The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-03-22
BATTLE WAS DESPERATE.
Northwest Is Rid of Its Jesse
James.
BIanck Fights Like q Tiger Mt Ray.
Wounds His Pursuers, and Only
Drops When He Has Been Pierced
From Winchesters But Ten Feet
Away.


Blanck, the murderer and Jail breaker
is dead, shot through the head anc
body by the bullets from the Win,
chester rifles of John Shepich an6
Robert Crow.
The encounter took place on the
Northern Pacific railroad track, about
a mile north of Kent, at $50 o'clock
About sixteen shots. were fired, and
when the smoke cleared away Thomas
Blanck lay corpse and John Shepich
lay with wounds in his left shoulder
in the proximity of the heart Blanck
was shot through the ear, nose and,
through the body. His remains We're
Immediately taken to Kent, together
with the wounded deputy. The in
jurieS, of Shepich, while serious, are
not thought to be fatal.
Battle Was Desperate.
The battle was one of the most
desperate kind imaginable, and was
fought out with only ten feet separat-
ing the foes. Blanck shot twice before
the deputies opened fire. He refused
to throw up his hands, and in his
usual bold, blood-thirsty manner, drew
his gun and went at it. Fast and
furious was the shooting, the two
deputies firing almost simultaneously.
The full story of the most desperate OF
all battles with criminals that have
ever taken place in this country was
told to Post-Intelligencer reporter by
w. L. Whittimore, of Kent, who saw
the fight from a distance and was one
of the first to arrive after the job was
done. He said:
This afternoon a report came to
Kent that Blanck was penned in near
Orillia. AS soon as the news was
heard a large number of men started
for the place. Fortune had it that
Bob Crow and John Shopick, who car
ried Winchester rifles, started up the
Northern Pacific railroad track. When
they were about mile north of Kent
they saw a man coming toward them
down the track. They had no idea
when they saw the man approaching
that they were going to meet the des-
perado, and got to within ten feet of
him before the real danger developed
itself. The stranger walked along
without saying a word, and finally
Crow and Shopick called to him:
Throw up your hands therep
RiddIed Through and Through.
Their commands fell on deaf ears,
for the man, without further delay,
drew a Colts SS-calibre five-shooter re-
volver from his pocket and opened
fire. 'Whang. bang rang out the two
shots from his revolver, and still the
deputies were unhurt. Then the men
with the WincheSters commenced
pumping bullets into their antagonist.
1t was a regular fusilade and not until
the desperate had emptied his revolver
of all it's shots, wounding Shopick and
being bored through and through, that
the battle was over and the desperate
Law on the track lifeleSs.
''Shopick and Crow had killed the
Jesse James of the Pacific northwest,
Thomas Blanck, alias Frank Hamilton.
1.-The body was taken to Kent and
held awaiting the order of Sheriff Van
De Vanter."
BIanck's Record.
Blanck was probably the most des-
perate criminal ever confined in Jail
here He has killed two men within
the last year, and last Sunday night
he held up the jailor with a piece of
wood, shaped like revolver, and with
nine other prisoners escaped from jail
When taken into court for trial he
pleaded guilty to murder in the first
degree and was sentenced to be
hanged. After the court had sentenced
him he asked that his sentence be i'm
mediately carried out.
A Curious Crowd.
Blanck's body was broughtINto this
city tonight and when the train con-
tanning it arrived at the station several
thousand people were present. 1t was
with great difficulty that the crowd
was driven away in order that the
body could be placed in the dead
wagon and conveyed to an under
takers.
The coroner and several other physi-
clans made an examination of the body
and found that it had been riddled
with bullets. Three shots in the back
within a radius of four inches mad pro-
duced death but there were four
others in his body two of which were
in his right arm. one in his ear and the
other in his neck Inside of his coat
and almost directly over his heart the
desperate had several thicknesses of
heavy blanket in order to protect him
self from the bullets of his pursuers.