The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-06-14
DUNHAM WAS AT
SANTA BARBARA,
Seen in the Southern Town
While Toiling Toward
Mexico.
DIR. SIMPSONS STORY.
Declares Positively That He En-
countered the Fugitive Ten
Days Ago.
he LED A sHAKY BICYCLE.
Wheel and Owner Bore Evidence of q
Hard Journey Over Rough
Roads.

SANTA BARBARA, CAL, June 13.-A
story that adds weight to the Mammoth
Tank dispatch printed in THE CALL this
morning, declaring that Murderer Dun
ham had escaped across the Mexican
border, was given publicity by Santa
Barbara citizen to-day. He Is positive
that he saw the Campbells fugitive in this
city ten days ago, and that Durham was
then working in the direction he would
have taken to appear day or so later at
the home of a railroad employe on the
Colorado desert. That this intelligence
was not sooner given is due to the fact that
the man who saw and talked with Dun
ham, though a professional gentleman OF
intelligence and standing, had not read
the newspapers of recent date, nor seen
the published portraits of the butcher.
DR.. G. W. Simpson, a wellknown citizen
of Santa Barbara and man whose word
and opinion carry value, was returning
home from State street on the night of
June 8. Near the corner of Chapala and
Anapamu streets. a lonely locality, al
though but a block from the Arlington
and San Marcos hotels, man leading
bicycle came up to him and made some
inquiries.
The doctor was impressed by the APP
pesrance of the man, who looked
completely tagged out and sim
gularly troubled and depressed. His
wheel was in an extraordinary condi-
ton, the tire being bound at one point
with a strip of blue jeans and at another
with strip of white muslin, and what APP
peared to be piece of rubber hose split
open and spread out fiat was applied to the
tire in one place. Wheel and rider had
evidently come a long distance and wer e
on the point of collapse.
''Can you tell me where the Southern
Pacific and Santa Fe offices are?' asked
the man, with the address and speech of a
gentleman. DR.. Simpson informed him,
pointing to State street, one block away,
and explaining the number of blocks he
would have to go.
"W hich office is nearest?' persevered
the stranger.
The doctor told him.
What time does the next train leave ?''
''You can't get a train, sir, before to-
morrow morning." replied the doctor.
''Can I catch steamer going south to-
night?
The doctor did not know. He afterward
learned that no steamer touched here that
night Instead of going to State street, as
he had been directed, the stranger kept on
down Chapala, the side street. DR.. Simp-
son looked after him with curiosity. He
observed that the man dropped as if he
were exhausted. 1t puzzled him to under
stand why man of his evident station
and excellent bearing should be in such
condition, with such strangely battered
wheel, and in such a hurry to get out of
town, instead of inquiring for hotel and
bicycle-shop so as to lay up for rest and re-
pairs. As the man led his wheel across
the street the doctor remarked how
lily his suit of light clothes fitted the fell
low, and wondered again that he should
be wearing clothes which were plainly
never cut for him.
DIR. Simpson walked on to his home, re-
fecting all the way. When he reached
there he said to his wife:
81 have just met and talked with ma n
who has committed some crime and is
trying to get out of the country"
The incident haunted him, but he spoke
of it to no one until yesterday, when Ed
Thompson, collector for the Santa Barbara
Water Company, walked into the doctors
Office and began talking about Durham.
DR.. Simpson was vaguely aware that the
murders had been committed, but knew
nothing of the circumstances of the crime
or the pursuit OF the fugitive. Thompson
showed him Dunham's portrait. Simpson
sprang to his feet.
Thompson" he said, II saw and
talked to that man right here in Santa
Barbara"
To-day he went to the Sheriff's Office
cd ha
and his aids have little to say beyond re-
GREETING that they were not informed
earlier. Every one acquainted with DR..
Simpson know him as a calm, deliberate,
thoughtful man, the last man in the
world to color an account from his
imagination or to make a statement for
which be has not the fullest justification.
A married woman living on Garden
street. in Santa Barbara, who, sixteen
wears ago. when a girl of IS, served as
nursemaid to Mrs. Forney, wife of Captain
Forney of the Coast Survey, who was then
quartz red at the Arlington, declares that
at that time James G. Durham was bell
boy at the Arlington. She remembe him
as a very mischievous and peculiar boy, of
whom she and the other working girls en-
ployed about the hotel stood In great
dread.
Among stories related by Durham was
one told to a CALL correspondent by cred
ible witness to the effect that Dunham
had once confessed that while the family
resided in Santa Barbara County his father
killed a man and made away with him so
successfully that no one ever suspected
him of the crime. A search of the great
registers of this county shows that in 1877
one Abel G. Durham, whose age is given as
So, occupation farmer, a native OF New
York, was a resident of Santa Barbara.
Four years later this name disappeared
from the register.
People here remember the Dunhams as
very respectable people, who lived in the
locality known as ''Across the Estero."
No one can tell where the family is now,
but there is prevailing recollection that
it moved North.
Now, if Durham lived in Santa Barbara
Valley when he was youth he would nat
uraily come this way if working south
ward, as his general knowledge of roads
would enable him to travel without arous-
ing suspicious by asking directions. This
familiarity with the valley and town in the
old days would not argue familiarity with