The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1916-08-22
YOUTHFUL CRIMINALS COM
NIT GRUESOME MURDER
NEAR NEVADA STATE LINE
Thomas Ham Prominent Educator Shot to Death by Boy
Thief Top Of Head Blown Off With SOftnOSed Bullet
That Penetrated Fye

Fit subject for the pen of a Dumas,
a Doyle or a Poe in its horrors, was
the murder of f. Thomas Hamill on
his lonely claim two miles north of
the Nevada line Sunday by two boys
aged twelve and eleven years, and the
calm loading of the rig of the dead
man with loot and provisions after
they had shot him to death and the
aimless flight over prairies and wild
chasms until their final capture Sun
day night near Bull, continuing their
course of crime to the last. Abandon
ed by mother, and with their step
father away, the waits had defied the
warnings of the kind woman with
whom they were left in charge and
from petty stealing went on until they
ended in the killing of a human be-
ing, and then fled with as much cool
ness as if they had been the most ac-
complished gunner of the great cit
les. And yet, after all, they were
boys, for they fished like other chill
dren, also innocently claimed owner
ship of a dog when such claim was
incriminating and finally broke down
and cried when they confessed their
wrongdoing. Truely a study for the
psychologist
. The story in it's outlines is this
Harold and Linn Loveace, NOV
ed with their mother and
their stepfather, Mr.. and Mrs. Penny
well, from this city last spring to a
claim seventeen miles south of Roger
son. A couple of months ago their
mother left, it is said for medical
treatment, and since that time, so far
as known, has not been heard from by
anyone here, though it is reported that
she went to Boise. About three weeks
ago the stepfather of the boys left, it
is said, to hunt for work, leaving the
boys with a neighbor, Mrs. TOlman.
The neighbors had been missing
things for some time, and after the de-
parture of Pennywell several cabins
were entered. Mrs. Tolman discover
ed the loot with the boys and made
them return it. She told them that
she would warn the sheriff and have
them locked up, to which they replied
that they would get guns and kill the
sheriff. On Sunday, August 13, the
boys disappeared and thereafter Mrs.
Tolman saw no more of them until
after the tragedy which struck the
whole surrounding country with hor-
ror. In the meantime the victim in
the play, going on his way, was work
ing unconsciously toward his fate.
F. Thomas Hamill, aged thirty-eight
years, vice principal in the public
schools of Carson City, Nevada, a
prominent Mason, a man of high
standing in Nevada from the governor
of which he held letters of recommen-
dation, had taken up claim on Sho-
shone creek near the place where the
Pennywells resided His wife had
gone to Oakes, North Dakota, to visit
while her husband held down the
claim Letters passed back and forth
and told of the hopes that they had OF
meeting again in Carson City this fall
when school was resumed. Neither
she, nor the aged father in Pennsyl-
4 vania, had premonition of the i'm
pending blow.
Among the friends of Hamill were
Mrs. Louise Smith, an aged woman
living a short distance away, and heI
grandson, W. Clay Smith and his
wife, who live at Curry. The younger
Mrs Smith was visiting her husbands
grandmother on the claim. Hamil
left his ranch with his horse and drove
to Curry, arriving on August IL, to gel
supplies IOr nlmSelI ana MrS. LOUISE
Smith. He stayed over night with Mr.
Smith and borrowed a red delivery
wagon with yellow wheels to carry
supplies for himself and Mrs. Smitl
back to the plains. He left early Mon
. day for his home.
What happened, may be summed VI
as follows:
Hamill did not arrive at his cabin un
til evening, when he found tina
it had been pillaged and his guns ant
groceries stolen. A strange dol
was fastened up in the cabin. Mex
morning Hamill went to the Smitl
home with their packages, the dog fol
lowing. The boys had spent the nigh
with the Smith family and were ther'
when Hamill arrived He asked then
if they knew who owned the dog ant
they promptly replied that they did
He demanded that they get his gun
for him, which they did, bringing hin
to point near his home, where tn
stolen goods were hidden in the weeds
Hamill then started back with tn
little boys to the Smith residence L
consult with them relative to wha
should be done with the young law
breakers, when they suddenly dodge
away from him into the brush an