Bisbee daily review., 1908-03-12
BRUTAL MURDERER
 WILL PAY PENALTY
Chopped Room Mate To Pieces Before Robbing Him of
 His Savings.

NORFOLK, Va, March 1l-Unless Governor Swanson interferes with the sentence. which is not considered likely, this will De the last geek on earth for Leo O. Thurman, who is to be hanged here next Friday for the murder of his roommate, Walter P. Dolsen. more than two years ago. The convicted man. who is not yet thirty years old, seems resigned to his fate and is said to have made a full con fession of his crime.
 Both the murderer and his victim were marines in the United States service and had been discharged a short time previous to the crime Dol sen was enroute to his home in Mich igan, when he picked up with Thur man. The two young men became friends and together they secured lodging in an east Main street board ing house in this city. Thurman was practically penniless, while Doisen had about $400, which he had saved from his pay in the marine corps. While Dolsen slept one night Thur man chopped the defenseless man to pieces with an axe, robbed him, | packed the pieces in a trunk and tied tag on it ready for shipment to l Edenton, N C. The crime was dis covered almost immediately, but not before Thurman had eluded the police and left the city He went south, | and after wandering across the conti- | nent, he finally landed in Vancouver, B. C., where he was captured. The passing of bad checks, which was an old practice of his. proved his unGo- | ing. He was arrested as a result of a | check transaction, and when taken to | police headquarters in Vancouver a detective with good memory for faces recognized in the prisoner the man who was wanted for murder in this city Thurman, after the murder of Dolsen, had travelled under the name of Gould The police of this
 city verified the description of the prisoner, and a hat which he wore bearing the name of a Norfolk halter l completed the identification.
 | Detectives of the Norfolk depart.
 ment were at once sent to British co
 lumbia. to bring back the prisoner. A | trip of six days across the continent
 and the much-hunted man was land, ed behind prison bars, almost rwo
 years after the murder had been com,
 mitted
 | A speedy trial with a verdict oi murder in the first degree and the last chapter in a career that was pune tuated by many misdeeds was com pleted. Thurman was never placed
 on the stand His attorney argued
 that if his client killed Dolsen he was insane at the time. There was nor 2
 witness for the defense, except to try
 to prove that Thurman had been con sidered partly insane at times.
 Thurman was born in West Point
 Ky, and in his youth was a newsboy
 in Cincinnati and several other Ohio
 cities. Prior to eulisting in the ma rine corps he had been in severa
 scrapes Of a more or less serious na ture. After his arrest on the murder charge his family gave him what aid they could. A brother came iron Kentucky, and a lawyer came witf him to assist in the defense. It diC
 not take the jury but a few minute:
 however to arrive at verdict of gull ty The first trial took place lasI
 summer, and Thurman was sentenced
 to hang the latter part of September r An appeal to the supreme court result
 ed in stay. The higher court de I clined to interfere in the case, where
 upon the young man was sentenced t pay the death penalty on Friday, tht
 thirteenth day of March.