, 1879-08-02
Confession Of Tom Lawton.

record was the murder, over year since,
of Tnllis, a rich old farmer living in the
SACRAMENTO valley Fer long time the
m,rrier was involved in the deepest mys-
tery: but murder will ont, and it was
a, length discovered that Troy Dye, the
public administrator, ins.igated the deed
| in order to make money by admlnistra-
! ting to the estate Of the murdered man.
He and his accomplice, Anderson, were
recently hanged at Sacramento tor
the deed the other, Tom Lawton, es-
| capped. and although many have been ar
rested for him. he himself has not been
found. The following is his confession
as te!egraphed the STATESMAN, and ap-
pears to he reliable, although there is yet
some doubt whether he is Tom Lawton
or not:
A man is in Lewiston jail, arrested IN Pa
louse precinct. on charge of petty larceny,
and in default OF payment is lodged IN laii
under 4 commitment naming hIm as j. Cnl-
pepper. He was told by VIM. lgo, the
alrr, that lie was suspected by a party IN
Lewiston rs being one OF the Sacramento
mnr,lerers, to which he replied, My God.
Billy, a,n gone up. | wish + lad known
this before | would have ra,ele . fRil con
fesson to yon, ami you could have secured
the reward offered Tor me. | am Tom Law
ton. and am the nan they want You te'e-
graph the governc- Of California that | am
Tom Lawton." Iso said to him, Il will
telegraph the governor as you say, and
went ont fur tIlav purpose, but soon returned
AID told the prisoner that II was unneces-
sary. iuasmuch as Robbins had already teie-
t.,rai.i.e.l That same evening. as the prls-
oirer was about ia he locked up in the eel +,
he said: My God haze To 90 in there,
Billy, my days are numbered. and are but
ID few | have no show TO get out OF
this there were SIX of us who wen. To the
residence Of old man Tuiiis TIVE oi US stood
"ntsl,le; We called them stinkcrs: the othe:
four rs MS went into the honSe and did the
work there WAS but one wItness, and she
was a wo,aan-a servant of Tullis; If she
comId recognize MS through a heavy mask
then size could identify lis, and not without. "
Tie pri<aner VAS then asked ii he realized
any mauey hy doipg the deed. and he AL
swrrctl, Yes, l did How much"
Il can't INST nov tel how much. but 1t MAS
near abn;is twenty Thousand dollars /; cut %!
the whole affair the two stiukers only got
one thousand Gn.iars apieoe. know this,
because paid them myself" Prisoner Gas
then asked if there waS no way for him 10
ret ont of this 10 which he answered NO "
He then asked for a piece Of candle and some
matches, and WAS told he could not have
them he then SAID, "For God sake, Billy
give he small piece; the sheriff wlll newer
know it; auythins TO gi:e me little light
In the cell, tlIat that dead man do not ap
pear TO ne whcn | am shut up in the cell.
had rather suffer a Thousand deaths than
have him to appear to roe let me have d
piece OF candle an,i some matches, So thac
lcan strike light and satisfy myself that
the ghost is not III he cell then can rest "
He was then asked the names Of the parties
who went INTO the h"ase Of TuilIs at the
time of the murder. He answered, "Whip-
pie, Of San Francisco, Chamberlain, mer-
chant. cf Sacramento, Anderson and myself
Tom LAYTON ; J. X Wool ana Troy Dive were
the stinkers who stood outside. Whipl'!e
WAS the li!st m;n who proposed the mur'ie.,
ani that was about year before the deed
was done Finally the plan was laid i'll one
"f Whirple's private club roorns in San
Francisco Whipple. Anderson, Chamber
lain and nayselt we're IN the club room at the
tit,ie Each took al oath to the others that
he would lre, er reveal the lrlo:, hut an oath
amounts to nothing. We secured the other
two men and did the deed" He was then
asked how lie made his escape he answered
Il laid conceded in Sacramento two months
after the deed VAS doue, and thesir disguised
myself so that no one w"uli know me. no5
eve. my own nls;..er l male my way "a
San Francisco, travelling part OF the distance
on fest. li..s: on heavy gray whiskers, a
green shade over Gle eye. and a plaster on
the brids of my nose Ia S,n Francisco |
encountered a detective whom | knew, IA Il
crowd, and nccame very Uneasy. | had Sc
cured SOM religious tracts about my person,
and commenced to distribute them IL :;ie
crowd and As soon as could | got away,
when shipped aboard 4 schooner rs a S.-g!a,-
bound for Coos Bay There deserted tie
schooner and Went to lsosebnrg by stage;
there took the cars and Went To Salem, Ole-
s"n; met there j. X Wonds, one Of those
who stood outside, AID with him came tn
Portland on the cars. Woods went Oh to
Puget Sound | remained in Portland a tcw
days, tien went ont IL 81. joe in Ean!hill
comfy, on tie railroad and remained there
only short time cot scared awav- | WAS
continually in fear q being aPprehended. |
then went back t. Portland and tried To
ship on hoard a vessel as second steward for
the Sandwich Islands. and desired the cap
tam to allow me to leave the vessel when
there. At first the captain refused. but after
wards consented, and AL WAS arranged for
me to go A short time before s..iiin. saw
the captain ta king with twn police "tiiccrs,
and MIS- suspicious aul left Immediately
for Waila Waia. remained in the vicn-
ity Of Walla Walla till last February, and
there met Wont.s aga!n We ]sft III cum-
pany. and Went t. Goliax. have r"5 SEEN
Won,iS since left him in Colfax Twoor
three days after oar arrival | Went up in:o
the n"nntal',S, pretending IL make rails,
bIt dbl i0t killed deer | then came
on: and went prospecting while. a Il after
wards went to work for j. II Yarmouth
and remained there I'll | was arrested"
Next day after this confession he SAID To the
jsilor. .'Blll, when get to Sacramento |
am go!ms to propose to the authori les to
turn states evidence Do You think l can
get out of this by doing s":" The i.iior re-
piled, Il do not know whether vou can or
moi.