The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1931-11-05
4 MEN KILLED
IN GUN FIGHT
% YEARS AGO
did Timers Recall the Thrill
ing Battle, when Every Gun
in the District was Carried
in the Man Hunt

events in the history or our little
c;tv On Halloween eve 25 years
400 occurred the greatest whole
.sle slaughter recorded in the an
mails Of southeastern Washington
since the days of the tomahawk.
The whole district was rocked by
: gun fight in which four men
were killed and a 16-year-old ban
dit was nearly lynched.
Many Kennewick citizens still
remember and tell of the stirring
manhunt in which posse of 300
Benton, Franklin and Walla Walla
county residents participated. They
tell how two suspected bandits,
faced by the Benton sheriff and
Kennewick marshal after robbery
Of two Kennewick stores, opened
fire. In the melee the marshal and
one outlaw were killed and a de-
nuty sheriff wounded fatally.
Some members of the posse still
live in the community.
Posseman Shot
The fourth death resulted when
q member of the posse securing
the Columbia river bank mistook
q fellow posseman for the young
fugitive as he was drawing his
gun on the outlaw in the dark.
A lynching of the bandit, Wal
ter Lindsey, alias "Kid" Barker,
was narrowly averted when he was
being taken to Prosser by train
from Kennewick. A mob armed
with rifles attempted to seize the
boy highwayman who killed the
two officers, but after one shot
had been fired by a member of the
mob, Deputy Sheriff John Ed
wards of Yakima persuaded the
crowd to withdraw.
The manhunt was in the days
when bloodhounds were an inn
portant feature at the penitenti-
airy in Walla Walla and dogs from
the prison finally led to the cap
twe Of the fugitive as he lay in
the river bank brush while posse
men conferred the manhunt on a
river island.
From the files of the Walla Wal
u Bulletin is taken the following
story printed the morning after
the battle:
THE dead are: Marshal Mike
Glover, Joseph Holsey, deputy
sheriff; Frank Perry, one of the
posse; and a bandit named Lake,
said to be an ex-convict from the
penltentiary at Walla Walla.
Captured Walter Lindsey, out
law 16 years of age, now in Ben
ton county Jail.
Giover and the robber were
Killed during the fight and the
other two died later. Holsey was
wounded by the outlaws and died
early this morning. Perry was shot
accidentally by one of the posse.
Lindsey claims that he is but
10 years old, but it is said that he
fought like a tiger in the first
Dattie with the officers. He was
caught about IL o'clock last night
@nen ne was surrounded on the
banks OF the river about Sd of a
nile from the scene of the first
snOotlng in which his partner was
Die Next Day
hoisey and Perry died this
morning. Each was shot in the
ABDOMEN by the young bandit now
unoer arrest. He fired four times
:. harry Roseman, but missed
ulm. Sheriff McNeill had a thumb
snot off during the battle. The
soung prisoner looks much more
than is.
bioodhounds had been sent
..om the state penitentiary and
snen ne heard them baying on his
.1ali ne realized that escape was
impossible. and surrendered. He
aao been lying in the brush all aft
sernoon, and hundreds of men had
psen tramping within a few feet
= num- under the impression that
; ~ mad taken refuge on a small
Sland in the river.
As Lindsey rose from his hid
lug place Perry drew his rifle and
1 q. him to throw up his hands.
az the same time some one in the
st0sse, evidently mistaking Perry
~ NJ the bandit, fired upon him
Wounded.
.vm In Hardware Robbery
Inc dead bandit and his part
hss were suspected of having rob-
~ hardware store in Kennewick
s s9 nights ago. None of the guns
ammunition taken were found