Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-04-23
REMINDER Of
AN OLD CRIME
Petition For Distribution of a
Murdered Mans Estate.
MURDERER UNFINISHED
After AcQuittal He Confessed His
Crime-Now in a California
Pen.
MURDERER UNPUBLISHED

David Meiklejohn, as administrator of
the estate of William F. Jordan. has filed
in the district court his ina account of
his stewardship of the estate n thanked
1t with a petition for final distribution.
The estate contains $S36.40. The petition
will be heard by Judge Lindsay OF May |
"A.
The filing of the account calls to mind
an old crime committed in this city for
which the perpetrators nave never been
punished. At 1920 o'clock on the morning
of June "a, 1892, William F. Jordan, then
doing duty as a policeman in Butte, sur
prised two burglars e~nueavoring to effect
an entrance to the residence of w. j.
Kennedy, on South Idaho street.
Whether an exchange of words between
the officer and burglars took place is not
knOWn to any one save the latter, but it
is known that bullets were exchanged
n that Jordan was shot through the
heart and was cad before his body was
discovered lying on the sidewalk only a
few yards from h door on which the
burglars were working. 1t is also known
that six shots were fired. two by each
of the burglars and two by Jordan, and
that one of the bullets from the latter's
gun struck one of the burglars, passing
through his left arm and breaking a rib.
This fact has never before appeared in
print. There are also some other things
in connection with the crime that have
not been made public. After the shoot
ing the burglars ran, n going through
the back yard of Kennelly's house and
continuing across Washington street,
west, and the other going directly south,
into the sparsely settled district, and
hence west.
Edward Hickey and John Boyle were
C1l0nootn6 nf tho oriron NY wa +I>
one struck by Jordan's bullet. After hid
ing their guns under a barn in the south
western part of the city they separated,
and it was supposed that Hickey re-
turned to the heart of town. Boyle, how
ever. being wounded, continued west. At
a point near the old Colorado company's
concentration he stopped at the creek and
washed the wound in his arm. He was
seen by a woman. He then went to
Crystal Springs, about a mile and a half
back in the hills, n remained there five
days, leaving only when he thought his
place of hiding a been discovered by
Butte officers. With the aid of his GRIM
inal friends he reached Helena and en-
tered a hospital, where he remained until
he recovered and then drifted into space.
A year or two later he held a man up
in Mandan. North Dakota, and shot him.
His arrest and conviction followed, and
ne is now serving a term of IS years in
the penitentiary.
Hickey started south as soon as an
opportunity offered, but stopped at
Beaver canyon and hired out as a cook
in a grading camp. The Butte police de-
partment located him. and Policeman A.
j. Werner was detailed to arrest him.
When the officer arrived at the camp
Hickey had gone, but Werner took up
the trail and followed it to Denver, where
he found his man in Jail. Hickey was
brought back to Butte and tried, but by
reason of the fact that no person besides
Boyle a seen him fire the deadly bull
let; had not traced the course of the
missile through the atmosphere n into
the heart of Jordan, and then secured a
confession from Hickey in the presence
of witnesses that he had pulled the trig-
ger of the Weapon from which it had
sped, he was acquitted. A day or two
later he confessed the deed on the hy-
pothesis that he could not be arrested
again n prosecuted, after which he
left the city.
Hickey, in his confession, said he had
fired the bullet that killed Jordan; that
he had a large gun, while his. partner
had a small one. It was a large bullet
that struck the officer.
By n by Hickey turned up in Cali
fornia a la Frank Moody of the hold-up
firm of Moody & Franey. committed a
burglary, got caught at it and is now
doing a 30-years' sentence in Folsom
prison.