you prove you didn’t
shoot the dog right away, and then walk
back to kill Leonard?”

“What. do you mean?” Ashbrook de-
manded. “Are you accusing me of that
murder ?”

“No,” said Campbell, looking up from
the broken record, which he had_ partly
assembled. “I’m merely asking you to
prove your statements.” He then ordered
Atherton to accompany Ashbrook back
home, and to stay with him until further
notice.

Ashbrook fumed, declaring his con-
stitutional rights were being violated.
Sullenly, he went with the deputy.

t 7 O'CLOCK THAT evening Sheriff
Campbell put the last piece of the
white circle in the center of the record in

usband
iere he
hadn’t
friend
ss and
‘ at the

me the
1 asked
ise was
he was
ghastly
was so
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uely on
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nd hog-
clearly
victims.
vattered
dicating

place in -

ied im-
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minutes
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ne was
ing was
istration
ed. The
is car as
it was
or found
1 men’s
ding to
: motive
As the
: victims
ob Wise

“ne was
w film,
-y Coro-
ycess the
e county
‘s. It was
1ad also
walls of
th blood
iust have
er having
ers were
than one

ictically
i, regard-
type of a

hog-tied
n view of
in of both
scomplice

1 his two |

acannon’s
. check of
te the car.

ed Tucson,

authorities with a precise description

of the car, including the Ohio license _

’, plate number.

The full description of the 1977
Oldsmobile Cutlass was accorded
broad dissemination as an APB. A

‘highly bizarre aspect of the crime
* evolved when Mrs. Wise told inves-
’ tigators that a stranger had appeared

at her home in Mesa late Friday
afternoon driving a car matching the
description of Concannon’s vehicle.
The lone man had asked her if Bob '
was home. When she. replied in the‘
negative, he asked her to tell him that
‘‘Ken Wilson’’ had dropped by to see
him and then left. As the dual-murder
probe was expanded,-Tucson police
were inclined to theorize that it was
possible the killer had spent conside-
rable time inside Wise’s motel room.
It also appeared that one of the victims

_was viciously beaten after he had died’

of multiple gunshot wounds.

The post-mortem examination
disclosed that the murder weapon was
a .25-caliber pistol. This factor
coincided with the discovery of several
empty shell cases ejected inside the
motel room. It was learned that
neither victim was carrying what:
would amount to a huge sum of
money. If it was robbery, why had the

_ dual-slayer felt it necessary to execute

his two bound, helpless captives? Was
he known to them or was he merely
bloodthirsty? Chaffing and bruises on
the victim’s limbs affirmed.that both
were alive when they were trussed. It

also appeared that Robert A. Wise was

accosted by his slayer while he was
alone. There was no sign of a forcible

_entry meaning he must have opened

the door of his room to whoever had
later killed him. ’ ;
In keeping with this presumption,

' Wise’s slayer must have later admitted

Concannon into the room when the
latter arrived to keep an appointment
with Wise. It might well have been that
the husky éx-Green Beret, skilled, in
hand-to-hand combat, had resisted in
a fight for his life, thus accounting for
the broken, overturned furniture:
Quite possibly, a well-placed slug in
the chest had incapacitated him after

‘which he too was securely tied and

then shot in the head. It was a murder
case riddled with baffling enigmas.
Forensic crime scene technicians
stripped away swatches of the blood-
spattered wallpaper in the motel room

‘to be prepared for transmittal to the

crime lab for testing and examination.
They wanted to know whose blood it

(continued on page 46)

Skinner was a detective: employed'at a
large department store in Chicago. He
aspired to greater things, like a private
agency. of his own, or a job as head of the
district attorney's special investigating staff.
Up to this time, his capabilities went un-
appreciated, though he could count the
top-grade sleuths on the fingers of one
hand, starting with himself as A.

One afternoon a lady walked into the
fur department and Skinner immediately
marked her as a phony. She affected a
Boston accent and treated the sales people
like dandruff.

Her face did not belong to his picture
gallery of shoplifters. There was no evi-
dence of anything like a device, such as
a plastic third arm, a trick package with
a hinged side, or a suspiciously large
handbag. She could not easily hide on her
person the expensive furs being shown.

After about an hour she selected sables -

priced at $25,000, signed herself as Mrs.

Tithering ona check for that amount, gave ©

a fashionable address in Evanston where
she said she was temporarily staying.

So far, nothing had happened that
enabled Skinner to leap from his place
of concealment and say, “Come with me,
my chickadee!” The store was not going,
to deliver the furs without first clearing
the check.

But she wanted the sables to wear that
same evening. In such a case. a’ check

wouldn’t do, she was told, She offered to.

get the cash at her bank. The salesman
pointed to the clock; it was after three. |

“Oh dear,” said Mrs. Tithering. She
thought a minute, then her face brightened.
“I'll tell you what!” she said.

This is it, Skinner muttered. The lady

was suggesting that the store send a trust~
worthy person with the furs, Her car was
outside, and she would drive the man
directly to Evanston where she had the
cash. It would be such a convenience,

The manager was consulted, He wasn’t
sure. “A trustworthy man... .” He couldn’t
think of one at the moment. And then
Skinner sidled up.and stepped on the
manager's foot, as a gentle hint. He
weighed 195 pounds.

“Just the man I was looking for,” said
the manager, suppressing a groan.

- DISAR
WOMAN

MING

Skinner took the box containing the [°°
furs and followed Mrs. Tithering out of
the store. He was led to an expensive car
in which was seated a uniformed chauffeur.
After one glance, the detective labeled
him a twirp. He could handle six of that,
and the thought of: his automatic pistol

in his coat pocket comforted Skinner. As

for the woman—she was, after all, nothing
but a woman.

| Evanston is a suburb of Chicago, and
the trip back and forth should ‘not take
long. Skinner had told. the manager, “Th
be back in a flash, with the cash.”

He tried to make conversation with the
lady on the way,.draw her out a little.
However, she uttered only two remarks.
One was to the chauffeur: “Home,
Prescott.” And in answer to Skinner's
attempt: “Indeed.” :

The manager waited two hours, looking
at his fingernails, At the end of two more,
he was biting them. He called the police,
giving the Evanston address. And there
they found Skinner raving in a padded
room. ty

He was not very coherent, but he was able
to give the following account of events:
As soon as the car arrived at this address,
the lady got out, saying she would send
two: men with the money. Meanwhile
Skinner held a tight grip on the box of
furs with one hand, and his gun with the
other. The chauffeur remained.

Two men did come out, dressed in white
jackets. They took Skinner by surprise,
disarmed him, and locked him up, although
he told them who he was and that they
couldn't do a thing like that to him.

It seemed that Mrs. Tithering had
arranged everything the previous day. She
had told the house physician of the private
sanatorium that her husband was a
dangerous maniac—depressive with delu-
sions that he was a great detective on the
hunt for fur thieves, She had: brought
commitment papers with the forged
signature of a Chicago psychiatrist, and,
paid $200 for initial treatment of Skinner's
“strange malady.” Sue

The furs were never recovered, and the
Bostonian accent was not much use as
a clue to the vanished lady and her
‘chauffeur. } EG

27,

Hog-Tied, Gagged And Electrocuted!

(continued from page 27):

was. It’s possible for a specialist to tell
from the crimson splatters the exact
direction of their flight from the point
of origin to the place of impact. A
considerable amount of fingerprint
. powder was used to lightly dust all
retentive surfaces to raise latents which
were then carefully lifted for examin-
ation. And, due note of another

bizarre aspect of the senseless double- '

slaying was made after it was found
that the killer had apparently tried to
electrocute his victims with the bared
‘wire of a table lamp. Both bodies bore
blackened, scorched and burned areas.
_ Either that or he’d used the exposed
electrical wiring to shock his victims
as a means of torturing them. What
‘could he have possibly wanted from
the two salesmen? From the moment
he’d placed each under his gun, he’d
been in full control. After they were
trussed and hog-tied, he’d been at

, liberty to take anything from them he

desired. It may have been that
Concannon and Wise were reluctant
to disclose the location of their cars
or to describe them. As they worked,
Tucson police accumulated a total of
more than.100 photographs taken both
at the crime scene and at the morgue.
Before their probe was completed,
they would also accrue more than 100
physical evidence exhibits.
In spite of their unstinting and
’ diligent efforts, twelve hours into the
.intensive probe found them without a
single lead which could be used’ to
identify a potential suspect: Some close
‘to the case thought that perhaps it
“might be a grudge slaying or a murder
for revenge. Why had a killer singled
- out Bob Wise and Marty Concannon
-as his victims? Both carried amounts
of cash which equalled about $100. In
reiteration, Tucson investigators were
strongly inclined to suspect that the
killer had first struck while Wise was
, alone in\his room. He had most likely
launched his attack soon after he’d
gained entry into the room through
_ ¢ither force, intimidation or trickery
When Concannon rapped on the doot
“later he’d been inadvertently drawn
‘into the existing vortex of violence.
At about 5:00 p.m., January 26,

7 GIVE... sone he.
~ HEARTFUND

1980, Phil Latham, a security officer
employed’ by Northern Arizona
University in Flagstaff, Arizona,
noticed a 1977 Olds Cutlass cruising
the campus restricted parking lot in a
suspicious manner. He proceeded to
check the vehicle out just as it pulled
into a parking slot and stopped. Lat-
ham could see that the car did not bear
any authorized parking decals and he
told the lone male occupant that he
couldn’t park there. The man behind
the steering wheel responded cour-
teously with a pronounced southern
drawl. Latham noted that the driver
of the Olds was wearing two jackets,
transient style, and his suspicions were
instinctively aroused.

The man in the three-year-old car
definitely looked out of place. The
security officer unobtrusively jotted
down the Ohio license plate number
which he relayed on to the depart-
mental dispatcher requesting it be
checked out as a possible stolen car.
Three other campus security officers
who had monitored the radio traffic
moved in to assist Latham if necessary.
The Cutlass had left the restricted lot
but it was still on the campus. Latham
was alerted that he had a ‘‘hit’’,
meaning that the Olds Cutlass and all
occupants were the objects of a
widespread search originating out of
Tucson far to the south.

Acting in well-coordinated unison,
the four security officers moved to
curb the 77 Cutlass and take the driver
into custody without incident although
he was found to be armed with a fully
loaded .25 caliber automatic pistol.

. NAU security officials notified the

Coconino County Sheriff’s Depart-
ment of the arrest and the circums-
tances involved. Several deputies were
dispatched to the university to
transport the prisoner into Flagstaff
and to the county jail where he would
be held for the Pima County authori-
ties.

After having conferred with Tucson

police, the subject was booked on two

counts of murder for the slayings of
Wise and Concannon. Although he
was carrying a number of credit cards
in the names of various individuals,
the subject was formally identified as
Donald Eugene Harding, age 30. He’d

been printed and mugged after which-

his social security number was fed into
the National Crime Information
Center computer banks. It was
established that he’d escaped from the

Little Rock, Arkansas, jail.
Tucson Police Sgt. Ron Penning

‘proceeded to make arrangements to

dispatch several officers to Flagstaff
to bring Harding back into Pima
County. He’d been driving Marty
Concannon’s wife’s car when appre-

hended. Besides the credit cards and -

the pistol, additional evidence was
found on Harding’s person and inside
the car to link him to other crimes.
Arizona authorities initiated contacts
with various out-of-state law enforce-
ment agencies and learned that
Harding was wanted in San Diego and
San Francisco, California and in Lake
Tahoe, Nevada. Pulaski County
authorities also held a want on

- Harding for the murder he’d not yet.

stood trial for as well as an additional
charge of escape. By the time Harding
was returned to ‘Tucson, he’d. been
implicated in other crimes committed
since his escape.
_ The prisoner was returned to Tucson
on Sunday, September 27th and
booked into the Pima County Jail on
two counts of first-degree murder and
one charge of vehicle theft. Bond was

pegged at $1 million dollars and his’
preliminary hearing was scheduled for’

the following day. The FBI special
agent in Flagstaff issued a release to
the effect that Harding was wanted for
questioning in connection with five
murders, six kidnappings, 12 armed
robberies and four motor vehicle thefts
in eight states. These crimes were in
addition to those with which Harding
now stood charged with.

Now fully identified as a tough,
case-hardened, escape-prone charac-
ter witha history of violence at the
slightest provocation, Harding was in
shackles when he was led into the
courtroom for his P.H: Both his hands
and his legs were fettered with heavy
chains and security was beefed up. He
was walked into the Superior Court

apart from other prisoners to appear ’

before Court Commissioner Law-
rence Bret Harte. The preliminary
hearing was postponed and the court
appointed a-public defender to
represent the accused.

It was established that some of

Gage’s belongings were found in the
stolen car which the accused was
driving when arrested. Tucson Police
Detective Lt. Ron Zuniga stated that
a wallet belonging to Robert Wise was

also found in the car. The telephones:

kept ringing in the Pima County S.O.
as Officials from four additional states,
Washington, Illinois, Nebraska and

(continued on next page)

NSE RN INNS ere OHS

States
vada,
Cexas

~aska.
ire of

con
cious
mains
es IN
i-case
otally
ne to

nvolv-"

ember
three
n that

date, police in Dallas, Texas, disco-
vered the body of a 27-year-old.man
who’d been slain with a single well-
_ placed shot. squarely between the eyes.
Robbery appeared to be the motive.’ :
‘ The victim had not been bound. The

= only clue was a .25-caliber slug incised,

} from his brain.

9 "The next crime believed committed
-\ by the Arkansas escapee was the

“murder of a victim from Santa
» Barbara, California, who:was found

<dead in a South Lake Tahoe motel
“room on January 2, 1980. The dead

“ man had been gagged and bound by

his assailant. He’d died of.suffocation -

“caused by the tight, cruel gag. His
wallet containing money and a number
of credit cards were missing.

_As was the case in Dallas, police
were unable to develop a lead solid

enough to allow them to pursue their:

probe beyond the preliminaries and
this crime also seemed destined to.
remain unsolved.

Near Paso Robles, California, a
farmer discovered the corpse of a
na? year-old man lying i ina field. The

San Diego police officers leave
“condominium where five hos-
5 feos were tied up and held at bay
by lone gun-toting fugitive.

-victim had his hands tightly bound
‘behind his back and had been shot

once in the head, execution-style, with-

a .25-caliber handgun. As, was the case

in the other two slayings, the only solid -

clue was the slug removed from the
victim’s head.

Police agencies in three different ;
locales -had three copper-jacketed bul-:

lets suitable for comparison tests by

_ballistical technicians if. and when a.

suspect. was arrested with the death-

‘gun in‘his possession, but no links

between the three slayings as yet
existed.

During this same time-frame, a man
from Minnesota vanished from his
room in a San Francisco hotel. His
bloodstained rental car was later found
in northern California with an

expended .25-caliber cartridge casing

‘ inside. Despite an intensive investiga-

tion, this case also remained without
solution. Credit cards belonging to this
victim and the one found dead in the

~Tahoe motel room were found later . |
as being used in various locations in
‘California. The Minnesota man’s body

was never found..

It.developed that the Arkansas jail . : fe
- escapee had a unique flair in selecting. .

business establishments for armed.

robberies. On January 21, 1980, he
entered the offices of a San Diego,’ *
California, optometrist intent on
picking up some easy money. Five*

people were on the premises. Don *:*-

promptly whipped out his vicious
looking little automatic pistol and “
relieved them of their valuables. Not
content with his haul, he herded all

(continued on next page)

‘five out to one victim’s car and ordered .

the owner of the vehicle to drive them
to her home. Once there, he stole more
valuables and left in the victim’s car.
On January 25, 1980, Allen Gage,
38, and severely handicapped as the.
result of an operation, was found
_ brutally murdered in a motel room in
Phoenix. Gage. was hogtied and left

face down on the floor with his face’

‘cushioned in a pillow. He too had died
as the result of suffocation. The slayer
had stolen his victim’s wallet and car.
The actual crime was believed to have
been committed the previous day.
Despite their most diligent efforts,
Phoenix police were unable to unearth
a single useful lead to identify a viable
suspect. An all-points-bulletin was
aired for Gage’s stolen car with the
hope the killer was still behind the
steering wheel.

- While homicide investigators were
working the Gage murder case, the
killer was miles away and -headed

' southeast towards Tucson. Since his

-vbrazen and daring prison break, he
seldom if ever stayed in any one place
for longer than 24 hours. At this point
in time, he purportedly committed
more than 40 felonious type crimes

including five cold-blooded murders,
of people encountered in or near .

motels and hotels. Police were -later

~ convinced that Don committed many
‘ more crimes than those in which he’d

_ later been implicated.

On Friday, January 25, 1980,

Martin Concannon, 33, and a resident
. of Tucson for the past eight years, had
an appointment to meet with his
supervisor, Robert A. Wise, a resident
of Mesa, Arizona. Both men wer
employes of a California-base
automotive-tool firm. Concannon was
a regional salesman. Wise was a

*.. district; representative whose policy
~ was to get together with subordinates

“at least once a month for informal
business meetings. Mr. Wise invariably
Stayed at the LaQuinta Motor Inn on
the North Freeway while visiting
Tucson. He was a registered guest
there on Friday, January 25, and
planned to be back home in Mesa late
that night. His wife was expecting him.
Concannon was a former Green
Beret who stood six-foot-four and
served with the U.S. Army’s Special

. Forces in Vietnam during 1968-69. He
weighed a hefty 200 pounds and had

been awarded the Purple Heart for

\ wounds received during a life-saving

‘mission. He learned that he had a’

natural aptitude for selling and had

"worked since leaving the service selling
_, stocks and bonds, real estate and

“> 26

Back in shackles after four hec-

. tic months of rampage, Donald.

Harding makes another seem-
ingly endless court showing.

various recreational vehicles.

On this particular Friday, he was
driving his wife’s car which carried
Ohio license plates. Marty, as he was
known to all of his close friends and
associates, told his wife that day about
his impending meeting with his district

“manager, commenting that in all

probability, he’d be home later than
usual. He and’ Mr. Wise planned to
make a number of sales calls together.
Later, they’d hold a one-on-one
businéss conference in Wise’s motel
room.
Sometime shortly after midnight on
the early morning of Saturday,
January 26, Mrs. Wise was in Mesa
approximately 100 miles from Tucson
maintaining a vigil now fraught with
apprehension. Unable to bear it any
longer, she called a family friend who
lived in Tucson and explained that she

hadn’t been able to reach her husband
by telephone at the motel where he
usually stayed and that he hadn’t
returned home on time. The friend
assured her: that he would dress and
immediately check matters out at the
motor inn. .
’ It was near 4 a.m. by the time the
friend arrived at the motel and asked
the registration clerk if Mr. Wise was
still registered: Minutes later, he was
entering the man’s room. The ghastly
scene which met his eyes was so
horrible it was almost indescribable.
Two men lay sprawled grotesquely on
the carpet in copious puddles of blood.
Each was thoroughly trussed and hog-

_ tied. Gunshot wounds were clearly

visible in the heads of both victims.
The furniture in the gore-spattered
room was upset and broken indicating

a furious struggle had taken place in -

the room.

Tucson policeiwere notified im-
mediately. Several officers arrived at
the downtown motel within minutes
and homicide investigators were
enroute: The-horrific scene was
photographed before anything was
touched or moved. Wise’s registration
card was located and examined. The
parking lot was checked for his car as
described on the card and it was
located. His car keys were later found
inside his motel room. Both men’s
wallets were missing tending to
indicate that robbery was the motive
for the brutal dual murder. As the
investigation .progressed, both victims
were positively identified as Bob Wise
and Marty Concannon.

After the gruesome scene was

preserved on color and b&w film,

members of the Pima County Coro-
ner’s office proceeded to process the
two bodies for transport to the county
morgue facilities for autopsies. It was
now discovered that each had also
been shot in the chest. The walls of
the room were splattered with blood
indicating that the victims must have
fought for their lives even after having

been shot. Investigating officers were '
inclined to believe that more than one ©

assailant was involved.

It would have been practically
impossible for a lone gunman, regard-
less of how many or what type of a
weapon he carried, to: have hog-tied
both menalone, especially in view of
the age and physical condition of both
victims. Either he had an accomplice

or else the killer had -taken his two’

victims on one at a time. Concannon’s

. car keys were missing and a check of

the parking lot failed to locate the car.

‘His griefstricken wife provided Tucson

authorit
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(«

AikizevA Kerub

le (“ho enix, AZ

EJ MONT! 3-197
Republic Columnist ee

Our killing
di

ffers from
murderer’s

was wrong about the death penalty. I
was wrong when I said that if we kill
killers like Donald Eugene Harding,
then we’re no different from them.

That’s not true.
’ [ve learned this after having followed the
long and expensive effort our state —
meaning us — has made to kill Harding.
We've been at it for years. We’re still at it.
Someday soon, we may succeed, and
Harding will become the first person to die
in Arizona’s-gas chamber in nearly 30 years.

Donald Harding never took that long to
plan a killing. His murders were brutal and
chaotic. He’ll be in prison his whole life for
them, however long that may be. That’s one
of the many differences between us and
Harding.

_ If we kill him, none of us will go to jail.

Another way we're different is that
Harding has never been able to afford an
attorney. We can. In fact, we’ve spent
hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to
get Harding killed. Harding’s
court-appointed lawyer, on the other hand,
actually advised Harding to defend himself,
which goes a long way toward explaining
why Harding is on death row. It also leads
into‘another way we differ.

Harding is brain-damaged. We’re not. At

heme

least, not medically speaking.
- - Three prominent doctors, including one

who testified against Harding at his trial 11
years ago, say he suffers from an organic
brain disorder that “substantially impaired
his ability to conform his conduct to the
requirements of the law.” Which brings up
another difference between Harding and us.

We must like killing

There’s no evidence to suggest that
Harding actually enjoyed killing.

We do. We must.

There’s no other explanation for having
spent so much of our time and money
trying to kill Harding and the other inmates
on Arizona’s death row.

For example, our reason for wanting to
kill Harding can’t be to keep us safe. We're
safe from him now.

And the reason for killing him can’t be to
Save taxpayers’ money. We’ve probably
spent more money trying to put Harding in
the gas chamber than we would have spent
letting him live out his life in prison.

' And we're not trying to kill Harding out
of any “eye for an eye” sense of justice. We
don’t sentence killers equally. We choose to
kill only some of them.
‘Which leaves us with only one
explanation for why we want to kill
Harding. Or anybody else, for that matter.
We like it.
- Maybe killing is an acquired taste, like
eating raw fish. Arizona Attorney General
Grant Woods, the most vocal proponent of
killing Harding, got a taste for killing after
he entered politics.
> + As a public defender for a man named
Murray Hooper, Woods argued against the
‘death penalty, saying his client was
innocent. Now, Woods is eager to kill and
‘even says that Hooper was guilty and
deserves to die. Proving that even as a
defense attorney, Woods was a good
prosecutor.

A deaf ear to hearings

As for Harding, Woods doesn’t want a
judge to hear any new evidence that might
get Harding’s sentence reduced to life in
prison. He’s been trying to keep the state
Supreme Court from granting such a
hearing and he won his point Wednesday.

__ The attorney general recently told a
Republic reporter, “There is overwhelming
support for the death penalty.”

Meaning, I guess, that we should kill
Harding, no matter what.

‘None of Harding’s previous attorneys
explored the possibility that he was
brain-damaged. That didn’t happen until his
case was examined by the Arizona Capital
Representation Project. Woods doesn’t
want a judge to hear any of that, however.
He just wants Harding dead.

Harding couldn’t resist the temptation to
hurt others, and he acted on it, becoming a

-lone killer. We can’t resist the temptation,

_ either. But we act on it as a group.

‘y if

By Pamela Manson

and Abraham Kwok
The Arizona Republic

_ The Arizona Supreme Court on
‘Wednesday turned down a request
.to consider commuting the death
sentence of Donald Eugene Har-

-state’s first execution: in almost
three decades.

In a-3-2 decision, the high: court
declined to accept the case of the
triple slayer, who is scheduled to
be.executed . April 6.

Officials’ with the Arizona At-
torney’s ‘General’s Office said the

__appeal to the Supreme Court was
~ the last one. available and that

to the gas chamber as scheduled.

ding,- setting the stage for. the’

chances are good Harding will go.

Court turns down
killer’s appeal
Stage set for 1st execution since 1963

Neither of Harding’s ieee, 1:

James Belanger or Denise Young,

could be reached for comment -

Wednesday,, but Belanger has said

his cliefit has at least one more

appeal possibility in federal court.
“Belanger has not said, however,

é whether he or. his associates would
file any. more motions in ‘an |
‘attempt to block the execution.

_Wednesday’s decision brought
relief to some of the victims’
relatives, .

“Tm extremely glad. I’m
looking: for an. absolute end to
this,” said Jeri Wise, whose hus-
band, Robert Wise, was one of two
businessmen who were hogtied,
beaten and shot’ at ‘close range

— See APPEAL, page A10

OTV

aqndey vuoziiy ou =

7661 61 IE] “Kepsmuyy,

~ Appeal is rejected,
state’s 1st execution
in 29 years nears

+ APPEAL, from page Al

‘dasiig a 1980. robbery at a Tucson
‘motel. Harding also is under a death
‘sentence for the murder of a man at a
7 Phoenix. motel, but is slated to be
“executed f for the Tucson slayings.

Wise and other relatives said they
have been emotionally taxed by the
appeal process of the case.

“He didn’t grant Bob Wise or
Marty Concannon any appeals,” Jeri
Wise said. “And he has availed
himself of the justice system for 12
years. There are simply no words to
express how I feel.”

Won 3-month reprieve

Harding was to have been executed
Jan. 3, but won a three-month re-
prieve to give the court more time to
consider arguments that his sentence

should be commuted to life. Lawyers .

for Harding had argued that their
client’s brain damage called for
leniency.

His attorneys said Harding’s brain
damage, caused at birth when his
umbilical cord wrapped around his
neck and choked him, have caused
impulses he can’t control.

But the brain damage and abuse
Harding suffered while growing up
never were addressed as mitigating
factors at his sentencing.

But prosecutors said that Harding’s

case has been thoroughly examined.

and that his appeals are groundless.
He was convicted of the murder of

Allan Gage, who choked to death at a
Phoenix motel on Jan. 25, 1980, after
being bound and gagged. Hours later,
Wise and Concannon were found
bound, gagged and shot in the head
inside their Tucson motel room.

Recent rulings by the U.S. Supreme
Court, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals upholding the death
penalty and limiting appeals have
pushed Arizona closer to its first
execution in more than 29 years.

The U.S. and Arizona Supreme

Courts also have rejected claims in’

recent cases that killers deserve life
imprisonment rather than execution if
they are retarded or suffer other types
of brain damage. ,

100 on death row

There are 99 men and one woman
on the state’s death row.

‘Prosecutors with the: Arizona At-
torney General’s Office said several
other inmates also are getting closer to
execution. Among them is Willie Lee
Richmond, who has-been on death
row since 1974, longer than anyone in
the nation.

Since January 1910, when someone
started keeping track,.63 people have
been executed in Arizona. Twen-
ty-eight of the condemned prisoners
were hanged, and the rest died in the
gas chamber.

The last person ‘executed in Ari-
zona was Manuel Silvas, who died in
the gas chamber March 14, 1963.

lee

‘2

Z66T ‘81, youRW ‘fe

PSaupam ‘uosony

ks 1S ERR ees GRU 3A

Spit

te ee ae

High court expected
to issue ruling today
on Harding execution

The Arizona Supreme Court is ex- '
pected to announce today whether
convicted killer Donald Eugene
Harding should be executed April 6.

Justices yesterday discussed a pe-
tition by Harding’s lawyers in con-
ference. .

The court in December granted
Harding, 43, a three-month stay to
consider arguments that he suffers
from lifelong brain damage.

Harding previously was sched-
uled to die Jan. 3 in the gas chamber.
at the Arizona State Prison in,
. Florence.

Of the 100 death row inmates,
Harding is considered the closest to
_ execution given his number of ap-
peals that have been denied. Ari--
zona has not executed a prisoner.
since Manuel Silvas was put to death-
29 years ago.

Harding was convicted in Pima

County Superior Court in 1982 in the

shooting deaths two years earlier of-
Martin Concannon of Tucson and
Robert Wise of Mesa in a Tucson

motel. fo B uy

aie =< ARIZONA aera = Fpoenik Az.

wae

_ discussed in the media,”
: referring to:

‘Woods eager
to weed out
death row

rizona Attorney General Grant Woods
A issued a press release last. Friday enthusiasti-
cally declaring that “the state is closer than
ever to executing death-row inmates.”
Mr. Woods said the appeals process has run out
- for murderer Donald, Eugene Harding, who killed
three people in the early 1980s. Harding is scheduled
to die in the gas chamber on Jan. 3, 1992.
_According: to Mr. Woods’ press release, “There
/ are indications that the
logjam of Arizona’s 102
death-row inmates may be
coming to an end.”

I haven’t sensed that
kind -of giddiness over
impending death since I
was a boy. A neighbor kid
had just gotten a new BB
gun. He was outside

- studying
when a slow, fat pigeon
-flew by, landing in the
next yard.
-“He’s asking for it,”
said the kid, smiling.

I called Mr.

office to ask. about the

EJ.
MONTINI

Republic
Columnist

mediately, Mr. Woods’
press aide, Steve Tseffos,

began assuring me that Mr. Woods’ enthusiastic
, Style should not be perceived as actual enthusiasm.

“Some people have gotten the wrong idea,”

- Tseffos said. “Of course, Grant believes in capital

punishment. But, the point. of the press release was
' simply to make people ‘aware. that there was
: something important out there that maybe needed to
- be discussed in the media.”

By “something important” that “needed to be

Grant Woods.

the weapon”

Woods’

press release. Almost im-.

I believe Mr. Tseffos was

. Phrases don’t suffice —

Several days had’ passed: by then siithout. Mr.
Woods’ managing to get his name in thé papers or
his face on TV. But, as important as that issue is to
all of us, I’d like to take a few moments to discuss
something else:

Killing people.’

Of course, I hope my blunt, descriptive style isn’t

1° confused with actual bluntness.

It’s just that, language-wise, the words ‘“‘execu-
tion” and “capital punishment” don’t quite capture
the essence of the process by which, in Arizona, we
strip a condemned person to his underwear, strap

- him to a chair in a steel room,, drop cyanide pellets
, into a bucket of chemicals, then, as the gas rises, ©

watch him. gag, drool, convulse, defecate and, ©
eventually, die.

Politicians who support killing people in such a
way argue that it is a morally correct, cost-effective
deterrent to crime.’ — Z

To be honest, k believe capital punishment. is, ia’.

’ .deterrent.

It deters politicians from looking for. real

- solutions.

Proponents of the death penalty know it doesn’t
curb murder rates. As for cost, New York state.
found out a few years ago that the minimum cost of ».

| executing a prisoner was $1.8 million, while the
‘ minimum cost to keep an inmate behind bars for 40
~ years was $600,000. In California, a study by the
' Sacramento Bee found that eliminating the death
, penalty would ‘save the state about $91 million a

year.
Despite the costs, though, | some still say execution
is morally correct.

Killing only ‘some’ killers ©

What confuses me about this argument is that
proponents only want to kill some of the killers.

' Why not all of them? Are not all of the victims
- equally dead? Are not all of the vicrins: families

equally devastated?
Besides, you can’t argue that some killers are

_ more dangerous than others. Not when the killers
. we’re talking about all have been neutralized by
_ prison.

They’re unable to cause any more harm, like
prisoners of war. Whom we don’t execute. “i
For more than 28 years, the state of Arizona

'. hasn’t killed anyone. Now, the attorney general
| happily reports an impending change.

That being the case, maybe one of you can answer

i a question for me concerning the words “execution” |

and “execution-style.”
In the writing business, we attach the word
“style” to another word either to offer praise or to

disparage. For instance, you could say, “Symington

is a Lincoln-style politician,” to mean one thing. Or

' say, “Symington is a Mecham-style politician,” to
. mean just the opposite.

In that Sense, when we say that someone
committed an “execution-style murder,” do we mean

- the murderer was meticulous, adept, under control
- and extremely efficient at killing — like us?

Or do we mean the killer was coldblooded,

- calculating, predatory and merciless — like us?

854

sequences of waiver, or to participate intel-
ligently in proceedings and to make rea-
soned choice among alternatives presented.
U.S.C.A. Const.Amend. 14.

3. Criminal Law ¢641.9

Court should have “good faith doubt”
about defendant’s competency to waive
counsel, and should conduct hearing on is-
sue, whenever there is substantial evidence
of incompetence. U.S.C.A. Const.Amend.
14,

4. Criminal Law ¢641.9

Evidence which might create good-
.faith doubt about defendant’s competence
to waive counsel, and which might require
hearing on issue, includes but is not limited
to: prior history of irrational behavior,
medical opinion, and defendant’s behavior
at trial. U.S.C.A. Const.Amend. 14.

5. Habeas Corpus €85.1(3)

Whether trial court should have good-
faith doubt about defendant’s competence
to waive counsel, such that hearing on is-
sue is required, is question which habeas
court will decide independently, without
granting any presumption of correctness to
trial court’s finding on score. 28 U.S.C.A.
§ 2254(d).

6. Criminal Law ¢641.9

Trial court did not have to conduct
evidentiary hearing, regarding defendant’s
competence to waive right to counsel,
where defendant had previously been
found competent to stand trial, was respon-
sive and rational at trial, possessed suffi-
cient intelligence to participate in proceed-
ings when he chose, and indicated that he
understood consequences of waiver.

7. Criminal Law ¢641.9

Trial court must carefully balance de-
fendant’s right to self-representation and
its duty to insure that defendant’s waiver
of right to counsel is made with full aware-
ness of risks.

8. Criminal Law @641.9

Preferred procedure for determining
whether defendant knowingly and intelli-
gently waives right to counsel is for trial
judge to discuss with defendant in open
court his/her understanding of charges, of

834 FEDERAL REPORTER, 2d SERIES

possible penalties, and of dangers of self-
representation.

9. Criminal Law ¢641.7(1)

Failure on part of trial court to advise
defendant of dangers of self-representation
does not necessitate reversal, where record
otherwise reveals knowing and intelligent
waiver of right to counsel.

10. Criminal Law ¢641.4(2)

In deciding whether defendant know-
ingly and intelligently waived right to coun-
sel, appellate court should focus on what
defendant understood about proceedings,
including possible consequences, and dan-
gers of acting as his own attorney.

11. Habeas Corpus €113(12)

Whether waiver of right to counsel
was knowingly and intelligently made is
mixed question of law and fact, which ap-
pellate court reviews de novo.

12. Criminal Law @641.4(4)

Murder defendant who had equivalent
of high school education, who had suffi-
cient prior experience with criminal justice
system to be aware of benefits of counsel,
and who was expressly advised by trial
court of possible penalties and complexities
of case, “knowingly and _ intelligently”
waived right to counsel, notwithstanding
trial court’s failure to explicitly warn him
of difficulties faced by lay person in con-
ducting his own defense.

See publication Words and Phrases
for other judicial constructions and
definitions.

13. Criminal Law ¢=641.13(2)

Attorney’s advice to defendant who ev-
idence overwhelmingly showed had brutal-
ly and callously murdered two victims, that
he should insist on representing himself as
means of injecting error into proceedings,
was not per se ineffective assistance of
counsel, such as would entitle defendant to
new trial when he knowingly and willingly
participated in attorney’s scheme. U.S.C.
A. Const.Amend. 6.

Francisco Leon, Tucson, Ariz., for peti-
tioner-appellant.

Jack Roberts, Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of
Law, Phoenix, Ariz., for respondent-appel-
lee.

Appeal from the United States District
Court for the District of Arizona.

Before POOLE and BOOCHEVER,
Circuit Judges, and DIMMICK,”
District Judge.

‘BOOCHEVER, Circuit Judge:

’ Harding appeals the district court’s dis-
missal of his petition for a writ of habeas
corpus, 641 F.Supp. 979. He contends that
he was not competent to waive his right to
counsel at his criminal trial and that his
waiver was not made knowingly and intelli-
gently. He also argues that he waived his
right to counsel at the recommendation of
his attorney, Dan Cooper, and that this
advice constitutes per se ineffective assist-
ance of counsel. We affirm.

FACTS

The evidence that Harding brutally and
callously murdered two men was over-
whelming. District Judge Marquez de-
tailed that evidence in his order denying
Harding a writ of habeas corpus and we
set forth that summary in the appendix to
this opinion.

Harding was convicted of two counts of
first degree murder, two counts of armed
robbery, two counts of kidnapping, and one
count of theft. He was sentenced to death
on each of the murder convictions. For
two years while awaiting trial, Harding
was represented by a public defender, Dan
Cooper. During this period, Cooper filed
thirty motions seeking, inter alia, to ex-
clude evidence, to delay the trial, and to
develop an insanity defense. These efforts
proved futile. Cooper anticipated this and
advised Harding that his only chance was
to represent himself with the hope of in-
jecting fundamental error in the trial,
which would result in reversal of his con-
victions on appeal. On March 15, 1982,

* Honorable Carolyn R. Dimmick, United States
District Judge, Western District of Washington,

HARDING v. LEWIS
Cite as 834 F.2d 853 (9th Cir. 1987)

855

Harding asked the state court to allow him
to represent himself on an unrelated
charge of deadly assault by a prisoner.
Judge Gin, the state trial judge in both the
assault case and: the present case, ques-
tioned Harding about his education, his ex-
periences with the criminal justice system,
andthe reasons for his wanting to defend
himself. He also warned Harding of the
serious penalty he faced if convicted. The
court allowed Harding to represent himself
on the assault charge and appointed Cooper
as advisory counSel at Harding’s request.

On March 23, 1982, eight days after Har-
ding made his request to represent himself
on the assault charge, Cooper asked Judge
Gin to allow him to withdraw from the
present case because Harding wanted to
act as his own attorney. Judge Gin re-
viewed Harding’s statements about his ed-
ucation and his familiarity with criminal
procedure and warned him that he might
receive the death penalty if convicted of the
murders.’ The judge, however, did not spe-
cifically refer to the difficulties faced by a
lay person representing himself. Harding
confirmed the judge’s review of his back-
ground and stated he was absolutely cer-
tain he wanted to represent himself.
Judge Gin denied the request, however,
when Harding refused to sign the waiver
of counsel form because it included the
appointment of Cooper as advisory counsel.

Cooper apparently told Harding that
Judge Gin would relieve Cooper as counsel
only if Harding threatened him. Harding
told Cooper to consider himself threatened.
On April 15, 1982, Harding renewed his
request to represent himself. Cooper filed
a motion to withdraw for ethical reasons at
approximately the same time. The presid-
ing judge of the state court, Judge Druke,
held a hearing with Cooper in his chambers
and off the record. Judge Druke informed
Judge Gin that Harding had told Cooper
that he (Harding) intended to commit a
crime and Harding had refused to waive
any potential conflict of interest that might
arise during Cooper’s continued representa-

sitting by designation.

856

tion. Judge Gin discussed with Harding
his desire to represent himself and whether
Harding would have to accept advisory
counsel. The judge then permitted Har-
ding to represent himself but appointed
Cooper as advisory counsel, stating that
“the problem of threats” would persist no
matter who represented Harding or acted
as advisory counsel. Cooper continued to
pursue some of the pretrial motions he had
filed and served as advisory counsel

throughout the trial, which started on April
20, 1982.

Harding was convicted on April 27, 1982.
The court held a hearing on aggravating
‘and mitigating circumstances for purposes
of sentencing on May 26, 1982. The court
had ordered a psychiatric evaluation before
the hearing, but Harding would not speak
to the doctor. The judge twice offered to
reappoint counsel, but Harding refused.
At the hearing the court again offered to
appoint counsel and to permit more time to
marshal evidence of mitigating circum-
stances. Harding declined counsel and
presented no mitigating evidence. The
court found four aggravating circumstanc-
es. Harding was sentenced to death on
each of the murder counts. The Arizona
Supreme Court affirmed the convictions
and the sentences, State v. Harding, 187
Ariz. 278, 670 P.2d 383 (1983); the Supreme
Court of the United States denied certiora-
ri, 465 U.S. 1013, 104 S.Ct. 1017, 79 L.Ed.2d
246 (1984). Harding filed for post-convic-
tion relief under Arizona’s rules of criminal
procedure. Ariz.R.Crim.P. 32. The state
court held an evidentiary hearing on the
is: ue of whether Harding was denied a fair
trial or effective assistance of counsel.
The court denied relief and a subsequent
petition for reconsideration; the Arizona
Supreme Court declined to review the deci-
sion. On October 16, 1985, Harding filed
an amended petition for a writ of habeas
corpus. The district court dismissed the
petition.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[1] We review de novo the district
court’s decision on a petition for a writ of
habeas corpus. Chatman v. Marquez, 754

834 FEDERAL REPORTER, 2d SERIES

F.2d 1531, 1533-34 (9th Cir.), cert. denied,
474 U.S. 841, 106 S.Ct. 124, 88 L.Ed.2d 101
(1985). Factual findings made after a hear-
ing by a state court in a proceeding for
post-conviction relief are entitled to a pre-
sumption of correctness under 28 U.S.C.
§ 2254(d).

ANALYSIS

Competency to Waive Counsel

[2-5] Due process requires that a state
court initiate a hearing on the defendant’s
competence to waive counsel whenever it
has or should have a good faith doubt
about the defendant’s ability to understand
the nature and consequences of the waiver,
or to participate intelligently in the pro-
ceedings and to make a reasoned choice
among the alternatives presented. See
Chavez v. United States, 656 F.2d 512, 515
(9th Cir.1981); Sailer v. Gunn, 548 F.2d
271, 275 (9th Cir.1977); Sieling v. Eyman,
478 F.2d 211, 215 (9th Cir.1973). A good
faith doubt exists when there is substantial
evidence of incompetence. United States
v. Veatch, 674 F.2d 1217, 1223 (9th Cir.
1981), cert. dented, 456 U.S. 946, 102 S.Ct.
2013, 72 L.Ed.2d 469 (1982). Evidence of
incompetence includes, but is not limited to,
a history of irrational behavior, medical
opinion, and the defendant’s behavior at
trial. See Drope v. Missouri, 420 U.S. 162,
180, 95 S.Ct. 896, 908, 48 L.Ed.2d 103
(1975); Moore v. United States, 464 F.2d
663, 666 (9th Cir.1972). Whether a good
faith doubt should have existed in the trial
court’s mind is not a factual finding enti-
tled to the presumption of correctness un-
der 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). See Sumner v.
Mata, 455 U.S. 591, 597, 102 S.Ct. 1308,
1306, 71 L.Ed.2d 480 (1982) (per curiam).

[6] Cooper moved to have Harding ex-
amined to determine if he was competent to
stand trial and to investigate his mental
condition at the time the crimes were com-
mitted with the view of developing an in-
sanity defense. At the hearing on this
motion, Cooper alleged that Harding suf-
fered from brain disease and epileptic sei-
zures but assured the state court that he
was competent to stand trial. On March 5,
1981, Harding moved to withdraw his mo-

HARDING v. LEWIS

857

Cite as 834 F.2d 853 (9th Cir. 1987)

tion for examination of his mental condi-
tion; the motion was denied. The court
appointed two psychiatrists to .examine
Harding but he was uncooperative with
them. The state court found Harding com-
petent to stand trial and Harding does not
appeal that finding.

As the district court points out, there
was much evidence of Harding’s compe-
tence to waive counsel that allayed any
doubts created by the motion for a mental
examination. Harding was responsive and
rational at trial. He objected whenever the
court or the prosecutor addressed their re-
marks to advisory counsel rather than to
him. He expressed himself boldly and ef-
fectively when he chose to do so. During
Harding’s efforts to dismiss Cooper and
represent himself, he wrote a letter to Coo-
per. The letter acknowledged Cooper’s
“diligent efforts” and his pursuit of every
opportunity to build a defense; it also ad-
mitted that there was no good defense and
that he would be convicted no matter who
defended him. Harding’s actions at trial
and his written statements to Cooper indi-
cate that Harding understood the conse-
quences of waiving his right to counsel,
made a reasoned choice from the. limited
alternatives available to him, and possessed
sufficient. intelligence to participate in the
proceedings when he chose to do so. The
state court did not err when it permitted
Harding to represent himself without a
hearing on his competence.

Knowing and Intelligent Waiver

(7-11) The trial court must carefully
balance the defendant’s right to self-repre-

1. The trial court made the following inquiry
when Harding requested to represent himself on
the assault charge:

THE COURT: Mr. Harding, is that correct,
you want to represent yourself in this case?

MR. HARDING: Yes, I do.

THE COURT: Let me ask you, Mr. Harding,
how much education have you had?

MR. HARDING: GED, high school equiva-
lent.

THE COURT: And do you—let’s see, have
you been tried before on any kind of charge,
any kind at all?

MR. HARDING: Yes.

THE COURT: So you think—do you know
the ropes legally pretty much as to what the
procedures are and that sort of thing?

MR. HARDING: I think so.

sentation and its duty to ensure that de-
fendant’s waiver of the right to counsel is
made with full awareness of the risks.
United States v. Harris, 683 F.2d 322, 324
(9th Cir.1982). The preferable procedure
for determining whether the waiver is
made knowingly and intelligently is to dis-
cuss with the defendant in open court his
understanding of the charges, the possible
penalties, and the dangers of self-represen-
tation. United States v. Dujanovic, 486
F.2d 182, 188 (9th Cir.1973). The failure to
engage the defendant in such a colloquy
does not necessitate reversal, however, if
the record otherwise reveals a knowing and
intelligent waiver. Cooley v. United
States, 501 F.2d 1249, 1252 (9th Cir.1974),
cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1128, 95 S.Ct. 809, 42
L.Ed.2d 824 (1975). This exception, how-
ever, should rarely be invoked. United
States v. Aponte, 591 F.2d 1247, 1250 (Sth
Cir.1978). On review, the issue is what the
defendant understood about the proceed-
ings, including the possible consequences,
and the dangers of acting as his own attor-
ney. United States v. Kimmel, 672 F.2d
720, 721-22 (9th Cir.1982). Whether the
waiver was made knowingly and _ intelli-
gently is a mixed question of law and fact
which we review de novo. See Sumner,
455 U.S. at 597, 102 S.Ct. at 1306.

{12] The state court inquired about
Harding’s education and familiarity with
criminal procedures when he asked to rep-
resent himself on the assault charge.’

THE COURT: Are you unhappy with the
Mr. Cooper's representation or what?

MR. HARDING: I am unhappy with the
way—that the charge is being processed. This
is about eight months old. I never waived
speedy trial on it and to my knowledge the
prosecution—it has been in suspended anima-
tion for eight months now and I don’t see any
point in that. I would like to enter an oral
motion for immediate trial on that.

THE COURT: Well, you know Mr.-Harding,
perhaps you—maybe you don’t appreciate the
fact that delay often works in your favor.

THE COURT: You realize, Mr. Harding,
that, you know, you are going to be carrying
the ball then‘hereafter. I am not going to
stop the middle of the trial and you say: Hey,

860

CONCLUSION

We conclude that Harding was compe
tent to waive his right to counsel, that he
did so knowingly and intelligently, and that
he was not prejudiced by Cooper’s advising
him to do so. The denial of the writ of
habeas corpus is therefore

AFFIRMED.

APPENDIX

On January 26, 1980, the Tucson Police
Department was called to investigate suspi-
cious circumstances at the La Quinta Motel
in Tucson, Arizona. The Officers involved
discovered two bodies, one located next to
the bed and the other in the bathroom.
The bodies were identified as Martin L.
Concannon and Robert A. Wise. The jury
was shown approximately 150 pictures de-
picting the room where the crime occurred
and the autopsies performed on the victims.
The pictures demonstrated that the victims
were bound repeatedly with various types
of ligatures. The body of Martin L. Con-
cannon was found on the floor of the bath-
room covered with a bedspread. His body
had been repeatedly bound, two men’s
socks stuffed into his mouth and a pillow
placed under his head. Robert Wise’s head
was tethered to the bed and he was hog-
tied with his feet bound together and tied
with a sheet to his elbows. A belt had
been wrapped around his wrists which con-
stricted his hands. Blood splattered on the
walls indicated that Wise was beaten re-
peatedly. Pieces of teeth were found un-
derneath his head. Small chips of synthet-
ic wood were found under the body which
were identified as pieces from the base of
the hotel room lamp. Chemical analysis
showed human blood on the base of this
lamp. The harp of the lamp was found
near Wise’s body. The lamp itself had
been plugged back into the wall.

Identifiable prints were taken from the
do-not-disturb sign found outside the door,
a small glass on the table near the bed,
cellophane wrapping from a package of
Winston cigarettes and off the top part of
the lampshade. All four of these finger-
prints were identified as matching those of
Donald Harding. Fingerprints were also

834 FEDERAL REPORTER, 2d SERIES

removed from the telephone receiver, a
light bulb and an ashtray. These prints

were also identified as matching those of
Donald Harding.

The pathologist testified that Robert
Wise was shot in the chest from front to
back and in the left temple. The wounds
revealed that he was shot with the muzzle
of the gun only a few inches from the skin.
He sustained a multiple fracture to the jaw
and his teeth had been broken by repeated
impacts with a blunt object. A tether had
been placed around Wise’s neck with
enough force to create a U-shaped abra-

sion, which penetrated the skin, causing ~

the blood vessels to rupture. The victims
wrists had been tightly bound. Wise’s
death was caused by the bullet wound to
the chest which perforated the spinal cord.
The time of death was estimated by the
pathologist at between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. on
January 25, 1980.

The autopsy performed on Martin Con-
cannon showed that his death was also
caused by a shot to the chest which perfo-
rated the spinal cord. He had also been
shot in the temple. The autopsy revealed
that the two socks which had been pushed
to the back of his throat had covered all
breathing passages. Hemorrhaging in the
scalp tissue, caused by lack of oxygen,
indicated that Concannon had not died im-
mediately.

Jeri Wise testified that her husband was
the district manager for KAR Products.
She testified that he left the 24th of Janu-
ary to see Marty Concannon, one of his
salesmen, and to make a call in Ft. Huachu-
ca. Mrs. Wise expected him to return the
next day, January 25, around 6:30 p.m. At
approximately 8:40 on that night a man
came to the Wise’s home and asked if Bob
was there. Mrs. Wise testified that the
man was holding one of her husband’s busi-
ness cards and acting very nervous. She
stated that he was wearing a rust colored
jacket and a burgundy shirt. The man left
the Wise’s home when she told him she
expected her husband home soon as he was
already overdue. Mrs. Wise positively

identified Donald Harding as the man at
her door that night.

HARDING v. LEWIS

861

Cite as 834 F.2d 853 (9th Cir. 1987)

APPENDIX—Continued

January 26, 1980, a Northern Arizona
University police guard was assigned to a
parking lot near the athletic dome on the
NAU campus to ensure that only members
of the booster club parked in the lot. He
observed a man driving an Oldsmobile,
with Ohio plates, pull into the lot. The
guard told the driver that he would not be
allowed to park in the lot. The driver
asked if there was a place he could park
and the guard suggested a lot north of the
dome. The guard identified the driver of
the car as Donald Harding. The Oldsmo-
bile he was driving belonged to Martin
Concannon.

The guard testified that Harding ap-
peared a little strange because he spoke
with a Southern accent but was driving a
car with Ohio plates. He testified Harding
was also wearing two jackets and had nu-
merous articles in the back seat. The
guard ran a warrants check on the car and
was told that it had been stolen from Tuc-
son. He called for back up units and they
arrested Harding. A body search revealed
a .25 automatic in Harding’s jacket pocket.
A ballistics check run on the gun showed
that it was the same weapon used to kill
Concannon and Wise in Tucson. Two se-
curity badges, a wallet and an identifica-
tion card issued to Ronald Svetgoff were
also found on Harding. Harding told the
NAU police that he was Svetgoff but
looked different because he had lost some
weight and changed his hair.

Robert Svetgoff testified that he was
robbed in a motel in Waco, Texas on De-
cember 18, 1979 by a man he identified as
Donald Harding. He said that Harding
approached him, showed him a security
badge, identified himself as a security offi-
cer and demanded that Svetgoff produce
identification. Svetgoff identified one of
the badges found on Harding as the one
used during this robbery. When Svetgoff
opened the door to his hotel room, Harding
pulled a gun, forced Svetgoff onto the floor
and tied him up with a tie, a torn dress
shirt and his jumprope. Harding put a
sock in Svetgoff’s mouth, wrapped a t-shirt
around that and then tied a belt around his
mouth. Harding then rolled Svetgoff in a
bedspread, dragged him into the bathroom

and placed a pillow under his head. Har-
ding stole all of Svetgoff’s clothes and left
in his car.

The Tucson police executed a search war-
rant on the car that Harding was driving
when he was arrested. In it were found;
1) a tan attache case (which Mrs. Wise
identified at trial as her husband’s), 2) loose
credit cards in the name of Robert Wise
and 3) a box of pens and a memo pad with
KAR logo.

The Tucson police obtained clothing from
the Coconino County Jail which included a
burgundy colored long-sleeved shirt, a pair
of black shoes and two jackets. Jeri Wise
identified the burgundy shirt as the one
Harding was wearing when he came to her
house. Chemical tests performed on this
shirt showed the presence of human blood.
Inside one of the jackets was Robert Wise’s
drivers license and page C-D torn out of an
address book with the names of Pam and
Martin Concanon circled.

Two statements made by Harding were
introduced into evidence at the trial. The
first was made while Harding was being
transported from Flagstaff to Tucson. A
Tucson police detective testified that it was
a cold day and Harding was wearing only a
short-sleeved shirt. The detective opened
his suiteoat to protect him from the wind
while they waited for the airplane. The
detective testified that Harding looked at
him and said “‘you-don’t need to do that, I
deserve whatever I get.”

Harding made a second statement in Tuc-
son. The same detective testified that Har-
ding asked if he could get some of his
clothes returned and that the detective told
him that the police had to keep the clothes
in order to look for evidence. Harding told
the detective that he might find something
on the burgundy shirt and shoes but the

rest of the clothing had not been worn.
Order of April 30, 1986, at 2-7 (citations to
exhibits omitted).

858

Eight days later, on March 23, 1982, when
Cooper first tried to withdraw in the
present case, the court warned Harding of
the possible penalties and complexities in
the action.2 The court did not, however,
explicitly warn him of the difficulties faced
by a lay person conducting his own de
fense. Preferably, the trial court should
give such a warning on the record. With-
out such an explanation by the court of the
difficulties and dangers of self-representa-
tion, we must look to “ ‘the particular facts
and circumstances surrounding that case,
including the background, experience and
conduct of the accused.’” Kimmel, 672

F.2d at 722 (quoting Cooley, 501 F.2d at
1252).

The district court found that

[w]ithin three months of his assignment
to Harding’s case Cooper began discuss-
ing with him the possibility of represent-
ing himself. They discussed the prob-
lems and options available, these includ-
ed the possibility of an insanity defense,
the lack of a factual defense and the
chances of receiving the death penalty.
Cooper also explained to Harding the
concept of fundamental error and the
chance of appellate reversal through the
right to counsel.

Order of April 30, 1986, at 24 (citations to
exhibits omitted). These findings are sup-

let's put Cooper on the firing line here now.
You know you are it.

MR. HARDING: I understand that. I—

THE COURT: Do you realize, sir, that if the
State proves that these were offenses of a
dangerous nature and you were previously
convicted of a felony that this prison term is
mandatory?

MR. HARDING: Twenty-five to life.

THE COURT: You understand that?

MR. HARDING: Yes. °

THE COURT: And you are still willing—
you are still willing to represent yourself?

MR. HARDING: Absolutely.

Exhibit 24 at 225-41. [See EOR at 166-167]

2. When Harding sought to waive counsel in the
present case, the following colloquy took place:
MR. COOPER: Your Honor, this is my ap-
plication to withdraw on 2597. You granted
the motion on the other CR number ten days

or so ago. Mr. Harding informed me after
that hearing ten days ago that on the murder
case he desire to represent himself as well and

834 FEDERAL REPORTER, 2d SERIES

ported by the record. Harding had the
equivalent of a high school education and

expressed himself well at trial and in his -

letter to Cooper. He also had sufficient
experience with the criminal justice system
to make one of his intelligence aware of the
benefits of counsel. We agree with the
district court that Harding understood the
risks of self-representation.

Harding was adamant in his demands to

represent himself. Cooper and Harding ap at
parently concocted the story of threats to. :

force Judge Gin to permit Cooper to with

draw. Unfortunately, the object of their :

scheme was not original:

It appears that Romero, by his own deli.
erate and intentional actions, seeks to
insert built-in error in these proceedings,
so as to postpone a final inquiry into his
failure to comply with the tax laws of
this country. Courts are established at

public expense to try issues, not to play
games.

United States v. Romero, 640 F.2d 1014,
1016 (9th Cir.1981).

Although our review of waiver of coun-
sel in a capital case, by its very nature,
must be more searching, we cannot coun-
tenance deliberate efforts to inject error.

As the state court found when it denied i

Harding’s motion for post-conviction relief,

does not want the services of an attorney, and
particularly of me or of our office.

THE COURT: Is that correct, Mr. Harding?

MR. HARDING: Yes.

THE COURT: Mr. Harding, you know you
are charged in 2597 with first degree murder.
That could result in the death sentence. I just
remind you of this because it is a terribly
serious terribly complex case. Are you quite

certain you want to represent yourself in a
matter like that?

MR. HARDING: Absolutely.

THE COURT: Let’s see, I did ask you some
questions last time about your education. I
believe you told me—.

MR. HARDING: High school equivalent.

THE COURT: High school equivalent. And
you indicated you thought you had a pretty
good familiarity with criminal procedure and
rules. Do you want Mr. Cooper to be your
advisor counsel in this thing?

. MR. HARDING: No, I wouldn't care to
have an advisor.

Exhibit 24 at 245-54. [See EOR at 167-168]

HARDING v. LEWIS

859

Cite as 834 F.2d 853 (9th Cir. 1987)

his waiver was an act of desperation done
by a man with the intelligence to know he
was in a situation requiring desperate mea-
sures. He knew he could be sentenced to
death if convicted. He knew he would in
all likelihood be convicted. We conclude
that Harding made his waiver knowingly
and intelligently.

‘Per Se Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

~% [13] Most claims of ineffective assist-
‘ance of counsel must be analyzed according
_to the two-part test set forth in Strickland
8. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct.
: 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). To succeed,
‘the defendant must show that counsel’s
- performance was deficient and that without

-eounsel’s errors there is a reasonable prob-

“ability that the result would have been

different. Jd. at 687, 694, 104 S.Ct. at
2064, 2068. Harding, realizing that he can-

- ‘not demonstrate that his waiver prejudiced

the result, argues that Cooper’s recommen-

“dation to waive counsel should be pre-
‘sumed prejudicial. See United States v.
Cronic, 466 U.S. 648, 104 S.Ct. 2039, 80
L.Ed.2d 657 (1984).

In Cronic, the Supreme Court reiterated
‘that, in most cases, a defendant must dem-
onstrate that the alleged error of his attor-
ney had “some effect ... on the reliability
of the trial process.” Jd. at 658, 104 S.Ct.

“-at 2046. It created an exception, however,

for those “circumstances that are so likely
to prejudice the accused that the cost of
litigating their effect in a particular case is
unjustified.” Jd. (footnote omitted). Such
circumstances are the complete absence or
denial of counsel at a critical stage of trial,
and situations where the likelihood that
counsel could have been an effective adver-
sary was so remote that the trial was inher-
ently unfair. Jd. at 659-61, 104 S.Ct. at
2047-48. “Apart from circumstances of
that magnitude, however, there is general-
ly no basis for finding a Sixth Amendment
violation unless the accused can show how
specific errors of counsel undermined the

3. This opinion does not furnish an appropriate
occasion to comment on the propriety of Coo-
per’s conduct. We take judicial notice, how-
ever, that at the time Cooper advised Harding,
Arizona Disciplinary Rules 1-102(A)(4) and (5)
provided that an attorney shall not “[e]ngage in

reliability of the finding of guilt.” Jd. at
659 n. 26, 104 S.Ct. at 2047 n. 26.

We conclude that Cooper’s advice of self-
representation to Harding should not be
presumed prejudicial. In this case, it is not
unduly burdensome for us to assess the
effect of that advice on the outcome of
Harding’s trial. If a legal or factual de-
fense exists such advice is clearly preju-
dicial. Harding does not assert that any
such defense was available, and we find
none after our own examination of the
evidence. If the defendant did not under-
stand counsel’s reasons for suggesting this
strategy and the risks involved in pursuing
it, he is entitled to the relief of the writ.
Cf. Martin v. Rose, 744 F.2d 1245, 1249-51
(6th Cir.1984) (counsel, mistakenly believ-
ing that participating in the trial would
waive certain pretrial motions, did not ex-
plain to his client his failure to participate
or the consequences of it; defendant enti-
tled to habeas corpus relief under the
Strickland test because waiver of counsel
was not made knowingly or intelligently).
We have already determined that Harding
was a knowing and willing participant in
this scheme. He knew “what he [was]
doing and his choice [was] made with eyes
open.” Adams v. United States ex rel.
McCann, 317 U.S. 269, 279, 63 S.Ct. 236,
241, 87 L.Ed. 268 (1942); Dujanovic, 486
F.2d at 187.

There is another reason for refusing to
presume prejudice in this case. . The pre-
sumption would create a foolproof defense.
See Martin, 744 F.2d at 1251-52. If Har-
ding had been successful in creating funda-
mental error by representing himself, he
would have been entitled to a new trial. If
prejudice is presumed because Cooper ad-
vised him to do so,* habeas corpus relief
would entitle him to a new trial or release
from custody even though he otherwise
failed in his attempt to create an unfair
trial. We cannot allow this tempting gam-
bit for counsel and client.

conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or

misrepresentation” or “[e]ngage in conduct that

is prejudicial to the administration of justice.”

Rule 7-102(A)(5) further provided that a lawyer

shall not “knowingly make a false statement of
_ law or fact.”

AL!

“Sure
joined h
We get «
Dazed
the sig:
speed.
vicious!
pull th:
slow d«
Know
appears
sengers
“Just
will ge:
the wr
line.”
With
and di:
The res
action
u are can Apt wounde
the girl from a small com: carried
munity, ran away with h small +
: bg NEE Sa gee. ‘1
Limitec
he had
the auc
emerge
Ten
*moned,
shook }
HE day coach of the’ “Not
Katy Limited held dying.”
a scant dozen occu- “He’:
pants as it pulled out of The
Muskogee, Oklahoma. It The do:
was about one o’clock, “Tak
Friday, March 16, 1916. you?”
Most of the passengers ‘Ker
were seated at the rear back.
of the car while far It w
ahead sat three persons, office n
two men and a woman. tigated
The woman was a ' mors 0
strikingly beautiful ready
brunette, vibrant with : A Beaum
youth and health. She chattered constantly, while one report. Some of the passengers looked up startled. The “T’ve
of the men, about 28, bent his head to her every word. girl’s companion had leaped upon the older man and just re
Even the silver-haired man who sat facing them was frantically going through his pockets. A .45 calibre Giles
laughed occasionally. Colt revolver appeared; ‘then a glittering badge. Limite:
~ The young woman suddenly leaned forward. She As her companion worked, the girl stood in the cen- “AN
‘ spoke to the older man. He nodded. Rising, the woman ter of the aisle, a pistol menacing the others. It was I wa
‘ made her way swiftly to the ladies’ lounge. She re-_ then that the train auditor opened the door. He started “But
' turned almost immediately, walking carefully past the to smile at the girl and then froze as he noticed the gun. - return
i rest of the now nodding occupants and stopped directly “Stop the train, Buddy,” she commanded harshly. in the
i behind the silver-haired man. . “B-but, look!’ stammered the man. “Blood.” He. “Th:
} There was a slight movement, followed by a muffled — pointed. ‘4 contac:
t
32

Ama2inG Deters.
G4 |

startled. The
ier man and
A .45 ealibre
idge.
{ in the cen-
ners. It was
He started
ticed the gun.
d harshly.

“Blood.” He

os told to
ALDO A. PELLIN

“Sure,” grinned the young man who-had
joined his confederate. . .“But stop the train.
We get off here.” a

Dazed, the auditor reached up and pulled
the signal cord. The train did not slacken
speed. A moment later, the girl cursed
viciously and gave the ‘cord such a hearty
pull that it broke. Only then did the ‘train
slow down and come to a final halt.

Knowing that death had made. its grim
appearance on the coach, the rest of the pas-
sengers rose to. their feet.

“Just take it easy,” said the man. “No one
will get hurt. But the first one that makes
the wrong move takes a slug in the belt
line.” te :

With that, the pair dropped from the train
and disappeared into the stygian darkness.
The rest of the passengers went into instant

action then, and soon the grievously
_wounded man was lifted to the ground and
carried into the small depot at Checotah, a
_ small.way station ten minutes out of Musko-
gee. This was not a/regular stop for the
Limited. The engineer later explained that
he had interpreted the first signal made by
the auditor to mean that there would be an
‘emergency halt. ae
_ Ten minutes. later, a doctor, hastily sum-
«moned, rose from the prostrate form and
~ shook his head. Be:

“Not a chance,” he said.’ “The man is
dying.” i

“He's trying to say something,” said a man.

The victim was indeed trying to speak.
The doctor reached down and lifted his head.

“Take it easy, sir,” he said. ‘Who shot
you?” ic
“Kendrick,” gasped the man and. sank
back. ie . te
It was 2:15 o’clock: .I had been at the
_ office most of the evening after having inves-
tigated an ambush slaying. There were ru-
‘mors of a lynching, and’ wHen the telephone rang, I was
-ready for anything. Almost. It was the editor of the
Beaumont-Enterprise, a newspaper.
“J’ve got bad news for you, Mr. Friar,” he said. ‘““We’ve
just received word over the teletypes that Sheriff Jake

Giles was shot and killed by a woman on the Katy
- Limited just outside, of Muskogee, Oklahoma.”

: “A woman!” fea .

_ I was shocked into silence for an instant.

~ “But Sheriff Giles went to Kansas City, Missouri, to
return Paul Hadley,” I said at last. “No woman figured
in the deal.” “Sah

‘“That’s what I thought,” said the. editor. “Better
contact the Missouri police on that.”

FROM AUTHENTIC POLICE RECORDS

DEATH GUN. A load from
this weapon killed Sheriff
Giles.

HANDSOME LOVER-HUSBAND. Paul Hadley, whose first criminal act was to

assault a merchant over a pair of shoes.

I immeédiately wired -the Kansas City police to give .
me all the details concerning Sheriff Giles and his
prisoner, and if they had also handed over a woman to
be returned to Texas. About four o’clock I received
an answer. ,

A man,. who had been identified as Paul Hadley, was
arrested on a. warrant from our office. At the time of |
his arrest, he had given the name of H. O. Kendrick.
He had insisted that he was not Paul Hadley. The
Missouri officials explained that Sheriff Giles had taken
the man with him on the Hadley warrant, and that he
had also purchased a ticket at the Union Depot: in that
city for a woman. . .

A few minutes later, I received a wire from United
; 5
33

ieaiens danse

veteran official with many

. what the Kansas City police had

.man in the warrant. Our county

AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES

Reckless Ida Hadley was One

Bett

Year ound aap Pr)

eae
Oe Os ae

MEETING PLACE. Ida Hadley was
working behind a cigar counter in this
building when she met Paul Hadley.

States Marshal Frank Jones, a

years experience in apprehend-
ing criminals. He corroborated

told me, namely, that a woman
had slain Sheriff Giles, and she
had made her escape. He also
stated that, before dying, Sher-
iff Giles had gasped out the
name of Kendrick as being the
slayer.

I sat back thoughtfully. There
was something wrong here.
First, Sheriff Giles or the Mis-
souri police had erred in some
manner. Secondly, there had
been no plans to include a wo-

arrest warrant had been issued
against Paul V. Hadley, a Beaumont youth, on a charge
of jumping bond. _

Three days before the crime, our office had been

notified that a man answering the description of Paul

Hadley had been apprehended. Sheriff Giles,, armed
with the warrant, had taken a train to Kansas City.
Hadley had lost his parents when a child, and had
been reared by a kindly couple. A keen-minded young
man, Paul Hadley had been, employed by various Beau-
mont firms. He was conceded to be one of the best
automobile salesmen in the city. But he also had a
penchant for doing the wrong things. He had been
married to a fine young woman, but she had been un-
able to keep the lively pace that he set. At the time
of his arrest, Hadley had been keeping company with
a young woman who worked at a cigar counter in the
Alexander Building. Her name was Ida Lightfoot. She

‘had but recently come to Beaumont from Goose Creek,

ee WME

CO-AUTHOR. John T. Friar was chief
. deputy under Sheriff Giles. He's now

: @ sheriff's office deputy. (left)
oe)

Texas, a small hamlet near
Houston.

* During’ an altercation ‘over
the purchase of a pair of shoes
for Ida Lightfoot, Hadley had
assaulted John West, a mer-
chant. West then swore out a
warrant, and Hadley had been
placed in jail. He had later se-
cured bond, was released and
had promptly divorced his pres-
ent wife and married Ida Light-
foot. When he did not make his
weekly report to police head-
quarters, we knew then that he
had left the county. The ar-
rest warrant was then issued.

HE sun was high in the

heavens when I decided to
interview Ida Hadley. I knew where she had been
staying, and drove over to the house. But the landlady
informed me that the girl had left the city several days
previously. +

“Ida told me that she was. going to Georgia,” the
woman informed me. “She didn’t say just where.”

I then began to check on Hadley in and about the
city. It could have been entirely possible that Hadley;
had gone to Georgia with-his wife. However, after am
hour’s exhaustive search, with no trace of Hadley, I
drove over to the Alexander Building where Ida
worked. A new girl was in her place.

“Ida said something about going to Georgia with her
husband,” said the girl. “She left three days ago.”

I went back out upon the street to be met by an
irate merchant.

“Just heard about Sheriff Giles,” he said. “I’ve got
something that might be of value. Just before Hadley

F f
SHERIFF
him dec

went t
wife a
of clot
be bac
“You
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“We!
the pa)
arreste
that I «
I tha
I begar
hadn’t
mercha
that th:
Ther:
straigh
Judge
Alexan
Georgi:
about i
in a ser
I stat
slowly.
“Yes,
said th<
in Atlaz
told me
police
you’re
Giles.’’
‘Yes,’
formed
name of
The.
letter.
“Ther
he said.
drick. T
There’s

pressure
she re-
parations

res was
sters an-
mmi ~ 16
> CO 1e
pvernment
a settle-

ipated in
- Theunis,
- cabinets
| probiems,
As in the
at Brus-
ly devoted
ronnection
Ruhr and
nake pro-
ed there.

upation
ossible to
on today
inued to-

s confined
yf the de-
the prin-
inued and
rields and
that noth-
xd at the
Belgium
ng a plan
%

16 well in-

who be-
hen it will
rench "40-
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time, they
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Are
ngton
orted

sity were
orgetown
The dis-
a mM,
11:20 and
her, Torn-
ervatory,
red 6,100
apparently
AVE.
oa TT. Hy
wo feet in
1 o'clock
‘the beach
hing some
e Was re-

__ ot

il 138—Mr.
d Mra. A.
: Junction,
| afternoon
ran over
4, accord-

Demosse,

Provide For Bond Elac.ion
Organization plans call for the
voting of bonds and their sale, pro-
ceeds from which will go to the
Water Users association in return
for the creation of water rights
These water rights will be estab-
lished from the supply to be stored
by the building of the Mormon Fiat
dam. The money will be used by
the Water Users association to help
defray the expense of constructing
the dam. ;

The proposal to form the irriga-
tion district has the endorsement
and whole-hearted support of the
Salt River Valley Water Users as-
sociation, C. C. ‘Cragin, general su-
perintendent, said last night. All
of the lands embodied in the pro-
posal now are included in t irri-
gation district but, for one reason
and andther, have heretofore failled
to secure water rights.

Petitions now are. circulating,
calling upon the board of super-
visors to grant the dry land hold-
ers the right to organize what will
be known as Roosevelt Agricultural
Irrigation district No. 1.

Mr. Dobbins; as chairman of the
dry land owners, is anxious to se-
cure as many signatures to these
petitions ag possible and hag re-

to come to his office, 320 Heard
building, today and sign.
Go Before Board Monday

Monday, these petitions will be
placed before the board of super-
visors in the first legal step looking
to. the formation of the district
Under: the provisions of the act, it
becomes ‘necessary for dry land
owners to petition the board for a
permit to form a district where
lands are not contiguous.

Notice of a hearing on the peti-|

tion then will be given by the board
two weeks in advance of such hear-
ing. Persons opposing formation of
the district as well as those favoring
it will be given a chance to present
their views at that hearing.
Favorable action by the supervis-
ors would result in an election. for
the formation of the district, Mr.
Dobbins explained last night. Plans
also cat! for a bond election on a
proposal to issue $650,000 worth ot
bonds. Proceeds from these bonds
would be paid over to the Water
Users association in keeping with
the agreement entered into.
Construction of the Mormon Mat
dam will create a water supply,
through the impounding of flood
waters on the Salt River, for these
dry lands, now served under the
present ditch system, Mr. Cragin
of the Salt River Valley Water
Userg association said last night,

“HERBIE” HOOVER
PAYS VISIT 10
“OLD HOME TOWN

Melson, a

quested all persons owning dry lands |,

eee

approximately 200,000 workers ih tie
packing industry throughout the
United States were increased an av-
erage of 10 per cent today through
the action of employe representatives
sitting in plant assemblies.
In addition to Yhe increase in
wages, vacations at full pay were
given to the hourly paid employes
with the option of extra pay at the
usual rates if they remained at work
during the vacation period.
The decision of the pay increase
was reached by representatives of
the management and of the workers
negotiating through employe” repre-
sentation plans in vogue at the Ar-
mour, Swift and Wilson plants and
known as “industrial democracies.”
More than $2,500,000 yearly will be
added to the payroll of Armour and
company alone ris the increases, it
was said, more than 35,000 workers
in Armour. plants in all sections of
the country heing affected. The em-
ployes of Morris and company, re-
cently taken over by Armour, also
will participate in the increage,
Swift and company announced that
6,000 employes in the Chicago plant
would benefit by the raise, together
a geome. 25,000. in other parta of
“country. --Smaler numbers of
employes of the Cucahy Packing
company and Wilson and company
also will share in the increases,
In the case of Armour ‘employes,
the wage increases will become
effective Monday, April 16. Common
labor, now at 87% cents an hour, will
receive an increase jof 5 cents an
hour; geemi-skilled, 4 centa; skilled,
3 cents, and girls, 5 cents :

Infant Supposedly —
Born Dead Brought
To. Life By Science

NEW YORK, April 1%—An infant
supposedly born dead was “brought
to life’ by the injection into its
heart of several drops. of ‘adrenalin
last Monday, officials of the Browns-
ville East New York Stospital of
Brooklyn announced today.

The child, son of Mrs. Rose Servin,
was, according to hospital authori-
ties, apparently dead at birth A
careful examination, however, indi-
cated a very faint heart ~ action.
Adrenalin was used and the effect
was instantaneous, it was said. A
few minutes later a dusty infant, was
‘presented to Mrav Servin.

Booth Tarkington's -
‘Daughter Dies At
| Home Of Her Father

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind, April 13—
Laurel Tarkington, 17-year-old
daughter of Booth Tarkington,
prominent author, died at the home
of the latter here tonight. Miss
Tarkington, who resided in Cam-
bridge, Mass., with*ffer mother, Mra.
(Willard Connelly, from .whom the
‘writer was divorced several years
had been visiting her father,

very end his claim of innocence oO
Yi crime for which he was executed
Ascends Stairg Unaided
At 5 o'clock, HaM®ley was taken
from the “death cell” and led to the

stairs leading to the trap. He
mounted the filght of eight ,steps
without hesitation and during the

A Re Re a ier nem ste a

preliminaries incident \to execution,
he maintained the sante-_calmness
and stoicism that has marked him
during his long wait for the fatal
hour to arrive,

At 6:10 o’clock the trap was ,;
sprung and 12 ménutes later the
prison physician pronounced him
dead, and the twice convicted mur-
derer had made good his statement
that he. would die like a man,

Hadley ate no _ breakfast but
dressed With deliberate care. At his
own request, he was baptized during
the night by the Rev. J. W. Hender-
son, prison chaplain, and Dr. James
Hunter of Phoenix, former chaplain
of the prison. Dr. Hunter remainedg in
the cell all night and sang songs for -
Hadley. . § eaten.

Apparently Hadley was the calmeat
man in the “death chamber’ orepen:
ing the execution. After, the
had been adjusted to his legs, hia
arms bound rigid against his sides
by straps, and the noose placed about
his -neck, he was asked by Warden
R. B. Sims of the penitentiary if he
‘had any statement to make before he
went to meet his maker. 8 wane

“I am innocent and ready to meet
my death,” was the only statement -
made by the condemned murderer,

Just before the mask was adjusted.
| Dr, Hunter offered @ prayer and
kisseag Hadley on the cheek. A few
geconds later the trap was sprung
and Hadley paid his debt to society,
calmly, and without display of fear
or bravado. :

Johnson Witnesses Execution

In the group of 38 persons who wit-
nessed the hanging was Peter John-~
son, husand of the slain woman. |
Johnson, himself severely wounded.
at the time his wife was killed, was.
the state’s principal witness at the
two triuls of Hadley. i

Hadley was 37 years of age His
body, unclaimed by his relatives, was
buried yesterday afternoon on the
prison grounds. At his request, the
black mask was not removed. nm
his face. ee

He is survived by his agent mother
and two divorced wives and two
children. Mrs. Ida Hadley, the see=
ond wife, who served time with
in the Oklahoma state prigo
cently obtained a div if
in Texas, according to John |
Buskirk, his attorney,
and the two children, a
a girl of 9, are nving

It was nearly midni
night before all hope
execution was abandon
ley. His attorney made
hour appeal to Governor
further hearing on the
commutation of the s¢
imprisonment but was t
An incident of the
caused considerable co
prigon was the

“*

hme

was stricken with pneumonia
geveral days ago.

WEST BRANCH, Ia. April 13—

yesterday morning }

of @ long distance .

an , ds ‘ 3 x

Mrs. Anna Johnson, one of The
Claw’s last victims.

robber snarled. “Give me the pay-
roll!”

Bobs meekly handed over the $135
she had withdrawn from a Tucson
bank hours before for the ranch
hands and the robber reached for it
with his claw like hands. Bobs faint-
ed. When she regained conscious-
ness, he was gone.

An enterprising newspaper editor
dubbed him “The Claw.” Five times
in as many nightfalls he had way-
laid his victims along the 150 mile
stretch of lonely wasteland that con-
nected Ajo and Tucson. It was with-
out a doubt the most desolated, for-
saken trail in Arizona. All of his
prey had been women and in each
case he ravished them.

When she told her story to the Ajo
authorities, Bobs Turner was able to
add considerable more detail than
her four predecessors, who had been
so horrified that they could not say
whether their.rapist was young or
old.

“He wasn’t a Westerner,” the teary-
eyed girl said. “Didn’t talk like one
and was wearing dude clothes. Prob-
ably thirty or thirty-five. Slender.
Had a bushy beard. I probably
wouldn’t recognize him if I saw him
clean shaven. Handsome, in a rugged
sort of way,” she added.

In Tucson, sheriff’s deputies armed
themselves and prepared for the
manhunt. Newspaper editors excit-

edly printed the next morning’s lead
story: “VIGILANTES PATROL
DESERT FOR THE CLAW.” A
posse hit the trail with bloodhounds
trying to pick up the scent.

“This rapist won’t stop until he’s
killed somebody,” said Sheriff Ben
Daniels who had been a Rough Rid-
er under Teddy Roosevelt. “We’ve
got to catch him before that hap-
pens.”

After a long, hard drive from Den-
ver, two motorists registered at the
Santa Rita hotel on November 14,
1921. Peter Johnson was a wealthy
Colorado businessman and his wife,
Anna, was a comely, cultured club
woman of high society.

While he went to the bank to with-
draw some cash, she did a little win-
dow shopping. Anna Johnson was
looking at a new, car at the Dodge
agency when a strange man ap-
proached her. He was tall, slender,
clean-shaven, in his middle thirties,
and handsome.

“Thinking of buying one?” he
asked. “Just looking,” she smiled,
“but aren’t they beautiful?” He
agreed and they fell into a conver-
sation where she revealed she and
her husband were en route to Los
Angeles.

“I’ve got to go to Stoval, Arizona,
on business,” the young man ex-
claimed. “Might I ride with you? My
car’s in the shop. It’s a dangerous
road and I could show you a short
cut.”

Confronted with the idea, Peter
Johnson said, “Sure. Glad for the
company. Mrs. Johnson doesn’t drive
and with two of us driving we will
get there much sooner.”

The next morning the Johnsons
picked up their passenger in front of
the Dodge agency and he piled into
the back seat with a suitcase. With
the two men sharing the wheel, they
arrived in Ajo before sundown. The
country ahead was even wilder than
what they had passed through. It was
a land of mesquite and prickly pear
squirming between boulders, and the
dusty road twisted like a gigantic
coppery rattlesnake for miles on end.

As they: drove further into the
desert the stranger became more
withdrawn and once or twice John-
son glanced in his mirror at him and
asked, “The Claw’s never operated
this far west, has he?” The stranger
mumbled, “Suppose not.” After a

Superior Court Judge Samuel
L. Pattee sentenced The Claw
to death by hanging

pause he added, “But there’s always
a first time.”

Mrs. Johnson idly turned the pages
of her book, eyes discreetly lowered.
Suddenly a cold sweat drenched her
neck and she glanced anxiously at
her husband. Mr. Johnson tried to
concern himself with the road ahead.
“I think we’re lost,” he said as the
trail faded.

“Pull over and I’ll take a look
around,” the passenger said. John-
son skidded to an abrupt stop. The
business tycoon looked in the mir-
ror and saw the glint of a revolver
pointed at his head.

“First I want the money you got
from the bank,” announced the man
in the back seat. “Then I want your
wife.”

“No,” Anna Johnson screamed.
“Take the money and leave us
alone!” Her husband soothed her
with a compassionate squeeze. He
quickly handed the gunman his wal-
let, which contained $500.

“Get out of the car,” the robber or-
dered, and they both obeyed. “Take
off your clothes,” he told the woman.
When she cried and refused, he
reached out and ripped the top of her
dress open. Peter Johnson lunged at
him,

The gun went off several times
during the struggle and a bullet
ploughed through one side of Mrs.
Johnson’s head and out the other.

Her husband wz
the ground with t
bullet caught hi
chest. Two more
to his neck. Both
son lay still.

The stranger sti
He stripped Mr:
then had intercou
hiking off across

Bleeding profu:
miraculously revi
his wife’s side. S

When full reali
Johnson someho
into his car, grip
and drive a few
dropped off into
Buzzards circle
chilly approach oj

urt Judge Samuel
ntenced The Claw
h by hanging

|, “But there’s always

idly turned the pages
es discreetly lowered.
d sweat drenched her
glanced anxiously at
Mr. Johnson tried to
f with the road ahead.
lost,” he said as the

and I’ll take a look
yassenger said. John-
) an abrupt stop. The
mn looked in the mir-
1e glint of a revolver
head.

t the money you got
.” announced the man
at. “Then I want your

. Johnson screamed.
ioney and leave us
ausband soothed her
ssionate squeeze. He
d the gunman his wal-
‘tained $500.

the car,” the robber or-
-y both obeyed. “Take
‘s,” he told the woman.
‘ied and refused, he
id ripped the top of her
ster Johnson lunged at

ant off several times
truggle and a bullet
yugh one side of Mrs.
id and out the other.

Her husband was still grappling on
the ground with the gunman when a
bullet caught him squarely in the
chest. Two more projectiles tore in-
to his neck. Both Mr. and Mrs. John-
son lay still.

The stranger still was not satisfied.
He stripped Mrs. Johnson naked,
then had intercourse with her before
hiking off across the desert.

Bleeding profusely, Peter Johnson
miraculously revived and crawled to
his wife’s side. She was dead.

When full realization came, Peter
Johnson somehow managed to get
into his car, grip the steering wheel,
and drive a few miles before he
dropped off into unconsciousness.
Buzzards circled overhead. The
chilly approach of night brought him

around and he managed to follow the

dark trail into Stoval, 28 miles from .

the scene of the crime.

An awesome moaning awakened
Walter F. Cronk and his wife who
peered outside and saw a strange car
in their driveway. After hastily ad-
ministering first aid and getting the
dying man to bed, they telephoned
Sheriff James Polhamous at Yuma.
By the time the lawmen arrived sev-
eral hours later, Johnson was at
death’s door.

“Do everything you can,” Pol-
hamous told a none too optimistic
country doctor. “He is our only hope
of identifying The Claw.”

Despite the seriousness of his
wounds, Peter Johnson was sitting
up in a few days, telling his horri-

fying story to deputies, along with a
good description of his wife’s killer.
That night, a group of deputies in

two automobiles sped to the scene

of Anna Johnson’s murder. A rain-
storm came whirling through the
vicinity, blotting out all except a few
footprints which led away from the
scene of the crime across the desert.

’ The footprints of two different men.

They returned to Stoval where they
again questioned Johnson about the
incident. Johnson insisted that only
one man was involved in the rob-
bery. Police were stymied. The foot-
prints showed that two men, one
with a half-size larger shoe than the
other, had taken off on foot across
the desert.

Examination of a bullet hole in the
windshield of Johnson’s Dodge
sedan showed that the bullet could
have been fired from outside the car,
and not inside, as Johnson had con-
tended. The officers removed the
windshield and drove it to Tucson
for a technician to examine.

Retracing the Johnsons’ acquain-
tanceship with The Claw to the
Dodge agency in Tucson, the man-
ager remembered that a man an-
swering his description had applied
for a job two weeks previously. The
name on the application was Bill
Taver. Peter Johnson remembered
that the man said his name was “Bill
Taylor, or Taver or something like
that.”

“He said he was an experienced
salesman,” the manager recalled,
“and he had commendable refer-
ences, most of them from Miami,
Florida. I was leery of the man be-
cause it looked as through William
Estaver had been written over some
other name on the references.”

Sheriff Ben Daniels immediately
dispatched a telegram to Miami po-
lice requesting any information about
William Estaver. That afternoon, a
ranchhand called with some news
that cast an entirely different light
on the case.

“I was having a beer in a saloon
at Ajo,” he drawled, “when a cou-

-ple of ranchhands came in. I knew

them and I noticed they were flash-

ing a huge bankroll as they sat down

at a table near the music box.
“What did you do, rob a bank?” he

Border patrolmen combing the
Arizona wastelands for the
notorious killer.

No federal
license

”» orgun
permits

needed

SIDE
LOADING

8 shot
revoler

semiautomatic pistol

joked.

“Killed a man deader than a
butchered hawg,” one said.

Could Peter Johnson have been

mistaken when he said only one man

was involved in the shooting instead
of William Estaver? It was dark that
night, and an unearthly resounding
thunderstorm was approaching with
enough gusty wind to confuse a man
faced with death.

Arizona police were due for an-
other shock when they received Mi-
ami’s answer to their inquiry:

“WILLIAM S. ESTAVER
DROWNED HERE IN SAILBOAT
FOUR MONTHS AGO DURING
STORM. SOME THOUGHT
DEATH MYSTERIOUS. PLEASE
WIRE DESCRIPTION MAN POS-
ING AS ESTAVER.”

Sheriff Daniels picked up the
phone and called Miami. Thumbing
through the William S. Estaver file,
he gave them everything he had on
The Claw.

The answer came back: “That de-
scription perfectly fits a fellow
named H.O. Kendrick, an associate
of Estaver’s. I’ll see what else I can
find out about him and get back with
you.”

Fearful that The Claw would try to
silence the only person who could
identify him in a court of law, Sher-
iff Daniels posted a bodyguard out-
side Johnson’s hospital room at a
Tucson hospital, where he appeared
to be slowly recovering. Meanwhile,
the body of Anna Johnson was taken
to a Yuma mortuary.

Unable to follow the killer’s tracks
because of the rainstorm, the posse
returned to Sentinel. After resting
their horses and taking care of their
livestock they reunited and galloped
out across the desert into territory
unfit for automobiles. They went
from ranch to ranch, spreading the
word among Papago Indians that a
sex-killer was at large. a

Sheriff Polhamous asked the
Southern Pacific railroad to notify its
officers to be on the lookout. The
railroad responded by placing
WANTED posters with a description
of the suspect at every train station
along the line. “Your description is
too imprecise,” a railroad official
wired Polhamous. “Can you supply
us with a photograph?”

Of course, Polhamous couldn’t, and
the chances of catching the hellion
seemed nil.

Since Sheriff Daniels was sure the
killer was holed-up in the wastelands,
like a roving lobo, he reasoned that
his man would have to come out
sooner or later for food or water. He
stationed a deputy at every grocery
store within fifty miles, and posted
deputies near every water hole. Rid-
ers watched the skies above the squat
mesa for buzzards who may be stalk-
ing a thirsty straggler.

On November 16th Miami police
called again.

“Unable to find out anything about
Kendrick,” the sergeant reported.
“Seems he kept a low profile. But
there’s some dope on his girlfriend,
Mary Burkes. She’s a choir girl he
sold a car to. Evidently, she fell for
him and went along with him, help-
ing clinch deals with the old flapper
swindle.

“She was a doll, platinum blonde,
bosomy, five-foot-four, about twenty-
eight years old. Told everyone she
was from Indianapolis and lived near
where the old Butler University used

to be.”

Sheriff Daniels quickly notified the
Indianapolis police who readily lo-
cated Mary Burkes. She was a sexy
blonde with an hour-glass figure and
resided with her parents who were
respectable pillars of the communi-
ty.
“Sure I know Kendrick,” she told
questioning officers. “What about
it?”

When they told her they suspected
him of being The Claw, she came
unglued. “You stinkin’ cops!” she
cried. “He’s one of the nicest people
I’ve ever met. You’re trying to frame
him, aren’t you!”

After she calmed down, she said
they parted in California three weeks
ago. Before that they were intimate,
sharing a motel for about a month.
Asked about his sex drive, the lush-
bodied blonde at first disdained to
reply, then finally hummed, “He
couldn’t get enough.”

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ld have relished the sun-
2 cool of the desert
( these November days
only the hideous stories
rd about a demon with
who bushwhacked his
ht. She remembered that
vere raped, then robbed
ey. She never intended
t by dusk on the open
had not been for a flat,
ve been safely home by

Paul Hadley, horny right up to
the scaffold.

The pretty, 23-year-old virgin shud-
dered with anticipation as the rough-
ness of the road forced her to slow
down near an expanse of towering
sage and cactus. The car momentar-
ily bogged in the sand. In a panic,
Bobs stepped on the gas. Too late,
he was on the running board, point-
ing a gun at her.

“Stop!” he commanded. “Stop or
I'll blow your head off!” Bobs tried
to throw him by swiveling the car
from left to right, but he reached in
the driver’s window and grabbed the
keys from the ignition.

“You desert gals come wild, don’t
you?” the stranger snarled. “Let’s see
what you’ve got!” He ripped her
blouse and bra from her body, ex-
posing her breasts. “Not bad. Let’s
see if you’re as good as you look.”
He dragged her kicking and scream-
ing to a shady spot and stripped her
naked. “Don’t be afraid,” he told her.
“It’s my trademark.”

All during the act of intercourse
Pa .

® : ae F ss

Sheriff Ben Daniels directed the manhunters who finally
nailed the fugitive.

she couldn’t help but notice his long,
thick fingernails, like animal talons,
pawing her naked body.

After it was over, he stuck the gun
to the sobbing girl’s head and de-

‘Sure | know him,’ the sexy blonde told
lawmen. ‘He’s as horny as they come...
could never get enough.’ He was also
homicidal, the lawmen informed her, and
she was very lucky to be alive.

manded, “Where’s the money?” Wet
with sweat, the trembling girl opened
her purse and handed him two silver
dollars.

“Do you take me for a fool?” the

Court to rule

on Harding
death penalty

By Chris Limberis
The Arizona Daily Star

The Arizona Supreme Court, which in December |

granted a three-month delay in the execution of con-
victed murderer Donald Eugene Harding, will consider
his death sentence tomorrow. os
Lawyers for Harding are arguing that he should not
be executed because he suffers from brain damage
and that testimony about his condition was previously
ignored. .- .
Harding, 43, was convicted in Pima County Superior

Court nearly 10 years ago in the 1980 shooting deaths of .
two salesmen, Martin Concannon of Tucson and Con-:

cannon’s boss, Robert Wise of Mesa, at a Tucson motel.

Harding hogtied both men and shot each in the head ~

and chest from close range. ,

Later, he drove Concannon’s car to Mesa, where he
went to Wise’s home and asked Wise’s wife if “Bob”
was there. He was arrested the next day driving Concan-
non’s car in Flagstaff. wee

Harding is considered to be closer to the gas cham-
ber than any of the 101 other Arizona inmates on death
row because he has exhausted most of his appeals.

_ -His execution, once set for 12:05 a.m. Jan. 3, was
rescheduled to April 6. . .
.... If-his appeal fails, Harding could be the first to die
in' the: gas chamber “at the Arizona‘State Prison in
Florené'since Manuel Silvas was executed in 1963.

- Dénise“Young and James Belanger, Harding’s law-
yers from the Arizona Capital Representation Project,
contend Harding had improper representation during
sentencing, by,Judge Harry Gin. And they:say he was
unable to know what he was doing at the time of the

Gin found no mitigating circumstances when he

See HARDING, Page 2B

‘
‘
4

”

Ghe Arizona Dailn Star

Tucson, Monday, March 16, 1992

— - aa , ‘

Harding

Continued from Page 1B

sentenced Harding to a gas cham-

ber in May 1982.

The lawyers have mibiiitiod testi-
mony from a neurologist, a psychia-
trist and a neuropsychiatrist, They
Say it shows Harding suffered brain
damage at birth and that-his condi-

tion was exacerbated by a turbulent, .

abusive childhood and from years in
what has been described as par
baric” conditions in the Arkansas
State Prison system.

Dr. Jonathan Pincus, chairman of
the Neurology Department at Geor-
getown University’s School of Medi-
cine, examined Harding in May 1990
and. said Harding “suffers from or-
ganic brain dysfunction that influ-
ences his thought and behavior and
has done so at'‘all times since his
early childhood. There is evidence
of both generalized cerebral dys-
function and focal brain damage.”

Pincus, according to a Sept. 13
brief filed at the Supreme Court,
said he was “convinced to a high de-
gree of medical probability that Mr.

_Harding’s organic brain dysfunction

y UN Fd yy | 7) a |

Gin found no mitigating
circumstances when he.
sentenced Harding to the
gas chamber in May 1982.

has substantially impaired his abil-

‘ity to conform his conduct to the re-
quirements of the law.”

The state Attorney General's Of-

fice disputes the contention that
Harding has not received fair and
adequate hearing on those issues.

Harding, according to psychologi- |
cal evaluations submitted by his.

lawyers, had a turbulent childhood
in Arkansas.

He suffered from brain damage at
birth when the umbilical cord: was
wrapped around his neck. He also
had jaundice that was not treated,
and he suffered a number of head
injuries while growing up.

He had an unsettled upbringing in

several households and in institu-

tions and was first sentenced . to
prison at age 16. He described
prison as a “‘nightmare” and said he
was tortured. He. attempted suicide
after a year in prison. ’ ei

Daly Star

@he Arizona

Tucson, Monday, March 16, 1992

Justices delay:*'|
execution of

—T66T ‘6T Jaquiaceg ‘Aepsuny n ‘uoson|

ARJS Tym ruszuy aqp

Boo!
5m iy
39 ory’

~ a e ecemenlg eect
in
G
Ge

By Chris Limberis
The Arizona Daily Star

Donald Eugene Harding, the Ar-

Kansas escapee and multiple mur-

derer who has moved closer to the
gas chamber than any other current
Arizona inmate, yesterday won a
stay of his Jan. 3 execution. —

The Arizona Supreme Court or-
dered the stay after considering
written arguments presented by
lawyers that claimed Harding’s
medical and psychiatric conditions
had been ignored in his previous
proceedings.

The court considered the argu-—

ments on Tuesday and set another
conference for March 17 to “fully
Consider all of the medical, psycho-
logical and psychiatric exhibits sub-
mitted.”

His execution was rescheduled for
April 6.

Although several inmates have
had execution dates set, including
Edward Harold Schad for Dec. 27,
their dates are expected to be re-
scheduled because they have more
avenues of appeal. Harding was con-
sidered the inmate who would die
first because he has neared the end
of the appeals process.

Even if the Supreme Court had

See HARDING, Page 2A

Donald Harding

es.

GT sequieseg ‘AepsinuL ‘uosonL

—T66T ‘

“ARIS HIE Puszy 4D

‘Court of ‘Appeals’ in. San Francisco

and the U.S. Supreme Court.
However, the burden of proof has

‘ shifted’ ‘to Harding to show why he
: should not be executed.

Arizona has not executed anyone

|. since ‘Manuel A. Silvas died in the

gas. chamber i in 1963. Harding is one

| of 101 ‘People on death Tow, qclud-

3 ing one oman. »
ay y Carla Ryaa, who has suc-.

Ps ‘Tepresented humerous -

to set aera two. previous stays,

id ‘th

a ‘gued that ihitigating
red Ww Maur Harding,

aged, they: say.

- Ryan. “said. ositok. shuttled
among members of a broken family,
was abused asa child and suffered
mental problems. These i ‘issues have
never beén raised. —

Additionally, Ryan said, because
Harding represented himself at a
trial that resulted essentially in no
defense; all the legal proceedings
have been based “on a record that’s
been a sham.”

Arguments in favor of Harding
say he, ‘was abused by a stepfather
and sent to the Arkansas State Hos-
pital at age 11. There a doctor wrote
of him: “It is amazing the degree of
psychopathy contained in a boy of
this +eune BBE: ON

‘mental hospital, then back in

suici was

before. his release at age 24..
Harding. was being held on’ a mu
der charge in 1982 when he escafie
from a county jail in Arkansas @ Ad
went on what authorities : say W.
multistate rampage of 40° ta""50 !
armed robberies and kidnappings;

In Tucson, he killed Martin Gon- -
cannon of Tucson and Concannon’ Ss
boss, Robert Wise of Mesa at the'L.
Quinta Motor Inn, 665 N. Free
Drive. The day before, he killed
Allan Gage in a Phoenix motel. *#:

Once asked why he killed some '
people and not others, Hardingsfe- i
Plied: “Judgment calls.”

Harding was erratic, alternately
brooding and abusive during «his
trial and sentencing. He called pids-
ecutor Victor Wild a “scumbag dog.”
He also taunted Gin and after: “Fe-
ceiving two death sentences, *he
asked if the state intended to A
him twice?7"

Ryan Said Tuesday that if Haft.
ing’s sentence were carried out, SEV-

eral othe (‘death row inmates would

die beforé izonans would rise. lip :
to call for nend to the death peh- :
alty. re

“Society: needs to be slapped’ Sp
the face before it responds,” stie

said. of
Some have ~ already - béen
prompted to’ action. : ee

A Tucson organization, calléd
Sanctity of Life: People Against Exe-
cutions, has been created and will
announce plans to oppose the death
penalty at a press conference today.

Among the founders of the group
is Katherine Norgard, a psychologist
whose adopted son, John Patrick
Eastlack, was sentenced to death i in
April after being convicted of the
beating deaths of elderly philanthro-
pists Leicester and Kathryn Sherg!
more than two years ago.

County Attorney Stephen D. N eely
said yesterday :that Carrying out an
execution “would restore integrity
in the criminal justice system.”

Page Two — SectionB *

~ Harding’ s lawyer vows to pursue

PHOENIX (AP) — A lawyer for triple murderer
Donald Harding said yesterday that she would return to
federal court to fight his death sentence, but prosecutors
said he’s likely to become the first person executed in
the state in 29 years.

All possible arguments have been heard on appeal,
“so that’s it,” state Attorney General Grant Woods said.

Harding is scheduled to die April 6 in the gas cham- “

ber at the Arizona State Prison in Florence. The state

' Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected his latest pal

peal.
However, Harding’s lawyers say another federal

. court appeal attempt will be made.

Woods said Harding has exhausted his appeals, al-

1ough he filed briefs yesterday in federal court in. .
hoenix, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San
: Francisco and the U.S. Supreme Court to support his.

case based on what he believes the defense will argue.
That defense was being formulated by Denise

° Young, Harding’s appointed lawyer with the Arizona
Capital Representation Project affiliated with Arizona
* State University in Tempe.

“There is significant evidence that the federal court

has not heard,” Young said yesterday.

At the heart of Young’s argument is that Harding

‘ has brain damage because he was born with his umbili-
- cal cord wrapped around his neck, choking him. Doctors
- say the situation may have contributed to brain damage
’ that made it difficult for Harding to control violent im-
* pulses, and therefore is a mitigating factor in his sen-
- tencing.

“The doctor who examined Harding pefore his trial

* in 1980 and said there was no connection between his
‘ mental condition and his acts has completely peas
- that statement,” Young said.

The 43-year-old Harding received the death sen-

* tence in 1982 on convictions in Phoenix and Tucson for _

ee ee — = ae

~ Ghe Arizona Baily Star

legal fight against death penalty

~ three murders in a two-day crime spree in 1980.
- He was convicted of slaying Allen Gage in a Phoe-

~ nix motel and of the killings in a Tucson motel of busi-

ness associates Martin Concannon of Tucson and Robert
Wise of Mesa.

However, only Harding’s convictions in the Tucson
killings have advanced through the courts to the point

where his execution was ordered, said Paul McMurdie, ;
Woods’ chief counsel for criminal appeals. : Die pea

“This is as close as we’ve been, because Harding
~ was the first to clear the 9th Circuit,” McMurdie said.

The latest ruling in Harding’s case brought renewed
criticism of the state from death-penalty opponents.

“I am disappointed and appalled that the only ‘an-..
swer to the issue that the state of Arizona. can come-up -:

with is capital punishment,” said Bishop Joseph T. Heis-
tand of the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona in a statement

released yesterday. “The state’s answer to murder is

murder.”
A spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of

_ Phoenix said the church’s opposition to the death pen-

alty had not changed, but she added that no statement
would be made on the Harding case.

The state Legislature has dealt with the issue this
session. But a bill to change the method of execution

- from the gas chamber to lethal injection has failed,
--along with a move that would have abolished the death

penalty in Arizona altogether.
- Department of Corrections spokesman Michael

Arra said the prison is ready to go through with an.

execution and will test the gas chamber next week.

The last person executed in the state was Manuel E.
Silvas on March 14, 1963, for murdering a Casa Grande
mother of four.

Nationwide, 166 people have been executed since
the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to resume en-
forcement of the death penalty in 1976.

Tucson, Friday, March 20, 1992

— ae

Page Eighteen — Section A

Saturday 44-92

nmen

The Arizona Daily Star

Founded 1877 -

..Michael E. Pulitzer, ‘Publisher.

Susan J. Albright, Editorial Page Editor

State murder

ar | Capital punishment is a victory for violence

* Arizona can never triumph over vio-
lence until it rises above the level of the
violent. If killing is wrong, it is wrong for:

the state to kill. We cannot condemn what '-

we condone through capital punishment.

. That is the simple truth. It struggles for |
air amid a suffocating heat of emotions. =‘

, Arizona took its bloodlust for Donald Eu-
gene Harding to the Supreme Court. But; ;
these kinds of life and death - ‘issues: ”

Shouldn’t be decided by federal courts” ”

looking at specific cases. They should be
‘decided by Arizonans looking at more
basic questions about state-supported mur-
der.

. It is viscerally appealing to talk of de-.
manding an eye for an eye. The collective
Sympathy a community directs at crime
victims and their families carries with it
the heartfelt desire to do something to
make it better. That desire to help is one of
the best things about the human animal.

; But killing the killer doesn’t make any-
thing better. The death penalty does not
deter crime. It does not rehabilitate the
criminal or bring back the victim. It just
robs society of the moral high ground from
which it should be challenging itself to do
better and be better.

; Capital punishment is giving in to vio-
lence. It represents the ultimate victory of
the criminal because it shows that we of
the supposedly civilized world can only re-
spond in kind to the worst among us.

' We live in a violent society. Fear is pal-

pable behind shuttered windows and a

locked doors. Parents agonize over ways to
Warn, but not worry,

portraying them as victims is considered

, entertainment. The elderly are afraid. Men -

are murdered while doing their jobs.

Harding was sentenced to death for mur- .
-; dering two salesmen in Tucson. He :is |

‘ linked to other murders. His crimes put. out.

the light of several lives and left families to |:

Struggle with a deep, haunting pain.

He should pay with his life in the only
way a truly civilized society can demand
that payment. He should spend the rest of
his miserable life in prison. But the misery
. Of his life should not go unexamined.

Harding was a brain-damaged child’
. whose need for help was recognized, but
not met. From the age of three he was
in and out of insitutions where he suffered
varying degrees of abuse. A more far-
sighted society might have prevented that
troubled child from growing into a murder-
ous adult. A more compassionate society
would at least have tried. ;

When Harding committed murder, he
gave up his right to walk among free peo-

ple. But no crime of murder should force. |.
free people to give up the right to call :

_ themselves civilized.

No killer should have the power to make |”
the state kill. We won’t make the morte bet: 1

ter by making ourselves worse.

their children. | |
‘Women become prey in a culture where |

» ‘By Joe Salkowski
., The Arizona Dally Star ae Macht
«>, SFLORENCE, —, Lawyers, doctors ° rofe 2290
‘and friends of Don Eugene Harding * testified that Ha In ae
au ‘dominated t the first 8 hours and 40. committed the. murdel rs

. “m ‘ het
' nutes’ of : a 9 Apur. eid yener: oo partly: ‘because of. RT
: tes damage dating to ‘eae
traumatic childbirthin;, |. ~s-—-—— -
f.. which his umbili¢ ' a =
approved hi Se was wrappe around his ‘eee BgeeEe & |
ec ; Sos... s"t338¢
(the stata board, began hearing» gee S828 o3 8 ~
A&timony at 9 a.m, yesterday, at the. 4, as BtS gutessn :
“'SpecialManagement Unit at the Ari- pr ee ps Sas 22°yhes 4 N
‘zona State Prisonin Florence. de the request’ of the sue a Soo. BESRES SCL
{ gh Doctors, professors, a priest. and. on General’s \off a bite Bs = Be rs Ss Eos E bz) NX
i Harding’s- ‘prother. asked the six.” findings. | 25 eS 3 @ $3 Pal Pe:
‘¢board members to’ commute Hard- « . “Don, “wita t as sbSee PE ao Root.
ng’s death sentences for the brutal 41g medical’ tests de sat ndeet: Peis Segc9 se my
"slayings of salesmen Martin Concan- sae GA S85S 8 lo
“mon ‘and: Robert Wise at a. ‘Tucson : Bests eb fesegees. qe
‘motel 1 12 years ago. hos i arene et ela ive”, 3 e DE-F 5s 523 2aX 3
I-fust ask: you alll to have some. “Hal Sheets, one of lor Bho “OQeeges S
real mercy, from your hearts,” Dar- © neys, said other. ‘tests ndicate that | aes} SOF 8 ORL as .
| yell Harding told the board. “He's: up to half of ‘Harding oe ee
| never had a chance.” ~tiot function properly: : 5 Asgheegschedcs N
‘Doctors and professors testified i Peaezegseatas ;
4 “It was the part: that’ controls. | 4.28% Eaosezly
that Harding committed the mur- - higher functions — the things that. | ‘> wep ge Mek SS
ders partly because of braindamage axe us human,” he said: “But Don- SSBeeesgzeagus EC
dating to a traumatic childbirth in ald Harding is. still a human: being. 2 a § E r=) e Sues
‘which his umbilical cord Was ye is capable of many, many acts of Sta >O giksts "
wrapped around his neck. eindness.” csedicinen i Hees Sogs i= or
They said that condition com- - Another of | Harding's, lawyers BS"°%SE% 6D | oy 5S |
i “bined with a tortured life of abuse, read letters Harding wrote to mem- ma 0% o z ae ae 3 € ie
° neglect and institutionalization that },e15 of a Sunday school classinNew |S ga oe a isee8s
inhibited his ability to.control his york most of which-ended :“with - Seow peeee ;
impulses. eae ee hugs and kisses, love from Donald.” . Pee ESP sog ha
“It did affect his ability to control And the Rev. Ralph Fowler, ‘who 2 & 83g as = 89 gs.
himself in three areas — thinking, a- spent 31 hours in face-to-face P@PSESSsese §
ae Seats an v en converstations with Harding” over’ - A
| rice, a clinical psychologist who : N pao: me
testified via a videotaped statement the aS EE natesara Ss ses &
played for the board. ing should be allowed tolive. — SS bes oS
Dr. Jonathan H. Pincus, a George- “I always considered myself a law’ => a ° E & a 5 :
town University psychologist.who- 54 order man. I thought I’dJjust males cesses id.
also testified via videotape, com -trenghen the man: mentally’ ‘and On Ses toe be
pared Harding's mental state with a spiritually and ‘that would ® be ‘it,’ - MEE aa « E> TEE
ro dysfunctional car—“a combination Fowjer said of his decision: to first’ aoe COPE z
= of an engine that periodically raced | ite Har ding nine months ago. “But oa: EPoy 2 = ss :
and brakes that didn’t work —ale- was hooked by hisstory.;) 0)" | Be SSCS Ce BS I
. ae: “Donald is sorry, for ‘what hap-' 4] se = ey Be >
: ae “They (the murders) were wild) eneq, and he never had a chancetto' @o ie Scere
impulsive acts directly related to the apologize,” Fowler said. AS eH) E533 SBE
brain damage he suffered and the on difterent th i a 3 rss 3 a 2 &
abuse that dominated the first 23: . _#e's4 differen person now than’ |. lls: |. 22a Bdobesewe
q years of his life.” (i 4, See HEARING, Page 6 1A : | :

a 4 Pr osecutor S
| hand case
“to. 0’Connor

‘B Enric Volante t/ i;

ky Arizona Daily Star cS 7, 72-}

” FLORENCE — Don Eugene

‘Harding declined to appear be-
sfore the Arizona Board of Par-.
-dons and Paroles yesterday while
prosecutors asked the U.S. Su-

+¢preme Court to lift a stay of exe-

' cution and send him to the gas —

+ chamber early Monday.

. An attorney for Harding de-

‘’ scribed the triple murderer as

: “very calm and collected” as he

tried to prepare for his: Apssible

‘ execution.

‘The Arizona Attorney Gen-
« eral’s Office filed briefs with the

‘high court yesterday to lift the

|’ «stay issued late Thursday by a 9th

US. Circuit Court of Appeals

"panel.

"The San Francisco-based court
‘issued the stay to hear defense

| ‘See HARDING, Page 4B

Z reais r NS
a ain ah Ba at Nin, Ps not iets

3 toappear-—

Tbe Arizona Daily Star

ee eee,

‘ blooded multiple

Harding

Continued from Page 1B

| arguments on the sentencing
_ phase of Harding’s case.

But Assistant Attorney General
Jack Roberts said yesterday he is
“guardedly optimistic” that the
state will win the five Supreme
Court votes needed to lift a stay of
execution by Monday.

- The state’s emergency appeal |
went to Justice Sandra Day

O’Connor, who also has the option

|. of ruling by herself.

“I think we have a decent

: chance,” Roberts said.

In a brief filed yesterday, the
‘state argues that the ‘“cold-
murderer”

abused his right to federal court
help and has failed to show any
fundamental miscarriage of jus-
tice.

‘Unless the stay remains in ef-
. fect or Gov. Fife Symington inter-

venes, Harding is to die at 12:05

a.m. Monday in the first Arizona

execution since 1963.

Before the federal appeals .

court stayed the execution, Hard-

ing’s case was to be heard yester- -

day by the Arizona Board of Par-
dons and Paroles. The board
recommends to the governor

whether to issue reprieves or re-

duce a death sentence.
Instead of arguing the case

yesterday, defense lawyers per-.
'suaded the board to reschedule: «

. the hearing for 9 a.m. tomorrow.
That means that if the stay is
lifted, the defense would begin

“

The state’s appeal |

went to Justice Sandra

Day O’Connor of the U.S.
Supreme Court, who has
the option of ruling by
herself.

ok: |
calling witnesses and arguing
against the death penalty just 15
hours before the execution.

“A lot of people call this litigat-
ing at the speed of ‘ight, and
that’s kind of what we’re talking
about,” said Hal Sheets, one of
Harding’s defense attorneys.

“Our hope is that we won’t
need to do this at the last moment
on April 5th, that the stay will re-
main in place and the 9th Circuit
will hear this appeal in a timely
fashion,” Sheets said yesterday.

The board voted 4-1 to post-
pone yesterday’s hearing. Anna
May Riddell cast the dissenting
vote without comment.

Roberts, the assistant attorney
general, expressed disappoint-
ment at the delay, saying the de-
fense will have. nothing new to.

, present by tomorrow. |

-“This is just another jidsace
of the last-minute stuff that’s so

’ prevalent in these cases,” he

said. .
Harding waived his right to ap-
pear at yesterday’s board meet-
ing in part because he would
have had to sit in a cagelike pen

- in.front‘of cameras and journal-

ists, said defense attorney

’ Sheets.

Harding, 43, was in shackles
during a morning visit from his
lawyers. He appeared “very calm
and collected” and “still trying to
get ready for 12: 05" on Monday,
Sheets said.

A judge sentenced Harding to
death in 1982 for the robbery-
slayings of two businessmen,
Martin Concannon of Tucson and
Robert Wise of Mesa. Harding’s
death sentence for killing Allan
Gage of Phoenix is in an earlier
stage of appeal.

Harding’s lawyers argue that
he had inadequate legal counsel
and that he suffered brain dam-
age at birth that left him incapa-
ble of making choices.

Several death penalty oppo-
nents from Tucson monitored
yesterday’s public meeting at the
Arizona State Prison Complex in
Florence.

Marta Stark, a member of the
Arizona Coalition Against the
Death Penalty, said afterward
that she wanted to tell the board
that threat of execution fails to
deter crime and “is a horrible,
inhumane punishment that has
been abolished in most civilized
countries and in 14 states.”

Arlene Hobson of the Ameri-
can Friends Service Committee,
a Quaker organization, agreed
Harding’s life should be spared.

“Regardless of the heinous
crimes of some persons, there
still is a fragment of the divine
there, and it’s not for man to de-
stroy that,” Hobson said.

The Associated Press con-
tributed to this story.

7 ee

who had once
was pretty cer-
on any bookie
I] the story ‘to
ot to those two

but a voice came
m a room next
the girl in here.

meet Charley

“ room. He had

gh the big mir- _

v vision glass—

e vent.

iot of Scotch in

have hurt you,”

. little. You see,

vas planning to
heisting my

t this other im-

AIN!

heeman ad-
ive with his
night stick
yofhcer: “It
And it ap-
n't. He got
ronger club!

—-TPC

-y—about Kiley,
»b, Hy’s death,
uried. I stressed

rather than go

clincher :¢ Now,
pe and put my-
‘er to make you

Lolli’s friends,
sack? After all,
i chump headed
chair.”

d Fischetti. He
tory I couldn't
be true.

said, “You're a

<ind word often
He looked un-
“What the hell
he wanted to
‘re in the clear.”
saw you at the
‘ach other—and
e this!”
I've ever heard
avs had a keen

| hold vour coat
n going to take
<s and a meal.
riends of mine.”

ruin, Mary, the
nderworld, will
TRUE POLICE
recame "Queen
no truth in the
rea girl's best
s as a member
indicate are as

e ever read,

Blood Trail to Death
[Continued Pion page 39]

everything that happened at the Cactus
last night,” the deputy urged. “Who did
Leonhardt play cards with, and did you
see any suspicious-looking characters
around the place during the evening?”

Sorenson named several persons with
whom the carpenter had played poker,
but all had remained around the place
until nearly 1 o’clock.’No one had left
the tavern with Leonhardt,

“After the poker game broke up,” Sor-
enson went on, “Al got into a dice game.
He hadn't won much in the poker game,
but I believe he did win a little in the
other game. As he went out I saw him
putting some bills in his wallet.”

The sheriff and Meyer exchanged
glances, for there had been no wallet
tound in Leonhardt’s clothing. ,

The next morning Meyer called at the
street-railway offices, to learn that the
pad of transfers was one of several which
had disappeared from the car barns within
the past three or four months. Some
transfers from these stolen pads had been
collected recently by. conductors and
turned in. An investigation was under
way, but little progress had been made,

Brakeman Plummer returned from his
run in late afternoon on Sunday, and re-
ported to the sheriff's office. Not. until
then did the officers know the identity
of the man who had first found Leonhardt
lying wounded in the Yates yard.

Plummer said that he barely had made
his train, On the way to the depot, he
had heard someone running along Court
Street, at Alameda, which was several

blocks from the scene of the shooting. He.

pointed out that it was possible the killers
had doubled back after leaping the
fence. : *

The bullet which had entered the mur-
dered man’s brain was recovered. It had
been fired from a .32-caliber revolver.

Because of the streetcar transfers
found near the crime scene, Meyer de-
cided to check on this angle. He obtained
a list of street-railway employes who had

fy th i gh ehoeter ; me
been fired for stealing from the company.
There had been three:: . -

Lawrence B. Keppler, who hada wife
and -six children. He was now working
as a delivery man for a grocery firm
Meyer learned. '

Alton Spright, who had since found a
job with the city street department. He
had a wife and two children.

Edwin W. Hawkins, with a wife but no
children. He lived at a downtown hotel
and was unemployed.

A quiet investigation revealed that
Hawkins had a reputation for paying his
bills, although he was not working. This
interested Meyer, who inquired further
into the young man’s past, He learned that
the former conductor’s wife had recently
inherited an aunt's estate in Ohio, which
explained how it was possible for the dis-
charged employe to pay his bills. Hawkins

-From the conductors, Meyer turned his
attention to Wagner, the slain man’s best
friend. He learned from an ex-fiancée that
Wagner had recently given several
streetcar transfers to another girl friend.

This looked like a hot lead, and Meyer
hurried to Wagner’s rooming house.

“Sure, I gave my girl some transfers,”
Wagner admitted. “I get them from a
streetcar conductor I know. I met him at
the Cactus. I bought him a drink oncé
and he told me he'd give me all the trans-
fers I need.”

The - streetcar conductor confirmed
Wagner's story, but begged Meyer not
to turn him in. “I have a wife and kids,”
he pleaded, “I’d lose my, job.”

Shown some of the transfers, Meyer
found that the punch mark differed from
that on the stolen pad.

Meanwhile, the police of Columbus,
Ohio, who had been asked for a report
on Leonhardt, replied that the young man
had relatives there, but no known ene-
mies, Leonhardt, the report added, had
gone to Arizona because the climate was
beneficial to him, He had written to his
family that he planned to stay in Arizona
indefinitely. The police also confirmed the
fact that Wagner had accompanied Leon-
hardt westward, :

His suspicions having been aroused by
the discovery that Wagner had given
streetcar transfers to a girl friend, Under-

Suckers have been falling for the
“smuggled goods” game a long time.
This fraud flourished in 19th-century
England, where there was much actual
smuggling in order to avoid the high
import taxes.

Criminals secured flashy merchan-
clise, represented it as being smuggled,
and offered to sell it at a bargain.
Sometimes, in order to convince their
victims, they went so far as to pretend
the police were hot on their trail. THe
stuff was worthless, or nearly so, and

Thirty-first of a series

sold at several times its real value.
From an old.term, for “counterfeit,”
it was known as duff.

A criminal who made his living by
selling duff was naturally called a
duffer, He always feigned stupidity,
and let his victim conclude that he did
not know the real value of the godds
he was offering, So, though the duffer
was actually very shrewd, his occu-
pational name came to stand for any
simple-minded person.

—Boyd G. Wood

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id carpenter.
orig told him
-ribed how the
her skirts and

ease.
ides a skirt?”

smiled. “In the

she had short

in Wasa man?”
masculine, for

Ladlow ex-
observe the
es very well.
on, hurry!’

errogation of
the hospital
hort time after
vo bullet holes,
ie head. Leon-
and therefore
s slayers.
found a gold
hange.
ik at that spot
> tence,’ Mever

icconppanied
who pointed

tence, Meyer
e grass, and re-
treetcar trans-

Someone had

th a conductor's
each transfer at

tor issuing the
afix his punch

rk appeared for

paces had been

that they might

-transters were

‘pad suggested
n dropped that
one of the

time and the
und the faint
both made by

i been a quict
He had been
irking steadily.
Columbus,

but he had

Or
tor

™m

ured,

e was down

Yates said

s trom Ohio

ENNY

Coincidence, plus the application of a
logical mind, recently enabled rare stamp
dealer Peter Jones to solve a century-old
murder case. In his little shop off Picca-
dilly, Jones was going through a sheaf of
newly acquired “covers,” envelopes with
post-marked stamps still affixed to them,
when he came to one which contained
some yellowed newspaper clippings.

The covers had been sent to him by a
correspondent, an Australian. Jones read
the clippings. They told of the trial and
conviction of one Richard Canning, in
the early 1850s, for the murder of his
beautiful wife, Bettina, on the island of
Roses in Sydney Harbor.

‘Though Canning protested he had left
his wife on the isle for a few hours at her
own request, while on a pleasure yachting
trip, it had been shown at the trial that
he had a violent temper, and that he had
previously quarreled with Bettina because
of an illicit love affair with a John Elling-
ton. The latter, however, had disappeared
from Sydney some time before the mur-
der. Another boating party had discoy-
ered Bettina, dead from a bullet through
the head.

Much of the Sydney Harbor area’ was
still in its primitive setting in those days,
but ic was already a Mecca for small
sailing craft. Witnesses were found who
testified that they had seen Canning and
Bettina disembark at the island, and Jater
had watched him sail away alone.

The evidence was palpably circumstan-
tial, yet Canning was sent to the Tasmania
penal colony for life. Jones shrugged, put
the clippings aside.

A wave of delight presently over-
whelmed the dealer when he discovered
several envelopes bearing red one-penny
stamps of the first issue of the Colony of
New South Wales. Here were items to
gladden a collector's heart. Fingering one
prize cover, he noticed it was addressed
to “Mrs. Bettina Canning,” and still con-
tained a letter. When Peter Jones pulled
it out and read thé missive, he found

-himself plunged smack into a clandestine

romance, \

The letter’s author proclaimed his un-
dying ardor for “Dearest Bettina.” To
convince her of this, he demanded a ren-
dezvous on the Island of Roses, avowing
that if his true love failed to keep the

tryst death would most surely part them.
Suicide would be his only recourse. Peter
Jones, forgivably, hurried through the
letter to learn who had written it. It was
signed by John Ellington.

Peter Jones, in his London stamp shop,
linked a chain of circumstance quite as
logical as that which had sent Richard
Canning to a life of penal servitude in
‘Tasmania. Canning had maintained that
it was Bettina’s notion to stop off at the
Island of Roses. John Ellington’s letter
substantiated that claim. Plausibly, El-
lington had been waiting on the island.
Bettina had gone to a last meeting with
her lover. Whether she had been mur-
dered or had been persuaded to accept a

suicide pact, Jones was convinced that the-

real solution to this old tragedy still
could be found upon the Island of Roses.

The stamp dealer sent the clippings
and letter to the Australian authorities,
along with a brief outline of his theory.
It was “worthy of investigation” accord-
ing to Jones, and apparently the Sydney
police agreed. A search was made on the
Island of Roses, particularly in a deep
cave located there. In a previously unex-
plored passage, they came across the skele-
ton of a man with a bullet in the skull.
Nearby was a revolver of an early make,
Two of its chambers were empty.

Fragments of clothing, their contents in
the form of faded documents, established
the dead man as John Ellington. ‘The pas-
sages were too narrow for anyone to have
forced him into that retreat. or to have
dragged the body there. Besides, anyone
disposing of his body would have done
the same with that of Mrs. Canning.

Obviously, she had been slain by her
paramour, who had crawled away and
taken his own life, hoping that Bettina’s
death would be blamed on her husband,
the man whom Ellington hated.

That crazed. vindictive scheme had suc-
ceeded, forcing Richard Canning to serve
a life term for a crime he had not com-
mitted. But his name had been cleared
at last, through the clue of a penny
postage stamp, nearly a century later and
half a world away. —Russ T. Creighton

They had been seen together fre-
quently. Wagner had accompanied
Leonhardt downtown only the night
before.

Sheriff Pacheco went to call on
Wagner, while Undersheriff Meyer
visited the Cactus Tavern.

Wagner, a tall young man with
friendly eyes, was shocked when told
of the murder.

“Good Lord!” he gasped. “I left Al
at 11 o’clock. He was still playing
cards at the Cactus. He said he would
see me today.”

“You have any idea who might have
killed him?” The sheriff's question
was blunt.

“No, sir, | haven’t the slightest idea.
Al was a friendly fellow, and I don’t

think he had an enemy in the world.
I just can’t believe he’s dead.”

“Your friend didn’t have any trouble
in the tavern with anyone that you
know of ?” 2

“No, sir, none whatever. He was
easy to get along with. That’s why I
liked him so much.”

“Would Leonhardt have had any
money on him when he left the tav-
ern?”

“Some, I suppose, but not a great
deal. He played for small stakes and
never carried much. He told me he
put his money in a savings account,
but I don’t know in what bank he kept
a

Sheriff Pacheco thanked him and
left.

By the time Meyer arrived at the
Cactus, the tavern was closed for the
night. On the way back to the Yates
home, he met the sheriff, and together
they located Jim Sorenson, the bar-

. tender who had been on duty that night

at the Cactus Tavern.

Sorenson was routed out of bed
at a downtown hotel.

“T just don't see how a thing like
that could happen,” he said, when told
Leonhardt had been murdered. “He
left the Cactus about 11:45 and said
good night to me as he went out the
door.”

“Was anyone with him at the time 7”
Pacheco asked.

“No, he was alone.”

“Tellus [Continued on page 75]

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slain man’s friend.

Wagner said he had first met Leon-
hardt inva pool hall in Columbus. Upon
learning that the young carpenter planned
to go West, Wagner had decided to ac-
company him, “We were always-the best
of friends,” he went on. ‘For a time I lived
at the same boardinghouse with him, but
recently I moved here. Al stayed on.’

“You never had any trouble with Leon-
hardt?”

“None whatever.”

“Would you object to.a search of your
room?”

“Certainly not. Go right’ ahead.”

_ The search revealed no incriminating

. evidence. Other occupants recalled, that

the suspect had come home before. mid-
night on Saturday. One man said he had
spoken to Wagner in the hallway at 11:45.
The slaying had not occurred until a few
minutes past midnight.

“Well, that’s that,” Meyer told the
sheriff, "Every hot lead we get blows up.
I’m going back to the conductors,’

Meyer discovered that punches similar
to those used by the trolley men were
on sale at a variety store. He examined
the lot, and found. one identical ta the
punch which had left its mark on the
stolen pad found near the murder scene,

as well as on other stolen transfers which °

had. turned up in company receipts, He
was positive now that the murderer had
obtained the pads from the car. barns, or
from someone who had access to the
barns.

‘The fact that the pad in evidence had
been validated in advance suggested to
Meyer’s keen analytical mind that the
perpetrator of the crime knew his way
around on streetcars, and most likely had
been a conductor. Moreover, the man in
question seemed able to punch his trans-
fers on any line in such a way that the

. conductor accepting them did not detect

any irregularity, Only an ex-condyctor
would he able to do this, Meyer rea-
soned,

Of the three conductors discharged for
stealing nickels on their runs, Edwin
Hawkins seemed to have been the worst
offender. But that had been ‘before his
marriage. Now, with a wife who had in-
herited an estate, he was taking it easy,
apparently,

How: much of an estate Hawkins’ wife
-had inherited had not been revealed, and

this information was not forthcoming -

from any source, Fearing to question the

pair lest he cause them undue alarm, .

Meyer ‘quietly wrote to the. Ohio officials
in an effort ta discover what inheritances
were on record,

Sheriff Pacheco, however, suggested a
short cut, He pointed out that it might be
well to ask Hawkins, who had heen a
streetcar conductor, how, in his opinion,
the transfers could have been obtained.
Méyer agreed, 7

The officers found Hawkins to be a glib
young man ready: with all the answers,
and he ‘seemed. perfectly willing to co-
operate, »

“Tl tell you: how they got. those trans-
fers,” he said, “Hell’s bells, anybody can
pick them up! They're inside the car-harn
door, and you can walk past and help
yourself, It would be easy. °

“T don’t know what else I can tell you,”

: Hawkins. went on, “I‘lost my ‘job. with
the company because they said I was
stealing nickels, Hell, Lnever took a single
nickel in my’life, I didn’t have to. But

with half the conductors knocking dawn:
_ a little here and there, they had. tc to. PAYS
oa stapegoat—and I was it,’

-. As a matter of routine, Meyer end the’
sheriff chegked on Hawkins with Hie gu-

sheriff Mey er went back to question the

perintendent at the car barns, be were >

assured that he was okay.

~ “T really don’t think Ed ever stole a
nickel,” the boss said. “But. the company
had to make an example of somebody, and
they picked on him.”

This was discouraging to the officers,
and especially to Meyer, who had his own
theories on the case.

Meyer decided, nevertheless, to go a
little further. Obtaining a search warrant
under the circumstances would be diffi-
cult, so he watched his chance and slipped
into, Hawkins’ hotel room while the man’s
wife was out doing her shopping. His
brief search revealed nothing.

Weeks passed, and the Ohio authorities
did not reply to Meyer’s query. He won-
dered why.

On Monday, February 10, more than
two months after. Leonhardt’s murder,
Mrs. Kate Fleming, owner of a millinery
shop, reported that during the night her
store had been entered. Burglars had
made off with goods consisting of dress
waists, laces, silks and gloves, and valued
at $200.

The next morning, the proprietor of the
Bonanza, a store which dealt in general
wearing apparel, talked with a man and
woman who offered to sell him a half-
dozen pairs of women’s gloves at a figure
far below the wholesale price.

“T don’t understand how you can sell
them at that price,” the merchant said.
“Not that I won’t buy them. I will—but
only if you can prove you came by them
legitimatelv.”

“These are the last of a shipment,” the
man replied. “We want to get rid of them
in a hurry. If you insist, we can wire New
York for confirmation that we bought
them; but at the price we've quoted, I
would have to ask you to pay the cost of
the wire.”

The man was so willing to send the
wire, provided the Bonanza would pay
for it,.that the merchant, John Baskin,
was inclined to take the gloves at the
price quoted. f

While he was still considering the mat-
ter, his wife came in from a back room.
She looked at the gloves and, while doing
so, nudged her husband,

“Wait a-‘minute,” Baskin said, “T’ll talk
it over with my wife.”

He went into the back room with her.

“T heard that some gloves were stolen

fromeMrs. Fleming’s millinery shop,” his -

wife said, “Why don’t you call her up and
see what kind of gloves they were? These
might have been taken from her place,”

Baskin quickly called Mrs.
who confirmed the theft. When she de-
scribed the gloves, Baskin became
alarmed, “Call the police,” he said, “and
tell them to hurry over. rl keep these
people here ag long as I can.’

Going back into the store, Baskin told
the couple that he would take the gloves,
“But you'll have to wait a while,” he said,
“T left all my money at the house and my
wife has gone for it. She'll be right back.”

The man and woman contented them-
selves by looking over Baskin’s merchan-

ise,
_ Meanwhile, Mrs. Fleming called Sheriff
Pacheco, to whom she had reported the

. theft, and told him to hurry over to the

Bonanza,
‘Pacheco, alone in his office at the time,

buckled on his six-shooter and: hurtied’

out, picking up Officer Tom Mills at the
corner,
But when they arrived, they were told

. the couple had left, saying they woanld
/ come back for the money later. or
_ “They apparently became suspicious,” #
MBaskin said. “I saw the man go to the.

-window and laok out, and then he nodded

Fleming, -

to his wife
bac
A
to
the coue vs
had a ver
man's; her
ways also
Mrs. Fle
from her n

was confer
fied the six
from her s
to trap the
to hide in
Officer Mi
But the co
Undershe
into the shi
addressed t
of Ohio. It
of Mrs. Al
had been c!
and that
Hawkins «
from the s;
other prope
Meyer s
hotel. Ther:
Hawkins h:
lunch time,
down the s:
dined occas
He found
“Come o1
“The sherit
“What's t
demanded.
It was th
her voice, a
“Come al
out.”
On the w:
met the she

“There t
claimed ex«
Pacheco (

circumstanc
self. He wa:
for hi
was:
Tal
MYS.° sok
bought the ;
“This is
complained.
mate businc
law meddlin
“Hold it,’
Hawkins, h
incidence. (
from Ohio
amounted tc

“iff,. Meyer

hunch abou
Well, Hawk
conductor.
burglarized
he can tell
And as for 4
of yours is
that night vi
killing Leon
band, ‘Come
saw you ju
say, ‘Come
a man masq
Suddenly
She reeled i
leaned agai:
Hawkins |

They were |

Mever went
Meyer dis
had found n

liminary sea
- fore. Nailed
ing which

shelves, Her
loot taken in

were

ole a
ipany
and

fcers,
sown

goa
irrant

difi-
lipped
man’s

zs. His

orities
won-

than
vurder,
llinery
ht her
> had

lress
valued

of the
zeneral
in and
4 half-
figure

an sell
t said.
ili—but

‘hem

the
hem

re New
bought
i sted, I

ost of

‘nod the
ild pay
Baskin,
at the

he mat-
k room.
le doing

“PH talk

ith her.
» stolen
1op,”” his
rup and
»? These
place.”
Fleming,
she de-
yvecame
uid, “and
ep these

skin told
e gloves.

he said.
e and my
cht back.”
ed them-
merchan-

d Sheriff
yrted the
ver to the

the time,
d hurried
ills at the

ere told
world

picious,”
go to the
ie nodded

to his wife. He told me they would come
back in a few minutes.”

As the sheriff sat waiting for the pair
to return, Baskin and-his wife described
the couple. Mrs. Baskin said the woman
had a very coarse voice, almost like a
man’s; her hair was cut short and, in other
ways also, she seemed masculine. — |

Mrs. Fleming, who had hastened over
from her millinery shop while the officer
was conferring with the Baskins, identi-
fied the six pairs of gloves as those taken
from her, store the night befote. Anxious
to trap the pair, Sheriff Pacheco-decided
to hide in a back room and wait, while
Officer Mills loitered across the street.
But the couple did not reappear.

Undersheriff Meyer, meantime, walked
into the sheriff's office and found a letter
addressed to him from the police officials
of Ohio. It informed him that the estate
of Mrs. Alice Chase of Cleveland, Ohio,
had been closed out by the adininistrator
and that the sole heir, Mrs. Bessie

Hawkins of Tucson, had received $175.
from the sale of a lot. There had been no°

other property or assets.

Meyer set out at once for Hawkins’
hotel. There he learned that Mr. and Mrs.
Hawkins had stepped out. It: was nearly
lunch time, so he headed for a restaurant
down the street where he knew Hawkins
dined occasionally.

He found the pair at the counter.

“Come on over to the office,” he said.
“The sheriff wants to talk with vou.”

“What's this all about?” Mrs. Hawkins
demanded.

It was the first time Meyer had heard
her voice, and its huskiness intrigued him.

“Come along,” he said, “and we'll find
out.”

On the way to the sheriff's office, Mever
met the sheriff and Baskin.

“There they are now!” Baskin ex-
claimed excitedly. “They're the ones.”

Pacheco quickly informed Meyer of the
circumstances, and Meyer smiled to him-
self. He was glad he had the pair in tow,
for he had a sudden feeling that his theory
was about to bear fruit.

Taken into the sheriff's office, Mr. and
Mrs. Hawkins maintained they had
bought the gloves honestly.

“This is an outrage,” Mrs. Hawkins
complained. ‘“‘Can’t one engage in a legiti-
mate business in this town without the
law meddling in it?”

“Told it,” Mever snapped. Turning to
Flawkins, he said, “This is quite a co-
incidence. Only this, morning I learned
from Qhio that vour wife’s inheritance
amounted to only $175.” Then to the sher-
iff, Mever remarked. “Remember my
hunch about those streetcar transfers?
Well, Hawkins here is a former trolley
conductor. If he can’t explain why he
burglarized the millinery store, perhaps
he can tell us why he killed Leonhardt.
And as for you, Mrs. Hawkins, that voice
of vours is a dead giveaway. Remember
that night vou two jumped the fence, after
killing Leonhardt? You said to your hus-
band, ‘Come on, hurry!’ The couple who
saw you jump that fence and Heard you
say, ‘Come on, hurry!’ thought you were
a man masquerading as a woman.”

Suddenly the woman's defiance wilted.
She reeled into her husband’s arms and
leaned against him for support.

Hawkins refused to make a statement.
They were locked up while Pacheco and
Mever went to search their room.

Meyer discovered soon enough why he
had found nothing during the brief pre-
liminary search he had made weeks be-
fore. Nailed to the wall was a large paint-
ing which covered a row of storage
shelves. Here the officers found a pile of
loot taken in recent burglaries. In a shoe

box were several pads of. street-railway
transfers. ~ ;

The first search brought to light no gun,
so the officers dug deeper. In a suitcase,
wrapped in an old slicker, they found a
.32-caliber revolver, and a few hours later
they traced it to a local hardwaté store,
where it had been purchased by Hawkins
two days before the Leonhardt murder.

Meyer and other officers had called at

the same store to inquire about the sale

of firearms, and had been told none had
been s’old recently. The proprietor ex-
plained this, after examining his records,
by. saving that a clerk he had discharged
shortly after the slaving had sold the re-
volver and had no longer been employed
when the investigators called. No one
else had remembered selling such a
weapon,

Hawkins, it was discovered, had served
a‘terti in Folsom Prison, Calif., for rob-
bery, prior to coming to Arizona.

Realizing that he would be convicted
of murder, Hawkins made every effort to
save his wife from facing the same charge.
He maintained that she knew nothing
about his robberies, that he had told her

he sent to New York for the gloves and:

that she really believed he had a right
to dispose of them. He apparently wanted
the officers to believe also that his wife
knew nothing about the pile of loot cached
in their hotel quarters.

“How about her being with you the
night you killed Leonhardt?” he was
asked,

“She was with me all right, but she
wasn’t there when the shooting com-
menced. We'd gone for a walk, when we
came upon this fellow. He was drunk and
made an insulting remark to my wife, I
started to beat him up: I told my wife
to go on ahead and wait for me. She ran
ahead and then I started hitting him with
my fists. He was a much more powerful
man than I thought, and he knocked me
down. He was going to kick me and I
shot him twice. Once I missed. When I
realized I had hit him, I got up and ran
to catch up with my wife. She asked me
what all the shooting was about and I told
her this fellow had shot at me. She didn’t
even know I carried a gun.”

The officers believed none of this, of
course, and tried to obtain a statement
from Mrs. Hawkins. She refused to admit
anything, maintaining that she had not
witnessed the shooting. Her story. which
coincided with Hawkins’ confession, re-
mained unchanged after several days of
interrogation.

The State planned to accuse her as an
accomplice, but the officers failed to pro-
duce stificient evidence, and no indict-
ment was voted against her.

On May 13, Hawkins entered a plea of
Guilty, and threw himself on the mercy
of the court.

Judge John H. Campbell of the Terri-
torial District Court said, “In a brutal
slaving such as this, there can be no
mercy.” He sentenced Hawkins to die on
the gallows, and on the morning of August
14, 1908, the killer, after his execution had
been delayed 30 minutes until a message
from his wife reached him, was hanged
in the courtyard at Tucson.

Though Hawkins maintained he had
shot Leonhardt during a fight, the officers
believed the motive had been robbery.
The fact that Leonhardt’s wallet was
never found seemed to justify this theory.

EDITOR'S NoTE: The names Lawrence B.
Keppler and Alton Spright, as used in the
foregoing story, are not the real names of the
persons concerned. To protect their identi-
tics, fictitious names have been used.

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tate loo

lips “The girl shot him! I saw her. She
des- slid up behind him and fired a bullet
in his head.”
ished The conductor stopped the train at
ving the next town, Checotah, Oklahoma, and
reard the wounded man was carried into the
railroad station, where a doctor was
ick!” hurriedly summoned.
seen Only a few months before the Katy
tified Limited had been held up by bandits
“otton near this town, and now those at the

station, as well as the trainmen and

Paul, Hadley (above) was unusual-
ly quick-witted in tight situations.

most of the passengers, believed it had
been held up again.

Word flashed through the town and
among those in the Pullmans that rob-
bers again had stopped the Limited,
and there was a great flurry of excite-
ment, with people running toward the
station and others piling from the train.
It was an hour or more before this mis-
take was corrected, and it only added
to the general confusion.

The doctor, kneeling beside the griz-
zled old man, gravely shook his head.

“T’m afraid it’s no use,” he said.

He leaned nearer and spoke emphati-
cally into the dying man’s car:

“Who shot. you? Quick! = Who
did it?”

The man’s cyes, fast glazing with
death, opened for a moment, then wear-
ily closed. His lips were twitching in
a last effort to speak.

In a hoarse whisper he uttered the
name, “Kendrick,” and tried to say
more, but could not. His body gave a
spasmodic jerk, then lay still. He was
dead.

“The name of his murderer is Ken-
drick,” the doctor told the group gath-
ered around. “At least, that’s the name
he whispered.”

But who was. the murdered man?
Here indeed was a mystery. For a
thorough search of his clothing revealed
not the slightest clue to his identity.
All his pockets were empty, and even
the clothier’s label had been ripped from
his coat.

While they were speculating on this,
there came an excited exclamation from
The jailer released her and in an a man who had alighted from a Pull-

Instant she smashed both her fists man and joined the crowd.
into his face, sending him reeling. (Continued on page 0s)

Rhee

Pn oa ats

ee
S ‘te

a aad Ft ia *

LAL LL y

yee

pi oS 4

eso

Sheriff Jake Giles (above)

was telling a funny story

when murder cut him short.

141E THING HAPPENED so

suddenly, so unexpectedly,

that the other passengers

in the coach were shocked
speechless.

It was one o’clock in. the
morning, March 16, 1916, and
the Katy Limited, southbound,
roared through the night
toward Texas. In the day
coach at the forward end of
the train a dozen or so pas-
sengers dozed in their seats.
But there were three who were
wide awake. These three—two
men and a woman—had
boarded the train at Kansas
City and now sat near the front
end of the coach, laughing and
talking noisily.

One of the men was grizzled
with age and wore a wide-
brimmed gray hat and baggy
clothes. The other man was
young and debonair, not more
than 28, dressed in the height
of fashion. The woman, who
seemed scarcely more than a
girl, was likewise stylishly clad.
She was dazzlingly beautiful,
with large liquid dark eyes and
lustrous black hair.

She sat in the middle of the
seat, facing forward, and the
two men sat facing her, the
young man next the window,
the older man next the aisle.

The older man was doing
most of the talking, telling
Rabelaisian stories with gusto,
while his young companions
laughed heartily.

Their loud laughter awoke a
fellow traveler, who opened a
baleful eye’ at them and
growled: “Pipe down!”

The lovely young woman
stood up, then, and walked to
the forward end of the coach.
A silver mesh bag swung from
her rounded wrist. She en-
tered the washroom and closed
the door behind her.

In a few minutes she
emerged and started back along
the aisle.

She did not, however, re-
turn to her seat. Instead, she
stopped behind the seat occu-
pied by the jovial gray-haired
man and his jaunty young com-
panion. Neither noticed her.
Both were laughing at some:
thing the older man had said.

vats ts 2
weer

Le IR Hct antes

K & aaa Derec LEU F_

With her slim body braced
t the motion of the
she aimed and fired.

Still unseen by them, she opened her mesh
handbag and plucked forth a small revolver.
Then, with her slim body braced against the
train motion, she pushed the barrel of her
weapon beneath the broad brim of the older
man’s hat till it almost touched the back of
his head. Her dark eyes, no longer. spar-
kling with merriment, now blazed with ven-
omous hatred.

The somnolent passenger, who had been
awakened, sat up abruptly, staring pop-
eyed.

But before he could make a further move,
or utter a sound, the beautiful young woman
pressed the trigger of her gun. There was
a flash of flame, a staccato crack, and the
grizzled old man, in the midst of another
funny story, pitched forward on his face.

The handsome young man, seated beside
him, instantly jumped to his feet, seized the
older man by the shoulders and pulled him
back upon the seat. His hand darted inside
the baggy coat and came out with a .45-
caliber revolver.

Holding the huge weapon at his victim’s
chest, he went rapidly through his pockets,
emptying them of their contents: a sheaf of
papers, a leather wallet, some coins, a knife,
a bunch of keys. He saw a silver shield
fastened to the wrinkled vest,'and he un-
pinned it and put it in his pocket.

TT GIRL, MEANWHILE, had pointed her
gun at the gaping passenger, only wit-
ness of what she had done. He had started
to: rise, but he sank back in his seat when
she screamed at him, lifting her voice above
the roar of the train:

“Stay where you are! Don’t move! Or
T’ll kill you, too!” ;

Her full red lips curled. back from her
teeth in a frosty white smile, as her narrowed
eyes flashed about at the other passengers,
some of whom were stirring from their sleep.

The door behind her opened and slammed
shut, and she whirled around to see the con-
ductor standing there. She promptly pointed
her revolver at him.

“Stop this train!” she shrilled above the
pounding of the wheels. “Stop it before I
kill you!”

The astonished conductor stared at the
revolver, aimed at his head, and then at her

pili Sins Debit

handsome. young companion, who

had pushed past, the body of the

gray-haired man and now stood in
the aisle’ beside her, menacing the
other passengers with his .45. Most
of them were sitting up now, rubbing
the sleep from their eyes, blinking
at the strange scene.

“Everybody sit still!” he yelled at
them, waving his big. revolver from
side to side. “I’ll shoot the first man
that moves.”

The girl was screaming at the dum-
founded conductor: “Stop this train!
Stop this train!”

He made no move to’ comply, and
she reached up with her free hand and
viciously jerked the cord. Evidently

the engineer misunderstood her signal.
The train did not slacken its speed.

The young man swung his gun at the
conductor.

“Do as she says,” he ordered. “We're
getting off here.”

The conductor, threatened with two re-
volvers, saw no alternative but death.
He reached for the cord and signaled the
engineer for an emergency stop.

Ida Hadley was the cynosure of the

As the fast train ground to a halt,
the young man and the girl moved
backward to the platform, still
brandishing their revolvers, and
dropped off into the darkness.

bees SIGNALING the engi-
neer to go ahead, the conduc-
tor peered after them into the inky
night, in an effort to establish the
location—a desolate part of Okla-
homa—but a shot crackled in the
wall of blackness, a bullet whis-
tled beside his head and he hur-
riedly withdrew.

He signaled the engineer and
the train roared on through the
night.

Inside the day coach all was
confusion. The passengers, all
aroused from their apathy now,
clustered about the fallen gray-
haired man, who only a few
minutes before had been bois-
terously laughing at his own
merry stories. It was now
clear at a glance that he was
near death. He lay sideways

crowded courtroom where the

sketch of her shown below was made. The appeal of her beauty

resulted in one of the most aston

ishing verdicts in law annals.

The conductor, who had pushed
through the crowd to the dying
man’s side, leaned down and heard
him mutter : :

“Kendrick! . . . Get—Kendrick!”

The only person who had seen
the shooting—he later identified
himself as C. C. Hulquist, a cotton
buyer—put in excitedly:

“The girl s
slid up behi:
in his head.”

The condu
the next tow:
the wounded
railroad stat
hurriedly su

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Under further interrogation, Burkes
said she had traveled along with
Kendrick from Florida to Arizona,
headed for Los Angeles. As she told
her story her eyes filled with distrust
as she recalled him saying between
the desert connecting Tucson to Ajo:
“Say, honey, wouldn’t this be a swell
spot for a modern Pancho Villa. No
posse could ever catch him in this
snake-infested country.”

Mary quickly added, “He was a car
salesman, but he was also a writer.
He was just visualizing at the time
what a perfect setting it would be
for a novel.”

As she lit up a cigarette, the daz-
zling blonde continued, “Our car
broke down between Ajo and Stoval
and we had to wait for a tow truck
from Sentinel. It was so infernal hot
— we sat under some palo verdes
— and I forgot my pocketbook. It
had $300 in it.

“When I remembered it, he said it
was as safe as it were in a bank and
he get it for me later. He sold his car
in L.A. for twelve hundred dollars.
Jobs were hard to find there, so he
decided to buy me a bus ticket to In-
dianapolis. He would go back to Ari-
zona to get my purse, he said, and
join me later.

“He’s got plenty of money and
wouldn’t have any reason to rob any-
one. I’ve never seen anyone who
could sell a car faster than him.”

“What was his real name?” a de-
tective asked — it wasn’t Kendrick,
was it?”

“It was Kendrick,” she insisted. It
wasn’t until they informed her that
she could be held as an accessory to
murder that Mary finally admitted,
“His real name is Paul Hadley.”

Their interrogation concluded, the
detectives agreed that Mary had on-
ly known Paul Hadley as a sex part-
ner and a go-getter. She had no idea
that the man she was in love with
was the infamous rapist and killer
known throughout as The Claw.

The Indianapolis police instantly
relayed the information to Tucson
where Sheriff Daniel glared at’ the
wire with astonishment. “Paul
Hadley!” he shouted. “I remember
that name.” He rushed to his files
and pulled a folder marked “Want-
ed Men.” He pulled a poster that had
been sent to him by Beaumont,
Texas, authorities. It brought back
memories of the year before.

On March 16, 1916, Sheriff Jake
Giles was escorting the handcuffed
Paul Hadley to court. As they got
out of a taxi at the Union Station in
Kansas City, another taxi drew up
beside them and a frantic, slender,
brunette jumped out. She began sob-
bing hysterically, and begging to go
along with Paul to jail.

“We love each other so much, just
as you love your wife,” she cried.
This hit a tender chord. Only months

before, the sheriff’s wife had per-,-

ished in a car accident.

“Have you any money?” the sher-
iff asked. “No,” the brunette cooed,
“but if you’ll stake me to a train
ticket I’ll pay you back, I promise.”
Giles purchased three tickets to
Beaumont, Texas, on the M. K. & T.
line, paying for the girl’s ticket out
of his own pocket.

Paul Hadley looked anything but
a criminal who thrived on raping his
victims after robbing them. An or-
phan, he had started out so brilliantly
in Atlanta, Ga., after receiving a col-
lege education from a businessman
and his wife who raised him. He
graduated with honors, a football
hero, and extremely clever in money
matters.

However, trouble followed him ev-
erywhere. A gentleman of honor in
his word, he was a thief underneath.
A Jekyll and Hyde, he had a repu-
tation for being chivalrous, yet he
made a career of seduction.

After getting a teenager pregnant,
he fled to Beaumont and married a
beauty queen. He made her life mis-
erable. He spent all the money he
made selling cars on prostitutes.

“T guess I’m not a one-woman man
he told a judge at his divorce settle-
ment.” A week later he married a
cocktail waitress named Ida.

Hadley’s first mistake was that he
slugged a Beaumont shopkeeper over
the head during a holdup that netted
him $15. After being freed on bail,
he and Ida fled to Kansas City,
where an alert policeman recognized
Hadley and arrested him. Sheriff
Giles was now returning him to
Beaumont to stand trial. Ida was the
girl who now shared the train seat
with Hadley.

The passengers on the coach curi-
ously eyed the handcuffed man as
the train raced southward through
the Oklahoma territory, vivid in
spring hues. Darkness covered the

coach and by midnight everyone was
dozing.

Suddenly everyone was awakened
by a thunderous shot, then another.
People jolted from their sleep be-
came panicky. Some dove under their
seats while others darted for the
doorway. But their escape was
blocked by Ida Hadley who stood
there, a smoking. 45 in her hand.

“Sit down and be quiet,” she
shrieked. “I'll shoot the first one who
blinks.”

Quietly, the 20-odd passengers re-
turned to their seats, some of them
stepping over the bloody body of
Sheriff Giles. Paul Hadley went
through his pockets, taking his gun
and his keys. He unlocked his hand-
cuffs, then reached up and pulled the
emergency cord. The train abruptly
halted on the outskirts of Checotah,
Oklahoma. Ida and Paul leapt from
the train and disappeared in the dark-
ness.

By daylight a posse of manhunters
choked the entire valley. Federal of-
ficers under United States Marshal
Frank Jones and Beaumont, Texas,
deputies headed by J.T. Friar scoured
the countryside, some on horseback,
others in Ford runabouts. Oklahoma
authorities placed surveillance teams
at train stations and highways in or-
der to bottle them up. One week lat-
er they were captured after a farmer
recognized the couple posing as elop-
ers in his rooming house, from radio
announcements.

Ida Hadley escaped punishment for
having killed Sheriff Giles after she
convinced a jury that it was Paul
Hadley who fired the shots. Howev-
er, a stern judge sentenced her to 10
years for a jailbreak she had at-
tempted while awaiting trial. Hadley
was sentenced to 99-years at
McAlester.

Hadley’s brilliant mind never
stopped working in prison. In March,
1921, he invented a shatter-proof
lock. On his solemn oath to return,
Oklahoma gave him a 60-day leave
to market the lock. Once he was out
of sight he kept going.

Seated at his desk, Sheriff Daniels
stared at the “Paul Hadley Wanted”
file. “I remember him all right,” he
told a deputy. He hastened to a pho-
tographer’s studio where he had his
McAlester mug shot copied. Prints
were rushed to Yuma and Ajo.

At the hospital, Peter Johnson told

The pz 2
law enfo:ccme!
the United Stat:
that Paul Had)
eight, had gok
teeth, frequent!
wore his brown
style. His ears :

There was on
formation. His |
than his left, an
manufactured t

Strangely eno
looked as thro
two men at the

As the days |
word coming in
tive, railroad d
engineers and tr
hunt. Passenge:
the Arizona des:
November 17, .
nal maintainer, <
Southern Paci:
combing the ra
Stoval when th
prints, one sma!

“He waited he
said Sullivan ex:
clear into the nc

Sleigh walke
tracks. “No he d
turned back int«
probably saw th:
ing too ¢ }

The tw 1
across the thirst
with yucca. The
of cacti. There
stretched out on
swollen and bli
were ragged, h
shreds by sharp
pear.

“Water,” he ga
a swig from a ca
his animal-like |
teen to keep hi:
ing. He had be:
Claw.

In Yuma, wh:
stack of flapja:
steadfastly de:
Hadley, but a le
bearing Mary B
envelope, gave
down to exhau
against the unco!
prisoner finally <
Hadley, and that

midnight everyone was

veryone was awakened
us shot, then another.
| from their sleep be-
Some dove under their
»thers darted for the
it their escape was
da Hadley who stood
ing. 45 in her hand.

and be quiet,” she
shoot the first one who

20-odd passengers re-
r seats, some of them
r the bloody body of
3. Paul Hadley went
ockets, taking his gun
He unlocked his hand-
ched up and pulled the
rd. The train abruptly
outskirts of Checotah,
2 2nd Paul leapt from

peared in the dark-

a posse of manhunters
tire valley. Federal of-
Jnited States Marshal
ind Beaumont, Texas,
‘d by J.T. Friar scoured
e, some on horseback,
runabouts. Oklahoma
ced surveillance teams
is and highways in or-
1em up. One week lat-
‘aptured after a farmer
couple posing as elop-
aing house, from radio
(Ss.
‘scaped punishment for
Sheriff Giles after she
jury that it was Paul
red the shots. Howev-
ge sentenced her to 10
ailbreak she had at-
awaiting trial. Hadley
ed to 99-years at

rilliant mind never
ag in prison. In March,
2nted a shatter-proof
solemn oath to return,
ve him a 60-day leave
lock. Once he was out
pt going.
; desk, Sheriff Daniels
‘Paul Hadley Wanted”
“-~ him all right,” he
hastened to a pho-
_ where he had his
ig shot copied. Prints
» Yuma and Ajo.

4 tal, Peter Johnson told

officers who showed him the photo-
graph, “That’s the perverted bastard
that killed my wife and raped her.”

The pamphlet distributed to every
law enforcement agency throughout
the United States and Canada stated
that Paul Hadley stood five-feet-

eight, had gold in his upper front

teeth, frequently wore bowties, and
wore his brown hair in a pompadour
style. His ears stuck out.

There was one.additional bit of in-
formation. His right foot was bigger
than his left, and his shoes had to be
manufactured to order.

Strangely enough, that was why it
looked as through there had been
two men at the scene of the crime.

As the days passed, with still no
word coming in on the wanted fugi-
tive, railroad detectives as well as
engineers and track layers joined the

hunt. Passenger trains that crossed:

the Arizona desert were checked. On
November 17, James Sleigh, a sig-
nal maintainer, and James Sullivan, a
Southern Pacific detective, were
combing the railroad tracks along
Stoval when they spotted two foot-
prints, one smaller than the other.

“He waited here to hop a freight,”
said Sullivan excitedly. “By now he’s
clear into the next county.”

Sleigh walked further down the
tracks. “No he didn’t,” he cried. “He
turned back into the desert here. He
probably saw that the trains were be-
ing too carefully watched.”

The two men followed the tracks
across the thirsty expanse yellowed
with yucca. They crept up to a patch
of cacti. There was Paul Hadley,
stretched out on the desert floor, lips
swollen and blistered. His clothes
were ragged, having been torn to
shreds by sharp needles of prickly
pear.

“Water,” he gasped. They gave him
a swig from a canteen and had to pry

his animal-like talons from the%an- -

teen to keep him from over drink-
ing. He had been well named The
Claw.

In Yuma, where they fed him a
stack of flapjacks and coffee, he
steadfastly denied he was Paul
Hadley, but a letter signed “Fairy,”
bearing Mary Burke’s name on the
envelope, gave him away. Worn
down to exhaustion by his battle
against the unconquerable desert, the
prisoner finally admitted that he was
Hadley, and that he had been riding

FOILED BY LOVE

with the Johnsons.

“I wish the Johnsons would have
lived,” he said. “They would have
told you that I didn’t do the killing.
I was on my way to Stovall to get
that three hundred dollars. Mary told
you about. We were riding along
when a couple of ranchhands rode
out of the brush and started firing.
They were after our money.

“After they had shot the Johnsons,
they ravished her and took his mon-
ey and five hundred dollars I was
carrying. I escaped while they were
taking their turns with Mrs. John-
son, sexually, or they would have
killed me, also.”

“That alibi won’t stand up,” Sher-
iff Polhamous told Hadley, looking
him straight in the eye. “You see,
Peter Johnson survived the attack,
and he’ll be out of the hospital in
time to testify against you in a court
of law.”

The evidence against Hadley
seemed airtight when Prosecutor
George Darnell and his deputy, Ben
Matthew, brought him to trial April
4, 1922, before Superior Court Judge
Samuel L. Patte at Tucson.

A ballistic expert testified that the

.32 automatic the officers had tak-
en from Hadley tallied in markings
with the bullets retrieved from the
body of Mrs. Johnson at her autop-
sy. The officers found no money on
Hadley, but theorized he had cached
it away on the desert. Peter Johnson

, pointed him out as the man who shot

him, and murdered his wife. A po-
lice officer brought-out the fact that
he was wearing Odd-size shoes that
matched prints at the murder scene
as well as those discovered by Sul-
livan and Sleigh beside the railroad
tracks.

But Paul Hadley’s brilliant mind
wasn’t done yet. He talked so
smoothly and told such a believable
story about the ranchhands who had
waylaid him that jurors were con-
fused in spite of the overwhelming
evidence against him.

The defense attorneys introduced
an expert that said the shot that had
pierced the windshield had been
fired from the outside of the car, and
not from the inside, as Mr. Johnson
said it was.

Handsome Paul Hadley looked too
much of a gentleman to be a robber
and a sexual monster who raped and
sodomized women, then left their
bodies to the coyotes on the desert,
an accusation he denied with the-
atrical pomposity.

“I’m too clever for you coppers,”
he smirked as the officers took him
back to his cell to await another tri-
al after a hung jury.

The second trial, however, took the
sneer off his face. After less than 20
minutes of deliberation, jurors found
him guilty of the sadistic rape and
murder of Anna Johnson.

On April 13th, 1923, Paul Hadley
walked calmly up the 13 steps that
led to the noose at the Arizona State
Penitentiary. Asked if he had any
last words, he sobbed, “Only God
knows I am innocent.” As they
placed the hood, then the noose
around his head he wept, “Mary,
Mary, I wish we could have sex one
more time .... I love you.”

At that, the trap was sprung and
The Claw swung off into eternity.*

(Editor’s note: The name Mary Burkes
is fictitious. Use of the real name of the
person involved in this story would serve
no purpose.)

‘A10 Tuesday, April 7, 1992

Doing away with death

With the execution of psychopath Don Harding still fresh in
the mind and a hundred more killers awaiting their turn, the
Legislature ought to consider substituting life imprisonment for

‘death in Arizona’s gas chamber.

Harding has been disposed of,

his crimes avenged, and the 9th
Circuit Court of Appeals taught a valuable
lesson in the legitimate jurisdiction of

Arizona courts. The time has arrived to |

move ahead, providing a workable alterna-
tive to capital punishment — one that can
be more widely accepted and more fairly
applied.

In practice, the death penalty: in
Arizona is nearly as capricious as the state
lottery. A brutal killer may go to his death
in the manner of Don Harding, after years
of legal hide-and-seek, or he may draw. a
‘life’ sentence and, like James Joseph
Hamm, whose wife is an agitator for
prison reform, persuade a tender-minded
parole board that his “‘ife’ sentence
should be set aside because he has earned
a college degree through correspondence.

Arizonans, no more bloodthirsty
than most, cling to the death penalty not
because they relish medieval punishments,
but because they know that “‘life imprison-
ment” is a pleasant fiction, a farce. In this
State the reptilian thrill killer who got “life
imprisonment” 25 years ago is now
eligible for parole; and. because passions
will’ have cooled in the interim and
because our prisons are brimming over
with drunk drivers and crazed marijuana
fiends, he stands an excellent chance of

being released.

To make life imprisonment an
acceptable substitute for the gas chamber,
the Legislature would need to plug several
gaping loopholes.

First, it would have to eliminate the
preposterous 25-year parole provision so
that life imprisonment would become
what the term implies — imprisonment
for life. The public is unwilling to trust in
parole boards, and understandably so.
Time and again such boards have shown
themselves all too willing to excuse the
ax-murderer who has kept his shoes
shined and been active with the prison
Jaycees.

‘Second, the law would need to be
rewritten so as to prohibit either the
parole board, the governor or anyone else
from commuting a life term to some lesser
sentence. If life imprisonment is to
supplant the death penalty, the sentence
must be served in full. Only an appeals
court acting on new evidence should be
allowed to set the sentence aside.

On the night Don Harding died,
opponents of the death penalty kept a
patient yigil outside the Florence prison,
many of them praying for an end to
capital punishment in this state. The
prayers of these good people might yet be
answered. if actual life imprisonment,
instead of the present deception, could be
assured.

Arizona Repub lic April 7,1992

Execution
has benefits
— doesn’t it?

ow that Don Harding is dead, now
N that we’ve killed him, it’s time to

reap the rewards, to count up the
ways we're benefiting from his death. There
must be plenty.

Two days ago, the convicted murderer
was alive and in prison. Today, he’s dead.
He was killed at our expense. In our name.
By us. Which means we must have thought
it was important to kill him. We must have
believed there were benefits in it for us.

Like, for instance, safety. :

Maybe we’re safer today than we were
Sunday, when Harding was still alive.

No, that’s not it. ‘

Harding was in a maximum-security
prison cell Sunday, as he had been every
day for the past 10 years. We were as safe
from him then, while,he was alive, as we are
from him now.

It must be something else. There must be
some other benefit to having strapped
Harding into a chair in a tiny room and
filled the space with poison gas. It took him
about 10 minutes to die.

$16,000 to keep him alive

How about money?
Some- people say that killing Harding
saved us a lot of money. It was costing us
$16,000 a year to keep him alive, and we no

longer have to spend the cash. That’s the
benefit, right?

Wrong. .

Our efforts to kill Harding (and anyone
else on death row) probably cost us more
than it would have cost to keep him in
prison for life. In fact, several states have

abolished the death penalty partly because it

costssomuch. _

It must be something else.

There must be some other extremely
beneficial reason for standing by calmly as
the tiny capillaries in Harding’s lungs were
exploded by the cyanide gas, filling his chest
with blood. Drowning him from the inside.

Maybe we figured that, if we execute
Harding, others will think twice before
killing. That would be nice.

Too bad it’s not true. Not even those who
foam at the mouth at the thought of
executing people, like high-profile
proponent Arizona Attorney General Grant
Woods, believe the death penalty is a
deterrent. Studies in states that execute
people — as we now do — show that it’s
not, that murder rates don’t go down.

It must be something else.

We don’t kill all murderers

I know. Everyone says there’s a benefit to
the families of the victims. We kill people
like Harding for them. So the families can
get revenge.

What about other cases, though?

There are hundreds of inmates in
Arizona prisons who have killed people. Yet
there are only 99 on death row. We don’t
kill all murderers, even though the families
of all victims suffer the same loss.

We're willing to kill 100 but not 1,000.
Killing 1,000 would be considered too
barbaric, wouldn’t it? A little death goes a
long way.

Still, the fact that we don’t kill all
murderers proves we're really not interested
in satisfying the revenge of all victims’
families.

If there’s a benefit to having killed
Harding, it must be something else.

Like the fact that it freed up a prison cell.
That’s something. We might say there’s
now room for one more criminal in Arizona
prisons.

Except, unfortunately, there isn’t. The
prisons already contain about 1,000 more
inmates than they’re designed to handle.
Killing one or two people won’t help. We'd
have to kill a thousand or so, and, likeI
said; we don’t have the stomach for that.

So, it must be something else.

Maybe the benefit we got from killing
Harding is less tangible. Maybe we killed
him only to prove, as Attorney General
Woods likes to say, that “justice is being
served.”

. | In other words, to send a message. To

teach a lesson.

That must be it. The execution was a
lesson. Our children, I figure, will learn
something by it. They’ll find out we’re
willing to strap a man down, poison him,
then stand around and watch him slowly

_and painfully die.
That’s the benefit.

The boys and girls we sent to bed Sunday
night, before the killing, eventually will
learn something very important from what
we did. They’ll learn what type of people
their parents really arg.

Injection

Continued from Page One
cious.act on them.”

Stéffey’s bill cleared the House
Judiciary Committee, 10-4, two
months ago, but has been held in the
House because of uncertainty about
how the measure would fare in the
Senate. It now appears that the bill
will go to the House floor for de-
bate. -

-“Unless we can get it through the

Senate, we don’t need to use our -

time in the House,” she said. “It
looks to me like there is good sup-
port in the House.”

- Senate President Peter Rios, D- .

Dudleyville, said he would assign
Steffey’s bill to the Judiciary Com-
mittee if it passes the House.

Senate
Chairman. Chuck. Blanchard, D-

Phoenix, said he would hear'the bill.

“T think. it makes a lot of sense. I
think it’s an important bill,” he said.

Blanchard’s committee passed
the measure to limit the death pen-

alty on a party-line vote, with Re-
publicans opposed. !

Senate Bill 1472 began as a re-
peal of the death penalty but was
amended after a subcommittee

_hearing, primarily to give the bill a

chance of passing.

Several people testified that the
repeal of the death penalty would be

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preferable, but said prohibiting it
for youngsters and the mentally re-
tarded was a good start.

“As a voter and a taxpayer, I am
somewhat responsible for the fact
that we killed someone in the last 24
hours, and I find that abhorrent,”
said David Introcaso, a graduate stu-
dent.

But Sen. Jim Buster, R-Yuma,
complained that the bill did not de- '
fine mentally retarded and was a
“back door way of getting rid of the
death penalty.”

Sen. John Greene, R-Phoenix,
said a majority of Arizona voters
support the death penalty, as he
does, and it would be wrong to
“thumb my nose at them.”

Sen. David C. Bartlett, D-Tucson,

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‘said the bill was a “small step, but I
‘believe it was intended that way.”

Earlier: yesterday, Rep. Marion._L.
Pickens, D-Tucson, asked the House
to add | Harding to their prayers.

“Tt would be truly tragic if we ‘be-
lieved that this execution has solved
anything,” Pickens said in a speech
on the House floor.

“AN the conditions that precipi-
tated the murders still exist and will
continue and probably get worse.
Each execution that will occur in_

- Arizona is a visible witness.to the

failure of society and this legislative.
body,” she said. ‘‘We must all pay for

the death of Don Eugene Harding
-because we have the sin of omission:

And self deception.” ve TES

7% f

San Francisca ExAminer

Ue
St ” day Y fr. CG /9 Zz A section of the San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle

|Arizona likely —
to switch from
gas to injection

‘ _)
“Humane measure
gains support after
Harris execution

EXAMINER NEWS SERVICES

PHOENIX — A bill to change
the state’s method of execution
from gas to injection goes to the

state Senate now that it’s been ap-.
proved by the House. ‘:

The measure passed the House
41-7 on Friday. If approved in the
Senate, the matter would be put
before the voters in November as
an amendment to the state Consti-
tution, which specifies the use of
gas.

The change was proposed early

this year, but didn’t gain signifi-
cant support until the April 6 exe-
cution of triple murderer Donald
Eugene Harding in the gas cham-
ber. It was Arizona’s first execution
in 29 years, and many lawmakers

were disturbed by graphic accounts

-of his slow death.

Harding wasn’t pronounced
dead until 10 minutes after two
‘cyanide pellets were dropped into a
bowl of sulfuric acid beneath his
chair. Witnesses described a grue-
some scene of Harding gasping,

ing obscene gestures with both
‘strapped-down hands. _

' The campaign for change
gained momentum this week when

neighboring California had its first —
®

execution in 25 years. Robert Alton
Harris had to sit strapped in the
gas chamber chair while his last
appeal was rejected. Then, like
Harding, Harris took 10 minutes to
die.

Arizona, Maryland and Califor-

nia are the only states where gas is

the sole method of execution.

‘North Carolina and Mississippi

use gas or injections.

The Arizona amendment was
introduced by,state Rep. Lela Stef-
fey, who facets the death penalty
and worried that environmental
concerns last year about venting
the gas after an execution might
delay the return of capital punish-
ment.

The chief. opponent of the

' change was House Judiciary Chair-

woman Patti Noland, a supporter
of victims’ rights whose son was
shot to death last year during a
traffic dispute.

She had been expected to fili-
buster the measure by reading ac-
counts of murders committed by
the state’s 100 death-row inmates.

But she changed her mind be-
cause, she said, victims would like
to eliminate one avenue for what
they see as defense delaying tactics:
the argument that gas amounts to
unconstitutionally cruel and un-
usual punishment.

Arizona hanged its murderers

until 1930, when the rope decapi-
- tated a condemned woman. The

state switched to the gas chamber
in 1933 on the ground it was more
humane.

wg the re wet 2

| —

Arizona Gas Chamber |

|
| Seeks Emissions Permit
| a)
| PHOENIX, May 26 (AP) — Ari. @ |
zona’s gas chamber cannot be used %
| until the Department of Corrections /*
gets a permit for releasing cyanide gas K
_Into the air after each execution, the
| State said today, and that could take 30
; to 60 days. «
| _ A spokesman said the process could ag
, delay several executions that have 0
been scheduled over the next two
| months. The first, set for June 7, is that
‘of a man convicted of killing his girl-
| friend and her two children in 1984. RS

__ The state, which has not executed
anyone in 28 years, discovered that a
, permit was necessary while proce-
i dures for Carrying out an execution
_ were being updated, said Michael Arra,

| @ spokesman for the Department of (N |
: Corrections. |

|
; The Department of Environmental

Quality. said in a letter Thursday, [~

_ ‘Since venting of gases from the gas
, Chamber under your jurisdiction rep-
resents an emission into the atmos-

~ | phere, it is necessary that the Depart- \
| ment of Corrections.obtain a permit to
operations which will cause such vent- Ly
| ing. ‘

' The gas used in the executions is

| Sucked out of the chamber through a

| 30-foot-tall pipe outside the building.

State law does not allow for any other |

| method of execution, and Mr. Arra said j
"| the state Supreme Court must now de-
| cide what is to mere |

siuppeens >

pace ea

piled ld Te ee ee MR eae an oe ee

MP Rncke MB EY

TE a EF

Po RE FRE ASE MBL

Lack of Emissions Permit Puts

Gas Chamber Out of Service

$-27-4|

From Associated Press fi. 4A TI e¢

PHOENIX—Arizona’s gas chamber cannot be used until the

Department of Corrections: gets a permit to release cyanide gas

into the air after each execution, a spokesman said Sunday.

The state has not executed anyone in 28 years, and the permit
process could delay several executions scheduled over the next
two months, starting June 7 with a man convicted of killing his
girlfriend and her two children in 1984.

Appeals were pending or expected in all the cases.

In a notification last week, the Department of Environmental
Quality said that, “since venting of gases from the gas chamber
under your jurisdiction represents an emission into the atmos-
phere, it is necessary that the Department of Corrections obtain a
permit to operations which will cause such venting.”

The Corrections Department has begun the process of applying
for a permit, which can take from 30 to 60 days, spokesman
Michael Arra said. The state Supreme Court must now decide what

‘is to be done, he said.

The lack of a permit was discovered while state officials were
updating procedures for carrying out a legal execution, Arra said. .

The gas used in executions would be sucked out of the chamber
through a 30-foot-tall pipe outside the building.

The last execution in Arizona was March 14, 1963, when
murderer Manuel Silvas was sent to the gas chamber.

“By Clint Williams | | puff of white ‘doke, and that tells us the chamber is

The Arizona Republic ‘ being filled’ with the gas,” Arra said.

_..Lethal hydrocyanic-acid vapors filled the: egg- ‘shape... That \initial puff is assumed to generate a swiftly

-“|-2"gas chamber at Arizona State Prison in Florence on. lethal dose. Hydrocyanic gas, which reportedly smells |

aa Thorsday. evening as.’ officials - tested “equipment | in= ike rotten: ‘pgs, is colorless. —
‘preparation for the scheduled: execution nex nonth of “ “All the “ingredients and amounts of the ingredients

; # n ‘Thursday’ $3 wet. “test,” sodium: -cyan

e¢were: dropped into a solution: of distilled

is,” ‘Arra Said. .

Friday, March 27, 1992

4 # sulting on fe oats i ee ‘wa uae 1934, 10 years after Nevada became the first 2
Ee ~ Michael - a : Pepe as re ee Ni Y, by f state to use the device. The gas chamber was. invented 3
a Pao recto Bits. BB elias seabee humane’ ‘alternative to. the electric chair. Lo
I ab ie gla, eatin “dry tests,” in-which no chemicals are’ « sie : ta pat eye 2 rie ie ol ey aa 7 -
nee . ‘conducted “on a frequent basis,” Arra said... © Se ee oe ane! Olly as, “Who. Clee are S
ae ing is scheduled to die April 6 for the slayings Ms 1963, for:the slaying of a Casa Grande woman. 2
if en. Allan Gage choked to death at a Phoenix . - According’ to The Encyclopedia of American Crime, <
1M , ad Jai -25, 1980, after being bound and gagged. ‘the prisoner: quickly passes out after breathing the gas, 2
-: Robert Wisé and Martin Concannon were found hours’ but death by asphyxiation takes five to nine minutes. -
~ Jater ‘bound;“gagged and shot in the head inside their. “The record, although statistics are not definitive on
Tucson motel room. the: manner, appears to be 11 minutes in a North q
fas ae _-Prosecutors say Harding has confessed to seven Carolina’ execution,” the encyclopedia states.
ire’ | on "slayings across the nation. California, Maryland and North Carolina also have a
am | No monitors are used to measure the concentration " gas chamber. Condemned prisoners in North Carolina | .

f of the’gas:: Only the eyes of observers are used to gauge ” have-a choice: ‘between the gas chamber and lethal

‘operation. injection.’
x hemicals combine, there isa very, slight .

lethal injection, a prison spokesman said.

Arizona Prepares Gas Chamber
as Final Appeals Seem Doomed

By LAURA LAUGHLIN
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

“=

HOENIX—The room has been cleaned and aheteed.

equipment has been tested and the invitati :
itat’
out, but the occasion that Arizona of erate

a grim one—the state’s first execu
Don E. Harding,

_ five minutes aftér midnight Monday.

Although other Death Row inmates hav

recent years’ and there is a cha
execution; many officials believe t
"end of his"appeals. “‘There’s no rek
» executed,” said Crane McClenne
general who is an expert on Ari
Eh the execution takes'p]
tobert Alton Harris i
_ Chamber, :) ~ re nee g put te
_*Harding’s name has traversed an 1
. Seneral’s office uses to map the appe
‘prisoner can use. Because the case h
court system twice and is on its s

ficials are preparing for is

Pept aoe in nearly 30 years.
ard » Who has confessed to sev ings i
four states, is scheduled to be led into Arizona So chaanere

e had false alarms in

ace for a’surprise stay of

hat Harding has reached the

eason why he should thot be

n, an assistant state attorney

izona’s death penalty laws.

lace, it will come 15 days before killer
death.in California’s gas. -

8-foot.chart the attorney
llate routes a condemned...
as been through the state:
econd round through the:

Please see ARIZONA, A31-'

: ( I
’sgaschamberat

oh
i
i
i

eh ae
2x, LOS ANGELES TIMES

»ARIZONA: Officials Plan First Execution Since 1963 —

*: Continued from A3 |
‘M federal system, Arizona prosecu-
%tors believe last-minute appeals
(+> will fail.
“We are in the countdown mode
"= sand all systems are go,” said state
Department of Corrections spokes-
“4 man Michael Arra.
ig “The department has even ob-
**-tained the necessary environmen-
hy. tal,permit—something unheard of
yz, in 1963, the Jast time the gas
}; chamber in the prison at Florence
a was used.

is Heine’ case has been on
;,,4'Lappeal since 1982, when he
“»» was sentenced to die for the slay-

ings of two Tucson men. A-death
.» sentence for the killing of a Phoe-

nix businessman is in earlier appel-

late stages.

Court records show that Har-
ding, an Arkansas native, spent
most of his life institutionalized or
behind bars. After escaping from
an Arkansas jail while awaiting
trial on a murder charge, Harding
allegedly went on a cross-country
crime rampage robbing, kidnaping
and murdering. He has admitted
slaying seven.people in Arizona,
Arkansas, Texas and California,
but authorities suspect him of nine
slayings in all.

In the Arizona cases, Harding
went to motels in Phoenix and
Tucson in January, 1980, gaining
entrance to two rooms by posing as
a security guard. He was convicted

of killing and robbing Allan Gage ~

in Phoenix and Robert Wise and
Mark Concannon in Tucson. In
Phoenix, Harding bound and
gagged his victim, who died from
slow asphyxiation. The Tucson
men were hogtied, beaten and shot
at close range.

After a Tucson federal judge .

refused to grant a stay Wednesday,
defense counsel approached the
U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in

San Francisco, which is expected to

hear the case today.

“ Paul McMurdie; chief counsel for
the criminal -appeals section of the
attorney general’s office, said that

-if the three-member panel rejects

Harding’s appeal, defense attor-

-neys can ask any of the other 24

judges to grant a stay so that a

end.

‘eanwhile, the Arizona parole
board was to consider Har-

ding’s, case this morning and is:
planning to stand by for the final

three hours Sunday night in the
event of a last-minute request for a
rehearing.

Harding is scheduled to be
moved from‘his Death Row cell to
a guarded room in the prison’s
death house at 4 p.m. Saturday. On
Sunday, he will be allowed to eat
his last meal and visit with family
or clergy members. If his appeals’
fail, he will be led into.the gas
chamber clad only in boxer shorts
at 12:05 a.m. Monday. After he is
strapped into place, cyanide pellets
will. be dropped into a bowl of
distilled water and sulfuric acid
beneath his chair.

Harding, who made his onl
public comments so far to the Los
Angeles Times, said via a cassette
tape that his attorneys have ad-
vised him not to discuss his case.
But he did answer one question—
what he might order as a last meal.

“I’m thinking about ordering a
cyanide antidote with a side order
of Rolaids,” he said.

RR. a

Anacles Gimmes.

FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1992

| ARIZONA

Legislators vote to switch execution methods

PHOENIX — State House members, disturbed by graph-
ic accounts of the slow death of the first man executed in the
state’s gas chamber in 29 years, have voted to switch from
gas to lethal injection.

The change to a method presumed more humane passed
the House 41-7 and now goes to the Senate. If approved there
the matter would be put before the voters in November as an
amendment to the state Constitution, which specifies the use
of gas. The change was proposed early this year, but didn’t ~ 5
|} gain significant support until the April 6 execution of triple ‘
murderer Donald Eugene Harding in the gas chamber at the
state prison in Florence.

Harding wasn’t pronounced dead until 10 minutes after
two cyanide pellets were dropped into a bow] of sulfuric acid
beneath his chair. Witnesses described a gruesome scene of
Harding gasping, shuddering and desperately making obscene
gestures with both strapped-down hands.

The campaign for change gained momentum this week
when neighboring California had its first execution in 25
years. Robert Alton Harris had to sit strapped in the gas
chamber chair while his last appeal was rejected. Then, like

Harding, Harris took 10 minutes to die. an 25 7 77.
FLORIDA

Onkland (A ) Tipe

|
_,

Bushy-haired slayer awaits
message from his wife
atop the gallows. Half-
hour later he swung.

HAWALNS, hdwin WwW, r

White, hanged Tucson,

Ariz,, §

Tae eee

-14- 1908

ANI ss ae TRE RSET SEE SIS

SO aay

The streetcar conductor was into some shady
deals and lost his job because of it. But he wasn’t
worried, for he’d just pulled off the deadliest

caper of all.

DETECTIVE CASES
December, 1987

he whistle at the Southern Pacific roundhouse in Tucson, Ariz., had just blown for
the hour of midnight when John Ladlow and his attractive fiancée, Doris Leake,

arrived at the latter’s front door.

Like most girls who are required by
strict parents to be home at 12, Doris
had been having her troubles making
the deadline. But this Saturday night
she and John were on time, so she
invited the young man to remain a few
moments: It was two days before
Christmas, and the young couple had
holiday plans to discuss. But in the
middle of a sentence, Doris was
interrupted by a sharp sound.

‘*What was that?’’ she exclaimed.

**‘Shots,’’ John answered. “‘Look,

there’s someone running along the
street.’’
_ Coming toward thet down Alameda
Street were two dim forms which
became more distinct as the distance
lessened. In the bright Arizona
moonlight, the shapes appeared to be
those of a man and a woman.

' At.a distance of about 40 feet from ,

the Leake home, the pair swerved
abruptly and leaped a picket fence.
The woman did the most astounding
thing for a female in tight skirts: she
lifted her clothing, exhibiting a pair
of shapely legs, and cleared the fence
like an athlete going over a hurdle. The

moonlight revealed also a ii of lace”

panties..

~“““Wow!”’ John easped: Bade she
can sure jump!’’ |

**She?”’ Doris mocked. “That wasn’t
any woman — it was a'man. No
woman could jump a fence that high.
She didn’t talk like a woman, either,”’
the young girl added. ‘‘Did you hear
her say, ‘Come on, hurry!’’ It was like.

~— ACRIME
CLASSIC

a man’s voice.”’

Unaware of the fact that they had
just witnessed something which would
prove highly important in the days
ahead, John and Doris lingered a while
longer at her door.

Meanwhile, R.E. Plummer, a
passenger-train brakeman for the
Southern Pacific company, hurried
along down the same path the fleeing
couple had taken. Plummer was
ignorant of what had just transpired.
He was anxious not to be late for his
run.

A block and.a half from the Leake
home stood the John Yates boarding-

house. Plummer was passing the place

when he heard someone mone
nearby.

In the clear moonlight, the brake-
man saw dark stains on the sidewalk.
He proceeded more slowly, noticing

- that the stains continued in a trail

along the sidewalk. Suddenly the trail
turned in at the Yates’ gate.

Beyond the ornate iron gate,
Plummer found a man stretched out
on the lawn. Bending down, he saw
that he had a bad wound in the head.
Plummer ran up the step and pounded
on the door of the house until John
Yates came down in his underwear.

‘‘There is someone in your yard,
badly hurt,’’ Plummer informed him.
‘I’ve got to catch a train. You’d better
notify the authorities.’’

(continued on page 32)

He committed the perfect crime
until he found himself on a...

sespaeicac™ Sek ROR

sates

Hotel where killer made fatal
mistake of leaving a small clue. —

Ase ' — ee

. is tt ~"
ee. Se

poker, but all had remained around
the place until nearly 1 o’clock. No
one had left the tavern with Leonhardt.

‘After the poker game broke up,”’
Sorenson went on, ‘‘Al got into a dice
game. He hadn’t won much in the
poker game, but I believe he did win
a little in the other game. As he went
out I saw him putting some bills in his
wallet.’’

The sheriff and Meyer exchanged

glances, for there had been no wallet
found in Leonhardt’s clothing.
' The next morning Meyer called at
the street-railway offices, to learn that
the pad of transfers was one of several
which had disappeared from the car
barns within the past three or four
months. Some transfers from these
stolen pads had been collected recently
by conductors and turned in. An
investigation was under way, but little
progress had been made.

Brakeman Plummer returned
from his run in late afternoon on
Sunday, and reported to the sheriff's
office. Not until then did the officers
know the identity of the man who had
first found Leonhardt lying wounded
in the Yates yard.

Plummer said that he barely had
made his train. On the way to the
depot, he had heard someone running

along Court Street, at Alameda, which.

was several blocks from the scene of
the shooting. He pointed out that it
was possible the killers had doubled
back after leaping the fence.

The bullet which had entered the
murdered man’s brain was recovered.
It had been fired from a .32-caliber
revolver.

Because of the streetcar transfers
found near the crime scene, Meyer
decided to check on this angle. He
obtained a list of street-railway
employes who had been fired for
stealing from the company. There had
been three:

Lawrence B. Keppler, who had a
wife and six children. He was now
working as a delivery man for a
grocery firm, Meyer learned.

Alton Spright, who had since found
a job with the city street department.
He had a wife and two children.

Edwin W. Hawkins, with a wife but
no children. He lived at a downtown
hotel and was unemployed.

A quiet investigation revealed that
Hawkins had a reputation for paying
his bills, although he was not working.
This interested Meyer, who inquired
further into the young man’s past. He

learned that the former conductor’s
wife had recently inherited an aunt’s
estate in Ohio, which explained how
it was possible for the discharged
employe to. pay his bills.

From the conductors, Meyer turned
his attention to Wagner, the slain
man’s best friend. He learned from an
ex-fiancée that Wagner had recently
given several streetcar transfers to
another girl friend.

This looked like a hot lead, and
Meyer hurried to Wagner’s rooming
house.

**Sure, I gave my girl some trans-
fers,’’ Wagner admitted. ‘‘I get them
from a streetcar conductor I know. I
met him at the Cactus. I bought him a
drink once and he told me he’d give
me all the transfers I need.’’

The streetcar conductor confirmed
Wagner’s story, but begged Meyer not
to turn him in. ‘‘I have a wife and
kids,’’ he pleaded. ‘‘I’d lose my job.”’

Shown some of the transfers, Meyer
found that the punch mark differed
from that on the stolen pad.

Meanwhile, the police of Columbus,
Ohio, who had been asked for a report
on Leonhardt, replied that the young
man had relatives there, but no known
enemies. Leonhardt, the report added,
had gone to Arizona because the
climate was beneficial to him. He had
written to his family that he planned
to stay in Arizona indefinitely. The
police also confirmed the fact that
Wagner had accompanied Leonhardt
westward. .

His suspicions having been aroused
by the discovery that Wagner had
given streetcar transfers to a girl
friend, Undersheriff Meyer went back
to question the slain man’s friend.

Wagner said he had first met
Leonhardt in a pool hall in Columbus.
Upon learning that the young carpenter
planned to go West, Wagner had
thecided to accompany him. ‘‘We were
always the best of friends,’’ he went
on. ‘‘For a time I lived at the same
boardinghouse with him, but recently
I moved here. Al stayed on.’’

‘You never had any trouble with
Leonhardt?’’

““None whatever.”’
‘‘Would you object to a search of

your room?”’
‘*Certainly not: Go right ahead.’’
The search revealed no incriminating
evidence. Other occupants recalled
that the suspect had come home before
midnight on Saturday. One man said
he had spoken to Wagner in the

hallway at 11:45. The slaying had not
occurred until a few minutes past
midnight.”’

‘*Well, that’s that,’’ Meyer told the
sheriff. ‘‘Every hot lead we get blows
up, I’m going back to the conductors.”’

Meyer discovered that punches
similar to those used by the trolley men
were on sale at a variety store. He
examined the lot, and found one
identical to the punch which had left
its mark on the stolen pad found near
the murder scene, as well as on other
stolen transfers which had turned up

‘in company receipts. He was positive

now that the murderer had obtained
the pads from the car barns, or from

- someone who had access to the barns.

The fact that the pad in evidence
had been validated in advance sug-
gested to Meyer’s keen analytical mind
that the perpetrator of the crime knew
his way around on streetcars, and most
likely had been a conductor. Moreover,
the man in question seemed able to
punch his transfers on any line in such
a way that the conductor accepting
them did not detect any irregularity.
Only an ex-conductor would be able
to do this. Meyer reasoned.

Of the three conductors discharged
for stealing nickels on their runs,
Edwin Hawkins seemed to have been
the worst offender. But that had been
before his marriage. Now, with a wife
who had inherited an estate, he was
taking it easy, apparently.

How much of an estate Hawkins’
wife had inherited had not been
revealed, and this information was not
forthcoming from any source. Fearing
to question the pair lest he cause them
undue alarm, Meyer quietly wrote to
the Ohio officials in an effort to
discover what inheritances were on
record.

Sheriff Pacheco, however, suggested
a short cut. He pointed out that it
might be well to ask Hawkins, who
had been a streetcar conductor, how,
in his opinion, the transfers could have
been obtained. Meyer agreed.

The officers found Hawkins to be a
glib young man ready with all the
answers, and he seemed perfectly
willing to cooperate.

**T’ll tell you how they got those
transfers,’’ he said. ‘‘Hell’s bells,
anybody can pick them up! They’re
inside the car-barn door, and you can
walk past and help yourself. It would
be easy.

(continued on next page)

Plummer hastened on.

Officer James Sullivan was the first
to arrive after Yates telephoned the
police. Sullivan found the rooming-
house proprietor bending over the
injured man, who was unconscious.

‘‘He’s Al Leonhardt, one of my
boarders,’’ Yates told Sullivan. ‘‘I
can’t imagine what happened to him.
Looks as if he’s been shot — but I
didn’t hear any shots. I was asleep.
Somebody came by and told me about
him.”’

Sullivan summoned an ambulance,
which took Leonhardt to the hospital.

Meanwhile, City Marshal Joseph S.
Hopley, Sheriff Nabor Pacheco and
Undersheriff Henry Meyer of Pima
County arrived. .

Questioning of neighbors revealed
that several had heard three quick
shots. Prior to the shooting, however,
there had been no disturbance, such
as an argument or a fist fight, they
said.

- John Ladlow and Doris Leake,
having remained on the porch until the
police arrived, realized suddenly that
the shots they had heard were no doubt
the ones that had felled the mortally
wounded man, a 24-year-old carpenter.

Approaching Undersheriff Meyer,
Doris told him the story of the racing
couple. She described how the one
dressed as a woman pulled up her
skirts and scaled the fence with the
greatest of ease.

‘‘What else was she wearing besides
a skirt?’’ Meyer asked.

‘*A white blouse,’’ Doris said.

‘And white lace panties,’’: John
‘added. nen

Meyer peered at the young man and
smiled. ‘‘In the moonlight you saw the
lace panties?’’

‘Sure did.”’

‘“‘That’s right,’? Doris said. ‘‘And
she had short hair, like a man.”’

‘‘What else made you think this
person was a man?”’

‘‘Well, I thought the legs were too
masculine, for one thing,’’ Doris said.

‘‘She wear a hat?”’

S*Nlo.”’

‘“‘Everything happened so quickly,”
Ladlow explained, ‘‘that there wasn’t
much time to observe the two closely.
We couldn’t see their faces very well.
But the one with the dress said, ‘Come
on, hurry!’ It sounded like a man’s
32

Nickel-Ride To The Gallows

(continued from page 30)

voice.”’
While Meyer was concluding his

interrogation of the pair, Officer ,

Sullivan arrived from the hospital to
report that Leonhardt had died a short
time after arriving there. The doctor
had found two bullet holes, one in the
abdomen and the other in the head.
Leonhardt had not regained cons-
ciousness, and therefore had given no
clue to the identity of his slayers.

- On his person had been found a gold
watch and $1.50 in small change.

‘I want to have a look at that spot
where the killers leaped the fence,”’
Meyer said.

Two men with lanterns accompanied
him and the young couple, who
pointed out the exact spot.

On the other side of the fence,
Meyer discovered an object in the
grass, and retrieved it. It was a pad of
streetcar transfers ‘bearing punch
marks. Someone had gone through the
book with a conductor’s punch and
had validated each transfer at the top,
where the conductor issuing the
transfer was required to affix his
punch mark; but no punch mark
appeared for the month or day. These
spaces had been left blank, obviously
so that they might be punched on the
date the transfers were to be used..

The lack of dust on the pad suggested
to Meyer that it had been dropped that
very evening, possibly by one of the
slayers.

There had been no rain for some
time and the ground was hard, yet
Meyer later found the faint but fresh
footprints of two persons, both made
by. wide-heeled shoes.

Yates said that young Leonhardt
had been a quiet man, seldom speaking
unless spoken to. He had been regular
in his habits and had been working
steadily. He had recently arrived in
Tucson from Columbus, Ohio. His
one weakness had been poker, but he
had not played for high stakes. He had
never lost or won very much, merely
sitting in on the game for the pleasure
he had derived from it.

‘‘Where did he play poker?”’ Meyer
inquired.

‘*At the Cactus Tavern mostly. I
think he was down there tonight.”’

Leonhardt had had one solid friend.
Yates said: a man named Ben Wagner,
who also was from Ohio. They had

been seen together frequently. Wagner
had accompanied Leonhardt down-
town only the night before.

Sheriff Pacheco went to call on
Wagner, while Undersheriff Meyer
visited the Cactus Tavern.

Wagner, a tall young man with
friendly eyes, was shocked when told
of the murder.

“‘Good Lord!’’ he gasped. ‘‘I left
Al at 11 o’clock. He was still playing
cards at the Cactus. He said he would
see me today.”’ :

“You have any idea who might have
killed him?’’ The sheriff’s question
was blunt.

‘‘No, sir, I haven’t the slightest idea.
Al was a friendly fellow, and I don’t
think he had an enemy in the world. I
just can’t believe he’s dead.’’

‘“‘Your friend didn’t have any
trouble in the tavern with anyone that
you know of?”’

‘‘No, sir, none whatever. He was
easy to get along with. That’s why I
liked him so much.”’

‘‘Would Leonhardt have had any
money on him when he left the
tavern?”’

“‘Some, I suppose, but not a great
deal. He played for small stakes and
never carried much. He told me he put
his money in a savings account, but I

don’t know in what bank he kept it.”’

Sheriff Pacheco thanked him and
left.

By the time Meyer arrived at the
Cactus, the tavern was closed for the
night. On the way back to the Yates
home, he met the sheriff, and together
they located Jim Sorenson, the
bartender who had been on duty that
night at the Cactus Tavern.

Sorenson was routed out of bed at
a downtown hotel.

“I just don’t see how a thing like
that could happen,”’ he said when told
Leonhardt had been murdered. ‘‘He
left the Cactus about 11:45 and said
good night to me as he went out the
door.”’

‘“Was anyone with him at the
time?’’ Pacheco said.

‘*No, he was alone.”’

“Tell us everything that happened
at the Cactus last night,’’ the deputy
urged. ‘‘Who did Leonhardt play cards
with, and. did you see any suspicious-
looking characters around the place
during the evening?”’

Sorenson named several persons
with whom the carpenter had played

(continued on next page)

ae Se ee eee

ng the details to Tucson
officers sped to the scene
The night’s rain, how-
ted out all except a very
footprints—the footprints
wo men.
question about it,” said a
uty, measuring the shoe
che ball. ‘‘This one is an
ian the other one.”
z a posse on the trail, they
jtoval where they again
hnson.
ore there was no other
iller.
ily couldn’t be two sets of
said. But there were and
uld not figure it out.

Find Clue

sa hole in the windshield of
Dodge sedan, apparently
of the killer’s bullets. Since
ought the hole had been
\let fired from outside the
-, the officers removed the
1 sent it to Tucson for an
line, ;

ge agency in Tucson, the
iver, mystified the owner
‘r recalled that one William
pplied there for a job two
sly.

was an experienced sales-
hier recalled, “and he had
ences, most of them from
a. I was leary of the fellow
ed to meas though William
-en written over some other
eferences.”

niels’ office had just dis-
zram to Miami authorities,
or any facts about William
a cowpuncher came in with
at put an entirely different
case.

“I was sitting in a pool hall at Ajo,’
he related, “when a couple of cowboys
came in. I knew them and took a gander
over to their table. They were flashing
a roll of bills:that would choke a steer.

“Where did you get the greenbacks ?”
I asked, reckoning they had been doing
a little cattle rustling. ‘

“ ‘Killed a man deader than a butchered
cow,’ one told me. ‘Got paid pretty well.’ ”

Could it be possible that Peter Johnson
was mistaken ; that two cowboys had done
the shooting instead of William Estaver ?
It had been a dark night, with plenty of
thunder and lightning to confuse a man
who was worn out by a hard day’s drive.
Such an error was distinctly possible.

The authorities were due for another
shock when they received Miami’s answer
the next morning:

“WILLIAM S. ESTAVER
DROWNED HERE IN SAIL BOAT
FOUR MONTHS AGO DURING

STORM. SOME THOUGHT DEATH
MYSTERIOUS. PLEASE WIRE
DESCRIPTION MAN POSING AS
ESTAVER.”

Sheriff Daniels grabbed the phone
from his desk. “Give me the Miami
police,” he told the operator.

He gave Miami everything he had on
The Claw and could hear the desk ser-
géeant thumbing through the William S.
Estaver file.

“That description,” the Miami officer
said at last, “seems to tally with one of

Estaver’s friends, a fellow by the name,

of H. O. Kendrick. Says here Estaver
had known Kendrick only a few months.
Kendrick, it seems, was a newcomer here
but it doesn’t say where he hailed from.
I'll get the boys busy and see what they
can dig up on him.”

Posse Returns

TX sheriff sat a moment in deep
thought. It was beginning to dawn
on him that The Claw was not a local
man who had gone Berserk but
some ingenious criminal who
had operated elsewhere, per-
haps over a good part of the
United States.

“Post a couple of bodyguards
over Peter Johnson,’’ he
ordered. “We can’t take any
chances.” Johnson by this time
had been brought by ambulance
to a Tucson hospital where he
appeared to be recovering. The

Superior Court

Judge Samuel L.

Pattee, left, passed

final sentence upon
The Claw.

body of Mrs. Johnson had been removed
to a Yuma funeral home.

The posse in the meantime had returned
to Sentinel. Because of the rain, they
had been unable to follow the killer’s
tracks. After watering and feeding their
horses, they took to the desert again, this
time to spread word among the few
ranchers and the many Papago Indian
villages.

Sheriff Polhamous, one of the West’s
most famous manhunters, asked the
Southern Pacific railroad to notify its
officers: to be on the lookout. Then he
arranged to put riders along the railroad
tracks,

“If-we can keep the fellow bottled up
in the desert, he’ll have to come out even-
tually for water and food,” he told his
deputies. “But if he ever gets to the
cities, we’re gone. Our description of
him is too vague. If we only had a pho-
tograph.”

Since there were few water holes, it
was easy to post deputies near them. All

[Continued on page 50]

“east

Sheriff Ben Daniels, above, of
Pima county, directed the army of
manhunters who harried the fugi-
tive Claw until at last they brought
him to bay, ending his lurid ca-
reer which had reached its brutal
climax with the slaying of Mrs.
Johnson near the scene at left.

Sheriff Polhamous held up a letter
which had been taken from Hadley’s
pocket. It was a passionate love missive,
signed “Fairy,” but bearing the name of
Lou Barnes on the envelope.

“How about this?” he asked. “This
young woman has identified you as Paul
Hadley.”

Worn down to exhaustion by his fight
against death on the desert, the prisoner
cracked quickly. He admitted that he
had been riding with the Johnsons.

“I wish Johnson or his wife -had lived,” —

he said. The officers were silent. “They
would have told’ you that.I didn’t do the
killing. I was going to Stovall to get that
three hundred dollars Lou had told you
about. We were riding along, you see,
when a couple of cowboys rode out of the
brush and started firing. They were after
our money.

“After they had killed the Johnsons,
they robbed him and took five hundred
dollars that I was carrying. I escaped
from them in the dark or they would have
killed me, too.”

Sheriff Polhamous looked him straight

wa?

‘in the eye. “That’s a weak alibi, Hadley,”

he said, “because it so happens that you
didn’t quite finish Peter Johnson. He'll
be out of the hospital in another two
weeks,”

‘A gun expert who examined the .32 the
officers had taken from Hadley found that
its bullets tallied in markings with those
recovered from the body of Mrs. Johnson.
The deputies found no money on Hadley
but figured he had cached it away on the
desert.

It seemed that the evidence was air
tight when Prosecutor George Darnell
and his deputy, Ben Mathews, placed him
on trial April 4, 1922, before Superior
Judge Samuel L. Pattee at Tucson.

But Paul Hadley’s brilliant mind stool
him in good stead once again, There was
nothing about him in. the courtroom that

- even hinted of the criminal, He talked so

smoothly and told such a convincing story
about the two cowboys who had ridden
out of the brush that the jurors were con-
fused in spite of Johnson’s positive identi-
fication.

The defense attorneys made much, too,

of the shot that had pierced the wind-
shield, maintaining that it had been fired
from outside the car. The jury in the end
disagreed.

Paul Hadley looked like such a gentle-
man that it was difficult to believe that he
had robbed women and ripped their
clothes, an accusation he denied with the-
atrical pomposity.

“I’m too clever for you dicks,” he
sneered as the officers took him back to
jail to‘wait for another trial. He was not,
however, for the second jury after only 20
minutes of deliberation found him guilty
of the brutal killing of Anna Johnson.

Even as Paul Hadley walked up the 13
steps that led to the noose at the Arizona
penitentiary, he maintained his innocence.
As they tightened the rope about his neck,
as April 13 dawned, he buried his head
in his hands and whispered, “Lou, Lou.
I wish I could kiss you once again.”

That was the end of The Claw.

(Editor’s note: To protect the identity of an
innocent woman, the name Lou Barnes as used in
this story is not real but fictitious.)

Scarlet Romance of the Murdered Divorcee

[Continued from page 9]

at or near where her body was found.
That much and the left-handed wire
twister and the suggestion of an engineer
of some kind in her life are about all we
have to go on. If we find Mrs. Lesley’s
car, which seems to have been an old one,
we may have our motive and killer. Any-
how, go home now and get a few ‘hours’
rest.”

The next morning found Ulvin and
Rowles at the small inlet on the Spokane
river. While Rowles set to work taking
long distance shots of the general scene,
Ulvin aimlessly strolled a zigzag course
over the grassy slope leading to the tam-
arack snag-on the sandy beach. Almost
immediately he came upon a common
cardboard box back under the pine trees
and not far away two short-legged stools.

“One stool for Mrs. Lesley,” thought
Ulvin, “and one for her fishing compan-
ion, her murderer.”

When Rowles was told of the discov-
ery, the two deputies decided to search
farther back from the corner of the inlet.
The place, both deputies agreed, must
have been a favorite spot for the pair
since they brought along two comfortable
stools to sit on while fishing.

Then, about, 50 yards from the water,
set in a thicker group of pines, both men
spied a tiny, ramshackle, one-room hut.
There was-only one window and the out-
side walls were of scrap lumber.

Inside in one corner stood a cot and in
another corner a small stove. The walls
were lined with asbestos paper from the
floor to the ceiling. There was nothing
else; no bedding, no cooking utensils,

“Seems pretty well deserted,” said
Ulvin, “but it could have served a, lover
of the out-of-doors well enough. That
patchwork quilt could ‘easily have come
from this cot.”

Rowles agreed. “But if there ever was
anything of hers here it’s gone now,” he
said, looking in and around the stove and
behind the bed for the slightest clue.
“Suppose -we go back to town and visit
the ex-husband. Maybe he knows a friend
of hers who likes to fish.”

They found the man at his home, He
proved completely cooperative but when
advised of the situation and asked for
knowledge of his former wife’s activities,
he said he knew nothing about her. She
had left him in January, 1935, obtaining
a divorce a few months later.

“We just didn’t hit it off together,” he
said, “and I haven’t spent any time with
her since the divorce. I’ve been paying
the alimony right along but that’s all
we've had to do with each other.”

The tragic death, he admitted, was a
terrible shock, and if there was anything
he could do the deputies were to let him
know. When the subject of fishing was
broached, he said he did not enjoy the
sport. He recalled that his former wife fre-
quently went out to try her luck, but he
did not know her companions, if any.

He had been paying $25 a month ali-
mony regularly, he said, and could pro-,
duce canceled checks to prove it.

The deputies asked him to remain in
the city for the present, thanked him for
the information, and departed.

The next stop was the hotel where the
woman had been a part-time employe.
The trip was virtually unavailing. Few
fellow employes knew her and none, not
even the manager, had known her well.
She did her work and left. That was all.
At the apartment where the daughter said
her mother had lived, Mrs. Lesley was
known only as a tenant, and the manage-
ment was not interested in the tenant’s
social or business life. As the daughter
had explained, all of her mother’s posses-
sions had long since been removed from
the rooms she had occupied.

“And that,” said Ulvin as the two dep-
uties started back to the sheriff's office to
report, “is what they call a blind alley.”

But Sheriff Buckley was in a different
mood. “Don’t slow up,” he said. “I’ve
got two men tracking down that car. You
two go back out to that hut again. Look
it over from-top to bottom. Just one
thing, one little thing, may turn the tide.”

Grimly, now, the two deputies drove
again along the river to the inlet. At the

cabin this time Rowles hesitated at the
door, which was open and tied fast to a
post with a piece of wire. Something
about the wire caught Rowles’ attention
and he peered closely at it.

“Ulvin!” he suddenly called to his part-
ner, who had‘ been busying himself in-
side the hut. “The twist in this wire! It’s
the same twist as the one in the wire that
bound the blanket around the body. Out-
ward and to the left.”

“Correct to the dot,” said Ulvin. “And
that’s not all. It’s the same gauge wire,
too, or I don’t know my baling wire.”

- “Let's tear this place apart,” said
es excitedly, “and see what we can
nd.”

Ulvin went to the stove. “Look,” he
cried. “The same wire on the stove pipe
and twisted the same way, to the left.”

These unusual twists were carefully
snipped and were put away with the piece
from the door. Then out went the cot,
down came the stove and finally Rowles
gave the asbestos paper on the wall a
jerk and held it in his hands. Both men
saw the words at the same time. The
name of a well-known Spokane hospital
was stenciled on the side that had been
next to the wall. The deputies stared at
the words in silence.

“We know a man carried that eighty-
pound rock and the body into the water,”
said Ulvin at last. “And the daughter
mentioned something about an engineer-
friend of her mother’s. Do you suppose
the unknown quantity could be an er-
gineer at the hospital?”

“Sounds logical,” said ‘Rowles.

For another hour, however, the two
men tore frantically at the hut and not un-
til it lay scattered in planks and nails at
their feet did they give up.

p /
“That's about the limit of it,” said Ul-

vin, wiping the perspiration from his face.
“Let’s make a little jaunt into town and
visit this hospital. Maybe there’s a friend
of Mrs. Lesley’s there who knows some-
thing about this asbestos paper.”

The ride back into town was a fast one,
because the two men, encouraged by their

discoveries, ©
clues to the
At the he
official that
ployed. It \
ried and ha:
As for fis
out for sev
fished on th
he ever hear
the asbestos
it had come
got into the
hospital als:
ous gauges
found arou
the shanty.
Feeling '
view one *
asked the
around Ro
man did, t
right hand
“That,”
alley. Let’
Buckley
great inte:
their rec
reached ir
out severa
“The vic
here whil:
“They’re
twenty-fiv
to Mrs.

natures V
check. B
the name
Julius Co
on June
“Julius
fully, rea
“Not it
just look
“The
got to tr
“Right
town has
had no
scription
The s
Rowles
the sher
a typica
ington—
a lot of
would b
already
against
Thou
of the «
both de
success
had sol
case, bi
necessi
perhap
machin
gally d
These
cloude:
as the
shop tc
It w
less el
small s
openec
a finge
sudde:
“Bo
shopo
fourte
Wit
thank
their

« : .

although he wha life miserable for her. rushed to the officers at Yuma and Ajo. : B OT W AT ER w A th om

nn
He coined money as an automobile sales- Peter Johnson, who was out of danger,
’ man and spent it on other women. He did not hesitate a second when the officers NINA NET Ty i
would repent, ask her forgiveness and showed him the photograph. / ww

then go chasing after the next pretty girl “That’s the man who killed my wife,”

i ‘ 4 he saw. > he said with grim certainty. “I’ll remem-
aa Madly in ‘ “Pm just not a one-woman man,” he _ ber that face tomy dying day.”
ything for him. 2 told his friends, and finally his wife di- The circular stated that Paul Hadley
real name, was yorced him, The next week he married a stood five feet, eight inche$ in height, had
: ‘ a - cigar counter girl whose first name was gold in his upper front teeth, wore bow
ction of @ second A Ida. It was Ida who shared the train seat Fes to the exclusion of others, and combed
saught the pause. e with him now. * his light brown hair in pompadour style.
Y ae away 7 As was the case with J ohn Dillinger, His ears protruded considerably.
vefore she finally ‘ ety Boy Floyd and other desperadocs, ; There was one additional fact, His left 60-°SECOND
, 7 adley’s first ‘mista e”—that is, the first foot was sma er than his right an is |. Demonstration
a ce pres 28 oe one he could not va e arin is yee shoes had to ue Sey te i he oe Misfces everruhere need SPEED Amazes Housewives
° was a petty one. e slugged a Beau- “So that’s why it looke as though there —the new, amazing Water >
ited him. He was mont merchant over the head dariag ac had been, two men at the rep of the breath gway..NP. tetera tia Fa Soe
. x attempted swindle that would have nette shooting,” the sheriff to is deputies. imple plug-in" at an olt et—and P
oh Fvnaborny pon him $15. Reiye being freed on bond, he Ba ines > with feet like that can elude us for sitvie, foy dsb-wpahing, © Pik ccna 728
: - and Ida fled to Kansas ity where the on the esert.” : ont: Rave gallons when you ys
10 was a go-getter police picked them up. Sheriff Giles All railroaders, from detectives to engi- quarts, FASTER, becaugele fast on Sectae A Gemce-
nd. Phase had well now was returning him to Beaumont to neers, still were engaged in the hunt, an Stration. Small in eize—fite the pocket, easy to Sate.
side from her. { stand trial. every freight and passenger train that SAMPLES for AGENTS
rorities flashed the The train sped southward through the crossed the Arizona desert was watched [| WANT you to know the almost un-
on where Sheriff ; Oklahoma countryside, vivid in spring and checked. It was shortly after sun- JUST | ene oncom. oe ae
ry wire. When he j hues. The passengers on the coach curi- up, Nov. 17, when Jame Sleigh, a signal SEND | Bie tae eair oan act SAMPLE
aul Hadley, he al- ously watched the prisoner, as passengers maintainer, and J. $. Sullivan, a Southern NAME| SPEED ee ntnstration. oa.
s swivel chair. a will, Darkness eventually curtained the Pacific detective, left Stoval on foot to can make plenty of cash a fing new:
peck he gasped. a landscape and by midnight they were follow the railroad tracks. They had. SPEED KING solves the hot water prob! am. whsen fur.
fr er mat mealde j dozing. : walked about three miles when Sullivan maces shut down. Act ait sPiite, L.B-Pavers0™ Pre
ot phe He bse : av age ead mee peeked, out shee let out a yell that brought Sleigh om the Send No Money!—Just your name.
° Y ‘ seats by a blast. nother one followe run.
at had come from 4 and there was still a third roar. Some of Beside the embankment, firmly em- NU-WAY MFG. COMPANY
- brought back in a ‘q them started to rush panic-stricken to the bedded in the desert sand, were two foot- Dept. 283, WALNUT BUILDING, DES MOINES, IOWA
ne newspaper sto- ; front of the car but Ida Hadley stood prints. The left one was smaller than the eS. 5°99 Mauna mY 7 959 ‘
cad almost a yeat? a there, a smoking .45 in her hand. right. Did Diamond Jim Have
a > ind seats,” re pal ania “He waited here to on a freight,” y 4
serif Pe sdae’ 9 e ey rst one who makes a = Sullivan excitedly. aybe he got Stomach Acid ains i
: The 20-odd passengers scurried for They hurriedly followed the tracks. t Diamond Jim Brady
16, 1916, a blustery, a cover but some already had seen the body “No, he didn’t,” cried Sleigh. “He turned ed
¥ Jake Giles had bs - of Sheriff Giles slumped across the floor. back into the desert here. Something.
on Paul Hadley as g Paul Hadley swiftly went through his scared him away. He probably found out
1 front of the Union t _ pockets, taking his gun and keys. With that those freights. are too carefully
Lae - the keys he unlocked the handcuffs. Ida watched.” : :
up directly behind 4 reached up and pulled the cord. The The tracks disappeared over the rocks
jark-haired woman, . train stopped so abruptly that several of and the two were about to give up the
igh to be a chorus : the passengers were thrown out of their search when Sullivan yelled and pointed
“ : seats. Asignona station outside told her at the sky. About a quarter mile away,
d. “Have a heart. — q it was Checotah, Okla. near a butte. a flock of buzzards was cir-
aul. We love each “If anyone follows us,” barked Paul cling.
a8 Agee as\you love 4 Hadley, “they'll go to the same mortuary The two crept through the greasewood,
t the genial, kindly J as the sheri will.” With Ida he jumped the desert breaking their footfalls as
ber Only the fall , 4 off and disappeared in the blackness. though they were barefoot. They con- "‘oSy,
die _— ‘A farflung manhunt was spread for stantly bent low, using the scrub vegeta= sf ey” TE College of Sumeeiy30, chicage
some fellow looked i them. Federal officers under U. S. Mar- tion for a screen. Sullivan kept his hands "
nal. ; F WANTED! Fact detective stories. Reporters,
shal Frank Jones and Beaumont, Tex., on his holster ready to draw. . ‘ ; ; :
money?” asked the : deputies headed by J. T. Friar scoured if law officers, writers with material available,
tte shook her head. the countryside. Oklahoma authorities hunt End write The Editor, DYNAMIC DETECTIVE, 1501
rack,” she promised, ae erched the trains and blocked the high- Manhunt Ends Broadway, New York City.
w eyes. “Every cent.” ¥ ways in an : cid
leah “ bought ht py “aac bade ped ed pi er ant gt hg upon the at ot PED Sic ES/
eaumont, Texas, on iding i : e was staggering in the ho sun 0 ‘
cum Texn.on ing int fxmbovse where hey DAG ay tne racks tate id mo . jaw snote As eons
Ss. ) IME ENT ‘; Leg *g, Women s
ar removed now from ; g eaas” fed. she acces prokage ne hear the two railroaders. ay Shoes. ines Men is on Bole
rted 90 brilliantly in ~ Sheriff Giles, the jury acquitted her, find Gullivan shouted at him, “Stop where | atk.gmate ss sienna 4 AS eae cemlen sie
ianed young, he had Py Paul Had! afr? err h y pig - you are or I'll shoot to kill.” ; cont. Wie RODAY Feadal elie Ee
usiness man who had 4 pi aah a ie y: € atl Ow= The man wheeled around, his hands in TANNERS SHOE CO., 108 Boston, Mass FREE OUTFIT
home and education. tb g Dla hed ann? we sar a theair.. The two quickly spanned the dis- 4 z
holar in his classes, a Jail break s he had attempted while4wait-- tance and then Sullivan holstered his auto- don t Ww RRY‘:
already was striking ing trial. ered was handed a 99-year matic, There was no need for it, Paul ! ‘
| money matters. ee at args . Hadley’s lips were swollen and cracked. Why putup with yearsof UT
trouble incessantly, oth were mode ‘prisoners. Hadley His eyes were bloodshot and his clothes needless di ‘ort and
ugh he might have a turned his brilliant mind to invention and torn to rags by the sharp needles of the worry? Try a Brooks
7, he was always “bor- by March, 1921, had perfected a new type cacti. ceggerne “ad Cashien.
i he had a fiery tem- of lock. Such an invention naturally ap- “Water,” he gasped. “Water. I got to This Dranits theopening
Heman of honor in his pealed to the prison authorities andon.-his have water.” They gave him a swig from toclose, yet holds reduc-
iis actions. He could- solemn promise to return, Oklahoma gave a canteen and had to fight him off to keep ible rupture securely
him a 60-day parole so that he could him from over-drinking. . His animal- comfortably—day and

yn t market the lock. That w the last th like tal d ight. Thousands rt amazing results. Light,
j ock. at was the las e i i i nig 0 in
y like talons grippe the canteen so tightly ae e £

eS ae. Gane * ever were t f hi hat they both had his fi 1 neat-fitting, No hard pads an,
reputation for ein a were to see 0 IM. «++ that they both had to pry is fingers loose. is ,

he made a career P| 4 } The minute Sheriff Daniels finished He had been well named The Claw. Pane ig con for men, women Sve it. Never
s a Jekyll and Hyde. reading the “Paul Hadley Wanted” cir- In Yuma, where they took the prisoner sold in stores. Beware of imitations. Write for
Beaumont, he married. cular he swung into action. A deputy © by car at once, after giving him break- Free Book on Ruptare, no-risk trial order Leng

hastened to a photographer's studio where fast, he steadfastly denied he was Paul | andproofofresults. rrespondenceconfiden

1 him for several years A :
the picture was copied. Prints. were Hadley.

;

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Crimson Trail of the Claw

[Continued from page 17]

the range riders, of course, watched the
skies for buzzards which quickly spot
starving and thirsty stragglers and often
follow them for miles. The cowboy posse-
men also were on the lookout for the ashes
of campfires,
The Miami. police were back on the
phone that afternoon of Nov. 15.
‘“Can’t find out’a thing about this Ken-
drick,” said the sergeant. “Seems he was

peer tight lipped. But here’s some dop&™
8

on his moll, Lou Barnes. She’s a show
girl he brought here with him. He sold
autos for a time and she went along with
him to clinch the tough deals with the old

Mapper trick.

he was a hot number, a blonde.
Around five feet, four. About Sweaty cuts
years old, Told friends she was from In-
dianapolis and lived out in the district
where Butler university use to be.”
It was “cherches la femme” again, the

‘| . oldest routine in the police system. Tuc-

son relayed the story to the Indianapolis
authorities who quickly located Lou
Barnes. She was a lush-bodied, pretty,
platinum blonde and lived with her par-
ents who were hard-working, respectable
people.

“Sure, boys, I know Mr. Kendrick,” she
said, her. blue eyes flashing impishly.
“What about it?” '

They told her bluntly that they sus-
pected Kendrick was The Claw. Lou
was furious at first.

“You're framing him,” she cried. “He’s
one of the finest'men I’ve ever known.

: hed a I left him in California just three
8

weeks ago. I’d seen him every day for a
month before that.”

So nervous that she fidgeted, Lou re-
lated that she had traveled by auto with
Kendrick from Florida to Arizona, head-
ing for Los Angeles. As she told her
story, her eyes filled with doubt. She
broke down sobbing at last and admitted
that as they crossed the desert between
Tucson and Ajo, Kendrick had remarked:
“Say, honey, wouldn’t this be a swell lay-
out for a.holdup guy? Sort of a modern
Cisco Kid. No posse ever could catch him.
Not in this country.” i

Lou hastily explained, “He was a sales-
man, you know, but he also did some writ-
ing. He was just thinking at the time
what a swell setting it would be for a

ya ie

hile She dabbed some powder on her
face, she continued, “Well, our car broke
down between Ajo and Stoval and we had

to wait several hours for a tow car from

Sentinel. We sat under some palo verdes
—it was frightfully hot—and I forgot my
black beaded bag. It had more than three
hundred dollars in it.

“When I remembered it, he said it was
as safe as though it were in the bank and
that he’d return for it later. He sold his
car in L.'A. for twelve hundred dollars.
Things didn’t look so good there, he said,
and he decided to buy me a ticket to In-
dianapolis. He would go back to Arizona

“Of course,” she admitted. “Madly in
love, I’d go through anything for him.”

re wasn’t his real name, was
it?”

She hesitated just a fraction of a second
but their trained senses caught the pause.

“Yes,” she said. They pounded away
at her for a half hour before she finally
broke.

“It was his real name, in a way,” she
said, sobbing. “That was the name the
man gave him who adopted him. He was
born Paul Hadley.”

The officers finally were convinced that
she had known Paul Hadley only as a
gentle, kindly fellow who was a go-getter
and a romantic boy friend. He had well
concealed his criminal side from her.

The Indianapolis authorities flashed the .

developments to Tucson where Sheriff
Daniels read the lengthy wire. When he
came to the name of Paul Hadley, he al-
most tumbled out of his swivel chair.
“Hopping horned toads!” he gasped.
“Paul Hadley! I remember that name.”
He fumbled nervously through his folder
of: “Men Wanted” circulars. He ripped
one out of the file that had come from
Beaumont, Tex., and it brought back in a
whirl of memories,some newspaper sto-

ries the sheriff had read almost a year?

before. ...

Trick Sheriff

HAT was March 16, 1916, a blustery,
A chilly day. Sheriff Jake Giles had
snapped the handcuffs on Paul Hadley as
they got out of a taxi in front of the Union
station in Kansas City.

Another taxi drew up directly behind
them and a slender, dark-haired woman,
who was pretty enough to be a chorus
girl, jumped out.

“Sheriff,” she called. “Have a heart.

I want to go with Paul. We love each ‘

other so much. Just as much as\you love
your wife.” That hit the genial, kindly

- sheriff in a tender spot. Only the fall

before, his wife had died.

Hadley, a tall, handsome fellow looked
anything but a criminal.

“Have you any money?” asked the
sheriff. The brunette shook her head.
“But I'll pay you back,” she promised,
tears welling up in her eyes. “Every cent.”

At the ticket wintlow, Giles’ bought
three pore to Beaumont, Texas, on
the M. K. & T. line, paying for the girl
out of his own funds,

Paul Hadley was far removed now from
the life he had started so brilliantly in
Atlanta, Ga. Orphaned young, he had
been adopted by a business man who had
given him a good home and education.

aul was the top scholar in his classes, a
football hero, and already was striking
clever, hard deals in money matters.

Hadley got into trouble incessantly, -

however, Even though he might have a
pocket full of money, S was always “bor-
rowing” things, and he had a fiery tem-
per. He was a gentleman of honor in his

although he m
He coined mon
man and spent
would repent,
then go chasin;
he saw.

“V’m just nc
told his friend

’ yorced him. 17

cigar counter |
Ida. It was Id
with him now.

As was the
Pretty Boy Fk
Hadley’s first ‘
one he could n
was a petty ¢
mont merchan
attempted swi!
him $15. Aft

* and Ida fled :

police picked
now was retu:
stand trial.
The train sj
Oklahoma co
hues. The pa
ously watched
will. Darkne:
landscape anc
dozing.
Suddenly th
seats by a bl:
and there was
them started t
front of the
there, a smok
“Get back t
“T’ll shoot tl
move this wa
The 20-0od
cover but som
of Sheriff Gil
Paul Hadley
pockets, takir
the keys he u
.reached up <
train stopped
the passenger
seats, Asign
it was Checot
“If anyone
Hadley, “the
as the sheriff
off and disay
A farflung
them. Feder
shal Frank }
deputies heac
the countrys
watched the
ways in an e
last, one we
hiding in a
posed as eloy
Although 1
of having fi
Sheriff Giles
ing Paul Ha
ever, gave h
jail break sh:
ing trial. H
sentence at
Both wer
turned his bi
by March, 1‘
of lock. Suc
pealed to the

4. and get my purse, he said, and join me
i | HANDY MAN'S HOME wana wes later. waht word and a thief in his actions. He could- races vod:
} “He's got plenty of money and wouldn’t not bear to see pets abused and yet he ried ig
} H PaO os evinced cee eh deter vaviousied scepecseseiaieee have any reason to rob anyone. He was once had beaten a friend into unconscious- warKet the
ng a _a brilliant fellow. I’ve never known any- ness. He had a reputation for being * i data
if © sass i one who could:sell cars faster,” Lou con- chivalrous and yet he made a career of : The mint
| BOE ee te ee ae cluded. ? seduction. He was a Jekyll and Hyde. pare the
\ 8 ae “You were in love with him?” the offi- After moving to Beaumont, he married. bh ar ya ay
4 ee mae pp a cers asked her. His wife stuck with him for several years the’ pic ture
Hh 50 :
1a

- aia

acapell- slaughter ‘until r Te- |

st informed opinion of Eu
tance of the worst news an

| a6 Current Interest.

nists who's are © stopping here will)
hed toa treat and are exceedingly
»-be here. “The oecasion will be
manontle county horse. ‘show aaeo-
= seventh aunual exhibition.:

pw. promises to equal the: one’

Atlantic recently. “Horws !
ng to }

Ty and about $5,000: will f

July. :

— si :
ousand - delegates | will at-|

reupion of Latheran

dag The: ‘gathering, |
sere for-three days, pro

h atte tion

prominent lawyers at

of the Maryland state’ har! ab:

* (Quarter. “The graphie tale deals wit
i the subtile influence of the F Frenehs. siren 7

Ler story, but it goes well with hammocks
y tand acid drinks. Its sale ‘eo far has-been

ew. York. The: autiices Sk this dainty
volume ix a prominent: club: woman. of
tNew-York City. whe- also. ‘contrives ‘to

# prominent in” artistic ~ ‘and. dramatic:
ircles and an ardent club werker. **Th
Repentant Magdalen,’” the: title ‘story,
opens with a daring scene in the famou
-smburg Garden, Paris. The hero

# young man from rural New: ‘England.

enconnters there one of the: most beauti-/

ful and dangerous models of the Latit

yon the mind an! character of the mee;
i rican, who hax come to: t
+ to complete his art studies,

" treate her subject. with - :
ladept, and sre cleverly “weaves: hor atory
| that the reader is held: absolutely: until
;the starling donoument. <The other. five
stories deal convincingly with interest-
fing phases oft the relation between. men

rate little

work issued by thesame: firm is. “Love:
Letters,” a romance told in the ‘rm of
‘correspondence, - - by Harold -
Venue. : “Love Letters,” un its title im-
plies, appeals to the: heart. -rather than
the head, and the. plot and. ‘style of the

climates. | “Jt is not exactly a hot. weath-

large, and the continues orders from the
outle me southweat portion. of the

ny as are ne “uttistic - tor Nese.
Lave Letters" i is prettily bound: in’ btae

iiamerman of 136 Fifth Avenue, Ne

pend much of her time in ‘Paris. She | %

eRe ‘hand G

story harmonized prettily. with torrid | |

. agnouneesa book, now in press of
v4 interests to plain, practical

condemned 1 mou to Acting Governor

g-governor -
powerful plea for the ‘lives of
: and Thomas Halderman, sentenced

at. Tombstone oa August. 10,1.
Was made befure acting Governor. Alern

hey S. fi. Hopkin, of: ioussles:

le presented at that. times eee 5

rat the

mare kace any. jeiende 7;
_tnity.”” They further testified that t

r ecided: pavermeir th this aiter- :

‘iad. cout vailtelade hnueele seven ti
‘ON cross examination and who from”

| position: could. net have seen what

pretended to “dexerilie; the firingof the:

| who admitted ou cross-examination. tha
‘ther father had told: her that she mus

not testify in favor of the Halderma
“Then the Texas attorney” introduce

the startling affidavits of the Wilson
=F eirls.- :

They. were voluntary, he sa
and: were procured aiter they: had: w
ten letters to friends of tl
in Texas, saying they: hac

» ee = ay

Yeo iy wes

‘triak at

"| same eae "They said that the
| shot was fired towanla the hoase, Tae

atte Not see, ee the: ‘inference wa

thi ia: commint

were close herded i in. the Cochise” Hour

[at Tombstone during the trial, earround:

ed by the friends ot Mosre, who threat?

Shoe ‘executive vlemeney ‘Mark. A. Smit
Lof Tacson made an eloquent and convi

cing bees savings That ae trial avg io

Tom Wayland’s

saluon. Young ‘Way-
bewetne bc was: Fisseasienyg the ame was

tl called away for: afew moments. As he

‘glanced back at the table he saw: the

'} Mexiean raking in the bask. Wayland |

‘tran back and demanded the. ‘return of
the money... The Mexican refused. anil
pulled an ugly looking” knife. Wayland

in such 3 hurry that he forgot” the} —
‘meney. He carried it away muha pin 2

and eacaped in safety.

pnervy erark=? “ie was playing ruonte ing {Ut

To Duquesne and W:
2.50...

Var. VaLeMsvgLa

+ i wae onurmed and started: off after a gun es
‘i whereupon the man fled. He was: not | &¢ a

A search of the fais failed to die aes

nt i cover the whereabouts of the man and| ,
‘up te the arrival: of the latest news he

“make ice easily.

Any housewife: ‘hy flowing Gare new
me jest. discovered will

and jnickly: prepared, being compe

Vota kind of ammonia ‘salt. With cs

This new ice is eciek ee

11 void ‘OL Antiiathin: and gaing,
Jone Collins ‘volunteered to aes

Fepectil “gtves

sv titer | Dellong's. ‘panty’ ts
‘beiwonn: the stations, ‘ot Butter Bo.

it ‘it teaok jane} Sisterotich’ Vstoleousk in &

narrow wilderness, #0 miles Jong, des

by, Ui dying. eaten. 005)
AMAxs, Entcesoy
NEWT E'S CRUE. |
Fahy 9.~'he Fioratd’s
‘pitt details, of: ithe

if .
N ‘cw yoni

igen puicit, ciuise, | which te not. of

| tially § pilopted Rae
‘ iRp BD ns creicerrpcrtneted

ils top and pot
ve) dperaicd | ‘very!
| Ny at tae ayia papel

ig while | weltlog, gonnuation | of
nrticipate bnithed? ronbing
nines anid Of eu Tae: rotbing | them
iL wacir mninney “eaving: ihein

it in that! Terr
it Wet ‘atlenttont, 1058 recommendation

\ much, inierest. She) was jammed ty
yee Sea ni dnfilag helplessly, at.

ter!) Teaving ‘Herald: ‘Yeland., ‘} ‘he

i i healt! Was, excellent, and. niost of the

(ecorda,. except hose ‘of the unttirnl:
iste, vere. Jost: on? “abandoning the
ship. They. disduvered three islands
hortlitrest, of Wratixel Lan,»

PENCE S Aton

“ApronaiOnn MENT BILD. | a a
| Wigaixaros,: Feb.8 Indications

keny clearly point ( the rejection. ‘ot
a Hisapeeoumett

pt inthe House.

wi Yo Republicans cand

Stee ne cieehotis favor |
1v think, Kee wily be

WELIER, voit AMLZONA. : i

4M wary (ala abet ;

| Rea 6 Wiens he. ‘ietelvod. oaAy trom |)

Washington states that yesterdny ih} ,

in| Piesident! tn IS i'gpeclal, meseage | to |!

m | Cotigress, tratiy ‘Niited A comniuntca-

{tion fram Beet ‘ary Kirkwood ¢ nelo-

Talmig letters fro, Al ‘Acthig: Gav.G aRpets

Of Arizona, in Hawa! 10 Juwlenstiess
'

WY: The Prestdent |

tin tle donunt | IMuEaa gee ‘that the posse
coinitalns act be amended to permit

if ‘(he ane of the: military. in assisting

civil atithorittits fa that: Territory. to
matotain order nnd auggests: again
thiit ancl Ieginlation seems requlyed.

in! his’ communication, | Secretary
Kirkwood states that in New Mexi-
ed nnd Arizcud, ihe difficulty in the

{wity of suppreasttig lawlessness urises

Jers}

Pee if pena t
e He eee prose HT aie tat,
da aged) on te Pr

reasons}! |

Mormonism is. a {net And an. enilre. |
iy, and tannok, be divided and ‘a part
retained! “Only, “All or none, in yria- |
ciple) at least and should he In pric |
thoe. All men of inteltigenca,' whetli-

er thoy, ‘belied in ‘Atepirstion on not, peanit
dean: dnderstand | that: mankind: are}:
iN aubject 10 tedtings) ‘of; honor, ‘union, “a
and affection, that sbmetinies are re- meds

ligious,, pollileal;: Tatriotte,, ‘rolatiye |”

or othutwise, that will cause them to}? a
suffer Abything ‘rather. than abandon |,

there, ideas.’ ‘housands of Mormons,
now. monogamalate| in practice, though
bellevis 0B ih) the principles of | Mor.
minista, when thelr, brethren. belag, Si
puniaiidd, as the world says, persect | 5.49)
teri a8, we nay, we will feel ashamed [474

anid wilt, scett to mike ourselved wor Cin}

Uy to. share) /vetth, them. ‘This, may}
kein) fanaticism to; Ng, it is honor, pe
duty, eligion, | pcnalble, ‘reasonable,

and in! ‘every, eepect) m, “nly; and. we
would} Touse out;

fase : welt ‘Fespect

alah ! ate

ducer of copper. { She gems 4 to staud

/ Vaweumd on thi Hist: of copyer- ~produc. i }
ling? arctions, ‘Auother year or ftwo}**

and ahe will be the foremost of al.

dela aid that the summot, ‘real,
bene of Miss Jeanie Wallace, un the
dersdy: coust $6 finer even than those
Of Gt 0. Grant or Guo. We: ‘Childs, 4
Misa) ‘Wallace is of ‘the Wallace ‘Bis ‘!
tera rat Comba ation whit will appeat
bitoni the nus Wie in) Pharnix 8000." if

‘Arother poor, follow pays the fear.
fut penalty hoday, itor a violation of
that: law, which! “thou stalt tot,’ at
Presiott, nit abort this moment while
we ‘write. The ‘gallows - in) again ‘
playing tis pate. ia tbe drama of} ‘
human life. One week ago to-day |’
the iame | rallows swung off Into},
eternity ike unfcrtinate victiua.

OW, W. Mills, ‘representing acveral
angus City heasis, is nt the Bank

éxdhunge Wills due displa ‘of nam:

re ihe Ainwena ‘at Tenst, “com

we fail In. irylog ‘at leaut to}
ha se caer nis

ty | .
bo: by CHANNING CORBIN

and ten days that he remained at large.

No sheriff, chief of police or
lawman derives any pleasure when a
prisoner escapes. Not only is it bad
publicity, it can often mean a lot of |
diligent investigation down the tube.
Worst of all is the nagging fear in
everyone’s mind — just how far is the
escapee willing to go to avoid capture?

The diminutive escapee — just’ five-

- feet-six — shrewdly wasted no time
separating from his five comrades. A’
massive manhunt was immediately
launched by Pulaski County lawmen
and the City of Little Rock was quickly
sealed off with roadblocks. Officers
were assigned to watch the local §
airport, bus stations and the rail depot. —

Regional residents were warned to”

. keep their homes and cars locked and

- Comparison of police sketch of
suspect in San Diego robbery
_closely resembles Harding at —

time of his breakout.

‘not pick up hitchhikers. But the 30-
year-old escaped con who wore his
’ dark colored hair Afro-style managed
to slip through the dragnet.

Once clear of the Little Rock city
Jimits, Don promptly became a one-
man crime wave and virtual killing-
machine. One of his first projects was
to obtain a .25-caliber semi-automatic
pistol. At his height, he needed an
equalizer. He then stole a fast car.

During the course of the next 130

“Accused killer ponders his .

~ fate. He chose to forego attor-
neys and mount own defense.

24 :

| The same grisly pattern ini0s

HOG-TIED, GAGGED
_AND ELECTROCUTED!

Jail in Little Rock, Arkansas.

n September 17, 1979, six hardened criminals engineered a successful prison break
from the Pulaski County
the lethal escapades of just one bloodthirsty arch-criminal during those four months

This particular escapee,
the county slammer awaiting trial on charges of first-degree murder.

‘Don’s' mercurial, will-o’-the-wisp con-
‘duct during the course of his vicious

15, 1979, a few days shy of three
sg months after the bust-out. On that

tates...

mre
oe

7 "

This narration shall relate

Donald Harding, was in

5
days, Don Harding visited the States
of Arizona, California, Nevada,
Oklahoma, Utah,, Tennessee, Texas,
Washington, Illinois and Nebraska.
Due to the kaleidoscopic nature of

coast-to-coast. rampage, it remains
impossible to chronicle his crimes in
sequence. Don was strictly hard-case
with ice water in his veins and totally
uncooperative when it came to
discussing his past escapades.

The first solid calendar date involv-
ing the Arkansas escapee is December .

Ltt

date, p:
vered t!
who'd |
placed
Robber

“1 The vic
» only ch
from h
The
» * by: the
“yo murde
&\) Barbar

*. dead in

‘room ¢

man hi
’ his ass:

caused
wallet «
of crec

As '
were |

-enoug

probe
this c
remai

Nez

farme

. 39-yez

— HARBA G, Loyal Jon ear

By Chris. Limberis
The Arizona Dally,Star
"The. ArizonaSupreme Court yes-
terday denied the’ appeal of con-
victed. killer Donald Eugene Hard-

ing,. bringing the 43-year-old
Arkansas prison escapee closer to
the gas chamber. |

Harding; sentenced to die after his
1982 conviction in Pima County Su-
perior Court of the murders of two
salesmen, lost what prosecutors con-
sidered his final appeal.

‘Harding also was convicted of a
third murder in Maricopa County.

The order was prepared and re-
leased by ithe Supreme Court late
yesterday: Six motions and a request
were denied.

wmf

Ghe Arizona

y-state Supreme

Daily Star

faring appeal rejected

Court

Harding, who was granted a

‘three-month stay in December of his"

Jan. 3 execution, now is scheduled to
be executed shortly after midnight

on April 6 at the Arizona State

Prison in Florence.

If there are no other stays, Hard-
ing will be the first person to be exe-
cuted in Arizona since 1963.

But the court’s 3-2 vote still may
be appealed to the U.S. District
Court, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in San. Francisco and finally
the U.S. Supreme Court.

Carla Ryan, the Tucson lawyer
who has represented Harding on

_previous appeals, said the two dis-

See HARDING, Page 2A

Tucson, Thursday, March 19, 1992

at a

by Kim Sue Lia Perkes 3.
“The Arizona Republic: fo ae:
“As Arizona ’.’ ‘edges closer to .

eur .

vy scexecuting its first death-row inmate

executions by lethal. ‘injection hangs
iit vin limbo in the House.
ne But the outcome of the bill will

‘be’ of - little help to Don. Eugene

‘Harding, who is scheduled: to die in
“ithe gas chamber April 6. ‘Harding
“cehas said he wants to die’ ‘by injection
°C Father. than the gas chamber.

“™” House Bill 2055: would: allow
onArizona voters. to decide.:in. the
fusNoy.'3. general ‘election: hange
vsthe, current method of: death. by

Yanide gas to” lethal. i ction for

in. the Senate J uditiaty. Commi

hey are going to execute him

{< (Harding), I wish it were with lethal

‘injection rather than the painful gas

‘chamber,” Sen. John Dougherty,
‘D- Green Valley, said’ Thursday.

Supporters’ of lethal injection,

“i “which puts people to, sleep, claim it

{. is’ a more humane’ ‘method of

_ execution than. suffocation in the
gas chamber. ‘Opponents contend
; “that death-row inmates don’t de-
- {serve a painless death.

_ Making a person‘ experience pain
“and suffering -before death “is not

Rep. Lela ‘Steffey,: ‘R-Mesa, who
Fie gg the House bill.

“.“The point, is: ‘they, 4 have .: ‘been.
~ ‘sentenced to death;”. she said. “I:
don’ t see any point in ‘making it any
-more gruesome for:them.” :

. Steffey said. the measure has not
. thade it to the House: floor because
it is too controversial:

--which we don’t have time to’ do,”
- she said. “We have bills coming out
, .Of.our ears.’

Rep. Patti Noland, R-Tucson,
*head of the House Judiciary Com-
“mittee, agreed that the measure will
aie a tough time: passing | in’.the
‘House... But, «she: said,. -£1.imagine

ill: start. heating” ‘Up again —

since 1963, a measure that promotes .

1s “A similar, imeasure.in«the, Senate.
> died ‘when it failéd to get‘a”hearing ~ ..

"The only. thing’ I scan’ gay “is “if a

the: point”. of the death: penalty, said,

“There’s a thgeatened filibuster

* fear the gas ° ‘chambes! esther than
just a shot.-I think it (gas chamber)
_ will make some people: think’ ‘twice
before they murder someone. mig
Rep. John. Keegan, R-Phoenix;

said putting: murderers - to'death

“like putting to sleep a litte ot 3
kittens” is not punishment. "=

“They ‘(murderers) should’: be
aware of what happens to them,” he
said. “It (gas chamber) only takes a
matter of seconds. We're not talkin ng
about ‘some medieval tortur
think: * ‘it’s.(important> not to”
someone to. sleep just. because; it’s
more ‘palatable: to 2 6

social conscience.”

hearing.
Harding’s attorneys : said his brain
damage was caused at birth, when .
his umbilical cord wrapped around :
his. neck and choked him, and has .
caused impulses he can’t control.
Feldman wrote that “it is inap-\'
propriate to carry out the death®:
penalty until the judge responsible
for choosing between death and life
imprisonment has heard the evi-.
dence.and weighed its effect: ‘on. the:
only reali issue ‘that. ever. existed in.
this case’'— ° whether © defendant : ji
should: be imprisoned for life: or put ;

b
~The ‘justices . ‘iho. ‘were’ ‘in the}.
majority made no. comment. one
« Attorney “General Grant: Woods»
said’ that: the ruling: ends’ Harding’s : S:
best chance to stop ‘the death’.
sentence from being imposed. . ji
Harding’ s attorneys said they will

continue to fight the sentence, but ,

they declined to specify what' their
next legal step might be. . - aes
Woods predicted the.” case: will”
make a final trip through the federal \.
courts. He said he expects an appeal -
to be filed in U.S. District’ Court’in *
Tucson, ‘then work its its way. through :

them as a threat to society, Buea £ R
“I believe that society his'a right 4 Ae

Hf reprieve, the case goes to Goy.; Fif

*’ commutation before the’ governor."

"Sen. Pat. Wright RCE dale, .*
‘who’ ‘sponsored the Sénate lethal’
‘jection measure, said murderers?are
‘given the death penalty to’ Temove it

my
¥

to protect itself the best way that'it:
‘can, but it ‘should do so humatiely,”
she said. : 2
- There currently are 100 intnate "
on death row. The lethal- “injection:,
measure would give those inmates, :
who were sentenced to death by gas,
a choice between the gas chamber
“oft lethal injection. All new death

reprieve should be recommended. Pi
If a majority of the seéven-mem- *
:.ber, board votes to recommend the:

Symington, who either can grant or.
reject the request. A reprieve would.
only delay the execution again...

If the board votes against. a

reprieve recommendation, the. gO, . He: :

ernor has no power to intervene ‘3

Harding’s attorneys also: have he. |"|

; commute the’ ‘senteniceto. life. "The: e
boatd would have’ to recommend. a

could act. r

- Symington spokesman Doug Cole!
sid: the governor is. waiting’ ‘to. get,
‘ the records on the case so“he ‘cath. :
begin reviewing them. No decision |’
“has been made yet on whether —
Symington would grant a eprieve:
"or a commutation request, he said.

Harding : was convicted of? mur”,
-deritig Allan Gage, who choked to!
“death at a Phoenix motel ‘oh Jan.§'

+ 25;4 "1980, ' ‘after beings. bound “and: ‘

ra inteSSrtien

‘busin smicn

“an automatic fearing on n-whether a |}:

atthe

gagged.’ ‘Hours later,”

The Arizona Republic Z

.. Friday, March 20, 1992-

Harding

Continued from Page One

senting votes were encouraging and
could help during appeals.

Attorney General Grant Woods

last night hnailéd the decision.

“This was the state’s biggest ob-
stacle to overcome,” Woods said. “It
makes it much more likely that the
execution date will be met.”

Woods _said his office will file
briefs in District Court today in an-
ticipation of the appeal “so there is
no time delay.”

Harding was convicted of three
murders committed on a two-day
rampage that took him from Phoe-
nix to Tucson to Mesa to Flagstaff.

On Jan. 24, 1980, while probably
posing as a security-guard, Harding

entered Allan. Gage’s Phoenix, motel ,
¥. oka

ie Te
ian

ae Arizona Dailn Star.

room. Harding ‘bound and gagged
Gage, who died of asphyxiation.
Harding took Gage’s identifica-
tion and car and drove to Tucson,
where he posed as a security guard
at the La Quinta Motor Inn and beat
and shot Robert. Wise and Martin
Concannon. Harding then drove
Concannon’s<c:

“Bob” was there.,

Prosecutor’s:say: that Harding left
after seeing a child and large dog.
He later drove to Flagstaff, where
he was arrested. .

Chief Justice Stanley G. Feldman
and Justice Thomas Zlaket, both
from Tucson, voted to remand the
case to the trial court for a hearing
on complaints that Harding did not
receive a full and fair hearing in

previous gots conviction proceed-

ings.
Feldman and Zlaket were the only

Tucson, Thursday, March 19, 1992

“to *Mesa‘to?Wise’s*
home where he asked Wise’s wife if...

justices who stated their positions in
the ruling.

“It is inappropriate to carry out
the death’ penalty until the judge re-
sponsible for choosing between
death and life imprisonment has
heard the evidence and weighed its
effect.on the only real issue that
eyer-existed in-this case — whether
(Harding) should be imprisoned for
life or put to death,” Feldman
wrote. ,

Denise Young and James Be-
langer, Harding’s lawyers from the
Arizona Capital Representation
Project, said there were clear fac-
tors to mitigate the death sentence.
They said that Harding suffered
from brain damage at birth and his
condition was made worse by a tur-
bulent childhood and abuse suffered
in the Arkansas prison system. He
was sentenced in Pima County Supe-
rior Court by Judge Harry Gin.

Those issues also were not consid-
ered at post-conviction hearings, de-
fense lawyers said. Neither Young

_ nor Belanger could be reached for

comment last night.
“In* the appeal, Young and Be-
langer also said Harding should not

- be executed because of actions by
- his trial lawyer, Dan Cooper, an as-
sistant Pima County public de-.

fender.

Young and Belanger said Cooper
advised Harding to repesent himself
during the sentencing.

“When his first advice did not re-
sult in his being allowed to with-

draw, Don Harding’s trial counsel
told him to threaten counsel so that
he would be forced to withdraw for

-ethicat reasons,’ Young and Be-

langer wrote.

Zlaket, named to the Supreme
Court in December, wrote that
Harding “should have been given a
hearing on his request for post-con-
viction relief so there would be some
evidentiary hearing for us to re-
view.”

“TI am most uncomfortable as well
with the fact that (Harding’s) lawyer
told him to represent himself at sen-

-tencing, knowing full well that the

defendant, who had no legal train-
ing, would be ineffective,” Zlaket
wrote.

The sentencing hearing “was es-
sentially worthless in terms of miti-
gation evidence which might have
been presented,” Zlaket wrote.
“None was offered or received.
(Harding) did what his lawyer told
him. What person facing capital
punishment would do otherwise?”

“The attorney’s advice brings lit-
tle credit to the legal profession or to
the justice system. Advocacy, in my
view, neither compels nor permits
such conduct,” Zlaket wrote.

Feldman said he agreed with Zla-
ket and “would point out also that
there has never been an adversarial
evidentiary hearing on the question
of where (Harding) suffered from a
diagnosable mental impairment that
significantly affected his behavior
at the time of the offense.”

Se a et eee at eee oer Sor ee eC a rc rs

ee Sree ee te

BEN OR IFC NS ARRAS ap I YA

nena

THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC

By Pamela Manson ‘
The Arizona Republic ~*~

An April 6 execution date looms for
Don Eugene Harding, but: his attorneys
say they. still have legal avenues open to
fight his death sentence.

In a 3-2. decision “Wednesday, the
Arizona Supreme Court turned down a
request to consider commuting Harding’s
sentence, which set the stage for the
state’s first execution since 1963.

ae scheduled for ie 6

Chief Justice Stanley Feldman and

Justice Thomas Zlaket voted to accept

the case. Vice Chief Justice James

Moeller and Justices Robert Corcoran.

and Frederick Martone voted to decline

it. “3

James: ‘Belanger, a lawyer for Harding,

said Thursday that he is disappointed
with the ruling.

BOS

“There has never been an evidentiary
hearing on certain issues. We believe that
Don is entitled to a life sentence.”

The court declined requests to hear
oral arguments in the case, to reconsider
the issuing of an execution order or to
send the case to trial court for rehearing
on the issues.

Harding was to have been extcatedd

_Jan. 3, but won a three-month reprieve to
give. the, court more time to consider
’- “arguments that his sentence should be

“We believe Justices Zlaket and.
Feldman are absolutely correct,” he said.

ommuted to life.
Ziaket, saying that “execution is the

most final of punishments,” wrote that he
is “uncomfortable” with the fact that

< ? FRIDAY! Anse
- } _ MARCH 20, 1992, 67

Harding’s lawyer told him to represent. |

himself at his sentencing.
“Defendant’s sentencing hearing was
essentially worthless in terms of mitiga-

tion evidence which might have been .

presented,” he said.

Feldman agreed that the quesiien' of |

whether Harding suffered from a mental

impairment that affected his ‘behavior.

never as been explored in a Court?

— See KILLER; page BS

Don Eugene.
Harding / His"
attorneys have
ined to: -«

Soup sopduy soy

_ ARIZONA re

Execution Appeal -
Goes to High Court -

.A-last-effort to save triple mur= :

derer Donald Eugene Harding from —
the.gas chamber went to the U.S...

‘SlUpreme Court, part of ‘a’ battle ”

over what would be Arizona’ s first
execution. in:29 years: The U.S. 9th.
Circuit’.Court of Appeals ‘in ‘San’:

eo Francisco granted Harding’ a stay :

of execution, Thursday, night. If it:
remains in :effect,. the’ stay, would .
prevent the’ “execution scheduled |
for Monday at the state.prison in
Florence, Ariz. Immediately after
the stay was granted, the Arizona
attorney. general’s office an-

nounced.it would ask the # Pupreme
oe to, lift. the stay. °

(From Times staff and Wire Reports

rane ee ee

SATURDAY _
APRIL 4, 1992

Toxic-gas monitors —
join Harding autopsy

_By Hipolito R. Corella

The Arizona Dally Star

A hazardous materials team was

called to monitor toxic cyanide gas
levels during the autopsy Monday of
executed murderer Don Eugene
Harding, officials said yesterday.

_ The Pima County Medical Exam-
iner’s Office called the hazardous

«materials team after a clerk there~

said she could smell cyanide gas

inside the cooler where Harding’s -~

body was stored, said Tucson Fire
Department spokesman Capt. Larry
Burkett. <4.

Harding was executed with cya-
nide gas early Monday morning at
the state prison in Florence.

Burkett said that. fully suited
members of the team inserted a
tube into the bag that-held Harding’s
* body, and measured hydrogen cya-
nide. The levels were found to be
safe, Burkett said.

“They did some gas readings to
make sure the (cyanide) level was
not toxic to the autopsy team,’’ said
Doug Scoopmire, an investigator
with the Pima County Medical Ex-
aminer’s Office.

“We don’t deal with this every-

day,” Scoopmire said. “Occasionally
we have a cyanide suicide but

: they’re not that frequent.”

eae Mac

“We just took the necessary pre-
cautions,” Scoopmire said. ‘They
proceeded with the exam mad no-

‘ body got ill.”

Burkett said the hazardous ma-
terials team stayed’ inside ’ the
“highly ventilated” examination
room throughout the autopsy to
measure gas levels. .

‘“We-monitored levels of any air-
borne gases that might be present,”
during the autopsy, Burkett said.

Burkett said the cyanide levels
were found to be safe, if exposure
did not exceed 40 hours.

Harding, 43, who. 12 years ago
hogtied and shot to death two sales-
men in a Tucson motel, was exe-

‘cuted early Monday morning in Ari-

zona’s gas chamber at the state

_prison in Florence.

Harding was the 64th person exe-
cuted in Arizona and the first since
1963, when Coolidge tavern owner
Manuel Silvas was put to death for
the murder of his lover.

A few minutes after Harding was
killed, a four-man execution team
released the lethal gas from the
“death house,” put Harding’s body

~inside a. hearse.and drove to the

county examiner’s office, said Mi-
See HARDING Page 2B

el” et ane ae

rf
|
|
|
|
|

Tucson, Thursday, April 9, 1992

Harding

Continued from Page 1B

chael Arra, spokesman for the state
corrections department.

Arra said he did not know what*
type of protection the execution“
team used to transport Harding $

_body.

Arra said inmates are executed’
wearing only their underwear be-*
cause clothing can absorb the ey.

~ anide poison.

Harding’s body. was released.

Tuesday to a Tucson mortuary.

Cyanide gas cannot be detected at :

- gmall'levels. At high levels, like the:

concentration that killed Harding, it:
would probably smell like almonds,
said Richard C. Dart, director of
clinical toxicology at University

' Medical Center.

Dart said the level of cyanide in-
side Harding’s body would have
been too small to affect anyone in a”
well-ventilated room. :

“It would not even make the most -
sensitive person ill,” Dart said. “But
I don’t blame them for being con-.

_cerned.”

Cyanide kills a person after it
enters a cell and blocks oxygen. The »
brain and the heart are the first af-
fected because they are the most ac-.
tive and receive the most blood flow,
Dart said.

A lack of oxygen to the brain can
be lethal within five minutes, half
the time it takes to stop the heart.

Ghe Arizona Daily Star

Tucson, Friday, April 24, 1992 —

- House OK’s lethal injection

J - PHOENIX (AP) — A proposal to substitute lethal

see injection for the gas chamber in carrying out Arizona’s
death penalty won House approval yesterday when a. ~

_ key opponent gave it her support.
The proposed constitutional amendment passed 41-
7. If approved by the Senate, where a similar proposal
awaits consideration, it would go to the voters in the
November general election. es .
* Judiciary Committee Chairman Patti Noland, R-

Tucson, voted against the measure in her committee and .

had been expected to filibuster against it on the floor by
reading aloud the case reports of a number of those now
awaiting execution. :

Instead, she spoke in favor of its passage, saying she
did so out of concern for the families of the killers’
victims.

Approval came less than three weeks after the gas

Vvietro

chamber execution of Don Eugene Harding, Arizona’s
first execution since 1963. dy

Part of what changed her mind, Noland said, were

"the last-minute stays granted in California’s execution of
Robert Alton Harris on grounds that the gas chamber —

the same method Arizona uses — was cruel and unusual
punishment and thus unconstitutional.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the stays and
Harris went to his death early Tuesday, the first execu-
tion in California in 25 years. But the stays suggested
that Arizona could face another three or four years of
appeals on those grounds on behalf of killers awaiting

- execution, Noland said.

A change to lethal injection, if approved by voters,
could avoid further protracted delays, helping provide
the “prompt and final conclusion” victims’ families

need to end their years of grief, fear and uncertainty,

she said.
Sponsor Lela Steffey, R-Mesa, said: she began work-

ing on the measure last May when it appeared a concern

- over venting the cyanide gas into the air might delay a

scheduled Arizona execution. The problem was re-
solved, though the execution itself was delayed for other
reasons. ee: a

“But during that time she obtained a létter from a ~
doctor suggesting use of a lethal injection as being more
humane while avoiding the venting problem, Steffey

. said.

Her proposal is “not about whether we have capital
punishment but about how we carry it out,” she said in
urging its passage. She said polls show a majority of
Arizonans prefer the change,

The measure was amended to give those now on

id riers cesretie nial eam a are AGO at: 0. hth

nance cattle

—

death row a choice of the gas‘or lethal injection, should.
. the change be approved. That step was taken to avoid’
opening an opportunity for additional delaying appeals,
. Steffeysaid. . — ee! Pe r |G
In moving toward lethal injection, Noland said, itis: |
_ important thatthe public not forget the victims. -
“The problem with making it too easy, and I wor- |
ried about this sometimes,” she said, “is that we'll say:
we don’t need the death penalty at all.
“That’s the worry I hear most from the victims,”»
Noland said, “that there will be no finalization.”
. Their feelings were “very close to the skin” in the.
final days before Harding’s execution as it appeared the
public and the media had sympathy only for what he | +
suffered while breathing the deadly cyanide.
To them it appeared the public and the media had
ee ‘ See INJECTION, Page 4B

Injection |
Continued from Page 1B peli
forgotten that Harding’s Arizona victims “gage

death,” dying slowly and painfully of asphyxiation and

” id.
“knowing they were dying,” she sa -
“We can’t keep putting people through Vie, No- t

\ ing to the years of appeals and the
\ Jand added, referring

Piplie outcry on behalf of those facing execution while
showing little concern for the feelings of the victims

survivors.

Arizona hanged its murderers until 1933; the state
switched to the gas chamber because a rope decapitated
a woman in 1930. Steffey said 20 states now use lethal

- injection.

> as

he : : ‘i

San Pranks Ste CXAMIneR.

- A section of the San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle

Arizona likely
to switch from
gas to injection

en 2b- 9

6 ie.
Humane’ measure
gains support after
Harris execution

EXAMINER NEWS SERVICES

PHOENIX — A bill to change
the state’s method of execution
from gas to injection goes to the
state Senate now that it’s been ap-
proved by the House. 7

The measure passed the House
41-7 on Friday. If approved in the
Senate, the matter would be put
before the voters in November. as
an amendment to the state Consti-
tution, which specifies the use of
gas. 7

The change was proposed early
this year, but didn’t gain signifi-
cant support until the April 6 exe-
cution of triple murderer Donald
Eugene Harding in the gas cham-
ber. It was Arizona’s first execution
in 29 years, and many lawmakers
were disturbed by graphic accounts
of his slow death.

Harding wasn’t pronounced
dead until 10 minutes after two
‘cyanide pellets were dropped into a
bowl of sulfuric acid beneath his
chair. Witnesses described a grue-
some scene of Harding gasping,
-! shuddering and desperately mak-
ing obscene gestures with both
‘strapped-down hands.

' The campaign for change
gained momentum this week when

neighboring California had its first ;

execution in 25 years. Robert Alton
Harris had to sit strapped in, the
gas chamber chair while his last.
appeal was rejected. Then, like

Harding, Harris took 10 minutes to

die.

Arizona, Maryland and Califor- |
nia are the only states where gas is
the sole method of ‘execution.

North Carolina and Mississippi

use gas or injections. |.
The Arizona amendment: was |
introduced by state Rep. Lela Stef-
fey, who favors the death penalty
and worried that environmental
concerns last. year about venting
the gas after an execution might
delay the return of capital,punish-
ment. eben Eber
The chief opponent..of the
change was House Judiciary Chair-
woman Patti Noland, a supporter
of victims’ rights whose son ‘was
shot to death last. year, during.;a
traffic dispute. . ci aaa?
She had been expected. to. fili-
buster the measure by reading ac-
counts of murders committed by
the state’s 100 death-row inmates. ©
But she changed her mind be-
cause, she said, victims would like
to eliminate one avenue for what
they see as defense delaying tactics:
the argument that gas amounts to
unconstitutionally cruel and un-
usual punishment.
Arizona hanged its murderers

until 1930, when the rope decapi-
- tated a condemned woman. The

state switched to the gas chamber
in 1933 on the ground it was more
humane. |

QQ y We aay PAGES :

‘VOL. XXXII NO. 353

Pny or

e is at
> newly
@ sul-
ms red
of the

iT)
Hp

ench and

isters, at

‘noon, de-
f pressure
if she re-
parations

urés was
sters an-
nmunique
» continue
yvernment
a settle-

ipated in
Theunis,
1 C& ts

at Brus-
y devoted
sonnection
Ruhr and
® pro-
there.

ypation
\ le to

q
SEEK RIGHT

0 HE
OF ORY LAND

T0) ORGANIZE

neces)

Formation of Irrigation
District Would Add
$1,000,000 of Taxable
Wealth To County.

More than » $1,000,000 o
wealth, in the form of approx
9,600 acres of irrigated nd

soon if plans
landers” do not mi

Initiating a mové
these lands to the
project, as a part oO
Flat development sch
ers of dry lands are ‘taking

: . g
an additional $1,000,000 of taxable
wealth in the county, J. C. Dobbins,
chairman of the “dry landers” de-
clared last night.

Provide For Bond Election

Organization plans call for the
voting of bonds and their sale, pro-
ceeds ‘from which will go to the
Water Users association in return
for the creation of water rights
These water rights will be estab-
lished from the supply to be stored
by the building of the Mormon Flat
dam. The money will be used by
the Water Users association to help
defray the expense of constructing
the dam.

Petitions now are circulating,
calling upon the board of super-

—

Rumor Of Wedding
Of Miss McCormick
Still Unconfirmed

CHICAGO, April 13—Both Hor-
old F. McCormick "and Mrs.
Edith Rockefeller McCormick
tonight refused to discuss printed
reports that their daughter, Ma-
tida § McCormick, 18-year-old
granddaughter of John D. Rock-
efeller and Max Oser, 46-year-
old Swiss riding master, had been

married secretly in ndon,
“Mrs. McCorm ddes_ not
care to discuss the tter,” said
Mra, McCormick’s secretary.
Mrs. McQGormick obtained a di-
vorce a year an half ago on
the g ds of \fesertion and
shortly afterwa announced her
opposition, engagement of
Oser, —

ick does not like
ut has adopted the
of saying nothing what-
or\ publication. He has no

to make concerning the

ort,” Mr. McCormick’s
said,
he romance of Mathilda, who
me of age last week, dates
when she was

visors to grant the dry land hold-

ck /Atwo years,
ivi itzerland, with her
aS

ot GALARTES

OF 200,000 MEN

[Repubfican A. .”. Leased Wire}

CHICAGO, April 18—The wages of
approximately 200,000 workers in the
packing industry throughout the
Unitea States were increased an av~
erage of 10 per cent today throtigh
the action of employe representatives
sitting in plant assemblies,

In addition to Yhe increase in
wages, vacations at full pay were
given to the hourly paid employes
with the option of extra pay at the
usual rates if they remained at work
during the vacation period.

The decision of the pay increase
was reached by representatives of
the management and of the workers
negotiating through employe repre-
sentation plans in vogue at the Ar-
mour, Swift and Wilson plants and

known ae “industrial democracies.””

More than $2,500,000 yearly will be
added to the payroll of Armour and
company alone by the increases, it
was said, more than 85,000 workere
in Armour. plants in all sections of
the country heing affected. The em-
ployes of Morrig and company, ré-
cently taken over by P ht also
will ‘participate in the increase,

Chnches amid naswaneds semnnhanad that

PAL HADLEY
MIKES 6000
PROMISE 10
FAS MAN

ee se Atimamecene ne

Goes Unflinchingly fo
Death For Murder . of
Denver Woman; Twice
Convicted of Murder.

After playing thé’ hero in a tragic
romance and the legding roles’ in
dramatic murder trials instwo eta’
| the ag vite career oe Paul V. He . te
alias William S. Estaver, came ta. ;
abrupt end shortly after 5 o'clock
yesterduy morning when he Ms
hanged in the “death chamber™.9
the Arizona state penitentiary at
Florence. He died for the murder
of Mrs, Anna C, Johnéon, wife of
Peter Johnson, a Denver contractor,
whom he shot to death on @ desert
road near Sentinel on November ‘35,
1921. : he

The condemned man, convicted of
the slaying of the aged woman after
she and her husband had given him
a “lift” in their automobile over ‘the —
desert roads west of Tucson, met :
fate without flinching and held to the
very end his claim of innocence of
we crime for which he was executed

Ascends Stairg Unaided
At 6 o'clock, Ha@ley was
from the “death cell” and led to.
stairs leading to the trap. #38”
mounted the filght of eight ,stepe

uring the

vp aid

* “4
the
ce

without hesitation and 4

to execution, —

he maintained the same calmness”
and stoiciem. that has \marked 7 j
during hia long wait for the
hour to arrive, ae
At 6:10 o'clock the trap wae
sprung and 12 nénutes later the
prison physician convicted.

preliminaries inciden

dead, and the twice convicted my
derer had made good his state
that he. would die like a man,
Hadley ate no breakfast but.
dressed with deliberate care, At Bis
own request, he was baptized during:
the night by the Rev. J. W, Hender- —
son, prison chaplain, and Dr. J ad
Hunter of Phoenix, former oha
Dr. Hunter rem

ar sts Seale

hanus and Baker after hearing the story.

“T think the killer was lying about the auto-
mobile and his wife,” the sheriff said. “But
it will do no harm to make sure. I’m going
to call Ben Daniels in Tucson and get him
busy on that end, and I promised to call
Sullivan at Gila Bend.”

Pima County Sheriff Daniels agreed to in-
quire at the Willard Hotel and at every other
lodging place in Tucson for information on
Estaver. “Cox, the manager at the Willard,
should know something about it,” Daniels
said. “If we get anything I'll call you.”

It was, as Polhamus had said, a bizarre
story. .What had prompted the sudden
vicious assault on the Johnsons? The sheriff’s
snap judgment that Estaver was lying about
his broken-down car and his wife was based

principally on the Yuma officer’s knowledge.

of Arizona roads.

The photograph of the -Cadillac stuck in
the sand could. not have been made on the
Blythe road. It must have been taken in
the dune country between Yuma and El
Centro, Cal. The best and most direct road
from Tucson to Yuma would have brought
the Johnsons along the line of the railroad,
over a good highway, through Casa Grande,
Gila Bend and Sentinel. .

These facts cast a sinister light on the
dentist’s recommendations. Polhamus was
convinced the trip had been arranged with
murder in mind. The Johnsons had been
lured into following an almost deserted
road through an uninhabited wasteland. The
killer had chosen an ideal spot for his crime,
but Johnson’s courage ‘had ruined his scheme.

Had Johnson been slain by those first”

shots, the bodies of the Denver couple could
have been buried in the desert. There was
every probability that the facts of their dis-
appearance in that case would never have
been brought to light. The killer stood to
gain possession of the new Dodge, John-
son’s personal effects and the $900 in cash
found in Johnson’s wallet.

When Special Agent Sullivan parted com-
pany with Baker and Polhamus, he had 20
minutes to wait before the signal repairman,
Jack Sleeths, came along on his handcar.

“What are you doing afoot in the middle
of the desert, Pat?” Sleeths demanded.

Sullivan briefed the crime. When _ he
reached the point where he was telling
of the man with the little feet who left the
scene of the shooting and headed north on
foot, Sleeths jumped for. the starter‘ on the

~handcar. “Why, I saw a little guy walking

down the ‘right-of-way not more than three
miles back. He asked me where he could
get water and I told him to try Gila Bend.”

Tz: HANDCAR motor sputtered to life.
Sullivan scrambled aboard. A stranger on
the desert looking for water was suspicious.

Sleeths pushed the little gas car to its’

top speed. Sixteen minutes later he pointed
to a section marker and shouted, “He was
here when I saw him!”

- They rolled on. Suddenly in the distance
Sullivan could see the figure of a man bobbing
along over the-ties.. As they drew closer,
Sleeths nodded confirmation. ‘“That’s him.”

The walker turned, saw the approaching
handcar and stepped off the track.

The stranger was a short, slender man with
dark straight hair, deep-set brown eyes, a
high forehead and a rather sharp. straight
nose. He was wearing a conservative business
suit. The cuffs and collar of his shirt were
stained, and he had the appearance of a man
who had traveled a long way on foot.

Sullivan made sure his short-barreled .38
was free in its shoulder holster, as he stepped
off the handcar. “Where are you going,
partner ?” :

The little man in the business suit mopped
his forehead. “I’m looking for water.”

“Where did you come from?”

“My car broke down back on the road.”

“How far back?”

“Quite a way. I've been walking all night.”

“Where were you coming irom?”

“Yuma. Kind of inquisitive aren’t you,
mister? I didn’t rob the bank or run off
with the farmer's daughter. A spring broke
in my car and I set out to get help and find
water.”

The-fingers of Sullivan’s right hand dis-
appeared inside his coat. When they came
out the .38 was covering the suspect. “I’m
with the railroad police. If you walked the
tracks all night you passed through two
towns. Sentinel and Stoval. So you didn’t
come from Yuma, mister. There is traffic
enough on the highway so you wouldn’t have
to walk anyhow. Maybe you can give the
right answers when we get into Gila Bend.
That’s where we’re going and you’re under
arrest.”

The little man grinned good-maturedly.
“That’s where I’m bound and I’ll be glad of a
lift. Let’s go. You can put away your
artillery.”

Not for a moment would Sullivan be
thrown off guard by the stranger’s acquies-
cence. He stepped closer, keeping the little
man covered. With his left hand he began
to search the other’s pockets. ‘

Beneath the man’s waistband he found
a .32-caliber Mauser automatic. “Now we'll
go, bud,” he said gruffly.

It took the little handcar nearly an hour

-to reach Gila Bend. The station master was

waiting for them with a telegraphic descrip-
tion from Polhamus of the wanted man.
Sullivan read the wire, then handed it to
his prisoner. “If the shoe fits, you better
put it on, Estaver.”
In Yuma Peter Johnson identified Sulli-
van’s prisoner as the man.who had murdered

Consolation Prize

In Phoenix, Ariz., Eleanor Mazur
got little consolation from the note
a thief left in the place of underthings
and blouses taken from her clothes-
line.:“You have good taste,” the rob-
ber complimented.

Mrs. Johnson and who had shot him. A com-
parison of the exploded .32 shells ‘found in
Johnson’s car showed they had been fired
by the automatic Sullivan had taken from
Estaver.

The little man promptly changed his story.
He admitted his identity and confessed that
he had ridden with the Johnsons. “But I
didn’t shoot them. Two bandits opened fire
on us from the side of the road. I got out my
gun from my handbag, put in four shells and
fired back.”

Estaver elaborated on the attempted holdup
and his valor. “I was climbing out on the
running board to fight them better when
Johnson started the car and shook me off.”

The story was ridiculous, but Polhamus
let him talk. The slugs taken from the
body of Mrs. Johnson and from her husband’s
wounds would, he knew, prove definitely
who had done the shooting. Moreover, they
had already recovered eight empty shells,
which refuted Estaver’s claim that he. had
fired only four times. He and Baker and
Sullivan had carefully searched the ground
at the scene of the attack. They had found no
other footprints. Nothing at all to indicate
more than one man had been involved.

Estaver was lodged in the Yuma County
jail. A re-examination of the scene established
that the murder had been committed in Pima
County. The prisoner and all the evidence
were turned over to District Attorney George
Darnell and Sheriff Daniels of Tucson.

In the interim Daniels had not been idle. |

He had*learned that Estaver had registered
at the Willard Hotel on November 14 under
the name of J. C. Beck. From November 11

to 13, he had lived at the St. Francis Hotel
in Phoenix under the same alias.

In Tucson Estaver had approached sev-
eral tourists and solicited a ride on the
basis of his claim that his car was broken
down in’ Sentinel. Checking this angle,
Daniels learned that a month earlier, on
October 22, Estaver and a woman _ posing
as his wife had spent several days at Brown's
Hotel in Sentinel. On this earlier trip they
actually did have a car break-down, and
G. R. McGaw, the railroad telegrapher at
Sentinel, had pulled them in from 18 miles
east of town. :

KEstaver had undoubtedly drawn on_ this
past experience to make his story con-
vincing. Daniels learned that Peter John-
son’s first stop in Tucson had not been at
the Dodge agency. Instead he had gone
directly to the Citizen’s Bank where he
cashed $1,000 worth of traveler’s checks.

An officer of the bank identified a picture
of Estaver as that of a man who. had been
in the bank for several hours on the four-

teenth of November. It was obvious that

Estaver had seen Johnson receive the money
and then laid his, plans accordingly.

On April 10, 1922—five months after the
crime in the desert—William Estaver was
brought to trial on a charge of murder in the
Pima County superior court of Judge Sam-
uel L. Pattee.

District Attorney George Darnell and As-
sistant District Attorney Ben Mathews repre-
sented the state. Estaver had employed
Arizona’s most outstanding criminal lawyer,
John L. VanBuskirk, to defend him.

The trial dragged on for 13> days and
resulted in a hung jury.

Much of the state’s case was based on
circumstantial evidence. Reter Johnson posi-
tively identified Estaver as.the stranger who
had begged a ride, but the elderly man
made no attempt to conceal his personal
desire to have Estaver convicted. VanBuskirk
did everything possible to discredit the old
man’s memory,‘and when the first jury was
discharged the lawyer predicted that the
second trial would bring freedom to his client.
Trial was reset on the calendar.

Sheriff Daniels, convinced that FEstaver
was guilty, spent long hours rechecking the

evidence. On the twelfth of May the sheriff

made a startling discovery. He identified
William Estaver as Paul V. Hadley, an es-
caped Texas convict, who had once been con-
victed of murder for the killing of Sheriff
W. T. Giles of Jefferson County, Tex.

In 1916-Hadley and his second wife Ida
were honeymooning in Kansas City. Hadley
was arrested on a swindling charge and
Sheriff Giles came to Kansas City to re-
turn Hadley to Texas.

The prisoner’s bride begged to be taken
along. .Giles consented and near Muskogee,
Okla., Ida handed her husband a gun. In
the struggle which followed Giles was killed
and the Hadleys escaped.

They wefe arrested 24 hours later. Hadley
was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1919
he was released on a 60-day parole to attend
to some business affairs. He had never re-
turned to the prison.

This new information wiped out Hadley’s
claim of injured innocence. At his second
trial the state proved beyond quest*on that
the bullets which killed Mrs. Johnson had
been fired from Hadley'’s gun,

The jury deliberated less than 60 minutes,
then found Paul Hadley guilty of murder in
the first degree.

On April 13, 1923, Paul Hadley, two-time
loser, who had lured the Johnsons on that
fatal ride, climbed the 13 steps to the gallows
in the death house of the Arizona state
prison at Florence. At 19 and a half minutes
past 5 on that morning of Friday the thir-
teenth, Dr. Fred Perkins pronounced him
dead.

The little ex-con, twice convicted of mur-
der, was buried in the prison compound.

ON THE NEX

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HADLEY, Paul V., white,

by BILL KELLY
red blaze of sun fell
behind Dead Man’s
Peak, and the desert
became an eerie land of
grotesque shadows and
alarming silhouettes.
Ranger-bred Bobs Turner, en route
to her father’s ranch adjacent Ajo,
Arizona, hastened her car down the
dusty road, her eyes glimpsing fear-
fully at every outspread scrub and
26

A CRIME

CLASSIC

boulder as through she expected
something supernatural to reach out
from the shadows of the mesa and
grab her.

A few months ago the sprightly

‘Weal

mn)

CASS
DETECTIVE DRAGNET, June, 1994

hanged AZ (Pima) April 1%, 1923.

redhead would have relished the sun-
set and the cool of the desert
evening, but these November days
she recalled only the hideous stories
she had heard about a demon with
claw fingers who bushwhacked his
prey at twilight. She remembered that
his victims were raped, then robbed
of their money. She never intended
to be caught by dusk on the open
prairie. If it had not been for a flat,
she would have been safely home by
now.

Paul Hadley, |
the s

The pretty, 23-
dered with antici
ness of the road
down near ane
sage and cactus.
ily bogged in tl
Bobs stepped o
he was on the rn
ing a gun at her

“Stop!” he co
I'll blow your h
to throw him b:
from left to righ
the driver’s winc
keys from the ig

“You desert gi
you?” the strang:
what you’ve g:
blouse and bra
posing her brea
see if you’re as
He dragged her
ing to a shady s
naked. “Don’t be
“It’s my tradem:

All during the

jo and Stoval.
iker and Sulli-
se while Pol-
ness with the
val. The under-
-d by Deputy
Yuma County.
yn to watch the
d Baker back-
ae Dodge was
‘ove across the
ronwood, mes-
three officers
ty to negotiate

y,” Baker said
i with his wife

2 been figuring
it, but a man
this will give

gh,” Polhamus
r know what

eir admiration
ze increased.
he sheriff’s car
nths mile, the

ere,” he said.
ing her going

ind. The story
ncing to their
re no shells or
murder scene.
vent the night
‘It would have

arther on they
the Dodge had
, searched the
are were flecks
footprints, and
ore brass shell
‘d from a .32

id west acfoss
ft these,” Pol-
heading for, the

to retain more
1 of the foot-
but details of

to Pima Coun-
ate, we’re close

north he was
d, the highway
uld then follow
ues, either east
2 was the only
this desert spot

1 12-hour start.
follow him on
‘hance he could
ed the security

so they could
officers headed
»ached Cronk’s
. Johnson and
2, Mrs, John-
o Yuma.

legrapher, sent

ed on page 57)

amille

(Continued from page 36)

herub,
row ‘had been a
seemednto settle
parted

missing the laughin
disliked this affair.
wild boy, and marriage had.s
him down. Would he stay settled i
from his family ?

Scarcely believing yet that Camille had
actually gone away for good—although she’d
planned to visit her widowed mother in Ashe-
boro, 125 miles to the northwest, in a short
time—Little peered: into his stepson’s bed-
room as he passed. He was surprised to note
that her locker-type trunk and another suit-
case she owned were still under the bed.

“Said she didn’t want ’em,” young Wood-
row explained. “I’m going to burn them up.
I don’t want things around reminding me of
her. She took everything she’ll need.”

That seemed true enough. The baby’s
clothes were gone, and many of Camille’s
garments had been removed from _ hooks,
hangers and drawers.

“What time did they leave?” Little asked.

“Early this morning,” Woodrow answered
“L walked her down to the highway nd
waited until we saw the bus coming. f
you’re through breakfast, Pa, you better/Zo
to bed. You've been working _alf night/

Little shook his head. ‘“I-wouldn’f/sleep,”
he said.

ulia Ann, he:

his neighbor about their having left home.
“What ‘I can’t figure out,” he said, “is
Woodrow’s telling me he walked them down
to the highway to catch the bus when there
ain't a track in the road except my own.”
“The rain maybe washed ’em out,” Johnson

‘suggested. “What did you have in mind?”

“I know that boy,” Little said. ‘“He’s had
some trouble, but I don’t think there’s a mean
bone in Woodrow’s body. Yet I’m sure he

didn’t go with them down to the road. He”

said he did, most likely, just because he was
sorry he’d let Camille and ‘the baby go’ of
alone. But my guess is they started“seme-

here else and never got there.”

Nhat are you driving ate Johnson
wantedsto know. ;

“T wish could say for stire,” Little re-

joined. “Maybe they’re i e swamps.: May-

be they were hetding across the fields to your
place and got lost.\.Maybe somebody picked
’em up along the Wa ee
“Maybe you bétter seethe sheriff,” John-
son suggested/“1f they're it\the swamps we'd
better get wp searching-party at once. I'll
go along: i. ,
AtAhe’ Little dwelling they“found Wood-
ro drning the pieces of Camille
id Auitcase. The stepfather and hisheigh-
of said nothing, but drove off in Johnsdn’s
achine toward the county seat.
Snuggled against the deep-running Cape
Fear River, Elizabethtown, N. C., is a bus-
tling little city and once the center of the big

tobacco trade for which the river was at one :

time the main highway.

Edgar Little lived about seven miles up-
river. It was midmorning when he and John-
son entered the office of Sheriff H. Manly
Clark in the Bladen County courthouse.

Clark heard Woodrow’s story as retold by
the stepfather and put through a long distance
call to Asheboro. The police chief there said
he would see whether Camille and Julia Ann
had arrived or if they were expected at the

trunk .

young mother’s former ho ‘Mes
the sheriff advised his § to-Wait in town
for the reply. a on ;

“Most likely just a cotiple’s ordinary spat-
ting,” he said-““‘I never yet heard of a bride
who didn’t’Say least once she was going
back to“mama-

Later in“the day Camille’s mother phoned

the’shefiff. She had been expecting her

Aa ghter to visit her with little Julia Ann,

bdt Camille and her child had not arrived in
Asheboro and had sent no word of their com-
ing. The bus which they would have taken
if Woodrow’s story was true already had
reached the city to the north, and Camille
and Julia Ann had.not been aboard.

“TI guess I better go out and look around,”
Clark told Little. fim not going to jump to
any conclusions about Woodrow, but you've
got to remember where he spent a couple of
years, ...”

Ed Little remembered, all right. It was a
memory which galled him .to the core, al-
though there was nothing much he could have
done to prevent what happened, and he had
— really With which to reproach him-
self.

Woodrow Ewing hadn’t had much of a
chance as a kid. His dad died when he was
a small boy, and his mother was unstable.
The lad went only through the second grade
af school before he was big enough to quit
lassroom for the mill workshop, where

Edgar Little?
were showing t

eady his headstrong ways
; es. Little tried to cor-
rect the boy, but was-n ery successful. At
last came the day when, is early teens,
Woodrow stole a bicycle, ws.caught and
sentenced to the Jackson Training School, a
reformatory. His mother meanwhile had been
committed to a mental institution.

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detectives heard the story which repaid them
for their herculean work. It was the end
of an amazing trail and as D’Antonio spoke
they were glad that they had stayed on it.

The youth said that he and Joe Bartulis
had been sauntering along Pierrepont Street
about 3 o’clock on the morning of November
19, 1944, looking for a likely robbery victim.
The man he learned later was Ralph Oliver
came along. Oliver was alone. -

“We stayed behind him until he was at
the dark parking lot,” D’Antonio said. “Then
Joe ran up and grabbed him from behind.
He got him so tight around the throat that
the guy never made a sound. Joe dragged
him into the parking lot and held him on
the ground.

“I stayed on the sidewalk watching for
people or cars but nothing came along. In
about five minutes Joe came out. He had

some bills, about $25 and a gold wristwatch.

He gave me $10 and kept the rest of the
money and the watch.”

D’Antonio said that they split immediately.
Not long afterward the youth had been
drafted. He had been extremely careful
about writing or letting his contacts with
Bartulis become known.

D’Antonio was still revealing his damning
story when Bartulis was brought in. But
even when confronted by his erstwhile chum,
the burly ex-convict denied all connection
with the slaying.

On Saturday, February 9, 1946, police
formally charged both with the murder of
Ralph Oliver.

They were placed in separate city prisons
pending presentation of the case to the Kings
County grand jury, and on March 15, 1946,
both were indicted on charges of first degree
murder. They were held without bail to
await trial.

Desert Doom

(Continued from page 40)

hand to tell you the old man is conscious,”
Deputy Johnson reported. “They found a
statement in his clothes which he must have
writter? last night. He named William 5.
Estaver, a Detroit dentist, as the one who
shot him and killed his wife.”

Polhamus digested this new information.
“Pm going to Yuma,” he said. “You better
come with me, Baker. If Johnson’s talking,
now is our chance to get:a description and
enough information to know the man we're
after.’ He turned to his deputy. “You can
follow us in the Dodge. No point in keeping
it out here any longer. Better come along,
Sullivan.”

The railroad officer shook his head. “Just
drop me on the right-of-way. We've got a
signal repairman named Jack Sleeths work-
ing this section with a gas Car. When he
comes along I’ll get him to take me into Gila
Bend. Maybe we can run into the man who
walked away from that car last night.”

“Good idea,” the sheriff agreed. “As soon
as we talk to Johnson we will contact you
in Gila Bend.”

One hour and 25 minutes later Polhamus
and Baker were ushered into a sunny room
in Sister’s Hospital at Yuma. Peter John-
son, his neck and shoulder swathed in band-
ages, turned a gaunt face to them from the
pillow. His voice was weak’ but steady as
he poured out the strange story of the
tragedy on the desert.

On the second of November Johnson and
his wife had left Denver to drive to Cali-
fornia. They had rejected a direct route in
order to pass through Tucson, which they
reached on the afternoon of November 14.

There they went directly to the Dodge
agency. Parking his car in front, Johnson
walked in to inquire regarding some small
repairs. When he returned to the car he
found Mrs. Johnson in conversation with a
slender, dark-haired, neatly dressed man who
appeared to be in his middle 30s.

“This gentleman is in trouble and needs
help, dad,’ Mrs. Johnson said. “His car
is broken down between here and Yuma and
he is looking for a ride.”

The stranger nodded affirmation. “That’s
right. I had to come into Tucson to get
some parts. My wife and the car are in
Stoval. I’ve got the parts and I’d certainly
appreciate a lift out. there.”

Johnson motioned to his’ heavily loaded
rear seat. “I’m afraid we can’t take you,”
he said. “Anyway, we have been figuring
on following the Blythe road.” .

The stranger looked at the loaded Dodge
and warned Johnson against the road, show-
ing him a photo of a car stuck in the sand

and saying it was his machine on a previous
trip. He recommended a cutoff through Ajo,
and, upon Jearning the Johnsons had not yet
engaged hotel rooms, he suggested the
Willard,

He also handed Johnson a card identify-
ing himself as William S. Estaver, a Detroit
dentist.

HE JOHNSONS found the hotel com-

fortable and the food good. Estaver him-
self was not registered there when they ar-
rived, but came by later.

Feeling grateful and sorry for the Detroit
dentist’s plight, Johnson ‘changed his mind
about taking him as a passenger. He had
figured out a way to accommodate Estaver
despite his heavy load in the Dodge.

“It won’t be much trouble,” the assured the
stranded Detroiter. “We've got a trunk we
can take out and ship by express. Then
there will be room for you to ride with us,
if you won't mind a bit of crowding.”

“P’ll be glad to pay the express charges,”
Estaver offered.

The deal was made and it was agreed that
Estaver would meet Johnson early in the
morning to help reload the car.

The Johnsons and their guest left Tucson
a few minutes before 9 o’clock November 15,
with the dentist riding in the rear. It was
nearly dusk when they reached Ajo, and
Johnson suggested spending the night at
the new Cornelia Hotel there. But Estaver
insisted that it was only another hour’s drive
to Stoval over a good road. “There is a
very fine hotel there,” he said, “and I'd like
to rejoin my wife tonight.”

“We'd come about 15 miles’ from Ajo,”
Johnson continued, “when this fellow started
shooting. He shot me first, then he killed
Anna, then he shot me again. The car
stopped, but the motor was still going. I
knew we had to get out of there. Estaver
climbed out. of the car and was on the run-
ning board right beside me at the time. I
think he wanted to make sure of me. I got
the machine in low gear and stepped on the
gas hard. He wasn’t expecting it and fell off.

“T drove as far as I could in the dark. Then
I stopped and sat there. I knew he might
come up on us, but Anna was dead and I
was too done for to care. This morning I
got to where those folks found me.”

Old Peter Johnson lay back on the bed ex-
hausted. Polhamus and Baker assured him
they would do everything in their power to
trap Estaver.

As they left the hospital, the sheriff speedily
mapped his campaign. Johnson’s was a
strange story and there were a dozen loose
ends to be checked. ;

Joe Kelly, chief special agent in command
of the division’s railway police, was waiting
in the sheriff’s office when the two officers
arrived.

“’ve got a man at Stoval who can look
around the hotel there,” Kelly informed Pol-

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p Address. .cssccessceeccevecersccccres B 57

9 tees

hae te Hae pe ame

YO a aN

d st state « execution sinc

2= 1ST, from page Al.

eae
“COD NODE

+ person executed in Arizona in nearly
sttivo decades. The Arizona Supreme
*+Court today will consider a request

* Sthat his death sentence be commuted

* *to a life term.

ae Harding is scheduled to die in
‘. + (*Arizona’s gas chamber April 6.

_. tI It would be a fateful end for a life
‘ ts “that began with uncertainty.
.. 22 Six months after Harding’s difficult

“¢

Wop p ek ee Bee

- 2 -tirth, his father abandoned the family.

; StAt age 314, placed in a tuberculosis

~Zsanitorium where his mother worked,
- ‘Harding was beaten and once dunked

, oa a toilet by a nurse for bed wetting.

~ Staring episodes, hyperactivity and
* Laggression followed, according to

* Stgourt records. By. 16, he was sen-

2ztenced to 15 years in adult prison for
- larceny and burglary. By 1980, he had
+12 felony convictions, had slashed his
. + wrist in a suicide attempt and had fled
:-an Arkansas prison.’ Harding’s angry
:~dnd violent young life reached a
‘critical point when-he was convicted
‘Zand sentenced to death for the brutal
+t£980 beating and shooting deaths of
>>two businessmen at a Tucson motel
sand a third man at a Phoenix motel.
*<7 Now, a dozen years later, Harding
Stil awaits the finality that he seems
> Sure will come.
-:2 “‘I can’t think of anyone more
* «tired than I am,’” Ralph Fowler, a
::pastor, quoted the condemned man as
ssaying.

_ tt Fowler frequently talks to Harding.

aoe In fact, Fowler said, Harding
“described a _Stay of execution in
January as “a letdown” and indicated
-that he is prepared to die.

‘-: In his path are attorneys who
* cbelieve Harding has had everything
a ‘but legal justice in the matter and who
- cHave filed more motions to appeal his
te -death sentence involving the Tucson
> smurders.

- “There are fundamental constitu-

eae

* Bioal problems with the way it (the -

: =éase). had: been handled,” said James
‘Belanger, a lawyer with the Arizona
+ Capital Representation Project, which
- supplies attorneys to help death-row

By Pamela Manson
The Arizona Republic

Grant Woods argued eloquently
against the death penalty when he
was a defense attorney, once telling
a judge that he would be committing
murder if he sentenced a man to die.

__ Now, as attorney general, Woods
argues that executions -have been
delayed too long and is pushing for:..

the first time since 1963. 02
“I think there is overwhelming

support for. the death penalty,”

Woods said. “Most want it carried

carried out.”

Woods - said ‘it’s’ a “realistic
possibility” that Donald ‘Eugene
Harding, whose appeal ‘goes to the
Arizona Supreme Court’ today, will
die in the state’ s gas chamber: April

the state to put a man to death for’ <mi
= He

out humanely, but eae 5 warit.. ‘it

During his campaign for offices:
Woods expressed support for the
death penalty. Since becoming attor-~
ney general, he has met with federal”
judges to urge swift action on death -
cases and has supported feeataticn
to curtail appeals.
: “Jt’s-a matter of simple justice,”
Woods said. “Arizona believes in thes
-death- . penalty and tough punish-i
“ment. :

“tejects ‘the argument that an
“innocent<person could" be executed, a

“saying theclegal system’s ‘safeguards?

make’ ‘that:virtually impossible. 3
Woods ‘said every. “death-row in-*

‘now says that the client ‘whose life®
he unsuccessfully begged.a judge to%
spare —*Murray Hooper, who was =
convicted of a 1980 double slaying :
— was guilty and deserved: the as.

penalty:

mate in the state is guilty. And hes:

Woods once fought death ae ae now Sacks it

Woods, who represented Hooper
as a public defender, told the judge
before sentencing that Hooper was
innocent.

my f had to argue on his behalf,”
Woods said, explaining that lawyers

; are obligated to advocate strongly

for, their. clients in court. “My
personal. views were irrelevant. That
was the only argument-I could come —

Up. “with. -That - was his s- (Hooper’s)

view, “not my.: view.” pee. Es am

+~ sees. the “case“as att example .of*a"*
system that give jeonyicts. too. many.

; appeals. ie ae
Knapp spent 12 years on death
row in ‘the. fire deaths of his

daughters before winning a new trial
in his.seventh appeal. His lawyers
; successfully. argued : that hi

‘deserved a new day in court because
new scientific evidence showed that
the girls may have set the Mesa
house fire accidentally.

The new trial ended late last year
in a hung jury.

“Knapp should have been exe-
cuted a long time ago,” Woods said.
“Why put someone in prison for life
if; decadéS.from now, we-think ‘that —
«Science may give us.a new theory?

“We. do” the best wécan with.
what we have today. Knapp is an-
example of a system-gone awry.”

--If Harding dies. April: 6; Woods
said, ‘there will be no'celebration;

“I reject, ‘the. idea that: anyone in
this office-is:jumping up.and down
at the thought of an‘execution,” he
said. “No one will. be happy about
the death of another person.’ There
just will be satisfaction that jostior is
done.”

inmates through: the spicall process.
At issué now is whether Harding’s

reported brain disorder. and the-harsh

days that marked his youth — néver

- addressed during his. sentencing as

mitigating factors — should:spare him
from becoming the first <inmate
executed in Arizona since 1963° _-

The crime itself has. been rehashed,
almost painfully detailed, in court and
in news reports. ~

An assailant, posing . asa security
guard, entered the Phoenix motel
room of Allen Gage on Jan. 25, 1980.
Gage was bound and gagged, robbed
and left lying face down on the floor,
where he died of asphyxiation.

Hours later, Martin Concannon
and Robert Wise, business associates,
were hogtied, beaten, then shot at
close range in the head and chest
during a robbery in a Tucson motel.

Wise was pummeled so badly that
pices of a wooden lamp lodged inside
his temple and mouth; Concannon,
blind-folded and gagged with socks,
had his throat cut.

_ tion,

+ 4 eae ite

"Afterwards, the sangiliht went to's
Wise’s Mesa home and asked. his wifes
for “Bob,” an.experiencé..that would =:
traumatize. her. family for-years. He~
left, probably because.a large dog and 3.
child were. present, according to az
profile on Harding that was. comnplied
by the “state - Attomey... General’s
Office. E

Harding was arrested in Flagstaff. ;
the next day, driving Concannon’s
borrowed Oldsmobile Cutlass and

self every day and has never been able:
to exactly recall what: happened or-
how he got mixed up in those things,”
Fowler said.

Psychologists and other medical
experts - -enlisted by Belanger contend,
in papers filed with the court, that
Harding has organic brain dysfunc-
which causes -- uncontrollable.
impulses, blackouts. and staring epi-
sodes. In that interpretation, Harding

: could -not “have been’. ea of
premeditated, . -first-degree- murder.
First-degree murder i is the only Capital
offense in Arizona... -. -

Attorney - General - Grant Woods

eee

disputes that,. saying the crime had.

been. planned..

Harding suggested he was coherent
; and in ‘control during. the crimes,

telling a”detective in an interrogation

: that his decisions to kill some of his
- robbery victims and spare others were
carrying an empty -25-caliber hase :

“value judgments.”
One. of those who cannot sympa-

's thize is Pam Concannon.
However, he “wrestles within him- ;:
¢ body, he’s a danger — to me and to
* society,” the 36-year-old widow of
‘ Martin Concannon ‘said.-“I-can only.
feel safe when’ he’s ‘finally
‘death, to give a finalment to-all this.” -

“As long as there’s a breath in his

put. to

For all the havoc swirling around,
him, Harding seems sure. of two.
things: he’d rather die the-less painful
death of -a lethal injection,-and he
wants to shield his mother, Maycle
Brown, from pain and sorrow,. Fowler

said.

on his youth, especially-of his : scarring

stay at the Arkansas ‘prison; where ~
torture, fights and sexual assaults of

inmates were common, Fowler said.

Prison documents say Harding was
treated in the prison hospital several
times, including once for spitting up
blood.

“That experience at such a young

age warped me. I’ve never been the
same,” Harding told Fowler at one
time, according to notes Fowler took
of that visit.

' It was “people at their worst, men
at their ugliest,” Harding reportedly
said.

Fowler, for one, believes Harding
now “is a different man” than the
man who committed the homicides
more than a decade ago.

._ “This is a man I wouldn’t be

uncomfortable with in inviting to
dinner,”
people don’t feel that way and, to be
honest, I understand.”

On occasion,. ec would reflect’

Fowler said. “I know a lot of

STATE
EDITION

THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC ..

‘Tuesday, March 17, 1992

Phoenix, Arizona :

- 102nd year, No. 304

Tax to aid baseball falling short

Cactus League improvernents may be pared

By Eric Miller
The Arizona Republic

‘Maricopa County may have to scale in

; improvements at Cactus League facilities signifi-
cantly because it took in less than half of what it
expected in the first month of a rental-car tax,
officials said Monday.

The tax of $1.50 per reatil contract raised
$99,981 in January, according to Howard Boice, a.
spokesman for the state Department of Revenue.

That’s less than half of the $217,000 county

Officials expected ‘in the first month, said’ Eric’

Anderson, a county-policy adviser who made the

_~ projections.

“We're going to try not to panic,” Anderson said.
“But if revenues continue at the $100,000-a-month
level, obviously, under that revenue scenario, we
can’t build “any new stadiums unless the Board of
Supervisors increased the surcharge to $2.50.

"_- “The $100,000-a-month level would significantly
limit our ability not just to build new facilities, but

do any major new facilities for existing teams. We'd
just be ry hamstrung.”

_ — See RENTAL-CAR TAX, page A2

Don Harding /.
May become the
first. person
executed in

Arizona in nearly _

three decades.
The Arizona .-
Supreme Court:
today will
considera _
request that his
death sentence
be commuted to
a life term.

Dark life
at its end?

State con faces death

. By Abraham Kwok
The Arizona Republic

Don Harding’s life seemed fated to. be dark even ‘before

- he first opened his eyes to the world.

A doctor who was supposed to deliver Harding was
‘stranded when the physician’s car broke down. The doctor -
‘showed up 90 minutes after Donald Eugene Harding: was

born with his umbilical’ cord wrapped around his neck;
choking him.
Doctors now believe that may have contributed i in part
to brain damage and impulses that Harding cannot control.
Forty-three years later, Harding may become the first

— See 1ST, page A2

-TIOT

tet hod tes Bee
ry

LOTy Oe oT our
LAS '

—

Between the holding cell and the gas chamber
are two phones, one red and one beige, on counters ~-.

should » execute - those . sentenced .to

_ how Arizona
death.

by eight Christian denomina-
rganized campaign against

‘begun ano

penalty...
or

ley might be bolstered

tions that have
the death

recently installed by prison workers. The red line _

connects the prison to the governor’s office.

g, 42.
ppeal, Harding

The vote might come too late for Hardin

Should his attorneys fail in his a
will be moved from death row in Cell Block 6 of the

state prison in Florence to the “condemned” room —

two holding cells adjacent to the

death house

Sled te

Monsign

olic Conference, said the debate on

the method of éxé

1 Edward J. Ryle, executive director of
the Arizona Ca)

The chamber is set into blue walls. Five thick
windows look out to a.stark witness room and to

team will prepare a solution of distilled water and

smaller rooms, including one where the execution |
acid.

gas chamber in the
, a tan plaster and windowless building

that sits north of an inmate industrial work yard.

e inhumanity is
“It is a terrible tragedy

le said.

e hu
tRy
ne,

umane when th
1é'Jnurdered or assaulted. But is

violence by the state’

lence?”

ction is ironic.

0.
33 eh

“How is ‘itm

the death penalty?
to have a loved o

Hoodless, Harding will be strapped into the
metal chair. Underneath, cyanide would rest above

the solution and then be dropped in

deadly hydrogen cyanide gas.

The holding cells are cages to the side of the gas
chamber. Inmates who come here are guarded con-

_tinuously by two corrections officers.

appropriate response to vio-

a >

: 2B
shee gt
“Oo get
Ss ogs

@ 238
is A
CS =o
5S 2EU
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2 S55
ec |
sug>
— ®
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, creating a misty,

“What a guy does‘ts try to hold his breath. But
_When he finally takes that gulp of air his head drops “.

Harding would get his last meal there. He also
would have a last visit with clergy.:He would-be al-
lowed to meet with family up to six hours before the

execution, which is scheduled fof: 12:05 a.m.

on. if

ye left up to voters.

¥,.3 general ele

e execution method
they want to amend the constitution and det

nine

See DEATH, Page 2B

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rfpufar ARIZONA “DAILY STAR

Death

“Continued from Page 1B
and he dies instantly,” said John

“Avenenti, the recently retired dep-.

uty warden of the state prison and a

switness to four executions, including |

that of Manuel Silvas in 1963. Silvas,

a . 43-year-old Coolidge tavern ~

‘owner, had been convicted of mur-
dering Beatriz Mankel, 34, a Casa
Grande’ mother of four. The two
were lovers.

+ Dr. Bruce Parks,

causes asphyxia.
“Tt causes symptoms within sec-

shh.

3 BROW ’ Feb. 22, H

8 a Tucson, Fed. 22,
_, CANDELARI Nicholas A., 30, Tucson, Feb. 22, .
BUMES, Wiliam |. 79, Tucson, Feb. 21, Abbey.

WRER, Raymond E., 73, Tucson, Feb. Bi, Hudoet's

Swan: :
RABOIN, William J., 59, Benson, Feb. 20, Tucson.

» RENTERIA, Juan G.; 66, Tucson, Feb. 21, Tucson.
SENECAL, Elizabeth F., 55, Tucson, Feb, 20, Tucson.

’ edent.

onds and death within minutes,”

Parks said.

Changing that method of execu-

tion is neither easy nor without prec-

Arizona has executed 63

~ eight were hanged. '

Eva Dugan, convicted of killing a:
Tucson chicken farmer and the only:

3 Pima County ..
‘medical, . examiner, said. the gas -~

» » Death: penalty .
.* struck'down by the U.S. Supreme
3 Court 20 years ago. Death sentences,

| the court said, were imposed errati-
- cally :

Forced the change |
The gruesome hanging in 1930 of

people.
since statehood in 1912, Twenty-,
.. new.,.hearings, ,resulting in re-

~ mates. ©

woman executed by Arizona, helped

force a change to the gas chamber.
‘Dugan was a heavy woman. When
the trapdoor dropped, the noose
ripped off her head. . Se oe
statutes : were

- and — capriciously. = and
amounted to “cruel and unusual

.punishment” in violation of the

Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Con-
stitution. .

But capital punishment was up-

PR AORS ON 9 Lg A a Sipe ny

“1976. The next year, convicted mur- s

derer Gary Gilmore was killed by a
Utah firing squad.

In 1978,. Arizona’s death penalty.
was shaken again. .

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled
that those on death row were due

sentencings for the death row in-

Penalty upheld
However, since revisions were

: made in the 1980s, the death penalty

law has been upheld by the U.S. Su-

‘preme Court in the case of Jeffrey

Alan Walton... 2

“Walton was barely

20 years old in
March 1986 when he and two others
took Marine Cpl. Thomas Dale
Powell to the desert west of Tucson.
Walton shot Powell in the head and
left him for dead. :
'.*Powell lived for six days. Blinded
by the shot, he eventually died of
exposure and pneumonia.

“Since the Walton: case, six other
cases appealed to the 9th U.S. Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals in San Fran-

uulme Wrnorul PIOeNIX. cai aie ie

With those decisions and Hard-

ing’s execution date, Arizona is - bye! :

closer to executing a death row in-
mate than at any time since 1963.

Injection more humane

State Rep. Lela Steffey, R-Mesa, is
behind the push for Arizona to fol- .
low the lead of 20 states and use le-..

thal injection as a means of execu-
tion. She says lethal injection is
more humane and more efficient.
The proposed switch forced the
Attorney General’s Office to rush to
prevent a move that would give
death row inmates yet another ave-
nue ofappeal..._—_.. cat oe
But Assistant Attorney General
Paul McMurdie persuaded Steffey
to modify her bill to allow those on

death row to choose their method of :

execution — if execution by lethal :
- injection is approved by voters. .

Pefia and Hanley say debate over

method is misdirected.

“I believe they should be pun-
ished, put away for life,” Pefia said
of convicted murderers. “I don’t like

“it when people get killed and I don’t

~ Robbery

_ Jan..6. The ron

A man Is sh
the Valley Natic

robber is asked

SS en
Sabino Ca
Hikers in Sal
ered the body ¢
yesterday. |

-The man ha

right temple, ac
County Sheriff’

, VELASQUEZ, Antonio 8. 79, Tucson, Feb, 22, T
WHEELER; Eres M, BB een Fee. 41, Hudse’s held by the U.S. Supreme Court in . cisco have been upheld. like it when the state does it.” port said the bi
— eset we dogas ane . :
= ae 2 gid ects |
Boag °
ao 4
Pog 5 Lae
Sm AK,

“the ‘Ari

vos

B8~ The Arizona Republic

Saturday, November 2, 1991

January execution

paehlbl
By'Pamela Manson
TheArizona Republic -

peti wae . .
Thestate’s first execution in more

than28 years could come in January, |

Ajizona Attorney General Grant
Woods said Friday, but a group

- zePtesenting death-row inmates said

‘sa{d the prediction is premature.

‘ ey,

i --Woods, ina -written statement, said .

that Donald Eugene Harding has

exhausted his appeals and faces a

Jan. 3 execution. 3
“We've never had someone go all

thfough the federal system and had a

ant of execution issued” since

Ww.
1963¢"said Paul McMurdie, chief

counsel of the criminal-appeals sec-

2 8 AMS

‘ tian. we

‘SOtfier inmates have come within a

day pf'a scheduled execution but still
. aye had remedies in court available,
‘ hes said. However,

exhausted the federal-appeals process,
MéMiirdie said.

“‘BitJames Belanger, a lawyer with
izona Capital Representation
Project, said that it is too soon to
expect an execution.

a Toxthink it’s premature for the

Do an .
"Hinergency medical workers at

‘Southwest Ambulance, which oper-
ates in‘nine Arize~~ cities, have voted
te oy ' ” Gey!

Harding has -

‘against unicr

possible — inmate’s |
appeals reach end
o

attorney general to be speculating
about the merits of any individual
case,” Belanger said.

Harding, 42, is under three death
sentences. He was convicted of killing
a man at a Phoenix motel during a
1980 burglary and two men at a
Tucson motel the next day during a
similar crime. He faces execution in
January for the Tucson slayings.

McMurdie said a recent U.S
Supreme Court decision that limits
appeals by death-row inmates makes
an execution more likely.

Four other inmates in the state also
are nearing the end of their appeals,
McMurdie said. He said Willie Lee

‘Richmond, who has been on death
_row since 1974, probably will be the

next inmate to exhaust his options.
- Richmond, who was convicted in a

-1973 slaying of a Pima Community

College student: during a Tucson
robbery, has been on death row longer
than anyone else in the nation.

The last, person executed in Ari-
zona was Manuel E. Silvas in 1963
There are 102 people on the state”
death row.

‘Ambulance-firm workers OK unic

ae,

. 6PM

: - The Arizona Dailn Star

Founded 1877

Michael E. Pulitedr: Publisher

Violent urges

__. Susan J. Albright, Editorial Page Editor

Execution was a symbol of the state’ S failure

Arizona was different in the cool, sweet:

air of Monday morning. Don Eugene Hard-

ing was dead, and the State was back in the

eeeen business.

‘Harding is ‘not worth mourning. He lived

an ugly life with little or no thought about
the consequences of his acts of violence. Only
his mother is likely to cry. at ‘the death of
Harding the man.
‘ To those who shot off fireworks outside
the prison after the execution, he was scum.
He didn’t deserve to live. -

In truth, he was not worth killing.

With the execution of Don Eugene Hard- |

ing, Arizona became like the killer. Like him,
the state found it impossible to control its vio-
lent urges.

' Harding tied up his victims before he

killed them, just as Arizona immobilized the
killer in the gas chamber. In neither case .

were the doomed men a threat. The state
could have left Harding locked up in a prison
cell, just as Harding could have left his vic-
tims alive after robbing them. In fact, Hard-
ing didn’t always kill those he robbed. Some
lived to tell about it. The state doesn’t always
kill, either. Murderers with good lawyers and
appealing personalities can live to tell about
it, too.

The death penalty is not an equal oppor-

tunity killer. Minorities die in disproportion- |

ate numbers.

It is not a deterrent. ‘States that execute -

people do not have lower crime rates men
states that do not.

_ It is not correctable. Innocent people are

convicted of crimes. Two California inmates
wrongly convicted of murder were recently
released after more than 17 years in prison.

It is not cheaper than life in prison. The. -

appeals process for convicted killers can cost

’ more than imprisoning a person for life.

The only. thing the death penalty is good

for is vengeance. It takes a life in payment |:
for a life or lives taken. Some would say it |

evens the score.

But some say Don Eugene Harding lived |

his life in an unconscious effort to even the
score, too. Abused and neglected almost from
birth, he responded to life’s challenges with
the brutal lessons he’d learned as a child.

It wasn’t right, but he did it. It was a
stupid effort to erase hurt by causing more

‘hurt, but he did it, anyway. Just like Ari-

zona.

Arizona became a killer early ‘Monday.

morning when it whispered death into the
still-dark day. As the first person to be exe-
cuted in Arizona since 1963, Harding became

a symbol of Arizona’s failure to rise above its |-

violent urges.
For that, the state should: mourn.

i
|

in priggniehs.2- 2. pare etal:

Decision ends years
of appeals, waiting
By Charles Kelly, Abraham Kwok

and Pamela Manson i
The Arizona Republic 4

FLORENCE — Don Eugene Harding, whose

trouble-ridden life culminated with the brutal slaying - | *-

of three Arizona businessmen in 1980, ‘on Sunday
received the definitive word on a fate designated for
him a decade ago: execution by lethal gas,

Harding’s attorneys failed late in the day in a final
bid to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. to

have his death sentence stayed-or commuted ‘to life:

ry! a it yey

--voted’ to deny a_ reprieve from
execution or commutation of Harding’s sentence
about 8 p.m.

‘ Harding, 43, was scheduled-to die at 12:05 a.m.
today, becoming the first Arizona inmate executed
since 1963. '

He visited with his mother and brother, who
made a brief but emotional appeal before the parole
board, until 6 p.m. and then waited in his jail cell for
his last visit with a minister and his attorneys. .

Harding made no special requests for his last.

meal, so he was served the same fare other prisoners
had for dinner Sunday. +s

Harding’s ‘life was marked by a traumatic .

childhood that escalated to property crimes, then, on
Jan. 25, 1980, to the robbery-slaying of business
partners Robert Wise and Martin Concannon in a
Tucson motel room. He was to be executed today for
those slayings.

He also was convicted and condemned to die for
the death of businessman Allan Gage, who, after
being robbed and gagged, was found choked to death
in a Phoenix motel room the same day the bodies of
Wise and Concannon were discovered. That death
sentence still is under appeal.

The past two years have been marked by
exhaustive appeals through the courts on claims of
Harding’s brain damage, sometimes impulsive “fits
of rage” and ineffective counsel at his 1982 trial for
the Tucson crime.

The claims, which were raised again Sunday by

defense attorneys James Belanger and Hal Sheets, ~

et — See PAROLE, page A2

spite

Pia teed
hye

4 os

ee i Pe:

een emer

) The Arizona Republic

Monday, April 6, 1992

— PAROLE, from page Al

were not enough to persuade the
six-member parole board that con-
vened to hear Harding’s last-ditch
appeals.

Belanger and Sheets spent the bulk
of their time rehashing Harding’s
organic brain disorder ‘and a child-
hood marked by abuse and lack of
care by both his parents and the
various penal institutions to which he
was sent. .

Harding’s older brother, Darrell,
talked about how his younger brother
would have “fits of rage” that would

going along just fine and “something

“-| would just click.”
“| ‘Llove him’

“I love him: and my mother loves

-| him, and we tried to take care of
-": him,” Darrell Harding said in shaky
"+ voice, ‘asking the board to “have some

real mercy, mercy from your heart”
and grant his brother a commuted
sentence to life.

Ralph Fowler, Harding’s minister,
told the board it could choose to
recommend cominuting Harding’s
sentence to life in prison or decide to
allow his execution.

_“And- if you choose the latter
(execution), I’ll be contacting another

victim — Donald’s mother,” Fowler

told the board. “You can choose life
or you can choose death. I hope you'll
choose life.”

Prosecutors maintained that Har-
ding’s meticulous crimes, from using
falsified identification to gain entrance
to his victims’ rooms to his tying and

"' gagging victims, suggest a rational

man well aware of his actions.

If the board had recommended a
_ Feprieve or commutation for Harding,
his fate would have been in/the hands
of Gov. Fife Symington, a supporter
of capita! punishment. Without the
board’s recommendation, Symington
had no authority to stop the execu-
tion.

High court cleared way

The U.S. Supreme Court on Satur-

day had cleared the way for the
: execution by lifting a stay that had
> been ordered late Thursday by the 9th
. U.S, Circuit Court of Appeals.

About 25 people were to witness
the execution. They included eight
media representatives; Florence state
prison Warden Roger Crist; Arizona
Attorney General Grant Woods and
several other elected officials; mem-

take over him. Don Harding would be .

y«
'

bers of law enforcement; lawyers; one

woman who was a relatiye of one_of--

Harding’s victims; and the physicians

a Corrections Department employee,
who was assigned to make the death

pronouncement.

Six other witnesses were invited by
Harding — five friends and a
clergyman.

Corrections Department spokes-
man Michael Arra declined to identify
most of the witnesses “for their
personal safety.”

Harding was placed in the death
house ‘Saturday afternoon, and was
visited then by his mother, Maycle
Brown, his brother, and a clergyman,
Arra said.

The routine of the prison went on
pretty much as usual despite the’
preparations for the execution, Arra
said, “

“There are no problems at the
prison,” he said. “Everything has been
normal,” ; .
Vigil outside prison

Religious leaders planned to hold a
vigil outside the prison, according to
Bishop Joseph Hiestand of the Episco-
pal Diocese of Phoenix. Hiestand is a
leader in a religious effort to abolish
the death penalty in Arizona and
replace it with life sentences without
the possibility of parole.

Harding’s execution was to be the
first to be carried out in the state in
nearly three decades. The last person
to die in Arizona’s gas chamber was
Manuel Silvas on March 14, 1963.

Prosecutors say Harding has con-
fessed to seven slayings across the
country.

Harding was to have been executed
Jan. 3 but won a three-month reprieve
to give the Arizona Supreme Court
more time to consider arguments that
his sentence should be commuted to
life.

The court denied that request
March 18 on a 3-2 vote.

Jerry Wise and Pam Concannon,
the widows of Harding’s Tucson
victims, have said they hope Har-
ding’s execution will bring a finality to
their nightmares.

Three days before his planned
execution, Harding spoke of his regret
for his victims, his opposition to the
death penalty, and his belief that,
despite all attempts to prevent it, he
would die in the gas chamber.

“I’m prepared,” he said. “I’m
ready.”

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Execution would force state to face issue, both sides agree

By Chris Limberis + -J-ILES=

The Arizona Dally Star

‘Tucson lawyer Carla Ryan’s ca-
~ reeris built on her fight to keep Ari-

zona’s death row inmates out of the.

gas chamber.

Paul McMurdie, chief of the crim-
inal appeals section of the Attorney
General’s Office, on the other hand,
devotes his time to making sure the

state’s’death penalty law is carried.

out. 32

But the two have one area of
agreement.

If Don Eugene Harding is exe-

cuted after midnight tonight or any- .

time soon it will shake Arizonans,
who have not been confronted with
an execution in 29. years. They will
-be forced to consider whether they
truly want the death penalty.

Ryan, who has assisted in Hard-
ing’s defense during his years of ap-
peals, believes the first execution
will touch off a series of executions
to follow. ©

There are 100 inmates on death
row, including one ‘woman. Sixty-
seven are Anglo, 17 Hispanic, 12
black, three American Indian and
one the state describes as “other.” .

Execution dates have been set for
two men in addition to Harding.

Donald Edward Beaty, convicted
in the murder of a 13-year-old
Tempe girl who was collecting pay-
ments on her newspaper route, is
scheduled to die May 22. Robert
Wayne. “Bonzai Bob” Vickers, who
killed two prison inmates, is to go to

-the'gas chamber a week later.

“I'really believe if the state gets
the first one, then we will see sev-
eral more rapidly,” Ryan said. “And

()

Assistant Attorney General Paul McMurdie -

we're going to find that violence
breeds violence.”

Only after several executions will
attention be drawn closely enough to
the death penalty that the Arizonans
will take steps to abolish it, Ryan
said.

“Society needs to be slapped in
the face before it will a: 7
Ryan said.

McMurdie says his interest is in
carrying out the law.

Sixty-three people were executed
by the state between 1912 and 1963,

when Manuel Silvas was put to death
for the miirder of his lover.

After-the U.S..Supreme Court
reinstated the death penalty in 1976,
Arizona. was forced to revise its
death penalty law several times.
McMurdie argued its constitutional-
ity successfully before the U.S. Su-
preme Court two years ago in the
case of Jeffrey Alan Walton.

Walton shot Marine Cpl. Thomas
Dale Powell six years ago and left
him to die. Powell wandered blind in
the desert west of Tucson for six

Photos by Benjie Sanders, The Arizona Daily Star
Tucson defense lawyer Carla Ryan

days before he died.

Harding’s execution, or another
this year, will focus attention on the
death penalty, McMurdie said.

“It will put the death penalty in
the forefront. Then after people see
one or two take place there will be
renewed debate, and the state will
have to decide if they want it,”

McMurdie said. “For 17 years the

debate has been theoretical.”
Although former Attorney Gen-

eral Bob Corbin was a death penalty

proponent, McMurdie’s_ current

CRizor4 Daily SfaR- ~“TeCSon 4z

boss, Attorney General Grant
Woods, has stepped up efforts to
carry out an execution.

Woods, a Republican in his first
term, has changed direction on the
death penalty since his days as a
public defender.

Nine years ago, Woods repre-
sented Murray Hooper, convicted of
a double murder in 1980. Woods
begged the judge to spare Hooper,
unsuccessfully.

“What the government is asking
you to do is just as vicious, just as
cruel, just as cold and calculated
and premeditated,” Woods said
then.

“IT would urge you not to take this
ultimate step ... to order a murder
yourself,” Woods told the judge.

Woods now says that he has had
no change in personal feeling, but
was simply doing his best to advo-
cate for his client.

Woods appears to have public sup-
port on the death penalty.

Pollster Bruce Merrill of Arizona
State University found in a March
survey of 600 Arizonans that 77 per-
cent favored the death penalty and
15 percent were in opposition.

To a question of appropriate pun-
ishment for murder, 53 percent said
they favored the death penalty
while 35 percent cheme life impris-
onment.

Only 8 ‘cepiact | favored the cya-
nide gas poisoning that would be
used to kill Harding. Fifty-seven
percent said lethal injection should
be used.

Results of an Arizona Republic
poll released Friday showed 67 per-
cent of 808 Arizonans questioned fa-

vored the-death penalty, with half of
those polled saying Harding should
be executed.

The method of execution has been
debated in the Legislature. Rep.
Lela Steffey, R-Mesa, is pushing a
bill to change the method to lethal
injection.

Two other legislators, Sen. Man-
uel “Lito” Pefia Jr., D-Phoenix, and
Rep. Benjamin W. Hanley, D-Win-
dow Rock, say debating that issue is
a waste of time, and the real issue is
abolition of the death penalty.

The Rev. Joseph Heistand, bishop
of the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona,
has led the religious movement to do
away the with death penalty.

Christianity, Heistand said re-
cently, “teaches us that no one is be-
yond redemption. Yet the institu-
tionalized taking of a human life
destroys the opportunity to seek re-
demption and reconciliation of the
offender.

“I believe that to succumb to the
use of capital punishment is abdicat-.
ing our responsibility as Christians
and as human beings. It is admitting.
that our intelligence and our reason.
have failed us,” Heistand said. ~.;

The United Methodist Church, at
the Desert Southwest Annual Con-
ference, issued its statement of op-
position to the death penalty on
Thursday. ;

“We grieve with those who have.
been victims of the condemned pris- :
oner but feel bound to say that vio-
lence begets violence, that capital
punishment does not deter others,’
and that its use hardens and makes
more cruel the world in which we.
live,” church officials said.

, io Ps

rey

On gallows, bushy-haired slayer awaits
fulfillment of his last request—farewell
message from his wife—before swinging
for the murder of Al Leonhardt, right.

Evidence found in killer’s room at the hotel, above, was
enough to break his alibi and send him’to the scaffold.

mortally wounded man, a 24-year-old carpenter.

Approaching Undersheriff Meyer, Doris told him
the story of the racing couple. She described how the
one dressed as a woman had pulled up her skirts and
scaled the fence with the greatest of ease.

“What else was she wearing besides a skirt?”
Meyer asked.

“A white blouse,” Doris said.

“And white lace panties,” John added.

Meyer peered at the young man and smiled. “In the
moonlight you saw the lace panties?”

“Sure did.”

“That's right,” Doris said. “And she had short
hair, like a man.”

“What else made you think this person was a man ?”

“Well, I thought the legs were too masculine, for
one thing,” Doris said.

“She wear a hat?”

“No,”

“Everything happened so quickly,” Ladlow. ex-
plained,.“‘that there wasn't much time to observe the
two closely. We couldn't see their faces very well.
But the one with the dress said. ‘Come on, hurry!’
Tt sounded like a man’s voice.” ,

While Meyer was concluding his interrogation of
the pair, Officer Sullivan arrived from the hospital
to report that Leonhardt had died a short time after
arriving there. The doctor had found two bullet holes.
one in the abdomen and the other in the head. Leon-
hardt had not regained consciousness, and therefore
had given no clue to the identity of his slayers.

On his person had been found a gold
watch and $1.50 in small change.

“IT want to have a look at that spot
where the killers leaped the fence,” Mever
said, .

Two men with lanterns accompanied
him and the young couple, who pointed
out the exact spot.

On the other side of the fence, Meyer
discovered an object in the grass, and re-
trieved it. It was a pad of streetear trans-
fers bearing punch marks. Someone had
gone through the book with a conductor's
punch and had validated each transfer at
the top, where the conductor issuing the
transfer was required to affix his punch
mark; but no punch mark appeared for
the month or day. These spaces had been
left blank, obviously so that they night
be punched on the date the transfers were
to be used.

The lack of dust on the pad suggested

‘to Meyer that it had been dropped that
very evening, possibly by one of the
slayers,
There had been no rain for some time and the
ground was hard, yet Meyer later found the faint
but fresh footprints of two persons, both made by
wide-heeled shoes,

Yates said that young Leonhardt had been a quict
man, seldom speaking unless spoken to. He had been
regular in his habits and had been working steadily.
He had recently arrived in Tucson from Columbus,
Ohio. His one weakness had been poker, but he had
not played for high stakes. He had never lost or
won very much, merely sitting in on the game for
the pleasure he had derived from it.

“Where did he play poker?” Meyer inquired.

“At the Cactus Tver mostly. I think he was down
there tonight.”

Leonhardt had had one solid friend, Yates said:
aman named Ben Wagner, who also was from Ohio.

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at Dublin.

Us. Ide we thensand
the Guetia Athietie Aa-
t Martin Sheridan, of the
an Athietie Club, New
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Oh WPA Whakeseg: Farh Veweh Liss ome
Dwight L. Moody, the evangeliat,
heought him inte wide prominenoe,
Sankey, (t might be said, wrete ithe
Goepel hymna of the world. In Chia,
erp, trdia, Japan--~in almest every
langage Khewn (6 man, Bankexy
hymne are sung. Hoe received «|
freame from hie publeationa, Jani
jeavea a considerabie estate,
Mr Bankey's most familiar eompani-+
tone are “The Ninety and Nine” and
“@hep the Mista Have Rolied Away,”
Mia eonge are eaid to have had a cir:
éulation of more than 60,000,000
tee.

e wae a rapid composer and
‘Wrote book after hook of gospel
hy mne. During the laet five of
aie years of hie life, he was inter-
ested in preparing and publishing
the etory of the qoepel hymna. At
the same time he saved hia wonder:
ful voles for posterity by singin’
inte phenographe. The records
were went ail over the world.
Mankey firet met Moody at a Y¥. M, C,
A Convention in Indianapolia: Mooay
wag so charmed with the young

mane voice that he urged him to
aceompany him on hiv evangelistic
tours, fankey explained that he
was married and could not give up
SPRL EEN ON NR RE RAT I ET ONT

emamn<t 17, °08,
Crescent

Hall Cafe

St. Chartes and Canal Sts.
WL RESUME tte
.. 1Se Hot Lunch

eut thie country and Kutepe with

Pei ee AND CARUA
. Conteseed Wurderer Weeeuted,

/ ‘tucson, Afia,, Aug. l4d-—Rdwin W.

Hawkins, salf-eontessed murderer of

Ghie, whe wae Bie on Dev, 2,
1967, while fesigting « holdup, wee
Nar it in the @tate Prisen here to

ris,

ay. Hawking et first claimed that
he killing of Leonhardt waa the ry.
wut of on insult te Mawkine’ wife
while the couple were walking along
the street, Later he admitted that h¢e
had tried to rop Lewenhardt and that
in (he struggle whieh followed he
Killed the Ohio man,

Mother Reeeues Bake From Well.

Fulton, Me, Aug. 14——-With a
mather's fearlessness when her off:
epring ja in danger, d at the riek
of her own life, Mra J. B. @laphen-
aon, & frail ilittie woman, yesterday
lowered herself inte an sighteen-foot
well, saved her §-year-old child from
drowning and elimbed to the tep
nolding the infact in her veeth by tte
dress. The babe was playing near the
top of the well and atep baok-
ward and fell into the four feeq of
water at the bottom.

Stabe Uaele to Neath,

Mount Carmel, Pa., Aug. 1h—After
a brief argument on the street here
to-day Daniel Thom 1. ® young
nan, stabbed and killed his unels
Daniel Bierth: The weapen ente
the elder man’s neck and he dled tn-
«tantly, The police arrested Th .
gon, and he wae quickly remeved te
the jail at Sunbury, Pa.

Cardeva Released Peisom. -
Trenton, N. J., Aug. lid, Frenk
bag ree the forme? South River, N:
« clergyman, who eloped with Julia
Bowne, a choir singer, and who aft-
erwards was sentenced. to Stute
Prison, wae relensed from that inati-
tion. ¢ y. after an ttaprisoenment
of nearly four years, Cordova left the
eity {in an automobile.

flaison Mobber Milled.
Chicage Aug: 14.—Leonard Smit
alias ill

to-day in an attempt to rob %
lea ¥ a pt i

r hers :

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CITY OF MHAICO, BERICO-

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CMINTORAL, PANAM Ane
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FUMRTO CORTRE, Cy Ane
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MELIRIM, Ci» Avow
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SAN PRONE BULA, 6: Av
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A. Lebman,

HAVANA, CUBA

TALK POR PROSPERITY.

Continued Veom Wtrve Page

and ngers and forbid the giving
of rebates or discriminating Petes.

-Closing-Out

Sale of T

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OS vatie

The whistle at the Southern Pacific round-
house in Tucson, Ariz., had just blown for
the hour of midnight when John Ladlow and
his attractive fiancée, Doris Leake, arrived
at the latter’s front door.

Like most girls who are required by strict
parents to be home at 12, Doris had been hav-
ing her troubles making the deadline. But
this Saturday night she and John were on
time, so she invited the young man to remain
a few moments. It was two days before Christ-
mas, and the young couple had holiday plans
to discuss. But in the middle of a sentence,
Doris was interrupted by a sharp sound

“What was that?” she exclaimed.

“Shots,” John answered. “Look, there's
someone running along the street.”

Coming toward them down Alameda Street
were two dim forms which became more dis-
tinct as the distance lessened. In the bright
Arizona moonlight, the shapes appeared to be
those of a man and a woman.

At a distance of about 40 feet from the
Leake home, the pair swerved abruptly and
leaped a picket fence. The woman did the
most astounding thing for a female in tight
skirts: she lifted her clothing, exhibiting a
pair of shapely legs, and cleared the fence like
an athlete going over a hurdle. The moonlight
revealed also a pair of lace panties.

“Wow!” John gasped. ‘Say, she can sure
jump!”

“She?” Doris mocked. “That wasn't any
woman—it was a man. No woman could jump
a fence that high. She didn’t talk like a woman,
either,” the young girl added. “Did you hear
her say, ‘Come on, hurry!’? It was like a
man’s voice.”

Unaware of the fact that they had just wit-
nessed something which would prove highly
important in the days ahead, John and Doris
lingered a while longer at her door.

Meanwhile, R. E. Plummer, a passenger-
train brakeman for the Southern Pacific com-
pany, hurried along down the same path the
fleeing couple had taken, Plummer was igno-
rant of what had just transpired. He was
anxious not to be late for his run.

A block and a half from the Leake home
stood the John Yates boardinghouse. Plummer
was passing the place when he heard someone
moaning nearby.

In the clear moonlight, the brakeman saw
dark stains on the sidewalk. He proceeded
more slowly, noticing that the stains continued
in a trail along the sidewalk. Suddenly the
trail turned in at the Yates’ gate.

Beyond the ornate iron gate, Plummer
found a man stretched out on the lawn. Bend-
ing down, he saw that he had a bad wound in
the head. Plummer ran up the steps and
pounded on the door of the house until John
Yates came down in his underwear.

For the killer, the clue proved

a one-way ticket to the gallows

(193

“

cific round-

blown for
L_adlow and
ike, arrived

ed by strict
id been hav-
idline. But
were on
| to remain
efore Christ-
liday plans
a sentence,
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ook, there’s
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He proceeded
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Plummer
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the steps and
use until John

WAT

lue proved

the gallows

blood

trail

BY SETH BAILEY

“There is someone in your yard, badly hurt,”
Plummer informed him. “I've got to catch a
train, You'd better notify the authgrities.”

Plummer hastened on. \

Officer James Sullivan was the first to arrive
after Yates telephoned the police. Sullivan
found the rooming-house proprietor bending
over the injured man, who was unconscious.

“He’s Al Leonhardt, one of my boarders,”
Yates told Sullivan. “I can’t imagine what
happened to him. Looks as if he’s been shot—

but [ didn’t hear any shots. | was asleep. Some- ,

body came by and told me about him.”

Sullivan summoned an ambulance, which
took ILeonhardt to the hospital.

Meanwhile, City Marshal Joseph S, Hopley,
Sheriff Nabor Pacheco and Undersheriff
Henry Meyer of Pima County arrived.

Questioning of neighbors revealed that sev-
eral had heard three quick shots. Prior to the
shooting, however, there had been no disturb-
ance, such as an argunient or a fist fight, they
said,

John Ladlow and Doris Leake, having re-
mained on the porch until the police arrived,
realized suddenly that the shots they had heard
were no doubt the ones that had felled the

Aeon iin no 5 eal

In the moonlight, the couple saw a figure
clear the fence. “Wow!” John gasped. “She
can sure jump!” “She?” Doris mocked. “That
wasn’t a woman—it was a man. No woman
could) possibly hurdle a fence that high.”

Afersas

- pivbaate

ae |

Metadata

Containers:: Box 3 (2-Documentation of Executions), Folder 3
Resource Type:: Document
Description:: Paul Hadley executed on 1923-04-13 in Arizona (AZ)
Rights:: In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Date Uploaded:: June 27, 2019

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