Weekly journal-miner., 1917-11-07
FIELDS SAID ID AVEADM!TTED
 KILLING WIFE
NEGRO WHO FORMERLY RESIDED IN PRESCOTT IS RETURNED TO PHOENIX TO FACE CHARGE OF SHAVING HIS BRIDE.

l li1JE-N IA, OOl. Ol- - DtCidl iiif1 that he had shot his wife because she had accused him of running around with other women, John Fields, the negro. IS said to have confessed shoot ing his bride of two months, to the officers who arrested him 2I miles this side of Skull valley carly yestcr
 day morning, the arrest ending search
 of 36 hours. The negro, foot-sorc and weary. although armed with the same | B calibrc Colts automatic, did not resist the officers. Twice he dropped his hands as though to draw his gun, but word from Constable Haze
 Burch, the arrcsting officer, caused him 10 take the wiser course and quietly submit to the orders of the authorities.
 He had walked 60 miles since Sun day night when he made his escape
 from this city. His longest stop had been at Congress Junction where he rested for two hours after securing q light lunch. After admitting to the officers that he had had trouble with his wife. he learned for the first time that she was dead.
 When told that the shots he IS al legged to have confessed he fired, had proved fatal, he laughed.
 .'I shot her and I shot her twice,
 he is alleged to have said, claiming
 that his bride was always accusing him of paying undue attentions to other women. "I just wanted to scare her." he added. When later dis cussing the tragedy, he is said to have charged his wife with threatening him with a knife.
 After the trouble with his wife. Inc said his one thought was to reach his mother, Katie Maclss. who lives in Prescott. There he intended to give | himself up to the Prescott authorities, according to the tale he told the off cers. If he carries out the statement he made them last evening, he will plead guilty to murder when arraign- ed before Justice De Souza at Q o'clock this morning.
 The negro gave his age as B years and said that for number of years | he served as tcamstcr in the quarter masters department in the Philip pines. He has lived in Phoenix more than a year during which time he has Lccu employed by the Santa Fc wash ing cars and labor of like character. Fields is the l4th defendant 10 be charged with murder in Maricopa county since the first of the year No. one of the IA has escaped and the last arrest called for quick and clever work on the part of the authorities. Deputies from the shcriff's office were on the man hunt Sunday night and on Monday morning the search was taken up by Constablcs Roy Morrell and Haze Burch and Mike Strathcy of the police, who also holds a com mission as a deputy sheriff. Going without food, travelling by passenger train, automobile, hand car, saddle horses and wagon as the road and situation demanded, they finally took Fields in custody and brought him back by automobile, reaching this city carly last evening.
 According 10 the account given by the negro he waited at Agua Fria tanks an hour for a freight He ap- preached the train and asked if he might ride and having heard rumors of the murder and noting the gun car ricd by Fields, they invited him to take the car. At Wickcnburg. the conductor asked Constable Ike Woods | ii a man was wanted and not having been notified, Woods replied no" h. the meantime, the negro got off at | WicEenburg and was seen passing through the town by the ticket agent. The officers arriving at Wickcnbur"  a message awaiting them from Woods to the effect that a negro had been seen at the bridge at \. & (. junction in Wickenburg. As there IS no wagon road in that section the officers, on saddle horses, trailcd the wanted man to Congress Junction. Woods was met coming back from Congress Junction and joined forces with the local men. After . conference thcy decided to separate, Morrell and Strathey, in a rented machine, going to Skull valley, while l4 miles north of Congress Junction, Woods and Burch boarded a passenger train, the former stopping at Kirkland and the latter going to Hillside. There Burch learned that the negro had left the tank at 5:30 o'clock Monday night and hastened to Skull valley, reaching there before the possible arrival of the accused unless he had arrived by freight. In the meantime, Morrcll and Strathcy arrived in Prescott where they were informed that the frcights had been scarchcd-and that the negro had not been found The all-night watch of the roads began and at daylight the parties again joined forces and started back, Nor rell and Woods in the hand car they had obtained from the section boss, 1 and Burch and Strathcy on the wag- on road in the automobile Burch | and Strathcy were the first to reach 1 the negro, but it was only a matter oi moments before the others arrived l and Fields had surrendered.