The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-10-25

Ills plodQlnB Was Vain. IS "A DOWlEl6r was
tied to Ills neck and he was taken in
skiff to the middle of the river. There,
while frantically begging for a moment
"a, single moment to make his hopeless
peace with God, he was hurled into the
stream. Shuck assigned no reason for
this murder in his confession, but there
is. ground to believe that Koran had been
a memberfof the band and broken with
them, and it was to prevent his possible
revelations that he was murdered. His
body was afterward washed out by the
waves caused by a passing steamboat,
buried; some arrests were made, but the
persons arrested were discharged by the
examining Justice, and that was the last
Of, the case till the new developments at
tending on Shuck's confession. More
atrocious was the murder of Eli Downey,
a year later. He had $40 in his own
money and a pension he had just drawn.
The gang, all old friends, dissuaded him
from going home by train, offering to
accompany him if he would walk Near
Six Mile creek, to reach which at night
fall they loitered, is large fiat rock
with an opening in it some six feet
square and about twelve feet deep-the
mouth of a cavern. One of the party
pretended to hear II strange noise in it,
and thus Downey was induced to go to
1T and lean over the cavity. AS he did
50 Jack, Simmons put a pistol to the
back of his head and blew out his brains.
His body was stripped and tumbled into
the cave, and covered with brush and
stones, on top of which was thrown the
carcass of a hog, to throw off inquirers
should the stencil of decomp posing
flesh Iattract attention. And more .hor-
riblc was the murder of Seeler James,
the i 7-year-old son of John James,
who had married as. his second wife one
of /" King JIM Simmons daughters.
Either the boy, an innocent and some-
what gawky youth, knew too much of
the gangs secrets or his stepmother
could not get along with him; in any
case, his death was decided on. Bob
Goodrich, Dave Carter and Jack Sim
mons, pretending to sympathize with
him, induced him to rob his father and
run away from home; then, meeting him
in a secluded part of the marsh, they
took. from him the money they had
counseled him to.steal. It is altogether
probable, if local belief is entitled to any
ctedence, that the father at least con-
sented to his slaughter. Over the grave
where the murdered boys remains were
buried was placed the carcass of slain
hog, the strategy to which allusion has
already been made thus appearing to be
habitually practiced. Still another ex-
plot OF the gang was the murder Of one
Gallagan, a tree-peddler. Him they am
pushed on a narrow path high above
the river bed, and, having taken his
money and valuables from him, they
beat out his brains with a stone, fast
ened a bowlder to his corpse, and rolled
1t into the river. IT was for the murder
Of Nelson Parish that .Shuck, the lin
former, was hanged, though he always
declared his innocence, while admitting
that he had taken. part in other crimes
as heinous. Shuck was Parish's son-in-
law. Parish was shot in the daytime,
and his body was taken to school
house, where, in the course of the
night, it was burned. AS Shuck could
not account for his whereabouts on the
day Of the killing, and money and pa
pers belonging to the murdered man
were found in his possession, his SEN
tence is generally regarded as d just one.
Shucks grave lies under two little wal
nut trees on his father s farm. AS the
body was about to be lowered into it the
coffin was opened and the body found to
be batbed in a profuse sweat-whence,
probably, arose the rumor now current
in the neighborhood to the effect that
the murderer was resuscitated There
is not much travel now O. nights in Hen
ry and Owen counties, save by armed
bodies Of men in search of Jack Sim
mons. Says the reporter: "In my
ride of seven miles Oh public. road
through thickly-settled district, and in
the early part of pleasant summer
night, not one living being did 7 see.
Every one has a mental recognition of
the fact that travel is safer now than for
years previous, but all the horrors of the
recent revelations hang like a pail over
all the people, and even the nomadic
negro goes not out of nights" att I
Such gangs, always come to grief, how,
ever successful may be their operations
for a while. That the wages Of sin is
death*was strikingly exemplifed in the
fate which overlook at Kansas City
gang of desperadoes known as the Payne
Jones boys, consisting of Payne Jones,
Bill Hulse, Andy Mcguire and one
Bprnes. One rainy night, about eleven
years ago, information was received at
police headquarters that Payne Jones
was at the house Of his brother-in- law,
Mr.. Evans, a very respectable citizen,
residing near independence. A posse
was fitted out for his arrest, and pro-
ceeded to the place indicated and sur
rounded the premises. The door was
opened by Mr., Evans, and a parley en-
sued. In the meantime young girl,
the daughter of a widow woman, came
outof the house, where she had been
passing the night, and was in the act of
crossing board fence on her way home,
near which young man named Wilker-