The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 3, 1903, Page 1

< Lall, SAN FRANCISCO MONDAY AUGUST 3, 1903. PRICE FIVE: CENTS. TWO CONVICTS OPEN FIRE ON OFFICERS AT DUTCH FLAT. - PURSUER IS WOUNDED AND OUTLAW PROBABLY WAS SHOT. “SOLDIERS’ BODIES FOUND NEAR MURDERERS’ DESERTED CAMP. were intent on making arrests. ive convicts from the Folsom penitentiary were loca!ed in Dutch Flat last mghl and a brief battle with rifles was the result. itizens wh One of the members of the posse was shot in the hand and the butt of his rifle was damaged by a bullet. o bodics of the soldiers killed in the fight at the Grand Victory mine were recovered by the posses yesterday, and the deserted camp of ‘the murderous convicts was found. The convicts had made The tuo men, one of ‘(lmm 1s said to have brm the negro, Seavis, n[u ned.fire on ‘1 posse | The convicts, one of whom may have been wounded, escaped in the hrush. their escape. W g Tracks Found of Wound- ed Man. Shot Is Heard in Fiery Brush. Fugitive May? Have Killed Himself yded Posses Believe Suicide Occurred ing, when the ided, a careful will be made that this theory of i¥n out to be true, hat the three men ternoon in the canyon en-mile House must three of the convicts '. in yesterday’s| he three who were | qear the Se ve been at the‘ ste mine last night and who e wts with two guards to the camon nt in that di- e presence of three of nd the circumstance he wounded one 1 the firing of a Conunued on Page 2, Column 5. y Fire Sweeps 1 ‘the scene of \ House is| is possible | L pich the bloody fight had taken at Convict | Camp. LACERVILLE, Aug. 2—A Call correspond- ent who went out from here with the posses last | night to the Grand Victory Mine and spent the night there with the armed men who were guarding the hill where the battle with the convicts took place returned here this morning. Three men dead and one se- riously wounded was the loss sus- tained by the man-hunters at the | battle xought at Grand Victory ;‘\Imc yesterday evening with the [band “of outlaws who escaped | from Folsom prison. The outlaws escaped without The armed posses, num- | bering more than 400 men, gath- ered at the Grand Victory Mine _| from all adjacent points. They came in on horseback and in all kinds of teams and wagons. At ‘ 7:30 o’clock last night the hill on loss. | place was surrounded by a small army of men determined to avenge the deaths of their comrades who | had been ambushed a few hours glet | &l i B earlier. Guards were stationed at inter- {on the hill vals of twelve paces in all the ra- vines and gullies at the bottom of the hill on all sides. The hill is about 200 feet in elevation from its base and is covered with dense manzanita brush on the side where the soldiers were ambushed. Clean up to the top of the hill it is seamed with canyons and gulches, affording the best of protection for men wishing to hide. At dawn the weary watchers were ready for action. Sheriff Bosquit and Captain Swisler -were in charge -of the forces. It was decided that it was not advisable to storm the spot where the con- victs were supposed to be. It was agreed to set fire to the brush and if the convicts were upon the hill to force them to come out into the open or be burned to death. It was planned that when the fire got near the scene of yesterday’s battle a rush would be made to recover the bod- ies of the men who had been killed. The brush was fired on the SEEGEANT CONGET > RBIVATE SrorX o JrCRET 207 2 sduth and east sides of the hill at 6:30 this morning, and as the flames made headway every man in the posses covered the hill with his rifle, prepared to shoot at the first signs of the convicts emerg- ing from the flaming brush. Volunteers were called for to recover the bodies of Rutherford and Jones. Fourteen men re- sponded. They were led by Will- iam Rutherford and William Bur- gess. At 6:45 o'clock five mem- bers of the detachment emerged from . the undergrowth carrying the body of Festus Rutherford. The brother of the dead man was leading the body bearers, tears streaming from his eyes. As the remains were laid on the ground William Rutherford was over- come with despair and grief. He wildly called on his dead brother to speak to him until kindly hands led him from the spot. The scene will never be forgotten by the men who witnessed it and the hardy mountaineers sorrowfully bent their heads and gripped their rifles and swore to wipe out the murder- ers if but a glimpse could be caught of them. Five minutes later the body of Jones was recovered. His body S SCENES IN THE REGION WHERE | THE ' PRISON FUGITIVES ARE BEING HUNTED. | ! Officers Fmd Bodies of Victims. + 3 presented an awful spectacle. The | bodies were found lying side by | side. Rutherford had been hit with several bullets. through the stomach. The bullet passed through the body and came | out near the left shoulder blade. Another bullet had passed through | his right shoulder. Still a third | had hit him squarely in the middle | of the throat and had passed out of the back of his neck. Any one | of the wounds was fatal. Rutherford must have been wounded in the shoulder first, for | when his body was discovered it was found that he had fired every | cartridge in his rifle. Six empty shells were found beside his body | and the seventh was in the cham- ber of the gun. Rutherford was found lying on his back, his face He had been shot | "I Posse Shoots at Two Fu= glttves. | | | | Flght Occurs bt Dutc:h' Flat. Nozse of Con= . flictAlarms I Town. Spectal Dis) UTCH FLAT, Aug. 2. —At 9:20 olcleck to- night a posse, niade up | of officers and citizens |and consisting of ten men,-went |out to the cemetery to arrest a | couple of "the escaped convicts { from Folsom prison, who had | made their way here from the lo- | cality of Placeryille. The fugitives had been seen moving mysteriously in the vicin- ity of the burial place and- the in- formation was conveyed by a rail- | | road employe to the officers. They |lost no time in preparing for a }capture, and well knowing the | desperate character of the men they expected to deal with, they saw to it that there was no-lack of |armament in the party. | The cemetery is located about midway between the station and | the town and the distance from [town to station. is nearly a milg. | When the officers approached the | cemetery there appeared to be no other persons in the neighbor- | hood, and in order: that no mistake | might be made, it was decided t search the locality. | The search.h ad not pmceede“ | for more than a few mmut@ when two men- started. up frqm the |grass and began to run.” They | were called upon to halt, and | then, to the consternation of t posse, they turned and fired with |rifles. The possé was qu ick to | return the fire. At the first volley Len Wedg- | wood, a member of the posse, re- | ceived a serious wound in the | hand, the bullet fired by ome of | the convicts passing through that member. A second bullet struck the stock of \\'edgvsood\ riflé and tore off a large pxeLc of the | hard -wood. o | | Wedgwood declares that at the moment he fired he saw -dne of | the convicts fall, and he fecls sufe that one was struck by ho bullet | The town is alarmed and search | is being made for the fugitives. | distorted and his limbs drawn up. Jones was shot almost to pieces. A gaping wound in his head- al- | lowed his brains to exude: The jagged opening was large enough to insert three fingers of a man's hand. The skull was smashed in all directions caused by a’soft- | nosed bullet. The lower part of | his face was. filled with buckshot {and he was also ‘shot twice | through the body. His-clothing, was soaked with his life’s blood and strong men shuddered as they viewed the remains of the gallant \\oung fellow who after nghl ng { through the Plnhppme war " met [ his untimely end in bravely dis- charging his duty as an American cmzen He was found lying on | his face and his head rested on his | gun barrel, which contained its full load of cartridges. . The gun of Rutherford w as ] Continued on Page 2. Column'®. , he .