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same table with me in the hotel at “The company was sitting in the and hide there, but he had on a new him.front room of the Bolton home talk- suit of clothes, and he said he would “In accordance with the plan ofwhich I boarded, and once I met Jesse and Dick Liddle in a store kept by a relative of the Ford boys, and they were introduced to me by Bob Ford as agents for fruit trees. I did notMany stories have been written j meeting between Ford and Speer at ]earn until after Jesse was killedabout the breakup of the Janies gang! which the agreement was made. j that was he who posed as one of i of bandits, and the causes that led up ! '''“While I was prosecuting attorney I the frujt tree men, and then Bob Fordto it; and various persons have j of Ray county, and living in Rich- told me? and j recognized Jesse fromclaimed credit for ridding the state ! mond, I used to come to Kansas City ! the pictures of him published afterof that band of outlaws. And now i occasionally on business and I always his deathcomes James W Garner Assistant stopped at the old Pacific House while turned to Richmond from Kan-city counselor of Kansas City, with here, began Mr Garner. ‘In one of cj d t f Jim Daw30n, a new story that has never before | my visits Chief Speers sent word to [ marshal, who knew thebeen printed about that always in-, me to come and see him. I went to I _T„m„ ^va welL He toldme heChief Speers the marshal got hold of Bob Ford and told him that Chief Speers had disgraced his (Ford’s) sister by sending a posse to surround ' her house at night, and the marshal urged Ford to go to Kansas City anding when suddenly Jesse James got i not spoil it by crawling under the up quickly and went to a window | house if there were a thousand offi-and listened. I cers outside.“ ‘Boys,’ he said, ‘I hear an engine j “Liddle put out all the lights, and,puffing.’ j by peering out the windows, he dis-“The railrooad track was half a i covered that the posse was hiding be- r „ -mile away, and none of the others j hind the barn and outhouses. He I take Speers to task on account of it. could hear the engine until they, too,j made up his mind that they were “Bob came up to Kansas City, and, I went to the window and listened; but! afraid of getting shot if they tried to j full of wrath, called on Speers. Now the alert ear of the old outlaw had | rush the house and that they would j Speers knew all the time that some ; caught the sound amid the chaffing wait out there for daylight, so Liddle i one had been hurt at the Bolton | and laughter in the room. He had | quietly opened the front door, wentj home, but he hud no suspicion of who ;been at the Bolton home not more ! out into the darkness and made his I it might be. When Bob Ford called jDeen priniea aooui uiai aiways m- ; me tu cume unu see mm. 1 went tu i jamea weu jje ^old me he that half a dozen times in his life, escape down a gully. When day- j on him Speers got up and closed andteresting subject. his office and he Said he had received \ , Qffen seen Jesse James in town, but he instantly noted that it was not! light came the posse found the house locked the doors of his office, took aMr. Garner asserts that to Thomas secret information that^ the James j t0id him of my promise to Speers, 1 the regular time for any train empty and it returned to Kansas City, fresh chew of tobacco, faced Ford andto be passing along that track, he! “A day or two later Dawson, the said:Speers, for many years chief of police boys were in the habit of stopping at j ‘ he‘Tai^he ^vou°ld Tet me know - »r _..j j the home of Mrs. Bolton, a sisterof Kansas City, and now dead be longs the sole credit. Speers planned the plot that led to the death of Jesse James, but he did not intend that the outlaw should be killed; his plan was for the capture of Jesse and Bob Ford promised Speers that he would give the information and shape events that would enable Speers to capture the bandit alive, and Ford went with Jesse James to his home in St.jjdu j , , the next time any member of theof Rob and Charlie Ford, who lived Z____n j i u , • : irni? cni6 vO tnG iJoiton nomc*on a farm a mile and a half east of KRichmond ■ Three weeks later Dawson came“I told him that it was true. I I to my office and told me Jesse James had known for some time that mem- ' and other members of the gang were bers of the James gang had been at Boltons. We had seen them ride there, but they had not committed up on horseback and put their horses any depredations in our country, and the barn, and go into the house,there was a deep feeling of fear of I s®nt a message to Chief Speers inthe vengeance of the gang there, and a cipher we had agreed upon.Joseph to deliver him according to j it would have been impossible to get “Wrhat happened that night at the nnreeVnent, but there Ford realized1 a posse to attempt their capture. Bolton house gives a fine lllustra-that Jesse intended to'kill him and Speers asked me if I would watch tion of the aiterness and intuition ot at the first opportunity Ford killed - the Bolton house quietly and let him Jesse James and furnishes an indium. * j know when the gang came there ; cation of why he was able to eludeMr. Garner was prosecuting attor- again, and I promised to do that. capture for so long when the officers nev of Ray county, Missouri, at the j “I was not personally acquainted ! of a whole state were looking for him time Bob Ford made his compact with with either Frank or Jessfe James, , and when there was a pnee of $o0,000 Chief Speers to deliver Jesse James j although I found out afterward that on his head. Bob Ford afterward alive and Gamer brought about the j Jesse had eaten many a time at the , told me of the incident.It issaid:“ ‘That engine is off time, not a regular train.’“He listened again and said: ‘Boys, that engine has stopped, out of here/marshal of Richmond, was sitting i Before Ford left the office of Chief | on a nail keg in front of the hard- ! Speers he had made an agreement to , ware store of A. J. Botts when he saw deliver Jesse James to Speers for the i Willie Bolton, the eleven-year-old son j reward, but it was not the plan for | Ijet’s get of Mrs. Bolton, go in and buy a lot him to kill Jesse. Ford was to let j of cartridges for a Colt’s revolver. , Speers know when the time would The company gathered up their Dawson questioned him. j be favorable for a posse to dose inihats and coats, ran to the barn for “The marshal encouraged the boy j on the outlaw and capture him alive, the horses, and in a minute or two to talk and he told that a man was j “Afterward John C. Morris, sheriff j galloped off into the night, all ex-1 shot in the Bolton home not long of Ray county, found Hite's body in cept Dick Liddle. He said he did not before. The marshal repeated the the well on the Bolton farm, and Gar-believe the coming of the engine fore- conversation to me and we decided | ner assisted in Ford’s prosecution for * boded ill, and he remained behind. that he should go to Kansas City and that crime. A little later Bob ford j “Well, that was a special engine tell it to Chief Speers. When the old shot and killed Jesse James^ in his from Kansas Citv, with a company of! chief heard it he told the marshal home in St. Joseph. But Ford al-special officers aboard, and in a little, to try and egg Bob Ford on to come j ways contended that he did not go j while they reached the house. Liddle to Kansas City and see him. At that j there to kill him, but to watch for heard them climbing over the fence time Ford was only suspected of be- a favorable chance to notify Speers j outside. The Boltons wanted Liddle j ing a member of the James gang; | when to send the posse.(to crawl under the floor of the house' there was no direct evidence against j “In this connection I want to tell,you a remarkable story of the fallacy of circumstantial evidence. A shor- time before the break-up of the James gang the stage between Lexington and North Lexington was held up and the passengers robbed. Not*, far from there lived a man named Hastings, his son Will and his Kdth-er-in-law, John Bagley. They were horse traders. The horses of the robbers corresponded in looks to three horses owned by the Hastings’s and Bagley, the tracks of the robbers* horses, plain to be seen in the mud, led straight to the Hastings home. The three were arrested charged with the crime, and Charles France, a banker of St. Joseph, who was one of the passengers robbed, picked Will Hastings out of a group of men and positively identified him, both by his looks and by his voice, which was peculiar, as one of the robbers. The three were tried and eleven of the jurors voted for conviction. But one old farmer was not convinced and he hung the jury.“Before the date set for the second trail Bob Ford killed Jesse James and made a full confession of all his misdeeds, and among them was the robbery of the Lexington stage. It was Ford’s voice that resembled Hastings, and he was about the same size. Thus, you see, three innocent men were saved from the penitentiary by the vote of one man on the jury of twelve, and another proof was given of the unreliability of circumstantial evidence.”—Kansas City Star.
Newspaper Details
Joplin Morning Tribune
Joplin, Missouri, US
Sun, Feb 04, 1912
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Joplin P.
MO, USA 20 Sep 2024
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