Claude Branton and Courtland Greene - Murder at Isham's Corral

This is the first of three episodes that take place in Lane County, OR. It was a wild time...

Sheriff Withers had only been sheriff for 4 days when the biggest case of his career fell into his lap. The murder committed by Claude Branton and Courtland Greene was not just the talk of the town, but the whole state of Oregon took notice. Lane County had to, for the first time ever, build a gallows to execute a convicted murderer.

This case takes you back in time to 1898 from the Willamette Valley, across the Cascade Mountain range, through the lava beds of central Oregon, over to Eastern Oregon—and back again. 

Transcript

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What do horses, fires, and bones have in common? You're about to find out on this episode of Forgotten Felonies. Welcome back to Forgotten Felonies. I'm Monica. And I'm Olivia. And this is where we take you back in time to rediscover the crimes of vintage villainy that time forgot. This episode is going to take us back to the year 1898 to Lane County, Oregon. We're going to look at the 17th murder to ever happen in that county, and yet it was the first man to ever be hanged in Lane County for the crime. It was the most cold-blooded murder in the history of the state of Oregon at the time, they said, and it really was pretty gruesome and cold-blooded. This story mostly centers around a young man by the name of Claude Branton. Olivia, please tell us about Claude's origins. I would love to. So Henry Claude Branton was born on May 6th, 1876 in Oregon. His parents were Samuel Count Branton, a farmer, and Pramilla Caroline Shelley, who kept house. Along with Claude, they had six other children. Claude was the middle of the seven children. Now, I wish we knew a lot more about this family. It was very interesting to see other things pop up as I searched for information about Claude. I would find other lawsuits, and even a couple criminal cases involving one of his brothers. And we will most likely cover him in a future episode because the The more I see about that brother, the more fascinating it becomes. I would love to know what kind of dark secrets took place behind the doors in the Branton. home that made these guys turn out the way they did. I think the fact that the parents got divorced in 1898 may indicate that their dad was likely abusive, but that's just me making a wild guess. If any of you wanted to look up more info on Claude Branton or his family, you should sign up for a free seven-day trial at newspapers. com. And if you want to turn that trial into a six-month subscription, use our coupon code FORGOTTEN20 to get 20% off. Yeah, you can look up all kinds of fun things, but we're going to tell you what we found. In 1898, Claude Branton was 22 years old. He'd grown up in a place called Walterville, which isn't far from Eugene, Oregon. As being in Lane County. When his parents split up, his mother actually moved to the town of Condon, Oregon, which was very, very far away from Walterville. The October 8, 1897 edition of the Condon Globe has a little blurb that says, 'Mrs. Caroline Branton, a sister of Roy Shelley, who died in 1897, at Condon recently, arrived here this week with her five children and expects to spend the winter at Condon for school advantages. Families are coming in from all over the country to send their children to our excellent school. Now, I think I looked this up this morning and the school was actually just a little one-room schoolhouse. So I don't think that children from all over the country were moving in. I also looked up the population and it said it was like 220 people or something like that. So it was very small. I think they were just tooting their own horn a little bit. Today, there's about 700 people that live there.' Now, Caroline's four youngest kids at the time were ages 7, 10, 11, and 19. And then, Claude's brother Clarence was 23. Now, Claude didn't go over there in October with those siblings, but he went the following March, and he was, as I said, 22 years old. Now, Condon is 220 miles away from Walterville by car today. And Google Maps tells me it would take... take 4 hours and 18 minutes to make the drive. Back in 1898, they were traveling by horse and wagon, making this a trip that lasted multiple days. Google tells me this would take anywhere from 7 to 11 days of travel, depending on the health of the horse, the type of terrain, and things like that. Well, this particular journey does require going over the Cascade Mountains, which would certainly add some time to the trek, so it wasn't just a really quick move. Condon is the county seat of Gilliam County. It's not a bustling city by any means. Today, it has about 700 residents. It's very dry, like the desert. It's not lush and green and rainy like Mrs. Branton would have been used to in Walterville. Maybe she was happy to get away from all the rain. Her son, Claude, had been over to Condon before, and he saw that there were opportunities for work over there. He had met a man by the name of John A. Lynn. John was an older fellow, and we know that his younger brother was 45 years old in 1898, and his brother said that John was almost 50 years old. So Olivia and I are guessing he was likely around 48. So that's the age we're sticking with. When I tell you it was impossible to find anything about John, it was impossible. Luckily, his brother gave an interview in the paper and happened to mention a bit about their family, and that's the only info we really got. Yeah, so at least one person had the foresight to know that we were going to need info for the podcast. So thank you, Charles Lind. Yes, thank you. John Lynn had been living in Condon with the family of a man named John Palmer for about 16 years, but John himself didn't have any family in Oregon at all. His brother, Charles, lived in Nebraska, and he had two sisters in Illinois. Because he didn't have anyone to care for but himself, he had accumulated a lot of wealth. He had about 40 horses of his own, which ranged in the Ferry Canyon section of the Condon area, but he also would buy and sell horses. People considered him to be somewhat peculiar, though. Yeah, I couldn't get a lot of information to really elaborate on his being peculiar, but I did see that he was very particular about who he would let work for him. He didn't seem to trust a lot of people, and he seemed to lack in social skills a little bit. But most of what I got about his behavior is what came from the guy who murdered him, so... I don't know if I can really trust what he said because his whole story was just bizarre. And you'll see it when, when we get to that. What's interesting is that John Lynn was Swedish. He was born in Sweden. All of his siblings were. And... His dad actually spelled the last name L-I-N-D, so that's how his siblings spelled their last name, but John was like, 'Nope, I'm doing Lynn.' So. That's a little peculiar. Yeah. So he's the only one of his siblings that spells it L-I-N-N, and then all the rest of them spell it L-I-N-D. Yeah, that is different. But yeah, so their original last name in Sweden actually was Jansson, like Johnson. And then when they moved... his father wanted to change his last name to the town that he was from, which was Lind, apparently. And so he changed it to that. But then their parents wound up dying when... They were pretty young. Like their mother died first when Charles was a baby. And then his dad remarried and had a half-sibling in Illinois. I said all his siblings were born in Sweden, but he had a half-sister in Illinois. Yeah, and then the father died when Charles, that younger brother, was two and a half. Leaving all of those Swedish kids with this second wife. So she was raising these four Swedish kids and then her own baby. So, um, Yeah. So that's very, just kind of fascinating, but that's all we know about, about John Lynn. All right, so now Claude's brothers Clarence and Fred, ages 23 and 19, were both in Condon with their mom, and they were working there that spring. When necessary, they'd make the trips back and forth, you know, from Lane County to Gilliam County by horse over the mountains and through the woods. Back when life was simple. Yeah, I can't even imagine just going on a 10-day trail ride through the wilderness to go just visit my mom, you know, for a month or two. But Claude would even take friends with him. From Lane County, and they would get temporary jobs over in Condon, you know, working with sheep or goats or just doing whatever. And that's what was going on in the spring of 1898. But by the time spring was coming to a close, a very bad decision had been made by Claude and one of his friends. And it was a decision that they could never take back. It was 1 o'clock in the morning on the 4th of July in 1898. Deputy District Attorney Harris in Eugene, Oregon, had been sound asleep, but this jolted him back into consciousness. He opened the door and saw Deputy Sheriff Day and a very young man standing in front of him. Deputy Day told him that 22-year-old Cortland Green had a very important confession to make, and it couldn't wait until morning. Cortland had been sworn to secrecy and he was keeping up his end of the deal, but Claude went and told a bunch of people. The story got back to the man Cortland was living with at the time, Mr. Stephen Smead, and his landlord confronted him about it. Cortland had been feeling so guilty that it was eating him alive, and it felt really good to finally come clean. Mr. Smead took him straight to the police and demanded that he confess what he and Claude Branton had done. The 4th of July story went like this. He said that on the 8th or 10th of June, he had been over in Condon with Claude Branton. Claude offered him the chance to go to the valley with some horses. By the valley, they mean the Willamette Valley. Yeah, so the Willamette Valley is a big area in Oregon that spans from up north in Portland all the way down south to the Kalapuya Divide. It runs 150 miles from north to south. When they say the valley, they are probably specifically referring to the Eugene area where they are from. But it's in the Willamette Valley, and that's why they called it that. The whole party that was going to be traveling with the horses was John Lynn, the owner of the horses, Cortland Green. Claude Branton, his brother Clarence Branton, their mother Caroline Branton, and all of the Branton siblings. Mrs. Branton, who had recently finalized her divorce from her husband who lived in Walterville, was moving back to Walterville with all of the kids. So I'm not sure why. Maybe she realized the school there wasn't that great after all. Maybe. Thank you. She was like, 'I thought this was top notch.' He lied to me. One room. Yeah. She had moved there the previous October. And then, yeah, she's moving back. She was just there for the winter. Which, I don't get why, because eastern Oregon, it snows so much. I would have rather stayed in the rain. Yeah. So the divorce was finalized. It was in Condon in the court there that they did it, but it was April 20th of 1898 that the divorce was final. And then here they are in June. She's moving back. So. Yeah. Now, John left his own 40 horses back in Condon, the ones that he kept all the time. But he had 60 horses that he was bringing along with him. Him to sell in the valley. It was said in a later article that he was trying to raise money to purchase a big ranch and the proceeds from 20 or so of those horses would actually go to Claude for work that he had done for John. So, basically, some of those horses belonged to Claude at that point. They first got to a place that was then called Squaw Creek, and they stopped there for a night. Now, because Squaw can be considered a derogatory term now, the name of the creek has since been changed to Wycus Creek. That's W-H-Y-C-H-U-S, Wycus Creek. So it's located northeast of the town of Sisters, Oregon. And from here, Claude's brother, Clarence, left with their mother and the young children in a wagon and went on without. The three men and the horses. So now it's just Claude, Cortland, and old John Lynn. Now he was only 48, by the way, like we said, but the newspapers all referred to him as an old man, which... is really insane to me. A sign of the times, I'm telling you. Yeah, well, we saw the same thing in the Dufty family episode. They kept saying that their mom was an old woman and she was just in her 40s as well. So I thought it was weird then and I think it's weird now. So next they had to cross the lava beds in central Oregon. After about 35 miles, they got to a corral at Alder Springs and put the horses in there. They stopped for a day and a half to let the horses rest, and before they left, on the morning of June 15th, Claude and John Lynn got into an argument over the whole money issue. Claude wanted to be paid for the work he had done, but John didn't actually have a lot of money on him. All of his money was tied up in IOUs, and John wanted him to just take half the horses now and we'll call it even. But Claude wasn't okay with that. According to Cortland, Claude continued to be very angry after this fight, and when he was alone with Cortland later, he said, 'I'm gonna kill that old son of a bitch tonight.' Cortland tried to talk him out of it, but he couldn't. That night, they reached a place called Isham's Corral, located at the very eastern side of Lane County. At around 10 o'clock that night, at the campfire, John Lynn unrolled his blankets and laid down. Cortland prepared his bed on the opposite side of the fire and he started to turn in. At one point, Cortland got up to go get wood for the fire, and while he was gone, he heard gunshots. He turned around, and he saw 22-year-old Claude standing over the old man's body with his pistol pointed toward 48-year-old John Lynn's head. Claude told him to say nothing, and that they would have to dispose of the body, but Cortland refused to have anything to do with it. He took his blankets across the road into the woods, and he stayed there all night. The next morning, Cortland just got on his horse and got going. Claude wasn't one to be left behind, so he got the horses out of the corral and fell in behind him. Claude was doing his best to keep up with Cortland, and the horses were rushed through with such a disregard for speed that, when they finally reached Walterville, where they could put the horses in a pasture, there were only 42 horses left. The rest had been exhausted and they just dropped out. They were abandoned somewhere up in the mountains. When they made it to Walterville, Claude took the horses with him and put them in Jim Allen's pasture for the time being, and then he headed back over the mountain and disappeared. Cortland Green went home to Stephen Smead's house in Walterville, where he stayed until that very early morning on July 4th, where he made his confession. So that was his story. Now, of course, they had questions. What did Claude do with the body, they asked. I don't know, he said. You didn't see anything? Nope. Is it still up in the mountains? I guess so. On July 5th, the search for Claude Branton was launched in earnest. And it turns out that Claude hadn't just gone back over the mountain after all. He had also gone to Walterville to try to establish an alibi. He went to several of his friends— friends, like Walter and Lawrence Milliken— and said he'd give them their pick of the horses if they would swear they bought them from John Lynn on this side of the mountains, so it sounded like he was still alive. It was Walter Milliken who told the story to Stephen Smead, actually. There were quite a few other men who he had approached and asked to lie for him after either implying or outright telling them he had murdered John Lynn up at Isham's Corral. On July 7th, they put an ad in the newspapers with a picture of him and a reward for $250 for the capture of Claude Branton. They included a description. It said, 'Claude is about 21 years old, 5 feet 8 inches, 180 pounds, black hair, dark eyes, straight white teeth. Shaved face, dark suit with a frock coat, black fedora hat, number eight shoe, square belt, full chest, smiles and laughs while talking.' I have a lot to say. Straight white teeth. I mean, back in the day, you never knew, I guess. I like how they added smiles and laughs while talking. But $250 was a lot of money back then. That was like $9, 730. Yeah, so that was pretty big. And it annoys me what they actually did. Actually, ultimately, did with the reward money. And if you remind me, I'll tell you at the end because it's really obnoxious, honestly. Should our listeners know? Yeah, so remind me. I thought you were saying once we stopped recording. Scroll down and type it in somewhere to remind me. They soon found out that Claude had been in Goshen on July 4th, and then he went to Cresswell, and then he hopped on a train, and he disappeared. Goshen is, like, barely south of Eugene. Yeah. My mom goes there to get goat milk. Nice. Also on July 5th at 7 p. M., Deputy District Attorney Harris, Deputy Sheriff George Croner, and Coroner W. L. Cheshire went out to Walterville to find Cortland Green and told him he was going with them to the scene of the crime to Isham's Corral, located 68 miles to the east. Isham's Corral is a two-acre plot of land used for the purpose of herding cattle and horses on the drive across the mountains. It was typically not used as a camping place, unless people were really compelled to stop there. The closest water source was a mile and a half in one direction and six miles in the other, so not ideal for camping. But on that June 15th evening, that is where the three men decided to make camp for the night. The campfire had been built against a large water-soaked rotten log and between two tall fir trees. One of the fir trees was about two feet in diameter and the other about 18 inches. And we do actually have a picture of this that we will post because they took a picture with a Kodak camera. Ooh, I just can't believe they... Having gone camping in my youth, that they're up against a wet, rotten log. Yeah, that. Hmm. I mean... It's not ideal for Oregon and June, so still. Well, yeah, but they built it against that. You're just going to get a lot of like. Well, it would keep it from starting a forest fire. I suppose. I suppose. So I guess it was just thinking ahead. I don't know. But anyway, so the trees up there in the mountains, they grow very tall. And it was about... 40 feet up before you got to the nearest branches. Now, when the lawmen looked up the trees, they saw that those branches up there were badly burned. So this must have been an incredibly large fire. The bed of the fire was about 12 feet long by 7 feet wide. and there weren't any burned sticks left around the edge of the fire either. So this showed that someone was up, you know, watching the fire all night, pushing the embers into the center of the fire so that everything would be consumed. So it was more like a bonfire. Yeah, it was an actual campfire. It was massive. Yeah. So the lawmen, you know, they'd gone camping plenty of times before, but never had they needed a fire as big as that, right? So there was something suspicious about this particular fire, and they had a hunch that it might have something to do with the disposal of John Lynn's body. And so they start sifting through the ashes with their hands. And sure enough, they found small pieces of bones suspended, fender buckles, and some buttons. Now, most of those bone fragments were far too small to be identified positively as, you know, having come from a human, but there were some still large enough. Coroner Cheshire was able to identify a piece of skull, a portion of the lower jaw, and a toe joint. And that's all. That's all he could identify. But he was like, 'Okay, there has been a human being, you know, burned in this fire. That was certain.' They found less of him than they did of... Anna. Omnivore. Yes, it's true. Yeah. They also found several teeth in the ashes. And then nearby, the men found an axe with a very rusty blade. And the handle of the axe was just like a stick. That had been shoved into the head of the axe. So somebody just had to find something to use as a handle. There was traces of blood on the axe, and so they surmised that the body had been chopped up so that it would have burned better. Now, in the undergrowth surrounding the campsite, they found more buttons and buckles from John's overalls. So they found enough, you know, hardware and stuff that would have made it. up a set of overalls. Now, while the lawmen were at the crime scene with Cortland Green, it became pretty obvious that Cortland knew a little more about the disposal of the body than he had previously let on. Because, you know, originally he said he just liked to take off across the road and he didn't see anything that happened. But now, I mean, if he's pointing stuff out. Clearly, he knew a little bit more. Look, there's a toe joint over there. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Yeah, so it kind of went like this. Well, he moved. It over this way. Yeah, so he knew a little more. And so on July 10th, Cortland gave a second statement. And in this amended story, it went like this. He had gone to Condon with Claude in March of 1898, and after about a month, they started scheming about how to steal John Lynn's horses. They were indeed talking about luring him to Squaw Creek and killing him there, then taking his horses. But then a man named Tug Wilson told Cortland that John had about $1, 000 that he just carried around in his pocketbook. And for those who aren't doing the math... That equals to about $39, 000 in 2025 American dollars. Yeah, so that was a lot of money to these young men. So Cortland said that's when they decided they'd kill him not just for the horses, but for the money as well. He told the lawmen that they initially thought they'd kill him out in the eastern Oregon desert, but they decided against it because there were too many sheep herders over there and they'd most likely kill him. likely get caught. So when they were at Squaw Creek and before they left, the two young men talked it over and they decided the deed would be done at Isham's Corral instead. When they arrived at Isham's Corral a few days later. It was Wednesday, June 15th, around 7pm. John went to sleep near the fire around 9pm or so. Sertland sat down at the foot of his blankets, and Claude sat down about a foot and a half from John's head, but to his back, so behind him. After two or three minutes, Claude fired two bullets into John's head. At this point, Claude said, 'I have killed the old son of a bitch and I am glad of it.' That's when he went through his pockets and took out his jackknife, his purse, which I'm assuming is just a pouch he used for coins, and his pocketbook. He was really eager to get his hands on that $1, 000. But what he found in his pockets was a little less exciting. Yeah, they found $75 in gold pieces and 40 cents in silver coins. There was also a note. Or like an IOU or a cashier's check for $800 against a Mr. Fred Monroe. Claude told Cortland they'd split the money after they burned the body. Claude took John under the arms, and Cortland grabbed his feet, and together they put him on the fire. They kept putting wood on the fire until the sun came up. Cortland said he helped pick the large bones out of the fire, but Claude Branton crushed them up himself with the axe. Together they went south of the corral and found a big flat rock. Cortland held it up while Claude put a sack full of bone fragments underneath it. After all of this was done, the two cold-blooded killers saddled up their horses, got the 60 other horses from the corral, and continued on to the valley. Cortland said he was pretty horrified by the whole ordeal, and he wouldn't even take any of the money when it was all said and done. By the time they got to the valley, he just wanted to go home and he wished it had all been a dream. Now, as you can see, this second version of events given by Cortland is much different from the first version that he gave on the 4th of July. Hmm-mmm. And so, naturally, after implicating himself in the murder of John A. Lynn, Courtland Green was arrested that day, July 10th, on the charge of first-degree murder, and he was put in the Lane County Jail. So now they just had to catch up to Claude Branton. Every school, girl, or boy, wants a pen knife with which to sharpen pencils, etc. No need to borrow your neighbors when you can get one at 15 cents or 25 cents. Real dainty ones, too. A. M. Williams and Company. It was Wednesday, July 20th, right around 2. 30 in the afternoon when Mr. Alvin Otten, just minding his own business in his cigar store, looked out the window and got the shock of his life. Right there on Willamette Street, as if he hadn't a care in the world, was Claude Branton. Mr. Otten turned to his employee, Lee Wallace, and said, 'That is Claude Branton. Watch the store and I will go and tell Day.' He was referring to Deputy Sheriff Day. Mr. Otten quickly rushed out of the store and hustled over toward the sheriff's office a few blocks away in downtown Eugene. Meanwhile, a young man named Herbert Finn, who was actually Claude's neighbor in Walterville, he also saw Claude walking along the street. Finn later told a reporter, 'When I saw Claude, I wanted to get that $250, and we walked around for a while. I asked him if he had heard that Green had been arrested, and he said no, as he had just come in on the train from Arlington. So I suggested to him that we go and see Green. Since he did not seem to know how we were to do so, I told him we would go and get permission from the officers and tried to lead him towards the courthouse. While near the Baptist church, Brandon said he would go home.' He started east and I turned to go to the courthouse to notify the officers when I met Deputy Sheriff Day, who asked me if that was Branton. Claude Branton had picked up his pace quite a bit when he turned around and left Herbert Finn. Deputy Sheriff Day had to run a few blocks to catch up to him and arrest him. A few minutes after walking him into the jail, he asked, 'Has John Lynn sworn out a complaint against me?' He was then asked if he killed John Lynn. He hesitated and then said, 'I won't admit anything.' He then explained that he'd just returned from Topeka, Kansas, where he'd been looking for work, but they wouldn't be paying enough, so he bought a ticket back home. Yeah, I saw that the job was sewing sacks for $1 a day. Yeah. Well, he wasn't fooling anyone. He hadn't been over in Kansas forever. Because by this time, they had gotten the whole story from Cortland Green. They had talked to every... person that Claude had asked to lie for him, they had talked to witnesses that helped trace his movements after he and Cortland departed ways, and they'd even talked to every person who he'd tried to fool with a pathetic disguise later on. Disguise? Yeah, and not a very good one. So, let me explain. On June 17th, Claude was pretty busy. He was riding John Lynn's favorite horse and was on his favorite saddle. His first visit was to Walter Milliken. He pulled him aside and told him he'd gotten himself into trouble over this horse business and he wanted Walter to help him out. Claude described John Lynn to him and asked him to swear to people that he had seen him. He has round shoulders, he said, a small and sandy beard, and so on. Walter asked Claude where John was, and Claude told him, 'John isn't anywhere. He will never show up.' Walter then understood what had happened. Claude said he should have also gotten rid of his horse and saddle because they would have been easily recognized. And he said with how big that fire was up there, he could have easily gotten rid of anything. Claude told Walter that he was thinking about taking the hair from a sorrel horse's tail and making a fake beard out of it so that he would look like John. Because John had a mustache and a goatee. The goatee was about four inches long. Now, Claude already had the mustache, but he didn't have the goatee. So that's what he was thinking he would do to fix it. Now, in return for lying for him, Walter could have his pick of the horses. Now, his next visit was to a friend named Walter Trotter and his brother. Claude had known them for about 10 years. He told them he was in big trouble and he would pay them well for their help. He said, 'For God's sake, tell no one.' He gave them a description of Lynn and told them he'd give them horses for free as long as they told people they'd bought them from Lynn there in Walterville. He just needed to make it sound like Lynn had made it over the mountains alive. He also paid a visit to Anderson Gilbert. Anderson actually knew John Lynn, and Claude told him that he would be his best witness if he'd swear that he had seen John that evening. Claude wouldn't tell him why he needed him to lie. He just said that he was in big trouble,

and there were only two ways for him to get out of it: 32:34

either run away or to get witness. To swear that John Lynn was in Walterville. He said he already had several people who would swear to this in exchange for horses. He had similar visits with David Fountain, Walden Trotter, and Lawrence Milliken. And it's funny because Claude had sworn Courtland to secrecy, but he was just blabbing away. On June 18th, three days after the murder, Claude went back out to the home of James Allen, where the horses were in his pasture. Now, fun fact, James Allen actually had stabbed Claude's father back in 1891. Because... Claude's dad was angry that James Allen was walking across his land. So they got into an argument and James took out a pocket knife and stabbed him twice. So that's just a fun fact. Anyway. There you go. So, yeah. So, Claude had asked James Allen if he could put his horses in his pasture. And he said, 'I'll pay you $100 if I can put all these horses here.' and he had told him, you know, they were John Lynn's and John just disappeared and he's not going to ever show up again. And James felt like this was a little suspicious. Suspicious, and he had decided that he didn't want to get involved in whatever this was. So on the evening of June 18th, he gave Claude his money back and he told him, 'You're going to have to move the horses.' I don't want anything to do with it. So on June 19th, He had to move the horses. He got up really early and he paid a visit to a man named William Seavey, bright and early, nine miles outside of Walterville. Claude asked him if he had room for 50 to 60 horses, and William said yes, he could put that many horses in his corral. Claude said that a man named John Lynn would be coming by later that night with the horses. Then Claude went to see his 19-year-old friend, Billy Price, and asked him if he would help him drive the horses from Jim Allen's pasture in Walterville out to William Seavey's Corral. Nine miles away. He said, 'Sure.' They first drove the horses to another friend's house, Mike Thomas, who was just seven miles out, leaving only two more miles to go. But they stopped there for both lunch and dinner. Claude told them they were waiting on John Lynn to meet up with them because he was up in the mountain getting the rest of the horses that had fallen behind. Finally, around 9 p. m., they stopped waiting, and Claude and Billy left with the horses to finish out those last two miles. and head to William Seavey's Corral. Billy noticed the weirdest thing though. When they left Mike Thomas, Place, Claude had no whiskers, he said, but when they arrived at Seavey's Corral, he suddenly had a four-inch goatee.

They arrived at William Stevie's around 9: 35:32

30 p. m. William had been asleep, and he recognized the voice at the door as the same man who had been there around nine o'clock that morning, asking about room for all the horses. But oddly, when he opened the door, he saw that the man now had this four-inch goatee that didn't look quite right. So William just went to the gate and opened it for the horses. Claude asked if he could pay the pasture bill by giving him horses, and William refused. He wrote his name down on the paperwork as John Lynn. He also hopped off of the horse that he'd rode in on and asked if he could put this particular horse in the barn instead of the pasture. But William said no. So finally, Claude agreed to just put that one in the pasture with the others. He gave the saddle and the bridle to William for safekeeping. And then Claude told him that he was going to Eugene and he would be gone for a week or more. And he never came back. Good riddance. After this, Claude went up and over the mountain for a while. He was seen here and there by a few different people, always mentioning that John Lynn was down in Walterville. His way back over to the Eugene area and was in Cresswell by July 3rd, where he hopped on a train and headed to the Midwest. He ultimately wound up in Arkansas, where he signed up for the Army, but when it came time to have the examination done and fully enlist, he decided not to show up. He got a ticket back to Oregon instead. Now, Claude was actually unaware. That Cortland Green had been arrested, or that news of the murder had even come out at all. If he had known, he wouldn't have been walking so nonchalantly. Down Willamette Street in Eugene on July 20th of 1898. The preliminary hearing to see if he should be held in the jail until the next grand jury session was set for August 1st. The courtroom was packed with people, and it was noted that there were, quote, quite a number of ladies present. Us ladies do love true crime. Yes, we do. And I wonder, what is up with that? Well, of course they decided that he was going to be held without bail until the next grand jury session the following October. And the newspaper said, this will probably be one of the most exciting trials that ever took place in this county. The grand jury met on October 26th, and Claude was officially indicted for murder in the first degree. He smiled. He put in his plea of not guilty, and the trial was set for the following Monday, and he smiled again. Was he smiling and laughing while talking? See, that was actually... actually just like who he was and that's why they put that in the description of him. He was, he was like a real piece of work. Um, he always kind of seemed to have like a trick up his sleeve. And so that's why they noted that. Interesting. Yeah, he just kind of was a sly fox, kind of like that. And so he always had kind of the smirk on his face. And that's literally why they put that in the description. Hmm. I thought it was because he was like a jovial gentleman. No. Like Santa. No, they were like, this is one of his traits. Like, he'll... Always just kind of have a look like that on his face. Yeah, yeah. So there you go. Now, Cortland Green also entered his plea, but he pleaded guilty to murder in the first degree because he had turned state's evidence against Claude Branton. The trial began on October 31st, and the craziest thing that happened in the trial was the fact that Claude Branton wept like a baby while Cortland Green sat on the stand and told the whole story. And through all the hearings and everything, he had not shown any emotion whatsoever. So this was most likely an act. But yeah, he just like wept like a baby. Yeah. When Claude took the stand, it was pretty interesting and gives us some insight into the motive. But keep in mind, this is coming from Claude, who is trying to get out of a murder charge. So I don't know how much weight we can give it. But Claude said that he had previously been tasked with putting a horse in a stable for John Lynn, and he had done a good job, and so John trusted him. Now remember, John was very particular about who he would deal with, and he wouldn't work with just anyone. John approached Claude out of the blue on April 5th of 1898 and said he wanted to go into the land business with him, investing in some real estate two miles west of Condon. Claude said no because he had no money to his name. So John said that he had 60 horses that Claude could go and sell for him, and Claude could take half of the proceeds, since he did the work of selling them, and use that money to invest in the land. They would both need $1, 600 to buy the land in question. John demanded an answer right away, but Claude didn't really have an answer for him. John told him, 'No matter what you decide, I still want you to take and sell all the horses for me, which Claude didn't want to do because Claude already had a job. He was busy. And it paid $35 per month, so he was, you know, it was a pretty good job.' But finally, he agreed, and he quit his job so he could go and help John Lynn sell his horses. Now, later on, Claude was at his mother's house in Condon and John Lynn showed up and asked him to go with him out, you know, just to look at the land with him because he's still trying to get him to go in on this deal. So Claude went with him and Claude finally said, you know, I'll talk to my mom about it. Maybe she'll go in it with me because, you know, I don't have money and I'll just see what my mom thinks. Well, his mother talked to the neighbors and they strongly advised her against it. Because keep in mind, you know, she had just moved there in October. She's new to the area. And they said that John was, quote, not the proper person. And so I don't know what that was all about. Now. Here's something interesting to take note of. It was said in the papers in several different articles that John Lynn kind of had the hots for Claude's mother. He was interested in her romantically. And they were possibly suitors for each other. But I think she was not interested because there was a letter they found that Claude had written later. And he said he thought that John was angry because his mom was moving away from Condon. Because she just wasn't interested in him romantically. Interesting. And so that's probably another part. You know, I said he had weird social skills. So I think that was like another part of it. But anyway, so they said. You know, don't go in on this deal with him. He's just not the right guy to get into business with. So after this, Claude just outright refused to go in with him on the land deal. And John Lynn was angry about that. Still, John wanted Claude to sell the horses for him over in the valley and get, you know, whatever he could for them. Claude also had a stallion, which he had previously gone over to the valley to get and bring back, and he was trying to sell it in Condon. And he was talking about... about selling it to a man named Horace Strickland, but John Lynn really wanted this stallion for himself. So John actually traded half of his horses to Claude for the stallion. Now, John told Claude, you know, maybe you don't want to take all of these horses to the valley if you just take them to Crook County, which isn't. That far away. It's not over the mountains if you just take them to Crook County. You'll be happy because I know your girlfriend lives there and so Claude was like, 'Okay, fine. I'll take these horses and I'll sell them for you in Crook County.' He had already quit his job, keep in mind, to handle this horse business. So he had nothing better to do. You know, he needs to make an income somehow. Now, this is very interesting. This is kind of like the pivotal turning point, if any of this is true. While Claude was rounding up the rest of the horses, like to get ready to go, Claude was actually bucked off of his horse. And while he was lying on the ground, injured, John Lynn just looked at him and rode away. He literally just left Claude there on the ground. He didn't even check to see how injured he was. I mean, Claude could have had internal injuries. He could have had a broken back. You name it. I mean, that's pretty serious. That could be a big deal. John Lynn just left him there to die. He could have died. Now, Claude concluded in that moment, as he watched him just right away, that he didn't want to go into partnership with John Lynn for any reason whatsoever. Like, for anything. Now, Claude was found and taken in by some other people. He was laid up in their home for a few days. And they told him, you know, if you were to have traveled with him somewhere and this had happened, he would have let you die. Like, that's just who he is. That's the type of person you're dealing with. Now, as for what happened on the night of June 15th, okay, the night of the murder. Claude, on the stand, told almost the same story that Cortland had told, but he just switched their roles. He said that Cortland was the mastermind, and Cortland forced him to go along with it. He said that Cortland shot John while Claude was out with a leaky bucket to try to get water. He said when he came back around the turn, he saw Cortland Green bent over. It was dark and he stepped back and he pointed a pistol down and then raised it and lowered it again, ultimately firing three shots. Claude said he yelled at him and he immediately felt sick. Cortland offered him some whiskey, which Claude declined, and then Cortland drank every last drop of whiskey. Claude said he wanted to leave, but Cortland wouldn't let him. Claude was so frightened by the whole thing that he hid his face in some clothing while he wrapped his arms around John's dog. Cortland sat and played the mouth harp or the jaw harp for about 10 minutes while thinking about how to dispose of the body. After a while, Cortland stopped and said he'd figured it out. We will burn him up, he said. Then Cortland alone moved the body to the fire while Claude continued to hide his face. Cortland, according to Claude, kept playing the jaw harp while John's dog howled. And Claude said he finally looked up. And he saw John Lynn's ribs and back were giving away on the fire. After that, he helped carry wood with Cortland and he did everything to help burn up the body. And when it was done, Cortland promised he would never touch whiskey again. So he literally just flipped their roles from what? Cortland said. Yep, exactly. Just completely flipped it backwards. He even said it was Cortland who took the money from the pockets and everything. Like it was all just Cortland. So Claude said that they talked it over and Claude promised he would do everything he could to help Cortland out. He would hire witnesses to prove that John Lynn reached the valley with them. So he's basically like, all those people testifying that I tried to bribe them, it's just proving that my story is true. Like that's basically what he's doing. So... After that, his sister took the stand, his brother Clarence, his mom, the family doctor. They all gave testimony saying that Claude has an uncle and a cousin. cousin in an insane asylum, and that Claude himself is weak-minded. And basically, he's easily influenced by his friends, so Cortland most likely made him do it. I'm on the fence about who really was. The instigator. Really? Yes. Huh. Intriguing. Very intriguing. Well, ultimately, on November 4th, Claude was found guilty of first-degree murder. He showed no emotion at all. He was taken back to the little jail, which just... had four cells. He was normally confined in the southwest cell, but they had momentarily put him in the southeast cell while Deputy Day took out his bedding and other things just to do a routine search. They had removed Claude's handcuffs and closed the door to that cell, but they had not locked it. Sheriff Withers was in the corridor, standing between the doors of the two cells, and Deputy Day was actually down on his knees, like facing a wall in Claude's usual cell. Suddenly, Claude rushed past Sheriff Withers and into the cell. He jumped on Deputy Day's back. He had one hand in a vice-like grip on the back of his neck and the other reaching into his pocket for his revolver. The deputy's hand managed to reach his revolver at the same time that Claude's did. And he was able to grab him by the wrist and twist his arm around. And of course, Sheriff Withers rushed in immediately. Like this, all happened very quickly. And he wound up pressing both of his thumbs into Claude's windpipe. To choke him into submission. So Claude later said that, if he had been able to get that revolver, he would have killed the sheriff and the deputy and made his escape. I've changed my mind. Yeah, it was definitely Claude. On November 8th, he was sentenced to death by hanging, and this was the very first time that anyone was going to be hanged in Lane County ever. And there are photos. Yeah. Yeah. So Courtland was taken before the judge and evidence was argued so that the judge could determine which degree of murder he should actually plead guilty to. He had pleaded guilty to first degree. But they wanted to actually look at the evidence to make sure that, you know, it was correct. And a new piece of evidence had surfaced. So they had gotten their hands on a letter that Claude had written to someone while he was on the train while on the run. And I was able to read this letter and I had to read it multiple times over a couple of days to actually understand it because he wasn't great with punctuation. Now, I don't know who he wrote it to. He wrote it on July 5th. He said in this letter that he was arguing with John Lynn about wanting some of the horses. John said he would sooner kill each and every horse than give any of them. To Claude. John picked up an axe and said, not only would he kill the horses, but he would also kill Claude. Claude wrote that he didn't even respond. He just pulled out his gun because John started rushing toward him. He fired two shots. John fell backwards and then he just put him on the fire. So was it self-defense then? I mean, that's what it sounds like in this letter. And so, according to this letter, the judge decided it was more appropriate that Cortland plead guilty to second-degree murder, and he was sentenced to life in prison. So do you believe that's what happened? Like, do you believe the letter or do you believe the stories that are being told? I do not believe the letter because, if that's what happened, then... Claude would have said so. Like, you would have led with that. That's self-defense. It's completely different. Yeah. I mean, both of them on the stand told the same story that he was shot in the head while he was sleeping. You know what I mean? Like, that's way worse. They both admitted it was in cold blood, you know? And that his money and horses were stolen and he was burned up to hide the evidence. I do not believe that version. I don't know why he... I don't know. It's weird. But I mean, he admitted to being the one who shot him, so. It's weird. There's that. Yes, so anyway, Cortland Green was transferred to the Oregon State Penitentiary, while Claude Branton was kept in the Lane County Jail to await his date with the Gallows, which would happen right there on the jail lawn. The original execution date was set for Friday, December 23, 1898. Drugs! Our motto? Purity. The importance of having prescriptions filled with drugs of absolute and undoubted freshness impels us to urge you to allow us to do the compounding. The benefits accruing to the sick will be greater. The cure speedier. And the cost to those paying the bills? Less. There is no possibility of mistakes in our prescription department. M. Z. Donnell, druggist. After his sentencing, Claude began getting a lot of visits from ministers, and he started reading the Bible quite a bit. And there was, quote, Portland Salvation Lassie. who sent him a picture of Jesus and a note telling him he'd better repent at once so that he could be taken in his arms when the time comes. So Claude, he really took it to heart. So it seemed. On December 6th, Claude called for Deputy District Attorney Harris. He wanted to talk to him. But when Harris arrived, Claude really didn't have anything to say. To say, like there wasn't any special reason they needed to talk to him. And he kept trying to get Harris to come close to the bars, but Harris figured, you know, he's trying to get a hold of my gun. So he later told the other prisoners that he would have choked him to death if he had gotten close enough to the bars. So I'm not sure how Christian he was really becoming. Claude. Mm-hmm. By December 17th, the lumber had been purchased to build a 24-foot high enclosure to the east of the jail. And basically, they were fencing in the yard with the tallest fence imaginable. And this is because they were going to also build the gallows upon which they would be hanging Claude Branton to death. They didn't want to make it a huge public spectacle, obviously, so that's why the fence needed to be so tall. Well, I mean, these were like public things previously, but now it was just for the higher ups. In the know people so they're like, 'Oh, you don't have a ticket, you can't watch Yeah, I mean, it was technically still considered public, but it was by invitation only. How rude. Yeah. So they'd send out an invitation. The sheriff got to choose who he sent an invitation to. So, yeah, that's how it went. Dinner afterwards. Yeah, crazy. Now, the rope was on order from San Francisco. It was a three-quarter inch grass hemp rope, 50 feet in length. They would thoroughly... stretch it, and test it with weights before officially using it. So that was in the plan. On Monday, December 19th, the Supreme Court granted a stay of execution, which is pretty normal in death penalty cases. They wanted to look over the trial, make sure no errors in judgment were made. People were pretty mad. They were actually asking the judge who presided over the trial. To look at his own case and submit to them. What might have been wrong with it. It's like, what? So they were like, this is ridiculous. Yeah. On Sunday, February 5th, 1899, Claude Branton was baptized in his cell by Reverend Patterson of the Eugene Divinity School. It was 2. 15 in the afternoon. The jail bathtub was put in his cell and partly filled with water. Reverend Rose and Matlock sang songs, offered prayers. So Sheriff Withers, Reverend Patterson, and Reverend Rose were allowed inside the cell with Claude, while Guard Andrews, Deputy Sheriff Day, and Reverend Matlock remained outside the cell. When Claude rose from the water, he made some remarks stating that he had repented of his sins and hoped to find forgiveness in the hereafter, and he hoped that his example might make others better and shun evil companions in wrongdoing. Even Sheriff Withers thought it was impressive. But to be safe, everybody had to leave even their pocket knives outside before going near Claude's cell. Makes sense. Yeah. I mean, he's got a reputation. On February 20th, the Supreme Court decided that the original court decision was good. He's still gotta die. On Wednesday, March 1st, Claude did something ridiculous. He had been let out of his cell into the corridor for his exercise and to get washed up. The sheriff was sitting down behind a doubly locked door reading the paper. Claude asked him, 'You are a Christian, ain't you, Mr. Withers?' And Mr. Withers answered, 'Yes.' If you were in here, you'd get out if it were possible. Without looking up, the sheriff said yes. Then Claude stepped back a little where he was in shadow, and he held up his hand, holding what resembled a Navy 6 shooter, and said loudly, 'Throw up your hands.' The sheriff was shocked and at first thought he really had a gun, but he just told him to knock it off. Claude figured the sheriff must realize that it really wasn't a gun, so he just laughed and said, 'Oh, I meant nothing by it.' But he said that if it had been a real gun, he would have done some real shooting. Oh. Very reformed. So, um... What did he actually have in his hand? Well, it's pretty hilarious, actually. Very ingenious. I'm impressed. He used a roasted potato for the barrel. A piece of tin from one of his suspenders for a gun sight. The chamber was made from a piece of boiled potato. The leaden messenger, whatever that is, were pieces of burnt bones. And the whole thing was covered with tinfoil. And yeah, the sheriff actually put it in his office so people could come by and look at it if they wanted to see it. I bet that didn't stay. Very long, yeah, but yeah, so I mean they, they published in the paper, like, 'Hey, this happened.' If you want to see it, come on by, because I mean that's, that's pretty ingenious, yeah. Yeah. So his resentencing hearing took place on Wednesday, April 5th. He was led into court by Sheriff Withers and there were five men to guard him. He begged them to take off his handcuffs, but they refused because of his history of attacking officers, you know, and trying to get his hands on their guns. They've learned. Yes. The new execution date was set for Friday, May 12th, between 10 a. m. and 2 p. m. The scaffolding and the gallows, all of that, was built and completed by April 21st. Claude's mother started circulating a petition to try to get his sentence commuted to life in prison. But the good people of Lane County were not keen to sign it. They wouldn't sign it. So she and Claude's siblings, they were having just a heck of a time trying to get signatures. On April 23rd, one of the reverends that had participated in his baptism gave a sermon about divine law being against capital punishment. He really laid it on thick in church. And at the end, he asked everyone in the congregation to come forward and sign the petition that he just so happened to have on the platform with him. Yeah. Now, the law required 12 witnesses for the hanging. 600 people had applied to be there. But Sheriff Withers got to choose. He invited officers and newspaper people from surrounding communities. I would have applied. The invitation. read as follows. This permit will entitle you to witness the execution of Claude Branton in the city of Eugene, Friday, May 12, 1899. Not transferable. The card had this heavy black border around it, and it had the sheriff's official signature. Thank you. Now, this was kind of funny. The editor of the Junction City Times newspaper received an invitation and he refused. He printed a blurb in the paper and said, 'We have no desire whatever to witness the revolting spectacle and will not therefore be present.' Well, the Junction City Bulletin editor also received an invitation, and he called the editor of the Junction City Times chicken-hearted. And he said, 'We wish to see Branton at this particularly trying time, hear what he has to say, and watch his movements.' Thank you. Ooh. This guy was good. Yeah. So it was really funny reading those in the paper. He got him with that one. Yeah, he did. You're chicken hearted. I wonder if that's where, you know, now we say you're chicken. I wonder if it was originally chicken hearted. Maybe. On the day of the execution, May 12th, 1898, a crowd began to assemble outside the courthouse square as early as 8 o'clock in the morning. The crowd increased in size until after the execution was over. Like, people just continued to gather. This was a big deal in Lane County. Claude's mother, father, sister, his brother Clarence,

and a few other relatives came to visit around 9: 1:02:11

30 a. m. They only stayed for about 20 minutes, and it was very emotional as they said their goodbyes.

At 10: 1:02:21

05, Sheriff Withers came in and he read the full death warrant to Claude, and it was actually really, really long. It was printed in full in the paper, and so there's no way I was going to put it in here. But only once did Claude become tearful. He had tears in his eyes as he thanked the sheriff, deputy, guard, and ministers for their kindness and consideration while he was in their custody and care. And he shook all of their hands. He was wearing a black suit with a low collar. It had a black tie and a bouquet of pansies on the label. The ministers were first to walk up onto the platform when it was time. Then Claude Branton was behind them with Sheriff Withers on one side and Deputy Day on the other. And then Guard Andrews walked up in the rear. Branton was walked up and placed on the trap. A strap was placed around his arms and waist, one around his legs, just above the knees, and one around his ankles. Reverend Patterson offered a short prayer, then spoke of forgiveness. Branton then gave some last words. I haven't much to say. I hope, God's sake, no one will try to run my folks down on account of this. They're innocent. I hope people will learn a lesson from this and tread the right path. I hope to meet you all in the other world. I ask this for Jesus' sake. Amen. At that point, the noose was put around his neck and a black cap was placed over his head. At 10. 46, Sheriff Withers pulled the lever and Claude's body dropped seven feet. His neck broke instantly. Two doctors approached and took his vitals.

He was pronounced dead 16 minutes later at 11: 1:04:03

02 a. m. After his body was prepared by undertakers, he was released to relatives and buried in the Camp Creek Cemetery. When officers collected Claude's things from his cell, they found a poem he had written down. It said, 'My confidence in man is as I have said. Three men can keep a secret, providing two of them are dead.' So Olivia, what did you find about Cortland? So Cortland's mother and aunt both sold their homes in Lane County and moved to Salem to be closer to Cortland. They had about $3, 000 between them, but some really bad men claiming to be detectives swindled them out of most of their money. They had to live mostly on charity, and they lived in really, really bad poverty. His mother tried for 10 years to get him released early. She would go in person to talk to the governor all the time. A prominent lawmaker even took up the cause and was circulating a petition in Eugene. Cortland applied for a pardon in 1902 and 1904, being denied both times. He applied again in 1906. His mother argued that he was completely innocent and he had only pleaded guilty on the advice of his attorney on the belief that a trial would have resulted in a conviction, but a guilty plea would have given him a lighter sentence. This application was also denied. He applied again in 1908, and in January of 1909, Governor Chamberlain said that he would pardon Cortland Green on the condition that he and his mother leave the state. He was released at the end of January 1909, and they moved to Nebraska with his aunt, and unfortunately his mother died a few months later on May 6th. Cortland got married a couple months after that, though, in July. He and his wife had two kids, he worked as a painter in a wallpaper hanger, and they eventually lived on a ranch, and he died in 1938 at the age of 58. And he never got in trouble ever again. So I really do believe the courts got this one right. I'm sure that Claude was the criminal mastermind and not the other way around. Um. But yeah, so Claude had given a letter to one of the ministers and said to only open it after his death. And if for some reason he got a stay of execution at the last second, give it back. Like, don't read it if I'm still alive. And the letter said that, yes, Claude did fire the fatal shots. He's the one who killed him. But he had been totally influenced by Cortland Green and that Cortland was his life's idol. So, will you tell me what they did with the reward money? Yes, four people applied for the reward money. Now, obviously, Mr. Otten applied, the guy who owned the cigar shop. He saw him walking down Willamette Street. He ran to go alert the police. And obviously, Herbert Finn applied. He's the one who, you know, struck up a conversation with him and tried to lure him over to the courthouse so he could be captured. Now, Claude actually caught on to what Herbert was doing and Herbert told him that there was a reward on his head for $200, 000. And Claude had said, just let me go home first to see my mom before you turn me in. And obviously, you know, that wouldn't have worked because Claude would have disappeared. Again. So after Claude took off in the other direction, Herbert Finn went straight toward the courthouse. Now another person who applied for the reward money was Deputy Sheriff Day, which blows my mind. Now, Mr. Otten had gone to Deputy Sheriff Day to say, 'Hey, I just saw Claude Branton walking down the street. He's in town. And Deputy Day said, 'Are you positive that it was him?' And Mr. Otten said, 'Well, actually, I'm not 100% positive, but I know a guy who knows him really well. So I'll go get him and he can help you ID him positively. I'll be right back.' And that's when Deputy Day saw Herbert Finn and another guy who looked like Claude Branton. So Deputy Day asked Herbert Finn, 'Is that... Branton?' and Herbert said yes. Then Deputy Day followed him all the way to 8th and Pearl Street to catch him and arrest him. So those three people applied for the reward money, okay? So Mr. Otten, Herbert Finn, and Deputy Sheriff Day. But there is a fourth person. After Deputy Day took off after Branton, Herbert Finn went and found Deputy George Croner to tell him that he had found Claude Branton. Now, after Deputy Day and Claude Branton got back to the jail, Deputy Croner helped search Claude Branton before they put him in the cell. And for that reason, Deputy George Croner also applied for some of that reward money. And so when the decision was made, they split the reward money four ways. And this is the part that really aggravates me. All four men had to sign something in advance saying that no matter what the decision was, they would all be okay with it. They wouldn't argue with it. They would just accept it, no matter what. was. And so here's how they split it. Deputy Day got the biggest chunk of it. He got $125. Then Mr. Otten and Herbert Finn, they both got $55. And Deputy George Croner got $15. And I just think that is insane. Insane. That Deputy Day and Deputy George Croner got any at all. That just does not make sense to me. Yeah, I don't think you should have gotten any. I mean, he wouldn't have arrested him at all if... You know, Otten and Finn hadn't told him, hey, here's... Here's Branton. I mean, they needed a cop to make the arrest. No matter what. So it's just weird to me that they would have given most of the money to the cop. Dumb. I know. I have one last thing I want to add before we close out this episode. If any of you were to Google Claude Branton's name, you would find this case online. It's covered in a few different places. And depending on where you look, you might find that Claude... and Cortland were both engaged to McKenzie River Girls, and that's in quotes, and that they murdered John Lynn because they needed money to fund their wedding. In fact, the first article I saw about this case when considering covering it was on the newsregister . com website, and it did in fact say that Claude and Cortland were engaged and needed John's money for their wedding. While doing the research, I was expecting to find some mention about these girlfriends and these engagements, but I did not find anything of the sort at all. Any of the old news coverage. I feel like that would have made it into the papers if there were any truth to that. The only indication that either of them even had a girlfriend was in Claude's testimony when he said that John Lynn told him, if he got the horses as far as Crook County, he'd be happy because Claude's girl lived there. And after a quick Google search, I found that the Mackenzie River doesn't even run through Crook County, so him being engaged to a Mackenzie River girl just doesn't make sense at all. The newspaper called the Eugene Guard, which later changed its name to the Eugene Register Guard, which is what it's known as today, it covered this case almost exclusively. Other papers would reprint what was printed in the Eugene Guard, or they would quote what was in the Eugene Guard and then add their own opinions or critiques to what was in the Eugene Guard. And I saw other papers actually commended the Eugene Guard for how professionally and extensively they had covered the case. And so I really, really think— that if it had come out that either Claude or Cortland were engaged and needed the money to fund their weddings, that would have made it into the papers. And truly, honestly, it just did not. So I wanted to find out where that story about weddings may have come from, and I found it. A reporter for the Eugene Register Guard named Peter Tugman first printed this in the Wednesday, May 27, 1953 edition. He later printed it again in the March 27, 1966 edition of the Eugene Register Guard. Now keep in mind, this is decades after this had happened. I mean, more than half a century after this had taken place. The little detail about them both being engaged wasn't the only thing he made up, though. In the 1953 story, he said that John Lynn had been shot through the heart. He said that the officers had intercepted Claude's mail, and that's how they knew he would be in Eugene, and that Claude and Cortland killed, you know, for the wedding money. Now in the 1966 story, so 13 years after the first one he wrote, Peter Tugman did say again that they had been engaged to the McKenzie River Girls. And that they killed for the wedding money, and that John Lynn was shot with a single bullet through the heart, that the instrument played was a harmonica, which we know it was a jaw harp, He said the bit about intercepting his mail to his girlfriend up the river. But this time he said the letter was actually written from Kansas City and it was describing his life in the Midwest as if he had like moved there and was living there in hiding. And he said that when they caught him, they traced the wallet that he had stolen from John Lynn. They had traced it by the notch marks in it to a wholesaler in Portland and then from the wholesaler to the murdered man. And none of that happened. Now... And in this very fictional 1966 piece, which was passed off as 100% accurate, by the way, like he did not say, 'I'm writing up a fun story.' You know, based on true events. Peter Tugman said that Sheriff Withers and Deputy District Attorney Harris then went to confront Claude's older brother, Clarence Branton. And that Clarence tried to bushwhack them. He was trying to kill them. But they were able to set a trap and catch him first, and then smoke something out of him to get answers. About the murder. Because you see, Peter Tugman in both of his stories said that Clarence was a co-conspirator, that he helped pull... the murders. He was in on the whole thing. Now, I didn't talk a whole lot about Clarence and his role in this, but in reality, he was trying to talk them out of it. He had heard them saying, like, 'we're going to do him in,' you know, 'we're going to get that old man.' And he was telling them, like, 'guys, that is the stupidest thing ever. Like stop talking like that. That is nonsense.' Knock it off. And remember, Clarence went with them as far as Squaw Creek. And by the time he left them, he had actually gotten both of them to promise that they would not do anything to John Lynn. And at the end of the trial, they actually said Clarence was so great. They were so proud of him and he deserved a reward or something because he had done everything that he possibly could to try to stop this crime from happening. So for Peter Tugman to turn around and say he was a co-conspirator and then he tried to kill Sheriff Withers and Deputy Harris, it's just... Kind of ridiculous. None of that actually happened. So therefore, I think I can confidently say that if you look this up on the internet and you happen to see an article that says, 'They were engaged and they needed to kill him for... you know, the wedding money or whatever,' I can confidently say that that is false. And I have given you... The real story. Here in this episode. Well, Withers was a good guy. He was a good guy. We'll have to cover him. And his death. Yes. Tragic. Well, shout out to newspapers. com where we have a coupon code FORGOTTEN20 for 20% off. Shout out to FamilySearch and Ancestry. com. And find a grave. And my brother, Christian. Yes. For his vocal talents. You should write some reviews. Rate us. Send us... some mail. Follow our socials, Forgotten Felonies on Facebook and Forgotten underscore Felonies on Instagram. And we also have a YouTube. which just has these recordings up there. And you can comment on them on YouTube. Yes. and click like. Subscribe. But if you want to email us, it is forgottenfelonies at gmail . com. Or if you go to the episodes. Yeah. There's a link for send fan mail. Yeah, send us a message. So. Do that. If you know any really old, interesting cases that we should cover, let us know. Maybe we'll work it in. Huzzah! Yeah. We did it. da na na na na na na You did it. Alright, another one in the books. Mic drop. Except not. Yep. This thing I'm always like... Hello? Tentury. Branton was kept Thank you. jail to await which would happen right there on the jail lawn. The original execution date was set for Friday, December 23, 1898. And in my research, I have actually found We're in. Eugene. This happened. Do you know where the Saturday market is? And Eugene. I'll have to show you on a map. But like where they have the Saturday market now. Is those four blocks. Used to be like the the city park area. And one of the blocks had the jail and jailhouse. Well, jailhouse and courthouse, and that's where it was. So it's where all these people now are selling produce on Saturdays. Wow. It's where they hung people. Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. Wow.