1905

engine11color

THE ONE ABOUT THE GUY WHO STOLE A TRAIN

Jeff Elliott 2 Comments

William Cox was having lunch at home when he heard the whistle of his train. “Toot, toot,” it blew as the locomotive left Sebastopol bound for Santa Rosa.

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  NB to Gentle Reader: Yes, I am quite aware the whistle of a steam locomotive in 1900 did not sound anything like “toot, toot,” but I am quoting here directly from the Press Democrat coverage which otherwise is a darn good piece to read, so let’s cut the paper some slack on this.

As William was the train’s engineer and he was clearly not aboard it, he assumed Eugene, who kept the engine stoked with wood, had received an urgent order from the California Northwestern railway station in Santa Rosa to bring the train there.

But Eugene Ellison was not in the cab either. The man with his hand on the throttle was Will Thompson, who everybody called “Brick.” He was 31 years old and had never driven a train before. He was also insane.

“Toot, toot,” Brick sounded the whistle at every crossing, just as William always did. Section hands doing track maintenance near Llano Road were having lunch as well. They didn’t look up when engine No. 11 passed by and just assumed Engineer Cox had received an urgent order from the California Northwestern railway station in Santa Rosa to bring the train there.

Witnesses later said Brick was pushing the train up to 50MPH, which was faster than it had ever gone before. He made the trip to Santa Rosa in twenty minutes, and it only took that long because he had to stop near Fulton Road to wait for the steam gauge to come up to pressure after shoving in more wood.

This next bit is fun because the PD almost never printed dialogue in those days, and here we learn our ancestors spoke fluent Victorian-era slang.

A boy on his bicycle rode up to Santa Rosa Station Agent Joe McMullen and said, “Say, Joe, No. 11 is coming in.”

“What’s the josh?” McMullen asked the boy. “Straight goods,” the kid replied. “Here she comes.”

McMullen watched in astonishment as the steam engine pulled into the south end of the railroad yard and a strange man popped out of the cab. “Who brought over the engine?” He asked Brick, apparently thinking Cox or some other trained engineer must be in hiding.

“I did,” answered Brick before strutting away down Fourth Street, “and don’t you let her go.”

Apprised of the unusual hijacking, the sheriff and city marshal were also flummoxed and likely wondered if there was more to the story than it seemed – after all, people don’t take off with trains. A posse was formed, which meant at the time that they spread the word to be on the lookout. From the PD: “Needless to say, the news of the occurrence caused no little stir in this city and ‘the man who stole the engine’ was pretty forcibly talked of.”

Meanwhile, Brick was enjoying a repast at the Chicago saloon on Fourth Street. When he stepped out of the bar Deputy Sheriff Tombs (yes, his real name) arrested him. Brick pulled a carpenter’s hammer from his pocket and tried to whack the officer in the head, but City Marshal Holmes stopped the assault by grabbing his raised arm.

That afternoon a Press Democrat reporter spoke to Brick at the jail. He paced in his cell, ranted about the deputy touching him without a warrant, and insisted he bought the train fourteen years ago. “When [the president of the railroad] knows of it, it will be all right.”

He was examined by the lunacy commission – an agency we certainly should revive, particularly in election years – and sent to the asylum near Ukiah for a time. It’s noteworthy that his father requested his commitment, possibly as a legal maneuver to avoid Brick being sent to prison for stealing the train and/or trying to hammer a deputy.

Details later emerged that Brick’s joyride almost ended in disaster. As he stepped off the train in Santa Rosa he left the throttle open, and, as the PD noted, “When the locomotive arrived here the water was nearly exhausted. Had the man run the engine much further it is very probable that he and it would have been blown to fragments.”

It also came out that he was a “dope” addict at the time, which in his case meant opium. After his release from the asylum he remained in the Ukiah area, where he worked at a livery stable and reportedly began using drugs again. There in 1905 he attacked the owner with a razor and fled to Sacramento, where he shot a policeman in the leg.

Brick was spotted in Santa Rosa a few days later – his family lived in the area – before he returned to Sacramento. There he accidentally shot himself in the hip and died of sepsis.

The only obituary to be found was in the Santa Rosa Republican, and read in part: “He was 36 years of age and was considered somewhat demented, which fact brought him into prominence several times as the principal in a number of escapades.”

California Northwestern Railroad engine #11 at the second Santa Rosa train depot, probably c. 1890. Another photo of this particular engine and details about it can be found here. Image courtesy Sonoma County Library. Title image colorized using Hotpot.
California Northwestern Railroad engine #11 at the second Santa Rosa train depot, probably c. 1890. Another photo of this particular engine and details about it can be found here. Image courtesy Sonoma County Library. Title image colorized using Hotpot.

 

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FROLIC WITH STEAM
A Sebastopol Engine on a Flying Trip
A MAN’S WILD RIDE
While the Engineer Dined Another Took His Place Unasked
“Brick” Thompson’s Escapade on Monday — When Arrested Tries To Assault the Officer – A Charge of Insanity

It is rather an uncommon thing for a man to be able to “steal” a railway locomotive and run it as he desires, especially without harm resulting to himself or some one else, or even to the engine. Yet Will Thompson, or as he is familiarly known, “Brick” Thompson, did this Monday afternoon.

Fate was certainly with him when he coolly stepped into the cab of the locomotive used on the Sebastopol branch of the California Northwestern railway, pulled the lever and opened the throttle and started, monarch of all he surveyed down the track to Santa Rosa. At the first crossing he gave the accustomed “toot, toot,” just as Engineer Cox, the regular hand at the throttle, does. By the way, Mr. Cox was in the act of complimenting his wife on the excellent lunch she had provided for him, when he heard the warning whistle of “No. 11” as she sped down the track. He thought, however, that a hasty call must have come from Santa Rosa for the engine and that Fireman Ellison had “taken her over.” When he and others learned what had really happened their astonishment can readily be imagined.

Acting Engineer Thompson made “No. 11” break several records until he was well out of Sebastopol and when crossings were reached the warning whistle rang out as usual. When near the Llano school house he slowed down for a short distance. The section men, who wore eating their lunch near the LaFranchi place, paid no particular attention to the oncoming locomotive, thinking that Engineer Cox had been summoned to make a special trip. But somehow or other Thompson in the cab paid particular notice of them for he sped “No. 11” at such a terrific rate that they could not see who was in the cab. Once or twice after this the self-constituted engineer slowed down a little and started up again just to see what the engine could do. When Santa Rosa was reached steam began to give out so that his perilous ride had to end.

Mervyn Donahue rode on his wheel hurriedly to the depot. Espying Station Agent Joe McMullen, he accosted him thus;

“Say, Joe, No. 11 is coming in.”

“What’s the josh” inquired the station agent.

“Straight goods,” replied the other, “Here she comes.”

Station Agent McMullen so far recovered his astonishment to be able to ask the strange engineer as he drew up near the depot, “Who brought over the engine?”

“I did, and don’t you let her go,” Thompson replied then walked hurriedly away up town. The marshal’s office and sheriff’s office were instantly apprized of the unheard-of theft of a locomotive and in a twinkling a posse had started to round the man up.

Just as Thompson stepped out of the Chicago saloon on Fourth street near the corner of that street and Exchange avenue, Deputy Sheriff Tombs placed him under arrest. The man ran his hand into his pocket and quick as a flash produced a carpenter’s hammer, swung it aloft and it was about to descend on Mr. Tombs’ cranium when City Marshal Holmes held the uplifted hand in a firm grasp and prevented any damage. Tho man was then taken to the city hall.

Engineer James Donahue was on his way up town just about the time when the engine arrived at the depot. It is true that he was dressed in his Sunday best, but he climbed into the cab and ran the engine back to Sebastopol in time to bring in the afternoon train.

Needless to say, the news of the occurrence caused no little stir in this city and “the man who stole the engine” was pretty forcibly talked of. Such a person had never been heard of in these parts before.

A Press Democrat reporter saw Thompson later in the afternoon at the county jail.

When asked why he took the engine he replied: “I own the engine. I bought it a number of years ago. When Foster (meaning the railroad president) knows of it, it will be all right.”

He then made some strange remarks about having the officers arrested for touching him without a warrant. While he was speaking he moved about all the time, walking hither and thither about his cell. His conduct was such that those present at the interview were led to believe that probably the hand of an insane person held the throttle on that run from Sebastopol to Santa Rosa. The man’s own father, who is a respected citizen of Santa Rosa, says that his son is insane. He was very much grieved when he signed his name to a complaint alleging that he was insane. He told Judge Brown Monday afternoon that up to a month or so ago “Brick” used opium freely. All of a sudden he stopped taking the drug and it is supposed that this resulted in his mind becoming affected. At one time he also used considerable morphine and was under the care of a physician.

That Thompson’s wild ride ended as luckily as it did is a matter for congratulation. When the locomotive arrived here the water was nearly exhausted. Had the man run the engine much further it is very probable that he and it would have been blown to fragments. From a legal standpoint the mere running away with the engine would probably mean prosecution for malicious mischief or trespass. When asked Monday evening whether the man would undergo an examination on the insanity charge District Attorney Webber said that he could not state yet. He may be charged with assault with a deadly weapon for his attempt to hammer Mr. Tombs.

– Press Democrat, February 21 1900


A WILD RIDE ON AN ENGINE
Mad Man Takes a Spin on the Sebastopol Locomotive.
Opened the Throttle and Sent Old No. 11 Across the Valley at a Rapid Rate.

It is only once in a life-time that we hear of the theft of a railway locomotive, and such an occurrence has a natural tendency to stir up a little interest and excitement. For the first time in the history of the California Northwestern Railway one of the Company’s engines was stolen last Monday.

Shortly after twelve o’clock a man about thirty years of age walked into Sebastopol from the direction of Freestone. Near the cemetery, about a mile west of town, he met William Mather, to whom he stated that he was going to make a speedy trip from Sebastopol to Santa Rosa and that only twenty minutes would be consumed in the seven-mile cross-country run. It cannot be denied that the stranger executed his boast according to schedule. He walked down to the depot, boarded the engine which had been left standing near Julliard’s winery, opened the throttle and was soon heading toward Santa Rosa at a mighty clip. Station agent Harvey was in the depot building at the time and the train hands were at home enjoying the noon-day meal. When the locomotive passed over the laguna trestle the noise was distinctly heard up town. Most people thought the train men were going over to Santa Rosa to do some switching before making the regular afternoon run. Engineer Cox, fireman Ellison and conductor Corbaley realized that something was wrong and after holding a brief consultation they decided to wire a “lost, strayed or stolen” message to Agent McMullen at Santa Rosa. In the mean time old No. 11 was speeding over the steel rails at a pace she had never struck before. At every crossing the man in the cab opened the whistle valve to give warning of his approach. People who saw the iron horse crossing the valley say that the trip was made at a fifty-mile rate of speed. Between the Llano school house and Wright’s crossing the steam supply became exhausted and the locomotive came to a stand still. With the familiarity of a veteran fireman the stranger at the throttle applied the brakes, filled the furnace with wood and waited until the steam gauge indicated that the trip could be continued. Then he set the machinery in motion again and a few minutes later the engine and its passenger made a flying entrance into the railway yard at the County Seat. There was a large and appreciative audience at the station to witness the arrival of the lightning special. The locomotive was stopped in front of the depot and the would-be engineer left the cab and walked up town. He carried a large hammer and not one of the spectators seemed inclined to molest the privileged character as he sauntered up Fourth street. Before many hours had passed the entire force of Santa Rosa’s official dignitaries struck the trail of the locomotive excursionist and he was located in the Chicago saloon on Fourth street. The officers experienced considerable difficulty in landing their man in the county jail.

When asked why he took the iron horse without permission, the adventurer stated that he purchased the engine fourteen years ago and had a perfect right to run it as often and as fast as circumstances necessitated.

The man who created such a sensation in railway and police circles is William Thompson, son of a Santa Rosa carpenter. He has been working for some time past on Sam Allen’s farm on Pleasant Hill. It is said that for years the young man has been addicted to the opium habit and he is a mental wreck. The general opinion is that he is insane and he will be examined by the lunacy commissioners. The engine was brought back to Sebastopol Monday afternoon in time for the regular 2:50 trip. No damage was done by the extra run.

LATER.

Thompson was examined by two physicians and they reported that his mind is temporarily deranged.

– Sebastopol Times, February 21 1900


Examined for Insanity

William Thompson, whose sensational ride from Sebastopol to Santa Rosa aboard “No. 11” Tuesday caused such a sensation, was examined yesterday upon a charge of insanity, preferred by his father. The examination took place in the county jail, Drs. J. W. Jesse and S. S. Bogle acting as commissioners. After subjecting the prisoner to a rigid questioning, it was decided to postpone the decision for a few days as it is thought his present condition is but temporary.

– Press Democrat, February 24 1900


SANTA ROSAN IS IN TROUBLE
“Brick” Thompson Who Stole the Sebastopol Engine Five Years Ago Shoots Policeman

R. M. Thompson familiarly known as “Brick” Thompson who according to the dispatches from Sacramento shot Officer Bert Callahan in the thigh last night after he had run amuck is well known in Santa Rosa and in this vicinity.

About five years ago Thompson boarded the engine of the Sebastopol branch of the California Northwestern at Sebastopol and ran it over to the county seat. He knew nothing of the mechanism of the locomotive but managed to start it and once started it kept going until the steam gave out. This happened at the south end of the railroad yards in this city and when the locomotive came to a standstill Thompson alighted without shutting off the throttle. After he stepped from the engine employees of the company who investigated the unexpected entry of the engine into the railroad yards caught him and detained him until he could be placed under arrest.

Thompson was believed to be insane and the freak of stealing the engine was characterized as the result of a disordered mind caused by using “dope” He was sent to the hospital at Ukiah and afterward was discharged as cured.

At Ukiah he made a vicious and unwarranted attack on Henry Smith proprietor of a livery stable there where he was employed and attempted to carve Smith with a razor. This was the result of his craze from using dope. Smith entered the barn and without a word of warning or any provocation Thompson jumped at him with an uplifted razor. That Smith escaped instant death is regarded as miraculous as he was unprepared for the onslaught.

Thompson passed through this city a couple of days ago and was recognized by Oscar Smyth at the local depot. After the episode of stealing the engine Thompson dropped from sight here by reason of his incarceration in the asylum. He was not heard from again until his attempt on the life of Smith at that place. His latest escapade will probably result in his being incarcerated again.

– Santa Rosa Republican, February 10, 1905


Will Go to a State Hospital

Contrary to the faintest hope, about half-past 4 o’clock yesterday morning, William Thompson, who took morphine the previous evening to end his life, began to revive, and continued to improve. His mind, weak at the time he took what nearly proved a fatal dose, was worse yesterday, and last evening two of the lunacy commissioners held a consultation. Probably today or tomorrow Mr. Thompson will be removed to the state hospital at Napa.

– Press Democrat, March 11 1899

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NOT THE SAME WYATT EARP

Jeff Elliott 1 Comment

Yes, Wyatt Earp was in Santa Rosa! His brother, Virgil Earp, was too! But, uh, not the ones you think – they were the nephews of the famous lawman and gunslinger. Yet it’s also true their legendary uncle Wyatt passed through town at times.

On one of those occasions the Santa Rosa Democrat interviewed the famed man in 1889 and wrote, “Wyatt Earp is little given to talking about himself. And yet he has a reputation as wide as the continent — a fame made by deeds rather than words.” Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (let’s call him “Wyatt B.” for short) may have been modest, but since his death in 1929 there have been hundreds of books, movies and TV shows about him, Tombstone Arizona and the iconic gunfight at the O.K. Corral. A simple Google search on his name currently returns almost eight million hits.

(Above: Lawmen Wyatt Earp and Virgil Earp, uncles to the Earp men with the same names who lived in and around Santa Rosa)

Just scratch the surface of that enormous canon of work and you’ll find there’s lots of misinformation – a common theme includes authors insisting other authors are lazy, liars, if not bonafide idiots – and one of those false claims is that he owned or managed a stable in Santa Rosa, which you’ll even find in his biographical Wikipedia entry. It’s conceivable one of the nephews did so, although there’s no evidence of that either. Here’s what we know of Wyatt B. Earp in Santa Rosa from the newspapers of the time:

While San Francisco was homebase during most of the 1890s, Wyatt B. and his wife, Josie, were traveling and racing his horses. There are several articles available in the 1895 San Francisco Call that mention Earp then had a stable of trotters. Josie described Santa Rosa being on “the California circuit.” She explicitly mentioned winning in Santa Rosa because Wyatt B. was driving his primary racing horse, “Jim Leach,” and they had expected another of their horses in the same race would win instead.

Besides competing in Santa Rosa, Wyatt Earp had another reason to be here: Buying horseflesh. While Jim Leach came from the huge Rancho Del Paso stud farm near Sacramento, Wyatt was at the Santa Rosa racetrack in August 1889 to watch the races because he was “interested in the ownership of several horses,” as he told the Sonoma Democrat.

In an article in the Dec. 9 1896 Call over a lawsuit against him, Wyatt B. told the judge “he had some race horses, but they were leased by him for three years from a woman who lives in Santa Rosa.” That followed his claim of being penniless and owned only the clothes on his back. (If he thought it might work, I’ll bet he would have plead hardship because his poor wife was a widow.)

That’s the limit of what we know for a fact about Wyatt B. in Sonoma county. So what about those nephews who lived in or around Santa Rosa?

The eldest brother of Wyatt B. Earp was Newton Jasper Earp. He had two sons who he named after his famous siblings: Wyatt Clyde Earp (“Wyatt C.”) and Virgil Edwin Earp. As Newton was a half-brother to Wyatt B. the boys were really half-nephews to the lawman.

Wyatt C. (1872-1937) first appeared in local history living in “Mendocino Township, Sonoma” (Skaggs Springs/Dry Creek) in the 1900 census. He and his new bride were staying with her father and aunt. (The census taker mistakenly identifies Wyatt C. and wife Virginia as the farmer’s nephew and niece.)

In the 1903 county directory, Wyatt C. was a Healdsburg laborer, as he was similarly listed in Geyserville, 1905. (UPDATE: In 1904 he applied for a liquor license to open a saloon on Geyserville Road, next to the Petray Brothers’ Stable. h/t Katherine Rinehart.) As Wyatt C. was in his mid twenties in the years while Wyatt B. was racing, that guy could well have operated a livery stable in Santa Rosa. How he felt about his renowned namesake is unknown, but he usually dropped the Wyatt part of his name and went by Clyde. Make of that what you will.

The 1910 census found Wyatt C. farming in Snake River Wyoming (near Jackson Hole), but from the 1920s onward he was a carpenter living mainly around Sacramento. His was apparently a quiet life.

Not so his brother, Virgil Edwin Earp (1879-1959). He was known as Eddie at times but later embraced his “Virgil Earp-ness” with gusto.

earpadulteryHe seemed unable to settle down and had at least five wives 1902-1946. And that’s not counting the incident in 1905, when he ran off with his cousin’s wife.

Virgil took the Santa Rosa woman and her two daughters to San Francisco – although they left her son behind with his father. As he was still married to someone else, an arrest warrant for adultery was issued by our local constable. The papers in the city had a field day with the scandalous story, but the Santa Rosa papers wrote little. The woman reconciled with her husband a week later and returned, but there was no word of what transpired between Virgil and his wife, or even if he ever returned to Santa Rosa.

After that episode Virgil can be traced to Napa, Fairfield, Vacaville, Cloverdale, Washington state and Nevada. Like his older brother Wyatt C. he hovered mostly around Sacramento, although they did not live together.

Because he was in the Army Quartermaster Corps around the turn of the century, Virgil applied for a military pension in 1932 as an invalid and for Social Security in 1941. He seemed on track to end his days as a forgotten, impoverished, and probably friendless old man feeding pigeons on a park bench.

But then in 1958, fate came calling for Virgil Edwin Earp.

What launched this chain of events is unknown, but in March of that year Virgil and his daughter, Alice, found themselves on an airplane for New York City. He was invited to be a contestant on “The $64,000 Question.”

That was the most popular TV quiz show of them all, and there was plenty of competition. According to its Wikipedia entry it even beat I Love Lucy in the ratings; crime rates dropped when the show was on. And for five Tuesday nights Virgil Earp was the star, winning $32,000 for answering questions about the Wild West. One of those appearances can be viewed below.


Those shows turned Virgil into a celebrity – a real, live, rootin’ tootin’ relic of the Old West, and the press swarmed around him. The Sacramento Bee showed him cradling a .38 Colt that supposedly was the last one owned by uncle Wyatt. He talked some about his life (“I was raised right at the knee of Bat Masterson and poor old Doc Holliday”) and how he was gonna write a book someday.

A news service offered a three-part feature series “The Real Wild West” about his life – “a story of fighting men, of liquor and sporting women, stud poker and revenge.” He said he was born in Tombstone, Arizona inside a covered wagon, that he was named sheriff of Paradise Valley Nevada at 18 and killed three men before he reached age 21. He was part of the posse uncle Wyatt B. formed to ride down to Mexico and avenge the death of Morgan Earp. He operated two gambling halls in Sacramento.

It was all complete bullshit.

In truth, he wasted his life bouncing between nondescript jobs – a laborer when he was young, a carpenter, grocer, salesman (both retail and door-to-door selling sewing machines) and collector for the San Francisco Chronicle. He was born at the family home in Kansas, as were his brothers and sisters. Virgil knew about Paradise Valley because his parents lived there when he was a quartermaster; he wasn’t a sheriff or law enforcement officer there or anywhere else. A researcher has put together more details debunking other lies.

No one questioned his fable then (and very few do now, for that matter) and when he died a year after his quiz show glory, newspapers nationwide ran the Associated Press obituary repeating his tall tales and glorifying him as “the last of the fighting Earps.”

Now almost completely forgotten personally, he happened to die when there was enormous interest in the Old West. It’s doubtless some of the widely-printed nonsense he spewed in 1958 about his uncles, their friends and the Genteel Art of Gunfighting seeped into resources about the Frontier West accepted as fact.

The $64,000 Question was cancelled months after his appearance when it was discovered some of the other quiz shows were rigged. Virgil was asked if he had been coached on the answers and he snorted indignantly: “Who could tell me anything about the West?”

Actually, Virgil, you were really no closer to the West than any other salesman or store clerk who read popular cowboy or “historical” magazines and dreamed of being Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickock or that great lawman, Wyatt Earp. Unfortunately, people believed everything you said because of that famous name.

 

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ELOPES WITH COUSIN’S WIFE

Virgil Earp Runs Away From Santa Rosa With Mrs. W. F. McCombs and Her Children

Special Dispatch to The Call.

SANTA ROSA, Oct. 2. — W. F. McCombs returned here from Sacramento last night to find that his wife, Mrs. Maude McCombs, had left the family home on Thursday with his two daughters in company with his cousin, Virgil E. Earp. Earp left a wife here. The couple went to San Francisco, from where Earp sent back $100 of his wife’s money, which he took with him when he left. In the same letter he said he would send later for her clothing.

This afternoon McCombs and Mrs. Earp appeared before Justice A. J. Atchinson and told their story, after which McCombs swore to a warrant for the arrest of the couple. In speaking of the matter McCombs said:

“I am done with my wife and will never take her back, but I want the children, and will fight for them to the last ditch. She took the two girls and left the boy. One of the girls is 2 years old and the other between 6 and 8.”

Mrs. Earp, who is a slender, delicate looking little blonde, said:

“We have found that Mrs. McCombs and my husband left for Petaluma last Thursday and stayed there all night. They then went to San Francisco. From there my husband sent me the $100 of my money which he took away with him when he left. I would not turn my hand over to stop him, but am willing to do what I can to help Mr. McCombs to get his children. I am done with Earp.”

The warrant was placed in the hands of Constable S. J. Gilliam and he will make every effort to capture the runaway couple.

– San Francisco Call, October 3 1905

 

Has Returned Home

Mrs. Mande McCombs, who eloped from this city last week with Virgil Earp, taking her two children with her, returned home yesterday. Earp is still absent.

– Santa Rosa Republican, October 7 1905

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BAD TO THE BONE

Jeff Elliott 6 Comments
– –

THERE WILL BE PRICES PAID
Series on the 1920 lynchings in Santa Rosa

BAD TO THE BONE
THE WOLVES OF THANKSGIVING
A FORESHADOW OF TERRIBLE DAYS
FATEFUL KNOCK ON A COTTAGE DOOR
MOB SIEGE OF THE JAIL
96 HOURS TO HANGTOWN
VENGEANCE FOR SUNNY JIM
CONSPIRACIES OF SILENCE
    HIDDEN GRAVES
    A WELL-ORDERED MILITIA

Anyone with the slightest interest in local history knows the story: About 100 years ago, a San Francisco gang sexually assaulted some women. Police tracked gang members to Santa Rosa where a shootout killed the Sonoma County sheriff along with two policemen. The gangsters were captured and taken to the county jail. A mob stormed the building and took the men to the Rural Cemetery, where they were lynched from a tree.

But that’s not the whole story – far from it. Parts haven’t been reexamined since events happened in 1920, and many details have never been revealed. And like the twice told tales about the 1906 earthquake in Santa Rosa, too much of what has been written about it over the years is distorted or flat wrong.

It’s also a surprisingly difficult story to tell because it is Rashomon-like, with three quite different ways to frame it. All versions interconnect as their storylines converge around the men who were about to be lynched – but each has people and places which are important to that viewpoint alone.

There’s the San Francisco version, which is mainly about tracking down the Howard Street Gang and prosecuting them. Besides the assorted gangsters the main players are the District Attorney, police and politicians. This story winds up in 1928 with the capture of the last fugitive gang member. To learn more, you can’t do better than “The Fall of San Francisco’s Notorious Howard Street Gang,” which can be downloaded as an e-book for three or four bucks. (The section about Sonoma County has many errors, however.)

The Healdsburg version has a narrow focus on seeking vengeance for the murder of Sheriff James Petray, who was from there and very well liked. Those who raided the jail and hanged the gangsters were not a typical liquored-up lynch mob – they acted with deliberation and precision, leaving many to presume they must have been San Francisco lawmen. Not until 1985 did one of the last surviving vigilantes confirm they were all from Healdsburg and had conducted military-style drills prior to the operation.

And then there’s the Santa Rosa version, which you’re about to read. This story ends abruptly about one o’clock in the rainy morning of Friday, December 10, 1920 when the last of the gangsters twitches and dies in the beams of auto headlights and their bodies are anonymously buried the next day. The main takeaway for this version is that the gangsters hadn’t picked Santa Rosa as their hideout by throwing a dart at a map. One of them – the very worst of the lot – was a hometown boy, who by a quirk of fate just happened to have access to a big empty house here.

Ladies and gentlemen, get ready to meet Terry Fitts.

Left to Right: Terrence Fitts in 1906, 1914, 1917 and 1919
Left to Right: Terrence Fitts in 1906, 1914, 1917 and 1919

Had someone written profiles of the three lynched gangsters and asked which of them would most likely become a cop-killer, there’s little doubt that Fitts would be the prime suspect. If he was not a psychopath he certainly did a darn fine job of imitating one.

When Terry was growing up in Santa Rosa he seemed destined to have a comfortable path through life. Born in 1877, he was the only son of Jonathan Perry Fitts who owned the major lumber yard in town, taking up the whole block at the intersection of North and College (where the YMCA complex is now). His dad was also a partner of T. J. Ludwig, the main building contractor in late 19th century Santa Rosa. Terry worked at the yard while growing up and it’s likely the family expected him to inherit the business.

The Fitts were Catholic so he attended the Ursuline “Convent school,” and the first mention of Terry in local newspapers was him being whipped in 1888 by the principal of the Davis street public school for “having an encounter with one of his pupils.” What exactly 11 year-old Terry did was not explained, although the matter came up before the Board of Education and “the various members were of the belief that they would have acted in a similar manner.”

(At that same meeting the Board heard several other charges against that educator, including objections he was teaching pupils Lincoln’s assassination was justified.1 He was also asked to reply to complaints from two parents for whipping their boys as well – although in one case, a 13 year-old “turned the tables on the Professor and whipped him.” Most relevant to our story is the identify of that teacher who whipped Terry Fitts as a child: He was Henry Calvin Petray – the older brother of murdered sheriff James Petray. That has to be the wildest Believe-it-or-Not! coincidence ever to appear in this journal.)

By his early twenties Terry Fitts was regularly getting into trouble. He was mustered out of the National Guard when his regiment’s service in the Spanish–American War ended in 1899, and within days of being back in Santa Rosa he was in front of justice of the peace Judge Brown pleading guilty to…something. We don’t know what he did because the Press Democrat didn’t print the charge against him or the judge’s ruling.

That wasn’t unusual – his crimes were never mentioned in the paper. And he got special treatment by the courts, too; it finally came out in 1906 that he had been arrested 23 times in Santa Rosa and charged with a felony, only to have each crime knocked down to a misdemeanor.

Here were textbook examples of the power of privilege. The Fitts’ were a socially prominent family in town; a search of the PD and its predecessor finds hundreds of items about Terry’s parents and sisters hobnobbing with other names familiar in Santa Rosa’s small town bluebook.

The news blackout ended when Oakland muckrakers took over the Santa Rosa Republican. They published two stories in early 1905 about Fitts trying to break out of the county jail and going on trial for maliciously breaking a restaurant window. Having been in town only a couple of months, the new editors didn’t know they were supposed to tiptoe around the town’s 27 year-old homegrown monster:

Fitts is the son of highly respectable and prominent parents of this city and his frequent appearances in the police court have been causes of great regret to these parents. Every opportunity has been afforded the youth to make something of himself and he has been given opportunities to start life anew many times. Each time he has fallen into dissolute habits and the temination has been in the police or justice court. His parents have thrown about the wayward son every safeguard which could be for his benefit and these have been ruthlessly thrust aside by him and ignored.

fitts1906(RIGHT: Terrence Fitts, 1906 San Quentin mug shot)

Then later in 1905 Terry and another thug got in serious trouble by trying to rob the operator of a railroad drawbridge in Marin. When they found the elderly man had no money on him “the toughs contented themselves with beating him into insensibility and then leaving.” Later the same paper (Sausalito News) reported “one of the men is Terry Fitts, a well known crook of Santa Rosa.”

The attack on the popular old man – dubbed the “Mayor of Greenbrae” – brought him before a judge outside of Sonoma County for the first time. He was sentenced to 14 years in San Quentin.

That conviction led the Press Democrat to finally break their omertà and remark that Fitts was “leader of the Gilhooly gang of thugs and hold-up men which operates in San Francisco and surrounding towns” (nothing more can be found about them, so it’s likely they were just a bunch of street punks).

From that point on he was mostly a fulltime jailbird, sometimes free for only a few weeks before breaking parole or committing new crimes. Out on parole in 1912, then back to jail for burglary in 1914. (In a lesser Believe-it-or-Not! item, he shot a policeman in the shoulder during that arrest – it was Miles Jackson, one of the two San Francisco detectives later gunned down in Santa Rosa. EDIT: This was a mistake that first appeared in the San Francisco Examiner’s 1920 coverage and has been repeated in years since. Fitts was part of a five member gang planning to rob a jewelry store. Fitts and two others were taken into custody without incident, but the leader of the gang and another man were arrested at another location, where “Forty-Year Smith” pulled a gun and wounded Jackson.)

After being paroled and again caught for a San Francisco burglary in 1917, the San Quentin board of governors declared Fitts was incorrigible, sending him to Folsom where he was placed in solitary. Paroled again (he registered for the WWI draft in 1918 stating he was a plumber) he violated parole once more and was back in Folsom until he was discharged in November 1919. The toll all this took on him can be seen in the photo – he appears to be much older than his 42 years.

fittsprofiles(RIGHT: Terrence Fitts in 1906 and 1919)

What Terry was doing in his last year of freedom is unknown, except he was in Santa Rosa at least some of the time. He obviously still consorted with criminals in San Francisco, as three of them followed him back to Santa Rosa when the manhunt was underway.2

Which brings us to the reason why Terry Fitts – a lowlife who rarely had more than two stolen nickels to rub together – found himself with the keys to a nice house large enough to hide a bunch of his criminal chums.

In late September, 1920, his father sold the famous lumber yard. The new owners would also get Terry’s childhood home at the corner of Stewart and College (now gone, part of the YMCA complex) but the deal allowed the 71 year-old man to continue to live there until the end of the year. Where he intended to go after that is unknown, but there was a married daughter in Bennett Valley with the other in Marin’s Mill Valley.

But his future address became a moot point when he died five weeks after the sale. Until January 1 1921, the sprawling Victorian would be unoccupied.

Terry knew none of this at the time. While he had been around earlier that week, his father’s death was unexpected and the family didn’t know how to contact him – career criminals tend not to leave forwarding addresses.

It was several days after the funeral before Terry again swaggered into Santa Rosa and learned of dad’s death. Terry learned something else surprising: His father had written him out of the will. An earlier version divided the estate (worth about $400k today) evenly between him and his two sisters but it was changed in March, 1920 to leave everything to the daughters while not even mentioning Terry.

The Press Democrat expected Terry to challenge the will in court and he probably would have – except things were about to start moving very quickly. A week later the women would be sexually assaulted by the Howard Street Gang. A week after that Terry would be back in Santa Rosa with his friends who were hiding from the police. And a week after that Terry would be swinging from a rope in the old cemetery.

As events in this tragedy played out over those three weeks, Terrance Joseph Fitts would be a key player in every scene except one – he was never actually associated with the so-called Howard Street Gang.

NEXT: THE WOLVES’ THANKSGIVING


1 A popular conspiracy theory among Confederacy apologists was that Booth’s reason for killing Lincoln had nothing to do with the Civil War – that it was a personal vendetta because Lincoln reneged on a promise to spare his friend from execution by granting a pardon. No part of that story was true (MORE).

2 Besides the two gangsters who were lynched with Fitts, Louis Lazarus was with the group but returned to the city just the day before the sheriff and San Francisco officers were slain. Lazarus was also the Howard Street Gang member who was not captured until 1928.

 

sources

 

CITY BOARD OF EDUCATION.
The Investigation of the Charges Against Prof. Petray.

…The writer also accused him of having punished a lad named Fitts, who attended the Convent, for having an encounter with one of his pupils. In endeavoring to administer a whipping to a 13-year-old lad named McGregor, the communication specified, the lad turned the tables on the Professor and whipped him. This part of the communication was very wordy and pictured the scene graphically, if not a little vulgarly. It was further specified that during the last term Professor Petray had delivered a lecture to his class, taking for his thesis the assassination of President Lincoln, justifying the act of Booth by stating that Lincoln had promised to pardon a friend of Booth’s who was to be executed for attempting to wreck a railroad train. The promise was not fulfilled, hence assassination….

[..]

…As the matter stood, it was the word of Professor Petray against that of one of his pupils. There was no difference of opinion concerning Professor Petray’s act in whipping the Fitts boy. The various members were of the belief that they would have acted in a similar manner.

– Daily Democrat 10 January 1888

 

Terry Fitts, who was a member of the San Rafael company of the Eighth regiment stationed at Vancouver barracks, arrived home last night. When the boys left Vancouver, he says, there was plenty of snow there, and the climate was nothing like as nice as it is here.

– Press Democrat, February 8 1899

 

Terry Fitts Pleads Guilty

Terry Fitts in Judge Brown’s court Tuesday pleaded guilty to the charge made against him. His honor will pass sentence this morning at 10 o’clock.

– Press Democrat, February 15 1899

 

Attempts to Escape

Terry Fitts a prisoner in the county jail made an attempt to escape from that institution last night by prying open the bars at the top of the window of the second story cell in which he was confined. The prisoner who is only a youth was arrested Saturday evening by Officer John M. Boyes and while being placed in a cell at the city prison attacked the officer viciously. The latter responded by striking the prisoner a gentle tap on the cranium with his revolver and the one blow sufficed to take the desire to fight out of the prisoner. The youth’s head was cut by contact with the revolver and blood spurted from it freely.

The prisoner was quite unruly when placed in the big cell with other prisoners and his propensity for making trouble began to assert itself. In order to give him a cell in seclusion he was transferred to one of the front rooms on the second floor. In order to effect his escape the prisoner used a portion of an iron bedstead as a pry with which to bend down the iron bars at the window and was provided with some pieces of rope and his blankets with which to lower himself to the ground. The plan was frustrated by Jailor Serafino Piezzi who chanced to learn what was being done by the prisoner and removed him to a cell in solitary confinement on the lower floor.

– Santa Rosa Republican, January 2 1905

 

TERRY FITTS IS FOUND GUILTY

Justice Atchinson Will Impose Sentence Tomorrow on Youth of Respectable Parents

Terry Fitts was found guilty of a charge of malicious mischief this morning by a jury in Justice Atchinson’s court. He demanded a jury trial which was given him. The alleged malicious mlchief was in having broken a window in a restaurant to which Fitts entered a plea that a mythical stranger who was with him on the occasion had broken the pane of glass. Fitts made a poor witness for himself and was unable to give an description of the alleged stranger whom he alleged had broken the glass. The jury consumed a couple of minutes in reaching a verdict.

At the instance of District Attorney Charles H. Pond sentence was postponed until tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock. The maximum punishment for the offence of which he has been convicted is six months and owing to his previous record it is believed Justice Atchinson will give him the limit.

Fitts is the son of highly respectable and prominent parents of this city and his frequent appearances in the police court have been causes of great regret to these parents. Every opportunity has been afforded the youth to make something of himself and he has been given opportunities to start life anew many times. Each time he has fallen into dissolute habits and the temination has been in the police or justice court. His parents have thrown about the wayward son every safeguard which could be for his benefit and these have been ruthlessly thrust aside by him and ignored.

When his term of imprisonment is up there are two other warrants waiting for him. One of these is for resisting an officer and the other for threatening the officer’s life. These will be pressed at the proper time.

– Santa Rosa Republican, February 2 1905

 

In the tanks of the County Jail at San Rafael Sheriff Taylor has two tough characters who are supposed to be the thugs who robbed and brutally beat aged Felix Sands, keeper of the Greenbrae drawbridge, two weeks ago. Sands has identified the men as his assailants, and they will be immediately prosecuted for a felony. One of the men is Terry Fitts, a well known crook of Santa Rosa, and the other gives his name as Woods.

– Sausalito News, December 16 1905

 

Grand Jury Will Investigate

Attorney Ross Campbell, who has been retained to defend Tom Fitts, who, with Jack Woods, is being held at San Rafael on a charge of assault with intent to kill as the result of an attack on Felix Sands, “Mayor of Greenbrae,” has received a letter saying that the case had not been acted upon before the Grand Jury, but will come up December 27.

– Press Democrat, December 21 1905

 

Fourteen Years in San Quentin

San Rafael, Feb. 23. Terence Fitts, leader of the Gilhooly gang of thugs and hold-up men which operates in San Francisco and surrounding towns, was sentenced today by Judge Lennon to fourteen years imprisonment in San Quentin. The crime for which Fitts was found guilty was assault to commit robbery against Philip Sand of Greenbrae. John Woods, a companion of Fitts, is undergoing trial for the same offense. Fitts formerly resided in Santa Rosa and is an old offender, having been arrested twenty-three times in his native town, charged with a felony, and escaping on each occasion through a reduction of the charge to a misdemeanor.

– Press Democrat, February 24 1906

 

Fitts Lumber Yard Sold to Newcomers

The sale of the J. P. Fitts lumber yard in College avenue, adjoining the Southern Pacific track, has been completed, and the new owners, George B. Fuller and John E. Columbo, took possession Thursday. The Fitts home goes in the deal, but Mr. Fitts will retain possession until Jan 1.

– Press Democrat, October 1 1920

 

CONTEST LOOMS IN FITTS WILL
Mrs. H. W. Pyburn Jr. Files Document for Probate Which Cuts Off the Son, Terrance

Mrs. Hattie Pyburn, wife of Harry W. Pyburn Jr„ filed the will of her father, the late J. Perry Fitts, for probate Saturday in the superior court. The will in hologaphlc, dated March 20, 1920 [ed. note: it was dated Mar. 7], and leaves the estate to the two daughters, Mrs. Pyburn and Mrs. Cecil Riley. It is stated that the estate, consisting of personal property, including money in bank, bonds, promissory notes, etc., is valued at about $30,000.

It is understood that there is another will which makes a number of small bequests to friends and leaves the bulk of the estate to the two daughters and son, share and share alike. The son, Terrannce [sic] Fitts, has not been located since the death of his father, and when he learns of his father’s death he may return to secure his share of the property and fight any will which leaves him without anything.

– Press Democrat, November 16 1920

 

Terrence Fitts Returns

Terrence Fitts, son of the late J. Perry Fitts, has returned home, not having learned of his father’s death until after the funeral. The young man had left here on Saturday prior to the death of his father on Tuesday night, and not having left any address could not be notified.

– Press Democrat, November 16 1920

 

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