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

How many romances and thrilling
STOKES are allowed to bloom unseen, to
run to seed i'll Western papers, never at
tanning more than the dignity of a three
or four line mention In the METROPOLITAN
press no one knows perhaps but the mail
readers OF the papers. a glance at the
files of exchanges for a week, for in
stance, reveals as many tragedies and
sensational developments of crime as
would make the Saturday ReUaeaO. go
into moral Mysteries over American
civilization" For instance, reporter
of the Louisville COaI4'5er-JOmrnGI who
has been spending some days in the
domains OF 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
man Of great cunning, with a talent for
doing crime and hiding it J: the son Of a
member Of the famous-that is to say
nfamous-Murrell band. AS an inn
keeper many years ago at Harmony his
p house became notorious for the robberies
and even murders of the guests, and
setting afoat of counterfeit currency. At
the outbreak OF, the war he had to fly to
Grub Ridge, a safer locality, where he
ldld o lively business in horses stolen by
yguerrillas. At the close of the war, fear
ing the vengeance Of returning Federals.
the Slmmonses removed to Arkansas,
where they killed man, and avoided
lynching by padding down stream in a
trough, hearing behind them the
disappointed baying Of bloodhounds at
fault ON their track. In 1873 skiing
Jim tried to kill his wife with bottle !:
then, when she recovered, fearing. her
vengeance, fled to The lead mines near
l4ockport, leaving her with her two sons
in Eminence a third lives in Meade
county price Of $500 has been put on
the head of the fourth. Nigh of crimi-
nal kin to them were the Goodriches1 All
five Of the boys are "hard citizens. +"
thriftless and illiterate, and three of them
are in Jail to answer for murder. Dave
. Garter, who turned State s evidence,
"a 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-
1pated, and without, apparently, that
keen delight in committing crime or ap-
probation of difficulties surmounted in
its successful commission to be noted in
recognizance, which is as much as to say
that he lis in a fair position to be "re-
moved by some as yet undecided mem
bers 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 a successful
prosecution of the gang wish him sent to
gail, to be in safe-keeping. He, however,
feels confident that he can kill as we'll as
any one else in daylight, and has re-
solved not to move out at night. The
country over which this gang ruled so
tbloodily is a billy district extending from
-Harpers 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
TGance. The roads are narrow. rocky
lbridle-paths; there is little cultivated
ground, here small patch of corn, there
q smaller bed of tobacco, and the fire.
quent gulches and beds OF streams are
thiclly wooded. Every inch of these
Lands, SO difficult of access, SO well sit
tylated for ambush or concealment. was
known to the gang. The gang was
busy la 1871 Joe and Bob Goodrich
'hutchered a pedler named Darrall with
an ak i'm lonely partof the wood:
sShuck came on them while thew were
xItalng the body and got 1875 as the price
OF his silence. In August of the same
year Jack Koran, himself a desperate
character, was lured out in fearful rain.
storm by Shuck and q dozen others te