The Legacy and Murder of Sheriff William Withers

This episode is the second in a series of three covering a wild time in the history of Lane County, Oregon. Be sure to start with the previous episode, "Claude Branton and Courtland Greene - A Murder at Isham's Corral."

Sheriff Withers was, by all accounts, the most beloved sheriff in the history of Lane County. He was known for being honest, fair, and kind. Even before executing Claude Branton, he was thanked by the condemned man for having treated him so well while he had been in the sheriff's custody.

Only two men were ever executed on the grounds of the Lane County jail; one was executed for murder by Sheriff Withers, and the other was executed for the murder of Sheriff Withers. This episode takes a brief look at some of the most exciting and gut-wrenching cases that crossed Withers's desk in his short time as sheriff and also takes a look at the criminal career of his murderer—Elliott Ellis Lyons.

Here's the website about the Bohemia Mines that was mentioned in the episode:

https://westernmininghistory.com/towns/oregon/bohemia/

Vintage ads featured were for: 

• N. T. Wilson Grocers (Their phone number was really 911—phone numbers back in 1903 were just 3 digits in length.)
• Willamette Market

Transcript

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What do horses, taxes, and funerals 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. After our last episode about Claude Branton and Cortland Green, we decided we needed to do a follow-up episode to tell you all about Sheriff Withers and what ultimately became of him. If you recall, he was the sheriff of Lane County, Oregon, when the horrific murder of John Lynn happened. And it turns out that what ultimately became of Sheriff Withers is worthy of its own episode. Remember how Claude Branton was the first man to ever be executed in Lane County? Well, it turns out there were only ever two men to be executed in Lane County. County before Oregon enacted the law, making execution something that took place only in the state penitentiaries. The first man hanged in Lane County was hanged by Sheriff Withers. And the second and last man to be hanged in Lane County was hanged for the murder of Sheriff Withers. He really bookended that. Yes, he did. Yes, so if you have not listened to the episode titled 'Claude Branton and Cortland Green, Murder at Isham's Corral,' you should stop listening to this one right now and go back. It's the episode right before this one. This episode will be here when you get back, I promise. As for the rest of you, here we go. Sheriff Withers left Eugene for Siuslaw country on the morning of February 5th, 1903, with Deputy William Cornelius and Constable Jack Smith. By his side. It was a long, difficult ride to the small community of Walton, not only because it was densely wooded and rough terrain, but because there was snow on the ground. It was also a 28-mile ride headed west from Eugene. When they got to Walton, Sheriff Withers and his fellow lawmen stopped at the post office to gather their thoughts and to make a plan. They were going out to the home of the line's family patriarch, where a long-sought fugitive was thought to be hiding. After some discussion, the three men continued on to the isolated cabin in the forest. Sheriff Withers waited until the day had turned to night before he made entry, alone, and the other two men stood guard outside the back door. Suddenly, a shot rang out, and a man walked calmly out the front door and disappeared up the mountainside. That's when all hell broke loose and the sand in the sheriff's hourglass began to run out. To understand how we got here, we need to go back. And if you know anything about me by now, you know we're going to go way, way back. You've all heard of the Oregon Trail, I'm sure. Well, that very first trek across the plains to Oregon, which was called the Great Migration, began in the spring of 1843. Yeah, and our ancestor, Jesse Applegate, was the captain of the first wagon train that made it to Oregon. Yes, he was. The original group of pioneers... had split up in the Kansas area, which was not a state or a territory at the time. And Jesse took over half of the group and led them onto Oregon country. And the point of including this is that Oregon was not even a territory of the United States in 1843. What we now know as Oregon— Washington, Idaho, part of Montana, even stretching up into Canada— all of that was called Oregon country. And it was not a part of the United States in any capacity. Yeah, so Oregon became a territory of the United States in 1848. Lane County was established by the Oregon Tutorial Legislature on January 28, 1851. It was named in honor of Joseph Lane, who was actually Oregon's first territorial governor. What's really crazy to me is that Lane County originally included all of Southern Oregon. So it was gigantic. And honestly, when I looked at a county map the other day, I was surprised by how big it still is compared to the counties north of it. It's not the biggest county in Oregon, but it's definitely bigger than a lot of them. It actually was created from parts of Linn County. Yeah, well, I mean, it's really big. If anyone wants to go look at it, I was surprised by... I mean, it goes from the coast, like, all the way over to... Isham's Corral. I don't know Over to, like, central Oregon. It's crazy. Mm-hmm. Really big. But, yeah, so... There's a lot of mileage there. So Lane County existed in 1851, and Oregon didn't become a state until eight years later in 1859. On Valentine's Day. Yeah. And so I just, that's, you know, really interesting to me. Lane County does not cover all of Southern Oregon anymore. That actually did not last very long. Douglas County, which is just to the south of Lane County, was established just a year later after Lane County was established. So anyway, Olivia, please, if you will, tell us about Sheriff Withers. Our man of the hour is William Washington Withers, or Billy if you were on a first-name basis with him. His father, John Evan Price Withers, crossed the plains to Oregon Territory in 1851 at the age of 21. His mother, Margaret Sloan Gillespie Withers, crossed the plains to Oregon Territory in 1852 at the age of 16. Sheriff Withers was actually born in Benton County. Same. in Oregon Territory on January 31st of 1858. His parents moved to Douglas County after he was born, and they moved to Lane County in 1865 when little Billy was just seven years old. When he grew up, Billy Withers was a farmer living near Thurston. He farmed from 1888 to 1898. And in 1892... There was this big political thing that happened in the United States. The farmers and other laborers in America felt like railroads, banks, and big business. were exploiting the working farmers. So all the different farmer groups and the labor groups were consolidated into a single national. third party called the Populist Party or the People's Party. And so that happened in 1892. In 1894, Billy Withers, at the age of 18, of 36, he was the People's Party candidate for sheriff of Lane County. And so in the paper, when they were talking about him as a candidate. They said he'd had a fair school education. His business qualifications were ample for the conduct of this principal office. It said, Mr. Withers enjoys the esteem of the community in which he resides. It continued, and said, 'A man in the prime of life, well-qualified, excellent habits, with a tact necessary to please the people.' To please the people. So, Billy Withers was married to a woman named Viola Combes, and they had a son who was born in 1886. Billy Withers was a very well-liked fellow, he had a lot of friends and a lot of respect. And even though Lane County was very conservative and predominantly Republican, he actually won the bid for sheriff, not in 1894, but when he ran as a Democrat later in 1898. He officially took office on July 1st of 1898, and then on July 4th, the biggest case of his career was dropped in his lap when court... Green showed up at Deputy District Attorney Harris's door in the middle of the night to tell him what happened up at Isham's Corral with Claude Branton just a few weeks later. Earlier, so you know, if you've listened to that story that episode, then you know what I'm talking about, and as you all know, Sheriff Withers had quite the time with Claude in the jail, right? A couple escape attempts, the fake leftover food gun incident, which, by the way, it turns out there were two other criminals in the jail with Claude Branton— named James Kelly and Charles Halstead— who actually made the potato food gun for him. And when it was put on display in the sheriff's office, more than 300 people stopped by to see it. So that's pretty entertaining. James Kelly only had one arm, so he and Charles housed had to work together to make this potato gun for Claude. And if you're curious, those two criminals both got three years in prison for robbing some Japanese men. How terrible of them. Yes. Okay, so on April 28th of 1899, just two weeks before Sheriff Withers was supposed to hang Claude Branton. For the murder of John Lynn, Sheriff Withers was invited to go to Roseburg to witness the hanging of a J. M. Olbermann for the murder of his mining partner. So Withers traveled there to see it with Marshal J. S. Stiles, but at the last minute, Olbermann's sentence was commuted to life in prison, and Withers came home without having seen any hanging. So he didn't get to learn the ropes. Nope, that he didn't. So in order for you to understand just how popular the sheriff was, we need to talk about something major that happened. So in the previous episode, we talked about Deputy Sheriff Henry J. Day. All right. So Deputy Day, he's the one who accompanied Cortland Green to Harris's house that night at one o'clock a. m. And Deputy Day is the one who Claude Brandt had attacked in the jail cell with his neck in a vice-like grip, and Deputy Day even accompanied Claude Branton onto the gallows when he was hanged in May of 1899. And Deputy Day got the majority of the reward money for Claude's capture. I still don't agree with that. I don't think he should have. Yeah, I don't either. So, Olivia, I want you to break the news. Okay. So I found an article. That said, Deputy Day actually embezzled a lot of money from the county in October of 1900, or at least that's when he vanished and they realized all the money was missing. He took...$2, 110. 49. Yeah, and that's equal to $81, 398. 58 in today's American dollars. So he even left his family. He just disappeared. I knew I smelled a skunk when he took it. The freaking reward money, but now it's official. Yes, he was a skunk. And for those of you who have not listened to the episode about Kate Van Winkle, that was the slang term they used back in those days for a man who abandoned his family. So we need to bring that back. Put it on some merch. We should. just like bring it back yes that's so funny okay so sheriff withers put out a 100 reward for his capture and with was actually really upset that this had happened because that is a lot of money to go missing. And he didn't want the burden to be put on the taxpayers to pay that money back. So you guys, Sheriff William Washington, Billy Withers, do you know what he did? No, tell me. He actually paid back all the money out of his own private pocket. Every cent. He took out a- He's I mean, he was a hero. You know, he took out a personal loan so that the money would be put back in the county's account or whatever, you know, immediately. And then he paid back the loan like. out of his own paycheck by himself. And so if he wasn't already a popular sheriff before, he certainly was now. As he should be. Yeah, he was. Just a local hero. He was just awesome. So the people of Lane County, they thought he was the most honest, respectable sheriff they had ever had. Just one of the best men to walk the dirt roads. I mean, he was just awesome. And he was reelected sheriff three times in a row because, evidently, back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, they had to run for office every year. Well, then, so do you know if they ever caught Deputy Day? Yes, I actually looked into that and they didn't really catch him. He never had to. Face the music. So in April of 1903, so two and a half years after he disappeared, someone from Eugene was down in San Francisco and ran into him. The guy and his wife saw him. And this guy who saw him was so sure it was him that he actually followed him. He was like, 'I swear that is Henry Day.' He followed him so he could see him face to face and look him in the eye. He didn't speak to him, but he was like, 'OK, yes, that is for sure him.' And Deputy Day was like, 'Oh, no, I've been seen. I've been caught.' And he like, 'You know, scuttled off as fast as he could.' So. He actually didn't come back to Oregon until 1919. And he went back to his wife's house because they weren't divorced. Goes back to his wife's house. His kids were grown by this time because he left in 1900. So he comes back 19 years later. And he and his wife argued a lot. Well, I would think so. That's so weird. I don't know why she'd be upset. So then he left again and went back to California. His wife filed for divorce in 1920. And then he came back to Oregon for good in 1921. So 21 years after he stole the money and ran off. And then in 1924, he was appointed as deputy sheriff again in Lane County. I'm... Mm-hmm. When will they learn? And they were like, 'He's certainly very qualified for the position.' I wonder why. Wow. Don't trust him with the books, guys. Yeah, I was like, 'What? What?' Like, 24 years, I guess they forgot. I don't know, it was bizarre. Weird. All right. So Sheriff Withers' time as sheriff was unfortunately cut very short. So I'm going to give you some highlights of his career. I was able to simply search for his last name in newspapers. com and find every time he was mentioned from July of 1898 until February of 1903. And on that note, if any of you want to do something similar, go sign up for a seven-day free trial at newspapers. com. It is seriously so much fun. I have spent literal, like, probably days of my life by this time. Oh, it's, it's really fun. And if you want to turn that trial into a paid subscription, you can get 20% off with our coupon code FORGOTTEN20. Do it, do it, do it. It's really fun. So, F-O-R-G-O-T-T-E-N-2-0. Look up your parents. Look up your grandparents. Look up your great uncles. Look up, you know, anybody. Look up the headlines from when the Titanic sank. It's amazing. But not as amazing as Sheriff Withers' career. The best sheriff. Lane County has ever had. It's true. He probably is. But anyway, his career wasn't like... that exciting? Well, I don't know. Maybe it was. So I'm just going to give you guys the highlights, because there was a lot to be found, but I didn't want to like put in everything, because I mean, we're not going to sit here for three years. So. Here we go. In January of 1899, Withers arrested a man named John Downs for insanity. Now, back then, they made arrests for insanity, like they would arrest them on a charge of insanity. They would be examined by a specialist and then deemed insane or not. And then Withers would personally take them by train to Salem to have them committed to the asylum. And he would have to return the following day. So every time someone was arrested on a charge of insanity, this was a two-day ordeal. So this particular fellow, John Downs, he is actually relevant to our next episode. And that's why I brought him up specifically. And John Downs was eventually taken to the Lane County Poor Farm and he died there. So we will mention him. You know, next time. Anyway. And I know where that farm was. There were so many instances of withers arresting people for insanity that I didn't bother taking note of them all. But. there was one woman where, you know, she thought she could see and hear spirits. So she was certainly schizophrenic. Another guy claimed to be a cardinal recently appointed by Pope Leo VIII. Another woman in 1901 said that she was sure a woman was following her and annoying her. And if she didn't stop, she was going to get a gun and kill every woman she met because that way she'd be certain to eventually get the right one. So she didn't know who was following her, just a woman. So she was going to kill every woman because then she knew it would stop. That. Wow. I had to write that one down. I want to look into that. Yeah. There was another one in 1902 that I found very fascinating. And let me just say, I love how the old newspapers totally overshared everything. Because the newspapers today would never share these things just willy-nilly. I wish they would. Unless the person had, you know, committed a heinous crime. But there was a man. named Louis T. Wilcutt, who was found to be insane, and he was taken to the asylum in 1902. His delusion was that he believed he was going to turn into an African-American person, and he was certain that his beard was turning dark and curly. You know, he could only be so lucky. Because he's kind of a racist. It was just like, that is so interesting. Well, it said that there was someone who lived on his road who had, it was darker. It didn't say that the person was African-American. It just said that the person was darker complexioned and he was sure that that person was and that he himself was going to turn into. It was like. Okay, Lewis, yeah. It's like... huh. Anyway, so there was a really big rape case in January of 19. And this one has the potential to turn into an episode, so I had to stop myself from looking too far into it. The Brakeman on a Train, Hugh Patterson. Enticed a 15-year-old girl, Winnie Thorne, into a boxcar, and he brutally raped her. She had been drugged and wound up discarded from the train down in... in Southern Oregon. Sheriff Withers investigated that case and Hugh Patterson was eventually found guilty, but apparently it had been the whole train crew that had raped him. and Hugh Patterson was the only one convicted. There was a really interesting call that Withers got in February of 1901. Pray tell. Out in Walterville, a young wife had died, and all of Walterville was abuzz, thinking that she had been poisoned by her husband. So she had actually been insured, like her life was insured for $2, 000 and she was a second wife. The first wife had died suddenly just a year later, months earlier, and she had been insured for $1, 000. So, you know, the whole town was like, 'Oh my gosh, you know, maybe she was poisoned.' And so Withers and a coroner had to go out and exhume the body. This sounds like a potential case. Yeah, maybe so. Very, very bizarre. So anyway, luckily she had only been buried for like two days when they had to dig her back up. I just, you know, just the thought of that. But yeah, so anyway, she was fresh. But they decided her death was natural. However, they didn't actually take out her stomach, which they said they were going to, but then they didn't. They just like kind of looked at her and then asked people who had like prepared her body for burial if they had seen any signs of violence on her body. So they didn't actually really check for poisoning at all, which I thought was super weird. But anyway, September of 1901 saw the first jail escape ever in Lane County in the 10 years since that jail had been built. Since that specific building had been built, Sheriff Withers was actually out of town with a different criminal, while Deputy Bowne was watching the three inmates at the jail. Well, I'm sure if he was there, that wouldn't have happened. Probably not. Probably not. In December of 1901, there was a really intriguing case that caught my eye. A man with the name of Jack Frost was arrested for stealing clothes from a hotel. Well, you know. Frost is in his last name. He probably needed to warm up. Possibly it was December. He had recently been released from jail in another county for larceny, and here he was being charged with it. Again. So apparently his case took a while because it wasn't until March that Sheriff Withers had to take him up to Salem to be put in prison for a year. Looked up Jack Frost again, it turns out he committed a double murder later on in 1903 over in Burns, Oregon. He murdered two police officers. So he sounds like he was no good. And I had to resist looking further into him because I bet that could turn into an entire episode. Maybe it should. Maybe it will. So many Sheriff Withers cases are just so good. I know. Speaking of which, in spring of 1902, there was a scary... case where a man who lived down in Southern Oregon came back up to Lane County and kidnapped his five-year-old daughter from his ex-wife. Except I don't think they were actually divorced. They were just like separated because it didn't say his ex-wife. It just said his wife. But his ex-wife and his daughter were living with his ex-wife's parents. And he had somehow lured the grandpa away from the home with a fake land. Deal so I don't know if he liked sent a letter and said hello. I have an investment for you. Meet me at this time or whatever it was. Um... and then he physically like or he? He went to the home knowing that the grandpa wasn't there and then physically assaulted his ex-wife and her mother. Like beat them up and then took his five-year-old daughter and left. So Withers was able to go down to Roseburg, hunt him down, and bring the little girl back home. Well, hurrah for Sheriff Withers, and boo that guy. Yeah, yeah, crazy. Then, in the summer of 1902, there was a robbery and murder of a saloon owner named Benton Tracy in Junction City. And Withers had to track the suspect, Burt Heaton, all the way to Nevada. And yeah, so the arrest sounds amazing. So Heaton had just sat down in a barber's chair and had his face lathered up with shaving cream. And in walks Sheriff Withers. And he just shoves a pistol in his face and arrests him. So Burt Heaton was ultimately found guilty of second degree murder and given a life sentence. And Sheriff Withers was really bummed that it wasn't first degree murder. The papers said that the murder of Benton Tracy was one of the most gruesome the county had ever seen. But I call foul on that because the murder of John Lynn trumps that one by a mile. You looked into it all the way. It was just that. He was just shot, like, in the saloon. I mean, it was just... He was just shot. I mean, it was like... There was no jaw harp. Yeah. No bonfire. No. Like, this is nothing. He wasn't sound asleep. I mean, you know what I mean? It was just, like, he just shot him and, like, took the money. It was, like. I don't know. It seemed like a run-of-the-mill murder. Oh, no. You're basic. Very boring. Very boring for a murder. I've seen a lot worse. But yeah, if you haven't listened to our previous episode about Claude and Cortland, then what we were just talking about won't make any sense, but you can get the full detail. If you go back an episode. Yeah, definitely listen to that one because it's good. All right. A really horrible thing happened. Oh my gosh, my heart. On Christmas Day of 1902, a woman named Ora Del Carter went to Sheriff Withers and asked him for protection against her husband. He was jealous and he was making threats against her. He had threatened to kill her three times previously and he was really, really worked up that morning. She had left him early that day. So, left him that morning and, you know, for her safety. And he said, 'Yes, you can take the kids. They had three children.' So Sheriff Withers said, if she wanted legal protection from her husband, she would have to swear out a statement against him and he would have to be arrested on a charge of insanity. So she was like, 'Oh, I don't know if I want to do that.' And she said she would go home and see if any of the neighbors would do it for her. And then she told Sheriff Withers, 'You know, if I can't find anybody else, I'll do it myself.' So she was supposed to go back and meet with him

at 2: 26:57

30 that afternoon to do it if she couldn't find anyone else to do it. So he told her. Okay, that's fine. Just don't go home. Like, you know, for your safety, please don't go back to your house where he is. But she did. She went home because her youngest child wanted a toy that they had left behind. So she went back home. So yeah, George, her husband, shot her through the right temple before he committed suicide. And he did this out on the front lawn. Yeah, so he left his three children orphans on Christmas. They were all very young. The oldest child, Dora Bell, was 10 years old. They were just at... the home of a neighbor, actually, and they were looking out the window and sobbing as the crowd gathered in the front lawn to stare at the bodies after their father had shot their mother and himself. And it took their dad about 35 minutes to die. That is absolutely terrible. Mm-hmm. And I hate that for them. Yeah. And didn't you say... Dora Bell, Ora Bell's daughter, took a bad turn after that? Yes. I mean, I would imagine it would. Yeah, I mean, she was 10, so you can imagine how... I mean, how traumatic she saw. I don't know if they witnessed the actual shooting. Or just saw, like, came to the window and then realized what had happened. Well, they probably heard it. Yeah. At the very least. Yeah. Either way. It doesn't matter. Either way, it's going to be traumatic. But yeah, I found a bunch of articles in the paper about her being a juvenile delinquent, being deemed incorrigible, becoming a ward of the juvenile court and all this stuff. So, I mean, it was bad enough that it was published in the newspaper, you know. So. Super sad for her. There was an article in the spring of 1914 saying that Dora Bell Carter was searching for her long-lost sister, Ina Pauline Carter. And then there was an article on December 24th of 1914, so almost 12 years to the day of the murder-suicide, saying that Dora Carter and Ina Carter were seeing each other for the first time in 12 years. So they actually split the siblings up after the parents were murdered and didn't even let them see each other. Yeah, that's bad. But you know, we did our due diligence and reconnected them on Find a Grave. No, we couldn't find Dora Bell's... We couldn't find her burial. We connected Ina to her parents. Well, at least Ina's connected. Yes, but I couldn't find. I found who Dora married. But I couldn't find her or her husband on Find a Grave. Oh, yeah, we decided she was probably cremated. Yeah, so yeah, I have no idea. And I still don't know who the third, for sure, is, the third sibling. But I do know that Dora Bell was raised by her dad's brother after that. And I assume that Ina probably went with someone on her mom's side of the family because why else would they not have seen each other for 12 years? So... Just so sad. Anyway, on December 27th of 1902, the Daily Eugene Guard newspaper published a little blurb that said, 'Sheriff Withers had caught a horse thief that he was at.' And it ended with a paragraph that said, 'Sheriff Withers has never failed yet to run down a man he started after.' Criminals are more and more cutting Lane County out of their operations on account of the wily head of the sheriff's office. So he's like, 'Criminals know that they're going to get caught if they do anything bad in Lane County.' So, yeah, they were like, 'He's so good. He's so good.' But sadly, it was his ability to catch every man he was after that was his ultimate demise. We don't shriek low prices much, but we do give them. And you know what you are getting. Does a large stock attract you? We've got it. Do low prices please you? We have them. Do straightforward methods and guaranteed transactions interest you? And this is your place to buy groceries, crockery, and glassware. Yours to please. N. T. Wilson.

Phone: 31:31

main. 9-1-1. But now, we need to turn our attention away from Sheriff Withers and take a look at the Lyons family. So a man by the name of William F. Lyons was born in Greencastle, Indiana, in 1832. And at the age of 20, he decided to make the move over to Oregon Territory. Across the Oregon Trail. He settled in Lane County in 1852, that same year, and he stayed there the rest of his life. I couldn't find exactly when his wife Jane McClure came over, but I do know she was born in Knox, Indiana on August 3rd, 1837, and was here before they got married. William and Jane got married in 1853, and together they had... 14 children, and we know for sure that their sixth born child was a son named Elliot Ellis Lyons. The Lyons family lived in a very small community known as Walton, which was 28 miles west of Eugene. If you were to travel from the city of Eugene over to... The Pacific Ocean, specifically to the coastal town of Florence, Walton would be about halfway there. So you're going through a lot of beautiful, densely wooded land to get from Eugene to Walton. It's still beautiful today, and I can only imagine it would have been even more beautiful back then. It is a very twisty turn-y drive over there. Yeah. So if you get motion sick, just take Dramamine. I highly suggest that. Yes. From everything I can see in the papers, the Lyons family was a really well-known and highly respected family in Lane County. The names that pop up the most in the papers are Charles Lyons and Benjamin Lyons, Scott Lyons and Vincent Lyons, and they are all brothers of Eliot. They were often listed as running for office in various elections, like for election clerk, judge, and so on. And I saw in a few articles that But Benjamin Lyons showed up as a lawyer for a few different civil cases. So I know that at least he was involved, you know, in law. I'm kind of assuming family still lives here because I went to school with someone with the last name Lyons. I'm sure there's a lot. I mean, because there are so many siblings and then also sisters. It's been so different last names and stuff. So, yeah, hopefully people in Lane County will share these and it'll get to some descendants. That'd be awesome. They, along with their father, also had a company known as Lion's Bros. And they did road construction, bridge construction, and eventually got into logging. In February of 1898, Lyons-Browse had a contract to build a bridge across the upper Fork, 20 miles east of Cottage Grove. Now considering that was 1898, more than 125 years ago, I would assume that bridge has been replaced by now. But I don't know, maybe not. Maybe it still stands. Maybe one of our Lane County listeners knows what bridge I'm talking about, because I have no idea, and could get a picture for us if it still looks like it's over 125 years old. I kind of doubt it though. Because it would have been built for wagons, you know? You'd be surprised. They have a lot of covered bridges here still. Yeah. So that could be really cool if there's a historical bridge out there. Somebody take a picture. That would be so cool because it's, like, that's built by someone we researched. Like, that would be amazing. Then in May of 1898, they got a major contract to build the Wagon Road into the Bohemia Mines. This was a 3 , 200... contract, which was worth $124 , 906 . 41 in today's money. Now, my ignorant self had to look up the Bohemia mines because I had no clue what that even was. And it was a huge deal in Oregon. So the Bohemia Mines refer to the historical Bohemia mining district in Oregon's Cascade Range near Bohemia Mountain. This was the most productive mining area in Oregon. In the Western Cascades, where they found gold, silver, copper, and lead. It's located about 25 miles southeast of Cottage Grove. And it's in a very rugged area, like very mountainous and forested. So I looked this up and I found a great web page about it at Western Mining History. history . com. And it was really, really cool when I got down to the part about music mine. And so I'm, I'm assuming it's just pronounced music. It's spelled M U S I C K. So I, but I mean, I don't know how else you would say it. Um, But it says, and this is in quotes, okay, the music mine would become one of the district's largest producers during the peak years after 1900. But the difficult terrain in which... what was still heavily forested mountains, slowed development considerably. Although the first stamp mill at the Musick, which was transported entirely by trail, was operating by late 1892, it was not until 1898 that a road finally connected the mine with the outside world. That's what it says on the webpage. And it was the Lions Bros that built that road. So it was just like really funny reading it on the website because I had this feeling of like, 'Hey, I know those guys.' And yet we don't. I know. And it's weird because, I mean, we we don't have any relation at all, but we just have the inside scoop. So it was just like kind of funny because I'm like, 'Oh, I know who did that. I know him!' Yeah, it's pretty funny. He's like, 'I have a backstage pass!' But yeah, so according to that webpage, that winter at the end of 1898, they got 26 feet of snow, like at the... Probably like over the winter, not all at once. Like it was probably a cumulative, right? But anyway, so they couldn't even really use that new road until the spring of 1899. But anyway, there were some really cool pictures on that webpage. So westernmininghistory. com and then specifically look up Bohemia Mines. But I will share a link in the description of the episode. And there will be pictures also in the Facebook group. So anyway, just remember, you guys know who built the road they're referring to. You're insiders. You have a backstage pass. We know things. We know secrets. Yeah, we do. So yeah, those Lyons brothers and sisters, from what I can tell, they were all really great members of the community. All of them? Okay, there was one who stuck out like a sore thumb. We do need to discuss Elliot. Elliot muddied those waters. He sullied the name. He's a little blip. Yeah, he was the black sheep, but not at first. I mean, at first it was looking good for Elliot as far as I can tell. I didn't see anything in the newspapers that indicated anything was going wrong in the beginning. He was married to a gal named Idaho Jane Baker. What? It sounds like a... a Western show name. Like, yeah, like she would be like. Yeah, like a cowgirl. Yeah. We'll shoot true Jane. Yeah. Trick shots. Yes, so he was married to Idaho Jane, but she went by Ida. And they got married in 1888, had a son named William Ellis in 1889, and had another son seven years later named Claude Cecil in 1890. Now, Elliot became a deputy sheriff at some point. I couldn't find exactly when he was appointed as a deputy sheriff. It was really frustrating because a lot of times I find— articles that say, 'and the sheriff has appointed these people as his deputies.' And I could not find one where he was named as being appointed as a deputy. So I was really trying to find one, but I couldn't. I don't know when he started as a deputy, but the earliest I could find him referred to in the paper as Deputy Sheriff E. E. Lyons is August of 1890. Now, on that date, his wife was pregnant with Claude, the younger one. And so little Claude was born in December of 1896. So she had just a few months of pregnancy left at that time. Now, one of the main duties of the deputies and the sheriff himself was to collect the county taxes. They had to go from home to home and business to business to collect the county taxes. And then, you know, that would all get turned over to state officials. Well, someone at the county sheriff's office was in charge of the books and made sure everything was in order. Well, on August 17th of 1896, Deputy Sheriff Elliot Lyons was arrested in Junction City for larceny of public funds. So basically, he's the predecessor of Deputy Day. Yeah. So he had gone out to collect delinquent taxes, and then he did not turn the money over to Sheriff Johnson, who was the Lane County Sheriff at that time in 1890. He had to pay a bond of $100 to get out of jail, which is crazy to me because the amount he had failed to turn over was $10. Well, that's what you get. Yeah. And that's equal to $384. 58 today. But yeah, he just didn't turn over 10 bucks. And, or I guess $384, but he had to pay. 10 times that to get out on bond. Well, you do the crime, you do the time, or pay the fine. True. True. Yeah. It's just so funny because it was so much more. I don't know. It's just crazy. Anyway, so he was out. Bond, but on November 2nd, three months later, the grand jury reported Truebill, and by the end of January, he was put back in jail to be held until his trial. So he had been home with the brand new baby, Claude, for just the first month of his life. As someone who is a parent, I cannot imagine having to do the first couple months by myself with... Like, they already had one. And now there's a newborn. Like, oh, no. A seven-year-old and then a newborn, yeah. I feel bad for Ida. Yeah, so hopefully she had some other support in the area. Well, on March 13th, he was sentenced to a year in prison. And this is also crazy to me. Because out of all the people on trial during that term of court, he was the only person to get prison time. And one of the other guys on trial was on trial for a violent assault. So I'm like, for 10 bucks, like, this was so weird to me. The value of a dollar. I guess. Yeah, that was just so weird. But anyway, he only served five months of the sentence before Governor Lord pardoned him. And the newspaper said, 'His conviction was had, it is said, upon the evidence of a drunken man and a grave doubt exists as to his guilt.' So it went on to say that his reputation prior to that was excellent. And all of his friends thoroughly believed in his innocence and had contacted the governor. That's why they got him pardoned after, you know, just five months. He was released in August, 1897. And after that, he seemingly fell off the map. I lost him. He was gone with the wind. I couldn't find anything. We didn't see him pop up in the newspapers again for quite a while. And I was just... Pulling my hair out. Found literally nothing about him in Lane County until the big crime that we're going to be talking about. So I had to expand my net and I still found nothing. But I did start seeing stuff about someone named Edward Lyons. And then I noticed there was something about an Edward Lyons that was absolutely connected to this big crime that we're going to be talking about. And so I figured maybe he was going by Edward in that time that we couldn't find him. Yeah, so I looked it up, and it turns out that he decided to change his alias. And he was going by Edward Lyons and living in Jacksonville, Jackson County, Oregon. Of the 1900 census. Yep. So after some sleuthing, we had found our man. He couldn't hide from us. So at this point, he was... no longer in Lane County, Oregon. He had left Lane County, probably because he had ruined his reputation. Most likely. He had wanted to start over. So he relocated down south to Jackson County, Oregon. In August of 1898, he did a very good deed in Jacksonville. He saved a barn from burning down and he woke up the family at the residence.

This was about 11: 44:55

30 p. m. I saw that he was listed in the paper as receiving city funds for various city projects that he worked on every now and then. He was laying water pipes in June of 1899 and was paid $55. 55 by the city of Medford. Later in September of the same year, he was paid $25 for working on the water main and $4 for work he did on the dam. In December of 1899, he got into some trouble. There was a court case against him for receiving stolen property. A 15-year-old boy had apparently stolen a bunch of stuff and gave it to Edward Lyons. And then the police caught him with all of it. So there was a trial and the first trial ended in a hung jury. Because Elliot claimed that the boy had told him it was all his own stuff and that he had just moved it out of his dad's house. So they had to try it again, you know. So there is another trial and the second jury acquitted him. So he was found not guilty and he got out of that one. So I don't, I mean, who knows? Maybe he really didn't know it was stolen. Who knows? In February and April of 1900, there were more things in the paper about him getting paid for, you know, working on water mains and laying water pipes and stuff. And being paid $20 and $18 and, you know, stuff. So there's no mention of him at all from April of 1900 until January 31st of 1902, more than 18 months later. On January 31st of 1902, the newspaper said that Ed Lyons had moved his family into Medford. So Jacksonville had been five miles west. Also, they reported that he was on the sick list. So, like, he had a cold. Yes, newspapers used to list who wasn't feeling well. That's interesting. Can you imagine if that still happened? Like, oh, by the way, this person has COVID. Yeah. This person has cancer. Yeah, yeah. But I would be like, oh, she's starting to, I mean, they're starting to feel better. Like, it's funny. Yeah, pretty funny. So that was the end of January 1902. And then there's nothing about him until December of 1902. And this is where everything goes terribly wrong. Something happened during 1902, or maybe it was in 1901. Maybe that's why he moved his family to Medford. I don't know what happened, but Elliot made some very bad choices, and his life took some turns that he would never be able to come back from, and the ripple effect would last for generations. Clearly, because here we are in 2025 discussing it. Yeah. We are. And anyway, so on December 19th, 1902, Elliot Lyons, by this time 37 years old, along with a companion or two, went to Rock Point, Oregon, which is 16 miles northwest of Medford, and he stole two horses from W. M. Morris, along with a driving bridle and lines. The group of thieves then traveled west toward Grants Pass. On the way, they stole a bridle from a barn near Woodville, and then they stole a bridle from another barn that they came across. Woodville is now known as Rogue River, Oregon. It's about five and a half miles from Rock Point, Oregon. And Rock Point is an unincorporated community in Jackson County, Oregon. Also on December 19th, Elliot Lyons wound up back over in Central Point, Oregon, where he was arrested by Constable Dave Cronemiller on a charge of horse theft. He was loaded up in a buggy and was being taken to the county seat of Jackson County, which is Jacksonville. And about halfway between Central Point and Jacksonville, Elliot pulled a gun and made his escape. An article was published in the Medford Mail on December 26th. This article said that there was an organized gang of horse thieves and that horses had been disappearing from the range around Jacksonville and Willow Springs for several months. The article said that Edward Lyons, who we know is really Elliot Lyons, he was the leader of this gang. The article also says that Edward Lyons had been— passing back and forth between Central Point, Oregon and Redding, California— quite frequently. And every time he made the trip, some horses would go missing from the range. Elliot and his gang were linked to 32 missing horses by this point, over 100 missing goats, and nearly 50 missing sheep. Elliot himself, you know, after escaping on December 19th, he had gone into hiding. He was gone. But there were two members of his gang that had carried on in his absence. Now, these two men stole a couple more horses from Klamath County and sold them to a livery stable in Douglas County. Then they stole a couple horses from Jacksonville and sold them to a farmer in Douglas County. Only this time they were caught in Douglas County and they were put in jail in Roseburg. But even though those two were sitting in jail, horses kept disappearing, and still nobody could find Elliot Ellis Lyons. Pretty cuts and pretty pictures don't do a man much good if he's hungry. Unless the pretty cuts are well-selected cuts of choice beef, lamb, mutton, or ham. That's what we supply. Good meats, properly cut, boned, and trimmed. And we would like to supply your larder. Our prices, as well as our meats, will suit you. Willamette Market, BF Good Pasture. Proper.

Phone: 50:48

main, 381. When a warrant was issued for the arrest of Elliot Lyons in Josephine County, word went out to all the other county sheriffs in Oregon. Sheriff Withers took special interest because Lane County was Elliot's old stomping grounds. Not only that, but Ida Lyons and her sons— you know, Elliot's wife and kids— had recently been staying with old William and Jane Lyons, her in-laws, over in Walton, where Elliot was born and raised. Sheriff Withers had a few good men looking out to let him know if they saw Elliot in the area. And in early February of 1903, he got word that Elliot Lyons was indeed at the old Lyons' cabin with his parents and his wife. And so Sheriff William Withers did what any proper sheriff would do— he gathered up his men. It was Thursday, February 5th, 1903, when Sheriff Withers, Constable Jack Smith, and Deputy William Cornelius left Eugene to make the 28-mile ride through the rough, snowy mountainous terrain over to Walton to get their man. Now, according to Google, a horse could make this trip in five to seven hours at a walking pace, depending on the terrain. And we know this was pretty rough terrain. We know they reached... the Walton Post Office on the Siuslaw River when it was around dusk. So I googled, you know, what time dusk fell on February 5th of 1903,

and it was at 5: 52:26

57 p. m. When they reached the Lyons family cabin, it was around 7 p. m. Sheriff Withers, Constable Smith, Deputy Cornelius, and Elliot Lyons all gave statements about what happened that night, and from those four accounts, I've pieced together what happened. The plan was for Constable Smith and Deputy Cornelius to go around to the back of the house to guard the back door, and Withers was to go in the front alone. Constable Smith was going to whistle. From the back of the house when they were in position to signal to Withers that it was safe for him to go inside. Well, when Smith whistled, Elliot's wife heard the whistling from inside the house. So she opened the back door and she saw Constable Smith. So he told her, 'Go back inside.' The house is surrounded. So she started to cry and she shut the door. Well, Sheriff Withers also heard the whistle. So he entered through the front door. He had his gun drawn. And, you know, he sees both Jane Lyons, who is 66 years old, and he sees the younger woman, who the papers point out she was, quote, not uncomely. So Ida Lyons, she was 38 years old. And the father was there too. And I'm unclear on if he was in the room or in a different room. There's differing reports on where the father was. Sheriff Withers likely said he had a warrant for Elliot's arrest, and they likely said they didn't know where he was. This is when he started to search the house. Maybe it happened that way, or maybe Elliot was standing there when Withers walked in. This isn't entirely clear. Withers was able to give a statement, and he said that he was able to play. Elliot Lyons under arrest and was about to leave the house with him when both women and Elliot's father grabbed onto his arms and pleaded with him not to take Elliot. Well, he shouldn't have stolen horses. Yeah. One article says, quote, the two women rushed at him like she-wolves. So Ida was crying and begging the sheriff to just leave him alone. Sheriff Withers was holding onto Elliot's coat. So, I mean, he didn't have handcuffs or anything, so he had him by the coat. But the women were holding onto the sheriff's arms. So he had his gun in his hand, but he couldn't get his hand up. You know, they were holding his arms basically down and they were like, 'No, leave him alone.' So the sheriff said he actually had to— like he was struggling with all of them— but he wasn't letting go of Elliot's coat. Anyway, so on the stand, Deputy Cornelius said that he could hear from outside the back door. He could hear Sheriff Withers say, 'Let go. Get loose. Let go of me.' Three or four times during the scuffle just before he was shot. Now, Elliot saw this as his opportunity to break free, but he could not get his coat out of the sheriff's grasp. sheriff withers struggled with all three of them for a second, according to Elliot. He had his hand his own hand in his coat pocket, with his finger on the trigger of his revolver, and he just pointed it up, like through his pocket, pointed it up towards sheriff withers and pulled the trigger. Also, according to Elliot, he had not meant to shoot the sheriff at all. He said that he had bragged to everyone he knew that he'd never be taken alive. And he did. He felt rather stubborn at the time and he saw an opportunity that night to make a big bluff. This is what he said. He said that he intended just to hold up the sheriff at gunpoint, but he was so nervous that the gun went off when he pointed it at him. I call it a lie. Now, Constable Smith, still at the back door, heard the sound of the women begging Withers not to take Elliot. He heard the sudden gunshot, followed by the sound of someone hitting the floor. This is when Smith rushed inside the house and found Sheriff Withers lying on the floor with a bullet hole in his neck, the front of his shirt bathed in blood, and his revolver by his side. Elliot Lyons had simply walked out the front door, calm as a cucumber. His mother, wife, and father were all in the room where Sheriff Withers was lying on the floor. Withers wasn't dead, though. He was conscious, but the bullet had gone through the front of his throat and lodged into his spine. He was paralyzed from the neck down. Yeah. According to Constable Smith, his first words were, 'Jack.' I guess they have done me. And according to Deputy Cornelius, he also said, 'These folks helped me.' And I told them to let loose, but they wouldn't. Now, Elliot's brothers, Charles and Frank, who lived nearby, arrived almost immediately and hitched up their teams to take Sheriff Withers over to George Hale's house. Over in the town of Hale, where he could get some medical attention and wait for physicians to arrive from like bigger towns and cities. Now, Hale— if you ask Google, never existed. And yet it is spoken of in the newspapers in 1903. So I looked up a map of Oregon from 1903, and sure enough, there is Hale. Right between Eugene and Walton. I was trying to find the mileage between, you know, these cities, you know, to see how long it would have taken to get him from Walton to Hale. And Google just would not help me out. And I had to guess. And my guess is that Hale is perhaps 11 miles back toward Eugene from Walton. Yeah, so we'll post a screenshot of that part of the map showing that Hale does exist. Or did. It really did. Um, but, you know... It does still in my mind. So, yeah. And so it would have taken the horses about three to four hours, depending on the terrain. I don't know if they would have been walking slower so as not to jostle. The injured man who still had a bullet in his neck or not, but it wasn't just a quick trip through the snowy mountains over to Hale. One article says they reached Hale at 11 p. m. And he was shot sometime around 7, 7. 15 p. m. or whatever. So I don't know what time they left Walton for Hale, though. You know, I don't know what time they rolled out. But anyway, before leaving Walton. Elliot's mother, father, and wife were all arrested. His mother and father, they were not taken into custody, though. They were arrested, like, you know, they were told, you are under arrest, you know, this is what for, whatever. But they were left at their house because they were in very poor health and Constable Smith thought that they might actually die if they were moved. Oh, well, fair enough. Yeah. Mrs. Elliott Lyons, though, Idaho Jane, she was taken back to Lane County to pay for her role in the shooting. of Sheriff Withers. And I assume she went back with Deputy Cornelius, but I couldn't see, it didn't say who she went back with. So it could have been him or Constable Smith. I don't know. I'm going to assume that Elliot's parents were watching. Their sons? Yeah, maybe. Um, I don't know. They didn't mention them at all. The papers said that Elliot had family that lived in Grants Pass. So, I mean, I wonder if... The boys were down there. I don't know. Well, it's said that he, that she... And the sons were with his parents, though. In Walton. True. Yeah, they didn't mention the boys in the article. Interesting. There were lots of uncles in the area. Yeah. Good uncles, you know, they were proper uncles. So tell me. Did a doctor come? Um, Yes, so the first doctor to arrive when he was in Hale was Dr. Day. I don't know if he was any relation to Henry J. Day. I was going to ask. But he made it there at 8 o'clock the next morning. So yeah, it was Friday, February 6th of 1903. So he wasn't seen for about 11 hours after he was shot. Yeah. And then Dr. Payne from Eugene was sent for with a message from Dr. Day with Constable Smith. So someone else had already taken off for Eugene to alert people in Eugene. There was a young man named Nate Chastain. So he had already gone to Eugene. He made it to Eugene that night by 3 a. m. So Dr. Payne was already on his way to Hale. Dr. Payne and Constable Smith actually met in Elmira. Like, that's where they, like, met up. So when Dr. Payne read the message that Dr. Day had sent with Constable Smith, Dr. Payne said that, according to those injuries, there was no way Sheriff Withers was going to recover. Mm-hmm. Then Dr. Payne, you know, continued on toward Hale and Constable Smith continued toward Eugene. To, you know, give his detailed story to the city of Eugene, and I assume to put Ida Lyons in the county jail if she was with him. My guess. Now, Mrs. Viola Withers, wife of Sheriff, you know, Sheriff Withers, set off for Hale that morning as well.

And she arrived by her husband's side in Hale around 5: 1:02:06

30 on Friday evening. Sadly, by the time she got there, he was no longer able to speak. And he gave her a stare as though he hardly recognized her. Ugh. And then he completely lost consciousness about 15 minutes after she arrived. Well, I think he recognized her because he held on. Yeah, that's... My opinion. Yeah. So tons and tons of men gathered up their weapons and got on their horses and they took off for Saisla country. Fisk and Bowne organized a posse consisting of J. S. Stiles, R. M. Pratt, Wallace Chamberlain, and George Hunter. The Oregonian newspaper article said that these four men were considered to be the best manhunters in the city of Eugene. Oh, like bounty hunters. Yeah. The judge in Lane County immediately put a bounty on Elliot's head of $500, dead or alive. That honestly wouldn't have mattered because Sheriff Withers was loved by everyone in Lane County. They would have gone a hunting for Elliot, even if there was no money on the line. They were determined they were going to get their man, like no matter what. So the determined posse arrived in Walton around nine o'clock on that Friday morning. Elliot Lyons had a 14-hour lead on them, though. But they had numbers, and they spread out all over the place to try to catch him. All of the residents of Walton were on the sheriff's side, and it seemed that everyone everywhere they went was looking for Elliot Lyons. On Saturday, February 7th, William Washington Withers, the most beloved sheriff Lane County had ever had, took his final breath at 11 o'clock a. m. An article published in the Eugene Guard that broke the news said, 'The sentiment against Lyons is so great that it would be very dangerous for the officers to bring him to Eugene alive.' The worry was that, if he was arrested and put in the jail, the citizens of Eugene would turn to mob violence, break down the walls of the jail, and rip him from his cell and lynch him on the spot. Someone suggested that they establish a court term earlier than the scheduled term for March. Just for Elliot Lyons, so they could have a speedy trial and a speedy hanging to avoid a lynching in the city of Eugene.

At 9: 1:04:42

30 p. m. on Saturday, February 9th, the body of Sheriff Withers was brought into Eugene from Hale in a carriage. As the carriage drove down Willamette Street, large crowds of people followed it to the undertaking parlor where an autopsy was conducted by Dr. Payne and Dr. Day. His body was then laid in state at the Lane County Courthouse, where hundreds of community members and even people from around the state of Oregon came to pay their respects. The funeral took place on the afternoon of Tuesday, February 10, 1903.

William Withers had been a member of four different lodges: 1:05:17

the Elks, Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the World, and the Maccabees. And at least 500 lodge members turned up for his funeral. The lodge members marched as one body, 500 strong, to the courthouse. Then his body was loaded into a hearse by pallbearers under escort of a detail from the Elks, with members from the four different orders. From there, they marched to the Christian church where the funeral was held. The church was packed with two to three times as many people as it was built to hold, and only half of the lodge members were able to secure seats. Hard reported that every available inch of space in the church was occupied by people wanting to pay their respects to a good man and a brave and faithful officer. The choir sang 'Abide With Me' and 'Safe in the Arms of Jesus'. Now, apparently, the four different orders that he was a part of have their own burial ceremonies. So they went to the Masonic cemetery for the burial. Each lodge contributed to the burial ceremony with their own tribute of remembrance. And the paper said, 'Never in the history of Eugene has a more impressive funeral been held.' And I would guess that maybe that's still an accurate statement. I mean, it sounds like this funeral was epic. After the death of the sheriff, the bounty for Elliot Lyons was raised from $500 to $1, 000. And that's like $36, 710 today. Yeah. His dad is the one who added on the additional $500 too. Now, they thought that they spotted him in a few different places, but he was finally captured at the train station in Cresswell. And that's the same train station where Claude Branton took a train to head to the Midwest when he left town after the murder. The very same one. So here's what happened. On the night of February 8th, there was a report that Elliot was surrounded in Farmer Hill's barn, six miles west of Irving. Several hack loads of armed men left for the scene at once. Now, I don't know if everyone remembers what a hack is or not. I learned the word hack when we covered the Mabel Schofield murder. I definitely did not remember, but basically a hack is a taxi. Yeah. When it was a horse and buggy. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was a hack. So anyway, several hack loads of armed men took off from Eugene over to Farmer Hill's barn, only to find that that story was false. But... that Elliot had actually been seen leaving that barn earlier that day. So they knew he'd been in that area, but he wasn't there for long. Once he made it to the train tracks, Irving, he had turned south. Now, the next morning, Monday, February 9th, there was a posse of seven men at the Southern Pacific Railroad Station in Cresswell. This posse consisted of Edgar Parsons, James Schaub, James Law, William Bowie, James Noland, Hamilton Veach, O. E. Veach, and William Miller. Around 8. 30 in the morning, a southbound freight train was just pulling out, and one of them noticed a man running down the track after the train. So the posse climbed into Hamilton Veach's wagon and they got the horses going as fast as they could to catch up to the train's engine and motioned for the engineer to stop the train. He brought it to a stop and the men rushed back toward the man that they saw who was in the act of climbing into an empty freight car. They told him to throw his hands up, which he did, and he said, 'Well, it's all up. I'm done for. I'm your man.' He was posing as a hobo. He gave up without a fight, even though he had a pistol hidden away in the bundle that he was carrying. He was arrested, tied up, and put into a carriage. They headed straight to Eugene with him, but they didn't want to tell anyone that they had him because they didn't want word to reach Eugene before they did. They didn't want an angry mob like standing there waiting, you know, so that they could like attack him or anything before they got him to the police station. When they got to the edge of the city, one of their wagons drove on ahead quickly to go notify Sheriff Fisk, who had been appointed sheriff after Withers died, and the carriage that had Elliot drove slower. So this was the same day that Withers' body was laying in state at the courthouse from 10 a. m. to 2 p. m. So I think it was kind of poetic justice that his murderer was caught and locked up in the next building over, you know, at the same time. So the next day, February 10th, 1903, the Register Guard published an article that really made me laugh. And we're going to share a screenshot of this one for sure. In large, bold print, it says, 'Everybody keep cool.' And it goes on to say, let there be no mob violence. Let Eugene be orderly. Our reputation as a city is at stake. Justice will be promptly meted out to Lyons, for the law will deal with him as he should be dealt with. So basically it said, don't start a riot, don't rip him out of jail and kill him yourselves. We need to show the rest of the country that we are above such things in Eugene. Exactly. Because in 1903, that sort of thing was not uncommon. Luckily, the good people of Eugene listened, and they remained calm, and there was no... They kept cool. Yeah, they kept cool. There was... There was no mob violence. So Elliot entered his plea on March 3rd, 1903. The paper said his voice trembled and it was clear he was trying to keep from weeping when he said not guilty. Cry me a river. Yeah, in fact, throughout the first day of his trial, it was said that he had the appearance of trying to withhold tears the whole time. His mouth was drawn down at the corners and his eyes were constantly moist and glistening. So the trial began the following day after he entered his plea. It was Wednesday, March 4th at 9 a. m. The state told the same story I've told you in this episode, and the defense brought his elderly parents into the room. His mother was carried in on pillows. And the whole courtroom gasped. And it didn't explain how she was carried in on pillows. So, I don't know. I just, like. In my mind, like, you know, like, like. Egyptian pharaohs, like, carrying on litters, you know? Well, it said that she was sickly, so... Yeah. Just carried in on pillows. I don't know, just in my imagination, it's just like, huh. But anyway, so yeah, carried in on pillows. So the whole courtroom gasped as she was brought in. She must have just been. quite a sight. Now, Elliot's mother swore that she never touched the sheriff when he was in the house, and the only pleas that she made were to understand why her son was being arrested. So anyway, the defense's case didn't last long and it was handed over to the

jury that night at 8: 1:12:50

35 p. m. Within 20 minutes, the jurors were back with a verdict. And he was guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree. I'm just going to say, as a devil's advocate, he did not get a fair trial. Yeah, I mean, they even said, you know, before he was even caught, they were like, 'We should probably have an early, you know, court term just so we can like hurry up and find him guilty and hang him.' Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, and I believe they did say before he was— before his trial— that there was no way that he could have gotten a fair trial. I'm pretty sure they did. I'm pretty sure I saw that, that his lawyers were saying that we would need to move for it to be a fair trial. Yeah. But yeah, so. Anyway, now... It's funny because his wife had been sitting in the jail as well. And somehow... She didn't know that he had even been caught, and he didn't know that she was in the jail. So the woman's cell was somehow separate from the other ones. Well, I guess, I mean, it was a jailhouse. Maybe it was just the opposite side of the house. Yeah. Yeah, perhaps so. But. Anyway, yeah. At the sentencing hearing... The judge asked, Mr. Lyons, have you anything to say why the court should not pass sentence upon you in accordance with the law and the verdict of the jury, which has found you guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree? And his response was, I don't know why I fired the shot. I hesitated a long time and he ought to have seen my gun. I think Constable Smith is to blame, for he was standing at the back window and could not have helped from seeing me with the pistol. He ought to have come in and I wouldn't have fired. I didn't mean to do it. On March 6th, exactly one month and one day after Sheriff Withers was shot, Elliot Ellis Lyons was sentenced to hang by the neck until dead. This was to be carried out on Friday, April 17, 1903, between the hours of 9 a. m. and 4 p. m. in the courtyard of the Lane County Jail. Later that evening, Ida Lyons was released and her charges were dropped. So she got out even, I mean, I think that she should have also faced the music. Hmm-hmm. Because, I mean, my goodness, he could have defended himself if he had had his arms. Thank you. Yeah. On March 8th, they imposed a death watch on Elliot Lyons. And this was basically like a suicide watch to make sure he couldn't, quote, self-destruct before they could execute him. And this was actually standard execution protocol. And they even had a death watch over Claude Branton. That's just what they did— just to make sure they could mete out their justice and, you know, so they couldn't steal that from him. But anyway, on March 14th, it was reported in the paper that he'd been visiting with many ministers and showing a very deep interest in religion. He assured a reporter on March 19th that he wasn't going crazy with it, with the religion stuff. He'd always believed in God and that he would be guided by the Bible. He said he very much regrets the killing of Sheriff Withers. The building of the gallows began on April 6th, but the fence to enclose it was finished by April 7th. The scaffolding, the trap, the noose, and everything was all set up to go and tested on April 13th. I wonder if it was the same one they used for... Claude. What, the gallows? Yeah, and like the fence and stuff. Oh, like the same wood? Mm-hmm. Oh, maybe. Um, But the rope, I would say probably because they were lending out the rope and the straps and stuff to other counties after Claude. So I would assume they used the same ones. Yeah, didn't they have to special order that from, like, California? The rope, yeah. was Special Order from, I think, San Francisco. On April 17th,

Elliot Lyons woke up at 5: 1:16:56

30 in the morning. He had ham and eggs for breakfast along with coffee. Some ministers arrived and they prayed together. Elliot offered a really great prayer, remembering his wife, his children, his parents, and all of his friends. His lips trembled as he prayed. As he uttered, 'Amen,' the deputy's keys rattled in the lock. The deputies helped him put on his coat and vest. The coat lapel had a pretty rose on it. The straps were put on his limbs for easy fastening once they climbed the scaffold. At nine o'clock, Sheriff Fred Fisk entered the jail cell to read him the full death warrant. As the walk to the gallows began, he said goodbye to the guards and the other inmates by shaking their hands. He walked unassisted to the scaffold and climbed the steps bravely. The sheriff asked him, Elliot Lyons, have you anything to say before the execution? No. Only this. I thank everyone who has been kind to me. May God forgive you, people—because you know not what you do. That's all.

At 9: 1:18:05

31, the trap was sprung by Sheriff Fisk. Elliot's body dropped six feet. His neck was broken. Fourteen minutes later, Doctors Day and Payne pronounced him dead. These were the same two doctors that assisted Sheriff Withers in his final days. So... That's it. That's the murder of Sheriff Withers. But remember when I mentioned that call he got where he had to head out to Walterville and exhume a woman's body? Yes. Well, that was the second wife of a man named John Branton. And if the name Branton sounds familiar, that's because he's Claude Branton's older brother. And digging up his second wife to check for poisoning is only the beginning of his crazy story. But you'll have to tune into our next episode to get that one. Yay! Yay! Big shout out to Ancestry. Find a grave. Family search. Yes, newspapers. com, of course. Yes. Who else did we use? Christian. Yes, my brother. We also used the University of Oregon's Archives. Yes. And if you don't follow our group, we did find Claude Branton's full confession. Yes, we did. And so if you go onto our Facebook 'Forgotten Felonies' group, you can find that because Monica put it into a nice PDF. Yeah, and posted it to the group files so everybody can have it. Huzzah. Yeah, follow our socials. Forgotten Felonies on Facebook. Forgotten underscore felonies on Instagram. And I just made a threads account. Forgotten underscore felonies also. Where I'm posting stuff also. Um, leave some reviews. Yeah. And share episodes with your friends. If you like this, share it, please. It'll help spread it and get more people listening and stuff. That'd be great. We love history. Yes. And crime. Not committing crime or anything, but, you know, talking about it. Thank you. Yes. You can listen on YouTube. Leave us a comment there. You can also send us a little message and that link. Hmm-mmm. The fan mail one. Oh. My little sister, your child, left a review on, um... podcast app. Did she? Yeah. Apple Podcasts? Yeah. Did she really? Yeah. What does it say? I was looking at it the other day and I was like, 'Oh!' That's cute! Let me find it again. Uh, go to shell. She said, 'Yes, just yes.' This is my big sister and mother's podcast, and I love it. The stories are all interesting, and when they put the old music in, it just adds so much. Five out of five. Would recommend to everyone who loves the 1900s and true crime combined. Oh my gosh, how adorable! Wow. Yeah, apparently she did that two months ago. What? Yeah, I was like, 'Oh!' What? I... But we have 11 five-star ratings. On Apple Podcasts. Wow. Look at us. We want more. Leave reviews, please. I like reading them. We have three now? On this, I mean on Apple Podcasts, we probably have more on other ones. Well, find them. I don't know. Harvest them. We must have. But yeah, I thought it was so cute. Ben is so adorable. Her little handle. What is it? It's Celestial Girl 101. Ha ha. Huh. Thanks for watching! You'll have to ask her. She better not listen to the Hans Schmidt episode. You'll have to talk to her about that.