The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-09-05
miscellaneous.
THAT CALIFORNIA CRIME
FULLER DETAILS OF THE MOST
SINGULAR MURDER OF THE
TIME.
Tho Killing Of A, NJ. Tullis Of Grand Island, CALI
BY the Public Administrator, In order 10 det
Hold OF His Fortune Of $4,000.
From the San Francisco CALL

county, on CnhIBe VI Iho uuiN0i VI
Tullis on Grand Island. Clark, part
ner of Dye in the saloon business, was
arrested at the same time, On the morn
ing of the I'd inst, A. M. Tullis, fruit
grower on Grand Island, in this county,
was found dead in his orchard. The
night before, two unknown men were
seen to come down the river in small,
roughly. built boat. They went to Tullis's
ranch and landed. One Of the men ask
ed the Chinese servant for the boss. He
was directed to the orchard. Soon after
4 o'clock shots were heard fred, and the
shouting of men and the barking of
dog. Tullis was found next morning on
the ground dead. It was evident he had
been running when shot, and he must
have been STOPPING over when hit, for
the murderer's tracks were traced to the
rivers edge.
At the inquest held on the I'd and Sd
inst, it appeared that two suspicious
men in q redwood duck boat were seen
in the river. One of the men pulled his
hat over his eyes when passing people,
The men were seen near TulIis's place at
5 o'clock, and Tulls was killed about
in the evening. The body had four gun
shot wounds in it, apparently made by
pistol. One entered about the first false
rib on the left side, and passed obliquey
upward, tearing away in its course one
of the vertebrae of the back and passed
through the right lung The lung was
injured by eXtravasa.ion of blood, caused
by the wound. Another ball entered at
about the third vertebrae, and lodged |
just oyer the right eye, passing through |
the brain. A third bullet passed thro' |
the neck behind, emerging under the |
right ear. This ball made two openings. |
The deceased, when found, lay upon the |
right side of his face, with his right hand
under his face and Lis left hand stretch
ed out, full of dirt as if he had grasped !
handful of dirt j6st before dying. His
head was toward the south. His shirt
was burned at the place where the ball
entered the back. There were no weap.
ons on his person. Tullis's tracks led |
from place south of where he was
found toward the north. These tracks
appeared for about 200 hundred yards
from where the body was found. He
toed out great deal, and his tracks were
easily distinguishable. There were also
tracks of two other persons. One was a
large track, made by No. or 8 boot,
and the other by not over No. boot.
These tracks followed behind Tullis's
tracks, and came toward where the body
was found. Right around the body was
a confusion of tracks, as if several per-
sons had been walking around it. The
tracks were the only ones leading to or
from the body, and they went from the
body to the river.
The boat referred to was proven to be
sharp at both ends, and to have in it two
persons. On the morning of the murder
at early dawn, two men were seen to
launch rude boat from the old mouth
of the American river. Two Cleats nailed
on one end made an indentation in the
sand, which an officer found to cores
pond with the description of the Cleats
given by man who saw the boat. The
day after the murder two strange men
were seen footing ii up the road from
Grand Island to Sacramento. II is said
they ran by houses and avoided obser-
walton as much as possible. Since the
search for the murderers it has transpir-
ed that on the way down the river the
men in the boat halted at Corother's
ranch and sought nails and a hammer
and strips of wood to fix their rOWloCk. ,
The San Francisco agent for Tullis's ,
George P. Starr, says that deceased wrote ,
to him that he had difficulty with two
Portuguese, who had been driven from I
the ranch. Deceased was a bachelor, of
very close and retired habits. He was
known to be severe on tramps, and inva-
riably drove them from the house. Some
have thought tramps, in a fit of anger,
killed him. Tulliss left an estate valued
at $4,000. On this estate Troy Dye, as
Public Administrator, has filed his ap.
plcation that letters of administration {
be issued to him.
Last night at II o'clock, Troy Dye was G
arrested and charged with completely in q
the murder. The arrest was effected by '
Sheriff Drew and several deputies. Dep.
uty Sheriff Harrison, who has been
working up the Tullis case, makes the c
following statement: He says he arriV- {
ed here on the Sunday succeeding the '
murder and read over the testimony ta- {
ken at the Coroner's inqqest He asked
the Coroner if the Administrator had
come yet, and was told that he had not.
He asked if he had telegraphed, but r
found he had not. Harrison's theory
was, either that the relatives that came r
here killed Tullis to realize on the estate, ;
which they could not otherwise get, or
that parties here killed him in order to Q
get the estate. Harrison's theory was t
that the men who killed him lived in @
Sacramento. He got a buggy, and he and I
the Sheriff, N. NJ. Drew, went to Coroth. )
er's ranch, just below Clarksville, and
there they got an accurate description Of
the men in the mysterious boat. They /
we're told they had passed on down the {
river. The officers went on to Walnut 4
Grove, and there found parts of the boat,
perhaps half or two.thirds of it. They
examined the place where the ruins of
the boat were first found Harrison's q
theory was all the time that the boat had p
been sCuttled, and he had been anxious il
to find it. The people of the island had r
offered $40 reward for the recovery of -.
the boat. Il was found by butcher on
the right of the leVee. He was driving v
on the levee on the side of the old river, Fl
just below where Tullis was killed, and a
all at once heard noise as if some one
was hammering on board at the edge
of the river. The noise cane from the
spot where subsequently the remains of v
the boat were found. His horse became G.
frightened and jumped faom the levee. n
That led up to the finding of parts of the =
boat in an eddy which held them in
some willows. Harrison brought the ..
boat pieces to Sacramento. u
One one piece of lumber there was 81
some figuring, "a was multiplied by 3, Il
and result was footed up, after other
computation, showing 1924. He was told
64 feet of lumber would build such a
boat. This led him to enquire as to where
the lnnnhar Was nnrnh aapd az IL Nuaa naw ii