The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-11-18
SON SWUNG FOR
FATHERS MURDER
KILLING OF CAPTAIN DOTSON
ONE OF MOST UNUSUAL
CASES ON RECORD
Clumsy Carrying Out of Plot That
Was Planned in ~Penitentiary Cans
ed Hanging of Two Men at Deer
Lodge; Greed for Gold Was Cause
of the Crime.

Lodge; Greed for Gold Was Cause
of the Crime.
One of the most cold blooded muir
ders of which records have found
their way into the courts of the state,
or rather one of a series of murders
resulting in legal executions in Mon
tana, were those of Eugene C~ullinane
and Captain Oliver Dotson, both OF
American gulch, in what is now Pow
ell county. For the first of these
murders a trio was sentenced to the
penitentiary for terms ranging from
10 to 80 years, and for the latter,
two were sentenced to be hanged, a
son of Captain Dotson having been
concerned in both the murder of Gull
linane and also that of his w ia
Their.
The murder of Captain Dotson was
the indirect result of the murder OF
Eugene Cullinane, his neighbor,
which occurred August 8, 1899, and
which was committed by Clinton Dot
son, Charles Oliver Benson and Ellis
Persinger.
In the summer of 1899 Clinton
Dotson left his home in the Black
Hills of South Dakota to visit his
father, Captain Oliver Dotson, who
for six years had been a resident of
American gulch. He was accompan-
led by his sisters son, Charles Oliver
Benson, a youth who had then recent
ly deserted from the United States
navy. They travelled by wagon, a
rickety old canvas-covered affair, the
distinguishing mark of which was a
black oil-cloth patch on one side.
While at American gulch, Clinton
Dotson got acquainted with Eugene
Cullinane, a pioneer placer miner
and kindly old man, who lived in a
lonely cabin with his friend, John
Mulholland. The talk of the neigh
borhood was that CulIinane was
$4,000 in cash and that, hav-
lost money in a Helena bank fail
ure, he mistrusted banks and always
kept his money with him.
Clinton pondered over this and his
SRPAAAhJ Wo OdCSd I1C was d
poor man, one who had a hard strug-
gle to keep afloat. Once he had been
On the high road to prosperity, but
lad lost all. His father, too, had
been unfortunate. Years before the
I'D mar was a rich steamboat owner
IN the Mississippi but lost his all by
ire, and then took up farming and
placer mining.
Clinton first preached the subject
If robbery to Chadwick, a neighbor,
tut Chadwick did not fall in with
he limited plan. Then Dotson learn
ID hat at a certain time Mulholland
vas to go away for a week or more,
Cullinane alone. About that
Clinton and his nephew went to
Helena, travelling in their old wagon.
1t Helena they met Ellis Persinger,
big, happy, reckless Missourian out
f luck. He and Clinton grew in
innate and he Joined them on the re-
urn trip to American gulch.
They reached a point near Guilt
ane's place early in the morning of
.ugust s, 1899, and hid their outfit
4 the brush. Dotson and Persinger
'ent away with their rifles, leaving
'enson in charge of the horses. They
ere gone all day. Exactly how they
Cullinane never came out,
ut they attacked him as he was
down a shady lane. Possibly
lerc was a parley and possibly they
not him without warning. Anyhow
he old man received several bullets,
ny one of which would have been
.Ca1.
The men searched the body, taking
l of value the pockefs rtntained-
gold watch and SIS. They failed
j, find there or in the cabin the re-
orted wealth.
Returning to the outfit they hitch
l up and returned to Helena, and
ter a brief stop there passed on
lst, still using the wagon with the {
lack patch. !
August Is Mulholland returned, {
,und Cullinane's horse in the stable {
early dead from hunger and thirst
nd the cabin disorganized. Search j
were formed and they found I
lie body of Cullinane hidden under
leaves on the hill side. !.
Pursuit of the murderers was in
lgurated at once. By fast and clever
ork they were captured in Gallatin +!
,unty and Benson confessed. Dot
N was committed to the peniten-
airy at Deer Lodge for SO years and
enson and Persinger for 10 years
lch.
In the ~penitentiary was James I.
alias Macarthur, committed :
# burglary and known to be a des- 4
crate criminal. He and Clinton
olson we're cell-mates and became
innate. After a consultation with
snson and Persinger, Dotson pro-
,sed to Macarthur, whose term was
,out to expire, that upon being re-
ased he should go to the home of
lptain Dotson, secure his eonfid-
.ce, remain there and at an oppor-
ne time kill the old man, so placing
e body and weapon that it would
pear like suicide, and leave in the
bin a written document purporting
be in his handwriting stating that