The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-10-26
QUEER TYPES OF OUTLAWRY.


How many romances and thrilling
stories are allowed to bloom unseen, to
ran to seed in Western papers, never at
tanning more than the dignity of three
or four line mention in the metropolitan
press no one knows perhaps but the mail
readers of the papers. A glance Mt the
files of exchanges for a week, for in
stance, reveals as many tragedies and
sensational developments of crime as
would make the saturday RerieeO go
into moral Mysteries over american
civilization. For instance, reporter
of the Louisville Courier-JounaI who
has been spending some days in the
domains of Z" King jim" Simmons and
his band, gang of murderous outlaws,
furnishes some interesting particulars
concerning the gang, their methods, and,
above all, the country in which they
operated. Jim Simmons, he says, was a
man of great cunning, with talent for
doing crime ana hiding it the son of
member of the famous-that is to say
nfamous--Murrell band. AS an inn
keeper many years ago at Harmony his
house became notorious for the robberies
and even murders of the guests, and
setting afloat of counterfeit currency. At
the outbreak of the war he had to fly to
Grub Ridge, safer locality, where he
did lively business in horses stolen by
guerrillas. AT the close of the war, fear
ing the vengeance of returning Federals.
t13e Simmonses removed to Arkansas,
where they killed a man, and avoided
tynching by padding down stream in a
, Ao1se- trough, hearing behind them the
disappointed baying. of bloodhounds at
fault on their track. In 1873 "King
Jim" tried to kill his wife with a bottle
Ghen, when she recovered, fearing her
vengeance, fled to the lead mines near
Lockport, leaving her with her two sons
in Eminence a third lives in Meade
Ssc1.nUy; price of $500 has been put on
the head of the fourth. Nigh of crimi-
nal kin to them were the Goodriches. All
five of the boys are "hard citizens"
Ghriftless and illiterate, and three of them
are in Jail to answer for murder. Dave
Carter, who turned States evidence,
is an ignorant and worthless inebriate,
with, however, more ability than he
would be credited with from a casual IN
spection, incapable of executing alone
any of the crimes in which he partici-
pated, and without, apparently, that
keen delight in committing crime or APP
probation of difficulties surmounted in
IT. successful commission to be noted in
ms companions. He is out on his own
,recOgnizance, which is as much as to say
Tint he is in fair position to be " re-
moved" by some as yet undetected men,
bem of the gang, or the vindictive friends
of the prisoners. The latter say conf
IDENTIFY that he "has gone a-ghosting, }"
and the people interested in successful
prosecution of the gang wish him sent to
IaIl, TO be in safe-keeping. He, however,
feels confident that he can kill as well as
any one else in daylight, and has re-
solved not to move out at night. The
country over which this gang ruled SO
bloodily is billy district extending from
Harper's Ferry, near the Franklin line
IN the south, to the lead mines in the
north, bordering ON the Kentucky river
some eight or ten miles, and running
back from the river nearly an equal dis
fsuce. The roads are narrow. rocky
bridle-paths; there is little cultivated
ground, here small patch of corn. there
a smaller bed of tobacco, and the fire.
quent gulches and beds of streams are
thickly wooded. Every inch of these
binds, SO difficult of access, so well sit
.uated for ambush or concealment. was
known to the gang. The gang was
busy. In 1871 Joe and Bob Goodrich
butchered pedler named Darrall with
an ak in a lonely part of the wood:
Shuck came on them while they were
rifiing the body and got S25 as the price
of his silence. In August of the same
year Jack Koran, himself desperate
character, was lured out in fearful rain.
storm by Shuck and a dozen others tc