Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-04-05
HANSON WILLIS.
A POuR-POLD MURDERER CAPTURED BY THE
POLICE, YESTERDAY MORNING.
SINE Of The Grimes With Which He is Charged
HOw He Was Captursd-fO Be Taken
Down the River This Morning.

A small-sized, lightweight man. with q
wsather-worn suit of butternut and jeans
On his back, and a wandering and unsafe
look in his eye, was landed behind the bars
at the lookup, early yesterday morning.
AGAINST this man thsre is a bloody record
of four murders, with the further allega-
ton that he shot and seriously wounded 8
18th man, and had often expressed the IN
OF shooting anyone else VINO
should endeavor to lay hands upon him,
with the intention of putting him under
This man, Tor whom the gal
is reaching out its arm, Is
none other than Hanson Willis, better
known along the river between Parkers-
burg and Pt. Pleasant as Hanson Grover
Cleveland Willis, from his having added
the non of the President to his right
ful name, soon after the determination Of
the last Presidential contest, which name
was painted in full, in letters a foot long,
on the side of the boat house occupied by
him and his wife, and mOored in the river,
ON the Ohio side, at q point near Pomeroy.
This picturesque name was accompanied
with an outline sketch Of a huge revolver,
and the motto: Beware of me-"
This peculiar and belligerent citizen was
landed in the lookup through the efforts
of Officer John Shorts, assisted by Officer
Rich. Wilkie, under the following circum-
stancea. In the neighborhood OF six
O'Clock Shorts was met by two
employes of the steamer Ben Hur,
named Minear and Mall, who stated
that they believed Hanson Willis was
on the boat. They gave q hurried de-
s~crintion of the man to the officer, together
with the information that he was a muir
jerer. and Shorts called Officer Wilkie to
his assistance and went down and boarded
the boat. The men who had given them the
information were evidently afraid Of Will
lie. for they were extremely cautious about
getting in his vicinity, but finally pointed
ont the suspect, who was fast asleep on a
low nile of freight, where he had crawled
from a previous couch under the boilers
The officers separated, Wilkie going down
one side of the boat and Shorts the other,
and the latter first came upon the slumber-
inc murderer. The mau who was acting as
Onide said That's him." and at once
Skinned out for the stern of the boat, while
shorts gently raised the edge OF the sleep
er,s hat and got a look ut his face. Con-
WINGED. from the description he bad been
given, that the man was Willis, ShortsDe-
gan to cautiously feel around his hip peck
ct for a gun. The sleeper was lying on one
side and the upper pocket was empty.
The men on the boat had been pos
tive that Willis was armed, how
ever. aud Shorts turned his attention
10 the under pocket. He could not get
at it quietly, however, and quickly rolling
the man over, he grabbed a bulldog pistol
ont of his hip-pocket, transferred it to his
own oyercoat, and had the fellow by eyes
arms before he had fairly co. Wilkie by
open. He at nee gave inas taken off the
this time coming ~ Shs lookup.
boat and escordp the wharf the prisoner
On the, "What did you kill that man
was oIut vouchsafsd no answer, To q
EagVestion, that it must have been In
self, defense, Willis said, THAT'S right,
Mr.. Officer, I did kill him, and 1t was
In seif-defense." He attempted to
show Shorts q hurt on his side,
but the officer would not permit II,
at that time, and nothing was developed
until the City Hall was reached, where,
while they were searching him, Willis
pulled a revolver out Of the breast-pocket
of his coat, with the remark, there's an
other one" The second gun was taken
from him in short order, and a further
search revealed two large bone-handled
clasp knives, a double handful of car
tridges, fourteen dollars and six cents in
money, and some other stuff. Both revolt
vers were British bull dogs, and Willis,
pointing To one OF them, said that was the
pistol he had killed the mau with. There
was also a brass watch, with Willis name
inside the case.
As soon as possible Willis was taken
before Squire Phillips and was there COM.
TO Jail. Officer Shorts, who
had ascertained that the killing
Willis admitted had occurred ia
Meigs county, o, sent q telegram to
PomerOy, and received an answer from
Prosecuting Attorney John H. Lockeny,
that the prisoner be brought down.
1t was the intention OF the officers to take
Willis down the river by the four o'clock
afternoon train, and shortly after three
he was taken FROM the Jail to the
Ohio River Depot, bat learning on arriv-
ing there that the train would not proceed
than Parkersburg last night, 1t
deemed best to take the prisoner back
10 Jail and make u fresh start in the
morning. He was accordingly taken back
a cab and locked up. This morning
officer Shorts and either Officer West or
will take Willis down TO Ravens.
wood, where he will be turned over to the
Jackson county authorities, to be tried for
IN additional killing, the circumstances
If which will now be related.
As was stated above, Willis has been
living in o shanty boat near Pomsroy. Ga
he evening of March l4th he was visited
by George Carter, his father -iu-law, and
he two men soon got into q quarrel,
which ended in Willis firing half-a, dozen
bullets into Carter's body, instant death
esulting. Willis wife at once started 10
1--WE the alarm, and while relating the
rhine, said that made three people her
husband had killed, the other two being a
nan and wife named Jennings, whom be
lad murdered at Point Pleasant several
ears before, sinking the bodies in the
liver.
After shooting his father in law, Willis
made his escape TO the West Virginia side
fthe river, and a large posse of citizens
rent in pursuit of him early the next day.
hat night, it is alleged, Willis sm0ushed
part Of the crowd on his trail, and killed
ne of their number, a young man named
'hornton, and badly wounded another.
his seems to vediscoursged the pursuit,
nd Willis made his escape. Since that
ime he has been travelling up and down
a both sides of the river, being seen sew
raj times by citizens, but no n cared
, bother him. The latter part of last
eek he was seen on the Ohio side of the
yer, sitting on q fence with his Winches.
II across his lap. He told a friend that
Q would never be arrested alive, and scon
fterwards disappeared, being seen no more
It'll be bearded the Ben Hur Tuesday.
In n conversation yesterday, Willis, in
ply to q question as to how far he walked,
i'd he was nearly played out.
"You must have walked twenty miles?"