The record-union., 1899-05-16
4 MOST FIENDISH CRIME.
FOUL MURDER IN THE FOLSOM
PRISON.
Convict John Showers Butchered
by Fellow Prisoner, George
Pullman.

The Folsom Prison was again the
scehe yesterday of most brutal muir
der by one of the convicts, George Putt
man, his victim being also a convict,
named John Showers.
] The crime was committed shortly be-
| fore the noon hour, and inside the
PRISON. 1t was apparently wholly I'M
prov oked, the murderer manifesting a
most fendish spirit. Showers was
standing in one of the Railways of the
prison when Pullman came along. He
stopped when in front of Showers. said
something which was not overheard,
and then sprang at him with a long
and wicked knife, or dirk, which had
been made from a file.
The first sweep with the murderouS
weapon took effect on one side of Show
ers' face, ranging backward and lay
ing open the cheek and side of the neck.
Quick as lightning the murderer
STU uck again, this time inf1icting a ter
| rible cash across the throat and neck
of his victim, who then fell to the floor.
While in this helpless condition. but
struggling to rise, Showers was set
upon by the knife welding fiend, who
drove the weapon into his side under
the arm and then into the left breast.
Assistant Turnkey Cassidy arrested
the murderer and took away his bloody
weapon.
Showers lived but a few minutes, but
was able to tell the officers that he had
been slain because of young Abe Ma
jors, the paroled convict, who was a
favorite with Pullman.
1t seems that Showers was, some
eighteen years ago, implicated with
Lloyd Majors Gather of the paroled
coEvicD and one Jewell in the murder
of two men named Renowden and Nc
Intyre in Santa Clara County. He
turned States witness and escaped with
life sentence, while Majors and Jew
ell We're hanged. Abe Majors, son of
the murderer, subsequently found his
way into the Folsom Prison, where a
warm friendship sprung up between
him and Pullman.
A few months ago young Majors was
released on parole,S but left the State
with his brother Archie and went to
Utah, where they toes to robbery
While resisting arrest in Ogden recent
ly Archie Majors was killed by Police
Captain Brown, who was in turn MUIR
dered by Abe Majors. The latter was
arrested, however, convicted and SEN
fenced to death.
1t is supposed, from the few words
spoken by Showers after receiving his
mortal wounds and also from an ex-
| clamation made by Pullman after the
murder cob, my boyi my boy,'O that
young Majors had succeeded in arous-
| ing in Puttman's heart an intense ha-
tired for Showers, and that the latter
had determined to murder him.
Pullman is at heart fiend. Though
but 20 years of age, he has long been
a criminal, and is now serving a term
of ten years, having been convicted Of
felony in San Francisco in 1895, after
having served various terms in the
| County Jail there. While in the Fol-
som Prison he has given the officers any
amount of trouble. Three times he has
| ASA ulted other prisoners, and once he
made threats against one of the guards
| Two years ago he endeavored to get up
a strike among the working convicts.
For all of these offenses he had been
severely punished, but it has apparently
! had no effect ON him.
| On the other hand, Showers had al
ways been a most exemplary prisoner.
| In the seventeen years that he had
served he never gave the officers the
slightest trouble, and all have a good
| word to say of him.
There seems to be a sort of malta
in the prison, among the worse class of
col:victs, and those who come under its
| ban are liable at any moment to De
murdered. Last year a convict named
Charles Ross, who was suspected of he
| ing on too intimate terms with the Off
GERS Of the prison, was brutally MUIR
dered by another convict named OPP
perheimer. The latter was tried in
the Superior Court, but his neck was
saved by the testimony of about a
dozen convicts who swore that Ross
assaulted Oppenheimer
| 1t remains to be seen whether or not
there will be a similar miscarriage of
justice in the case of Pullman