The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1908-09-25
SELF-SLAIN OUTLAW
WAS BANDIT AS BOY
CARL SUTHERLAND LEFT LET
TER SHOWING HE WAS
CRIMINAL.
Terrorixed His Home Town and Aided
Desperate Criminals - Holp Ups,
Train Robberies and Murder Played
Part In His Short But Wild Career.

Los Angeles, Sept. 2,i--Carl Suther-
land, the youthful self slain murderer
of Captain Walter Auble of the police
department, left letters which show he
was a remarkable criminal In one
of these letters Sutherland said he was
born at Lamar, Mo-, and, became a
member OF gang which terrorized
that locality. He first aided two crim-
inals, who were wanted for robbing the
depot at 0swego, Kan, and shooting
a deputy sheriff, to escape in a canoe
on the Neosho river, and later joined
them and others in holding up" an
Iron Mountain train at Malvern, ARR
Near Ponca, Okla. he was captured
by a vigilance committee. but escaped
by knocking down his guard with a
club and later holding up" one of the
vigilantes and robbing him Of his gun,
purse and horse.
Members of his gang killed several
men at different times in this vicinity.
He aided In a jail break at Lamar
and later helped "hold up" a Choctaw
train near Memphis. He was finally
arrested at Okmulgee, Creek Nation,
and taken to Lamar by Sheriff Harlow,
where he was sentenced to the reform
school at Boonville, Mo. Sutherland
confessed to a number of local crimes.
He gave names of members of the
gang with which he was associated
and accounted for the violent deaths
of several of them.
Triad Hanging In Jail
Lamar, Mo-, Sept. 24.-Carl Suther-
land, who was pursued by the police of
Los Angeles for the double crime of
robbery and killing an officer, and
when surrounded took cyanide Of pot
assium, was raised in Lamar. He was
young man of good family and was
"a years old.
Carl first came to the notice of the
police here along In September, 1902,
for robbing the Frisco depot He was
the son of Fred Sutherland and a nep-
hew OF Bert Sutherland Of this county.
Shortly after Sheriff Harlow caught
Carl and slowed him safely In the jail
he found his prisoner hanging from one
of the tall jail bedposts, his face black
from suffocation Harlow cut his pri
soner down 1t took some time to
bring Carl around and had he not been
rescued just when he was his career
would have ended down in the old
Barton county jail.
He left a letter then telling how he
and others robbed the Iron Mountain
train near Malvern, Ark, and the diff
ferent parts each one of the outlaws
played In the robbery. A letter was
stopped that he was trying to send
out to one of his companions telling
about !holdup and murder that he
was connected with at Bristow. /. Il,
where they robbed bank.
No One Suspected Him.
No one suspected Carl of the depot
robbery. He stayed around town for
five or six weeks after the two attacks
were made ard left without molesta-
tion. Sheriff Harlow went to town one
day to bring a woman into court, and
while she was in another room he saw
a letter upon the table from Carl
Sutherland askiAg If persons here sus-
pected him OF the robberies.
Then Harlow got Sutherland, and
Carl confessed everything. Carl and a
man who went by the name of Jack
Wells robbed the Frisco depot The
first night they shot at the night man,
and he fell back upon the floor un-
touched while they robbed the drawer.
This night man left immediately and
Marvin Stone was put in his place.
Stone had been at his new post only
short time when Sutherland and his
partner went up and began to shoot al
him. Stone did not fall back. He
merely reached into the drawer, jerked
out revolver and began to shoot back
They ran and Stone was left untouch-
ed in possession of the field.
Mr. Harlow still has two. caricatures
that Carl drew of the two attacks. In
the first one he and Wells, are showr
shooting at the agent, and the agent Il
dropping to the floor. In the othel
picture Stone is leaning out of th'
ticket window shooting, and Suther-