Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-12-30
A BIG JAIL DELIVERY.
Four Bold Bad knObbers and Five
Others Escape the GallOWs.

OtmeIS ESCAPE the G8IIOWSs
OZARK, Mo-, December 29.-John and
Wiley Matthews, two of the four con-
demned Bald Knobbers, w. P. Halbens-
ben, Frank Johnson, William Redford,
Thomas Rooney, and William Sasssn, five
train robbers, escaped from Jail last
night by the assistance of friends out
side. Dave Walker, the leader of the
Bald Knobbers, and his son William
also under sentence to hang, and a
young man named Rucer, refused to
leave, and were found in the cells when
the discovery was made.
THE FOUR BALD KNoBBERs
Who were sentenced to hang for the
murder OF Charles Green and William
Edens on March 11th, 1887, were David
Walker, better known in Christian
county as "Bull Greek Dave" William
Walker, his son, John Matthews and
Wiley Matthews, his nephews. None of
the condemned have reached their
fiftieth year, and William Walker is not
yet 19 years of age. The condemned
we're to have been executed on May
l8, 1888, but on appeal to the Supreme
Court they escaped the gallows Temporal
rily. Last October the Supreme Court
affirmed the decision of the Christian
County Circuit Court and fixed Decem-
Ter 2Sth as the day of execution. the
SENSATIONAL TRIAL TURNED ATTENTION
10 the Bald Knobbers from all quarters
and the history of the organization has
been made public. Taney county, Mis-.
souri,, is noted as the birthplace of Bald
Knobbism. At an early day lawless-
ness caused the formation of leagues for
the protection of life and property in this
wild country. Regulators first came
into prominence when the notorious
Frank and Tubal Taylor were lynched
for the murder of Dickinson in Forsythe,
Mo. Christian county, which adjoins
Taney, fret adopted Bald Knobbism in
1866. Dave Walker was the first
leader in it, and the membership soon
reached between 300 and 400.
THE FIRST WORK OF THE BALD KNoBBERs
To attract attention was the Chad wick
raid. A saloon was started there and
Decentralization ensued. After due warn
ing from the Bald Knobbers, which was
disregarded, the Regulators entered
Chadwick and emptied the liquors be-
longing to the saloon into the streets.
Later on this was repeated and the traffic
broken up. There were numerous visits
by the band on petty offenders, but
nothing occurred to attract widespread
attraction until the Green-Edens' affair,
which terminated in the downfall of the
Bald-Knobbers.
THE GREEN-EDENs' KILLING OCCURRED
In March, 1887, at point eight miles
southeast of Ozark, near Edens' dwelling.
John Evans was whipped by the Bald
Knobbers for misbehaving in church.
Old man Edens, friend Of Evans, inter-
fered and received four blows with a
whip. This SO enraged Edens that he
fearlessly condemned the Bald Knobbers
and on the night of March 10, 1887, a
band proceeded to Edens' residence to
punish the inmates. They were met
with resistance and fred several volleys
into the house, killing William Edens
and Charles Green, his brother-in-law
and seriously wounding old man Edens.
In the melee young Walker was shot in
the leg. This outrage brought about
A CULMINATIoN OF PUBLIC INDIGNATION
And the Vigilance Committee and Sher-
ifs posse ran all the murderers down.
Subsequent events are fresh in the public
mind. One of the most peculiar features
of Bald Knobb sm is that a majority Of
prominent members of the band
ARE DEvoUT CHURCH MEMBERS.
Especially is this true of Walker, who
was temperance advocate and gener-
ally devout man. He does not see yet
that the Bald Knob Regulators are other
than champions of the right, who made
fatal but unavoidable mistake in the
Green -Edens affair. He has asserted con-
fidentlv all along that he would never be
hanged. He said this evening the
reason he would not 60 with the rescuers
Yves because he expects commutation
OF sentence, and anyway prefers to hang
rather than be hunted and bounded by
t ie officers.
Carver sure to win.