The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-08-24
Maxwell's Life for Twenty five
Years Had Been One of
Crime and Romance That
Reads Like Fiction.
USED MANY NAMES IN
COURSE OF CAREER
Perjury Bigamy CattIe-SteaI-
ing, Murder Arson, Forgery
and Bank Robbery Were His
SpeCiaItieS for Many Years,
HE DIED AS He LIVED

A. C. L. Maxwell, who was shot to
death at Price last night by Deputy
Sheriff Ed Johnson, probably had as
many names as any man in the west,
having assumed aliases of I. Otis
Bliss, L. C. Bliss, Richard Carr, John
Carter, W. C. Maxwell, C. W. Sea-
man and W. H. Seaman.
It is doubtful if any one of his &C
quaintances in Utah knows which
name is the one he was entitled to,
although it is reported that he came
west under the name of L. c. Bliss.
In Utah, however, he was best
known as c. L. Maxwell, as it was I'M
der that name that he was convicted
of rObbing the Springville bank in
1898, when he was sentenced to ID
years in the state penitentiary and
finally released five years later on
Communication of sentence.
MaxweITs career has been one of crime
and romance since he was first heard Of
in Wyoming nearly twenty-five years ago.
It is said that his parents were well-to-
do people living in the outskirts of Bos-
ton, where his father owned a hotel Max
well became involved in a saloon brawl
when a youth and shot a companion,
who died. Maxwell fled to the west, land
ing in southeastern Wyoming at the time
of the cattle wars of more than twenty
years ago. Cattle rustiing proved his
forte and he drifted to the southwest for
time, returning to Wyoming in 1892,
where he continued his business of cat
tie stealing with gambling as a side line.
He was sentenced to the Wyoming peni-
Tertiary for three years for grand lar
ceny, starting his term July 3, 1893, and
gaining six months Communication by good
behavior being released Jan. 3, 1886. Soon
afterwards he drifted to Utah, where he
lived on the Uintah reservation for a few
years, finally drifting to Carbon county,
where, at the time of the strike of coal
miners in 1902, he was well known in all
OF the coal camps.
Acts as Bodyguard.
When the strike reached its violent
stage Maxwell was engaged by Mark p
Braffet, an attorney of Salt Lake, as his
personal bOdygUaTd while Braffet was
acting as agent for the Utah Fuel COM
pany at the scene of the strike. Ever
ready with his revOlvers, Maxwell terror
his special assignment during the strike
was to attempt to intimidate the news
paper correspondents and any one who
protested against the methods used to put
down the strike
Maxwell. with an accomplice, attempted
to rob the bank at Springville, Utah, n
the summer of 1898, and an emplOye of
the bank was killed. A posse chased
Maxwell and his companion up one of
the canyons nearby and Maxwell sur
rendered at the approach of the officers,
while his companion was shot in resist
ing arrest Maxwell was tried and SEN
fenced to serve eighteen years in the
state penitentiary Five years later there
was an attempted Jail break and when
the psychological moment arrived Maxwell
sided with the guards and put down the
uprising, and forthwith asked for COM
mutation Of sentence.
This was granted by the state board
of pardons and since the day he was re-
at least a dozen hOld-Ups; two jeweIry
robberies, one stage robbery. and has
passed several hundreds of dollars worth
of worthless checks, escaping prosecution
in nearly every instance and conviction
in every case.
Maxwell is said to have married Ada
Shaw in Nernal about twenty years ago
and ne had lived with her for several
years prior to his conviction for the
Springville bank robbery. Mrs. Ada Shaw
Maxwell was cared for by MaXwelFs par
ents for a part of the time while her hus-
band was in the penitentiary. During mis-
incarceration she visited him at the peni-
tertiary, accompanied by their daughter
and she lived with him again for a time
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