Chicken Thief Pursued, Riddled

Pennsylvania, 1908

Enraged Farmer, After Chase, Puts Twelve Holes Through Him

Pottsville, Pa., Feb. 7. — Exhausted after a long chase, Isaac Bevan of Shenandoah, Pa., was riddled with bullets from two revolvers which his pursuer, Anthony Sinkiewicz, emptied into his body as he lay helpless in a snow drift. Twelve shots took effect, one passing through the heart, causing instant death.

Sinkiewicz had for some time been annoyed by chicken thieves and fixed up a burglar alarm. He was awakened by this alarm and he and a boarder at his home armed themselves and gave chase to the intruder by means of tracks in the newly, fallen snow. The chase continued for more than a mile, when Bevan dropped from exhaustion. Seven chickens were found in a bag which he carried. He was unarmed. Sinkiewicz gave himself up to the authorities and has been charged with murder.


Leap Year Girl's Quick Work

Philadelphia, Feb. 7. — Miss Louisa M. Hahn has led to the altar of the Mount Airy Methodist Episcopal church J. Horace Laucks of Germantown. Miss Hahn on New Year's day, ten hours after she became acquainted with Laucks, said to him: "I like you very much. Let us get married. I suggest you take time to think it over, say until tomorrow." Laucks made up his mind within four hours.

Child Carried Off by An Eagle

1901

Child Rescued Half a Mile From Where the Bird Flew With Its Prey

Denver, Col., Jan. 31. — Tony Giovanni, a 2-year-old child, was seized and carried off by a gray eagle while playing in the yard of his home in a Denver suburb. The child's screams brought the father and two other men to the door of their home in time to see the bird and child disappear over the bluff of the Platte river. The men gave chase and saw the eagle alight on a small island covered with undergrowth, half a mile from the child's home. When the men arrived at the island the bird attempted to rise again with the boy, but his clothing caught in a bush and the eagle, seeing the men close at hand with clubs, dropped his prize and flew away.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, IA, Feb. 1, 1901, p. 3.

Another Male Victim for Seductive, Charming Mrs. McDermott

Ohio, 1897

ELOPERS

Left the City Early Yesterday Morning on Foot.

Harley Beckett Skips With Notorious Mrs. Joe McDermott

Leaving His Wife and Several Small Children In Destitute Circumstances—The Couple Chased Several Miles by Constable Sloan—Previous Escapades of Mrs. McDermott.

Mrs. Joe McDermott, a female whose escapades have more than once made her the subject of newspaper articles, has again sprung into notice. This time she eloped with a neighbor named Harley Beckett. The couple fled from the city Tuesday.

Beckett has been employed by J. B. Carter at his barrel factory on Chillicothe street. He is an expert cooper and makes good wages. He is married and has several children. For some time past he has been "rushing" the McDermott woman and spending his money on her. Tuesday they decided to skip, and early in the morning they left town.

Constable Frank Sloan was put on the trail yesterday morning by relatives of the eloping couple and was hot on their trail all morning. He traced them down across the Scioto bottoms and up the valley, but did not come up with them. It is thought they are about in this vicinity.

Mrs. Beckett called at the mayor's office that morning and told her tale of woe. She said she and her children had been left in destitute circumstances. She wanted warrants issued for the runaways. She finally left without causing warrants to be issued. The police are on the lookout for the couple, however, and if apprehended they will be locked up.

The McDermott woman is the female to whose seductive charms George W. Legg fell a victim several years ago. Legg was then treasurer of Pike county and was spending the money of Pike county tax-payers right and left. He came here several times to see the McDermott woman, and she and her confederates bled him out of several hundred dollars before he "tumbled" to the game.

—The Portsmouth Times, Portsmouth, OH, July 24, 1897, p. 1.

Hoboes Start "Wild West"; Capture Train

1920

Hoboes Start "Wild West"

Deputies Have Exciting Chase After Seven Tramps Who Refuse to Pay Fare

LOS ANGELES, Neb. 25.—After a day of "Wild West" activity, started by the report that a gang of hobos had held up and "captured" a Southern Pacific freight train outside of Mojave, and a series of gun plays and thrilling automobile chases by officers, seven men were lodged in the county jail on the charge of evading railroad fare.

The seven were nabbed by deputy sheriffs after they left the freight train at Saugus. Three of the seven jumped from the train before it arrived at the station, and made a temporary escape by boarding a passing truck. They were chased by the officers to San Fernando, and there taken into custody at the point of sawed-off shotguns.

At least twenty men were in the gang when the brakeman of the train, W. S. Brown of Los Angeles, discovered them, he told Deputy Sheriffs Bell and Couts. Just before the train arrived in Saugus the majority of the gang, which included armed men, became suspicious of the reception that awaited them there, and boarded a freight train bound in the opposite direction.

The men refused to leave, and, when he threatened to put them off, offered resistance.

"You just try to put us off," one of the bunch called out, pulling a revolver from his pocket. Another gun was flashed, and then the brakeman was told that the train was "captured," and informed that he'd better go on to Los Angeles, the officers say.

An account of the situation was telegraphed to Los Angeles, and the Sheriff's office was notified, Deputies Couts and Bell were called from their homes and with Driver Arthur Cabbage were sent ahead to Saugus to meet the train.

The deputies nearly lost their prisoners when the county car, speeding toward Saugus, broke down a few miles from its destination. A passing automobile had to be commandeered, and the officers arrived in Saugus just in time to organize a posse.

With Constable Collins and the volunteers the officers "covered" the train when it pulled into the station, and told the men on it "to stick 'em up." Only four hobos came out of their hiding places, hands high up in the air. The officers realized that several had escaped, and soon learned that some of the gang boarded a truck a few miles outside of Saugus.

It was then that a second chase was started. The truck was overtaken near San Fernando and the three men on it taken into custody. The seven prisoners will be held for further investigation.

—The Evening State Journal and Lincoln Daily News, Lincoln, Nebraska, February 25, 1920, page 3.