St. Paul daily globe., 1889-04-14
DOWLE is IN DURANGO
A West Virginia Murderer
Captured in Dakota Stops
in st. Paul.
While Under Sentence Of
Death He Manages to
Break Jail.
Now He Persists in Saying
That the Police Are
Mistaken.
Heavily Manacled He Is Now
En- Route to the Old
Dominion.

Dominion.
Shortly after the prisoners in the
county jail had eaten their dinner yes
terday, they were treated to the distin-
guished company of Richard Dowle,
notorious murderer, who for fourteen
years has been a fugitive from justice,
evading the sentence pronounced upon
him by court of competent iurisdic-
ton. The prisoner was handcuffed aud
in charge of T. q. Dawson and NJ. j.
Casey, agents appointed by the COVER
nor of Virginia, to run down and re-
capture DoWle, who escaped from
county jail in that state three days be-
fore he should have eXpiated upon the
gallows one of the most atrocious
crimes that has ever appalled, the people
of West Virginia. The story is roman
tic and reads like a novel. The crime.
the trial and imprisonment. the escape,
and after fourteen years of stolen free
dom, the capture nineteen hundred
miles from the scene of his cruel, bloody
deed, is interesting indeed, in that it
shows the uncertainty of security while
under the ban of the law and its vigil
ant executives.
On a dark, cold, hazy night in the
month of December, 1875, in the little
town of Weston. st. Louis county. West
Virginia, John West, wealthy stock
trader-hated for his tyranny and
despised by his neighborS for
his abuse of them and their
stock. and his little son, left
the ranch and went to the village
church. Three men of desperate char
acter, living within short distance of
Vests house, had, ten DAYS before this
night, planned to rid the neighborhood
or Vests disagreeable presence, and to
that end had all arrangements made to
strike the fatal blow on this night, as
the elder West and his son should re-
turn from church. The name of the
three men who projected the murderous
plot are Hushman, Eckus and Luns-
ford. CoWardS at heart, they engaged
the services of Richard Dowle, a dare
devil, who would finch at nothing when
aroused by bad whisky. For ten days
previous to the commission Of the MUIR
der these three demons kept Dowle as
drunk as whisky and alcohol would
make him. Each day he became more
violent and
IHlhSIED FOX WEST > BLOOD,
and when the night set for the commits
sion of the crime arrived, DOwle dem
onstrated his fer0city by blowing his
victim to pieces from an ambush bv
the side of the road leading to Vests
home.
About 10 o'clock on the evening for
which the heinous deed was set, Eckus,
LunSford and HuShman, it is alleged,
offered Dowle a purse of money if he
would undertake the bloody job alone.
CraZed by the burning liquor he had
imbibed, though at the time perfectly
sober, he then and there made the bar
gain which eliminated in the murder
of father and son. A few minutes after
10, Hoshman and DoWle, armed with an
old army musket, repaired to a
grove few hundred yards from the
church and parted, meeting again at a
road within quarter of mile from the
church. Here, after Secreting Dowle,
Husllman ran back to his colleagues
and awaited the outcome. The little
body of worshippers left the church and
dispersed in various directions. and the
two Vests, unconscious of their inn
pending fate, took their usual road
home. When they reached fork in
the road. between which there grew
thicket OF hazel, and in which Dowle
lay for his prey, an opening in the over
hanging foliage allowed faint light to
fall upon the faces of father and
son. At this instant, when Heaven
was thus shedding its dim light upon
the heads of the rnSuSpecting couple,
Dowle raised his head above the brush
tops and fired at short range. The
rusty old musket with its deadly charge
of scrap-iron, nails and lead had done its
Low
throes of death on the sandy road as
Dowle fled to his haunt. The bodies
were found the next morning. and the
whole country for miles around was
Mortified at the atrociousness of the
crime. Suspicion was at once directed
to the gang which plotted it, and before
many days had elapsed DowIe and his
cOnfederateS were being tried in st.
Louis county court for
MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE.
DOWle was convicted, imprisoned in
the. county jail and sentenced to be
hanged. For want of evidence the
other three were acquitted, and went
scot free. 1t was on a Monday night.
while the town Of Weston was in great
state of excitement over an election,
and just three days before the day set
for the murderer'S execution. that
DOwle, by much cunning work, man
aged to saw hole through the wall of
his cell. climb into the next one, over
that, up through the chimney and out
on the jail roof, where rope had been
thrown up, it is presumed, by his ac-
completes, and lowering himself down,
escaped to the woods. Several years.
search by indignant citizens and officers
failed to discover the
WHEREABOUTS OF VESTS MURDERER.
DOwle was not seen or heard of until
few days ago. A reward of S4OO was
offered by the state and cuts were
posted in all parts of the country, and
still Dowle remained at liberty. When
he escaped jail he made his way to
Cumberland Gap, thence up through the
states until he reached the wilds of
Northern Wisconsin. There he went
under the assumed name of James
Sheldon and began life in the lumber
camps, working with one eye Oh
his work and the other on those
he dared not trust. From Wisconsin he
came to st. Paul last spring and was
an inmate of st. Joseph's hospital for
several weeks, suffering with wounded
leg. At harvest time he went to Grand
Forks. OAK. and applied to Hood
Brothers for work on their farm. The
Hoods have working for them a young