The first big
murder mystery on the Iowa-Illinois frontier was the killing of Colonel George
Davenport.
Davenport came to
the area after the War of 1812. He was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1783,
the same year the Treaty of Ghent that ended
the American Revolution was signed. After traveling through Europe and Russia,
he made his way to New York in 1805.
Like any frontier
family, the Davenports had a few nasty skeletons buried deep within their
closets. First off, his title wasn’t real. Davenport was never a colonel. It
was an honorary title given to him by Illinois Governor John Reynolds when he
served as a quartermaster during the Black Hawk War.
He saw action in
the United States Army from 1806 to 1816 and during the War of 1812. However,
the highest rank he achieved was sergeant.
Second, the Colonel was a bit of a womanizer. He had at least three children,
but none by his wife Margaret Bowling Lewis whom he married in 1805.
Margaret had a
step-daughter named Susan who lived with them at Rock Island. The Colonel
fathered two sons by her, George Jr. in 1817 and Bailey in 1824. He had a
daughter, Elizabeth, by another woman in 1835. Her mother was a washerwoman for
the soldiers at Fort Armstrong.
Of course, there are
stories that he fathered many Indian children when he wintered with the
different tribes. It was normal for fur
traders to take an Indian wife. Some stayed with them. Others, like Davenport,
moved on without them when the rivers thawed. The relationship cemented their
bond with the tribe, not to mention it kept them warm on a cold winter night.
Colonel George
Davenport was murdered on Friday, July 4, 1845.
The rest of the
family had gone to the Fourth of July festivities in Rock Island. The Colonel
stayed home to keep watch over his property because he’d seen several
suspicious characters lurking around the island the day before.
The gang—Robert
Birch, William Fox, John Long, and Aaron Long—concocted their final plan at
Grant Redden’s place on Devil’s Creek. They traveled to Fort Madison, then on
the steamboat Osprey to Albany, Illinois. Most likely, they fine-tuned their
plan along the way.
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| Fort Armstrong on the Mississippi River |
The robbery of Colonel Davenport was a “favorite scheme” of the gang. Everyone knew the Colonel was wealthy. The band expected to find at least $30,000 in cash and specie at his home on Rock Island. Instead, their take was closer to $600.
The outlaws camped
in the woods about ten miles outside of Albany. That gave them time to work
another scheme along the way. The story was that there was a man named Miller
nearby who kept a lot of money on his property. Fox tested him first before
they made their move. He asked Miller to cash a ten-dollar banknote. When
Miller couldn’t cash the bill, the gang
gave that idea up.
The men walked back
to Albany that night, stole a boat, and made their way downriver to Davenport’s
island in the middle of the Mississippi. The gang bided their time, waiting for
the perfect moment. Aaron Long bought food and other supplies at Rock Island.
John Long made a whiskey run on July 3.
Later that day, the
boys met with John Baxter, another gang member who lived in Rock Island. They
met behind J. W. Spencer’s place to hash out the final details.
Baxter watched the
Davenport house on the Fourth. When he was sure everyone had left except the
Colonel, he let the band know it was time.
Birch, John Long, and Fox set off for the Davenport house. Aaron Long waited by the river to keep an eye on the boat.
Davenport was sitting in his parlor smoking a cigar when he heard a noise. When he got up to investigate, he ran headfirst into three men—John Long, William Fox, and Robert Birch. Long hollered to Fox, “Take him, Chunky.” Fox shot Davenport in the leg just above the knee, then tied his red handkerchief around Davenport’s eyes.
After that, the
intruders grabbed the old man, threw him to the ground, then bound his hands
and demanded all his money. Davenport handed over five hundred dollars in
Missouri bills he had on his person and said he had some gold and silver coins
in an upstairs closet.
The attackers
dragged the bleeding Davenport up the stairs and forced him to open the safe.
When they saw its paltry contents, they knocked Davenport to the ground and
began kicking and stamping on him.
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| Colonel Davenport confronting the crooks |
“Where’s the money old man?” screamed Fox.
Whenever Davenport
lost consciousness, they threw water in his face, then continued to taunt him,
demanding to know where he kept his money.
Before they left
Davenport’s house, the robbers debated what to do with the old man. “Two were
for killing him and burning him in his house,” reported the Davenport Gazette. “But it was finally
concluded among them to let him remain in his present situation—so they hastily
departed.”
Some fishers near
the island heard the Colonel’s cries and made for shore. When they got to the
house, the attackers had already left, but there was blood everywhere. They
found Davenport upstairs laying in a pool of blood, still alive, but scared and
weak from his wounds and the loss of blood.
The fishers
summoned Dr. Brown who looked after Davenport until he died around eight o’clock that night. In his more lucid moments,
Davenport thought he had been attacked by between three and five men.
At first, Dr. Brown
thought the Colonel would recover. But the one thing he couldn’t get over was
the blood. “There was blood everywhere. The house looked like a butcher’s
shamble—blood in the sitting room, in the hall, and along up the stairs, and in
the closet by the safe was a pool of blood, and in the room below there was the
same.”
Before he died,
Colonel Davenport described his attackers. One was a “small, slightly built
man, wearing a cloth cap—one, a short thick-set, square-built man, and the
other, a large, middling-sized, tall man.”
Davenport’s family
offered a $1,500 reward for the capture of his assassins. They printed up
handbills describing his watch and pistol, the type of currency taken, and
provided a thorough description of his attackers.
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| Colonel George Davenport |
Edward Bonney resembled James West and Artemus Gordon from The Wild, Wild West, only he was a real amateur detective.
Earlier in the year
Bonney assisted with the capture of William and Stephen Hodges, the murderers
of John Miller and Henry Leisi.
Bonney was in his mid-thirties, dressed all in black, and blessed with the gift of gab. He went about well-armed. He carried a “pair of rifle pistols, a revolving six-shooter, [a] Bowie knife, and a work cane.” At the lower end of the cane, there was a short spear or spike that quickly transformed it into a formidable weapon.
As soon as Bonney
saw the handbill, he was sure John Long,
William Fox, and a Nauvoo merchant named Bleecher were the men who did in
Davenport.
Bonney visited Rock
Island on July 21 and discovered one of the key players in the murder was
Robert Birch, also known as Bleecher, Brown, Harris, and a score of other
names. Robert Birch was twenty-eight and had been at his “deviltries” for eight
years. In all that time, he had never been arrested. His accomplice, John Fox,
was a twenty-eight-year-old farm boy from Indiana. Fox had been arrested many
times and had always beaten the rap by having friends testify he was far away
when the crime was committed.
Early in the
investigation, Bonney was sure John Long, Aaron Long, William Fox, and Robert
Birch had murdered the old man. He just needed to connect the dots, but chasing
down the suspects seemed impossible. “They were four desperate robbers and
murderers, who were constantly committing their deeds of darkness and escaping
from point to point, under cover of the night, and changing their names with
every change of the wind.”
After the attack on
Colonel Davenport, the gang traveled to Grant Redden’s place on Devil’s Creek.
On July 9, Redden and Granville Young went to Nauvoo to learn what they could
about the murder.
The news wasn’t good.
Before he died, the
Colonel gave a reasonably accurate
description of his attackers. It must have been dead on because Aaron Long
said, “The description of the two murderers was a damned good one of John
[Long] and [William] Fox.” Even worse, they discovered the authorities had put
a fifteen-hundred-dollar reward on their heads. That much money could tempt
their friends to turn them in.
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| They beat Davenport trying to learn where his money was hidden |
That’s when John Long went out to dispose of the pistol he took from Davenport, and the gun Fox used to shoot him. Later that night, John Long, Fox and Birch set off for Fort Madison where they could catch a boat down the river. Aaron Long returned to his father’s house at Cascade. Baxter lingered at Rock Island for a few days, then headed to his brother-in-law’s house at Madison, Wisconsin.
All Bonney could
think was, what chance did he have of catching them? It had been a month since
the suspects had left Grant Redden’s place on Devil’s Creek. The trail was
stone cold.
One of Birch’s
favorite hangouts was the home of a man named Bennet who lived near Lyons, Iowa
(located just north of Clinton). Bonney checked out that lead, but it
proved fruitless.
Not long after the
murder of Davenport, Fox got arrested for horse theft in Indiana. He had been
locked up in a jail cell in Bowling Green. Two weeks later his
father paid his $800 bail, and the trail went cold.
After chasing Fox
from Rock Island to Nauvoo, then St. Louis, Bonney picked up his trail again at
his father’s house in Indiana. He played up to the father, and then the son.
Fox explained how
the Banditti worked. “I have friends in all parts of the country who keep a
constant look-out, and when they find a good sight, they let me know; then I go
and make the raise, pay them well for their trouble, and leave for some other
part of the country as soon as possible.”
Fox told Bonney he
could always count on John Long. “He would face the devil if it were
necessary.” Robert Birch was a different story. “I believe Birch would murder
his best friend for two hundred dollars.”
Norton Royce,
another member of the Banditti, told Bonney, “We always travel as far from the
vicinity of the transaction as possible the first night after making a raise.
We then conceal ourselves during the succeeding day, proceed again under the cover of night until we get beyond
the reach of suspicion. In this way, there is no danger of detection.”
After the arrest of
William Fox, Bonney headed off to Columbus, Ohio, hot on the trail of John Long
and Robert Birch.
After gaining Fox’s
confidence, Bonney arranged for Thomas B. Johnson, a former Iowa Marshal, to
arrest Fox for stealing a racehorse in Missouri. That way neither Fox nor his
cohorts would suspect he was under arrest for the murder of Colonel Davenport. To
throw suspicion off himself, Bonney had Johnson arrest him for counterfeiting.
That would buy him the time he needed to catch John Long and Robert Birch.
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| Davenport was dragged upstairs after he was shot |
Before his arrest, Fox put Bonney on to Norton Royce, telling him Royce was a friend of the two men. Bonney cozied up to Royce by sharing information about Long and Birch.
After he convinced
Royce, he was a member of the Banditti. Bonney disclosed a counterfeiting
scheme he had been working on that involved some $60,000 in bogus currency. That got Royce’s attention. But
the frosting on the cake was a bank job Bonney told him he intended to pull at
South Bend, Indiana—if he could find some reliable men.
When he learned the
take was $80,000, Royce was all in. He was sure he could convince Long and
Birch to join the raise. After that, they split up, understanding that they
would meet up in Adrian, Michigan within the week. That would give Bonney time
to finish his counterfeit scheme and Royce time to gather up Long and Birch.
After leaving
Royce, Bonney met up with Sheriff Thrift of Knox County and General Gale. At
Little Sandusky, Ohio they bumped into Robert Birch at the racetrack. He was
drinking and betting heavily on the races. More important
to Bonney, Birch was wearing the gold watch chain and seal he had taken from
Colonel Davenport. It was as good as a confession.
They kept a close
watch on Birch, but did not arrest him. They were afraid doing so would give
Long an opportunity to escape. Bonney and Sheriff Thrift took a stage to
Perrysburgh. Along the way, the coach picked up Royce. He said Birch and Long
were supposed to meet him at the American Hotel in Perrysburgh that evening.
Four months after
Davenport’s murder, Bonney was close to getting his men.
While Bonney waited
with Royce at Perrysburgh, he received news Birch and Long had been detained by
the posse he left at Lower Sandusky. When he got that news, Sheriff Thrift
arrested Royce.
The next day they
ironed the prisoners and set off for Rock Island. Six days later Bonney reached
Rock Island and delivered his prisoners to Sheriff Lemuel Andrews.
While Bonney was trailing Davenport’s murderer’s several vital clues turned up closer to home.
A group of men from
Fort Madison set off to investigate. They detained Mr. Redden, his son, and
another man named Granville Young. After authorities questioned him, Young was
sent to Rock Island.
Detectives captured
John Baxter at his brother-in-law’s house near Madison, Wisconsin, in early
October. The evidence showed Baxter never took an active part in any of the
crimes. Instead, he served as a lookout helping to facilitate any number of
crimes.
John Long, Aaron
Long, Harry Redden, Jack Redden, Robert Birch, Granville Young, and John Baxter
were arrested for the murder of Colonel Davenport. The Longs and Baxter were
sentenced to hang. William Fox escaped from his jailer in Indianapolis and soon
disappeared. The jury in the Redden case could not decide, so they were
scheduled to be retried in May 1846.
Birch was expected to be tried at the
same time.
Birch, the two
Longs, and Fox were charged as principals in the murder; Baxter and Young as
accessories before the fact.
The Ottawa Free Trader had doubts whether Long or Birch would
be convicted. Their lawyers would likely stall and try to delay the trial into next
year to give them more time to escape. If that did not work, they would get
some of their cohorts to testify they were nowhere near the area when Davenport
was murdered. That’s how the Banditti worked.
The reporter felt
Birch was a “great coward.” He “could easily be frightened,” to “confess all
his dark deeds. But it is doubtful whether [John] Long would confess even on
the gallows.” Long had a history of arrest and escape. He would look at this as
another challenge.
The paper was right
about Birch. He squealed like a pig. Birch
told authorities they were part of a gang comprising one hundred men who made a
living out of murder and robbery. Edward Bonney dubbed the band, the Banditti
of the Prairie in his 1855 expose. He said they were a loose-knit gang of cutthroats and thieves who
came together to pull heists and furnish alibis for each other when necessary.
The Redden house near Devil’s Creek served as one of their main rendezvous
points.
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| Colonel Davenport's house on Rock Island |
Birch turned State’s evidence against the others and wound up serving as the principal witness against them. “The blackest villain always turns State’s evidence,” exclaimed the Davenport Gazette. Not that it would do him any good. “He will gain nothing by the transaction.”
Long testified
William Fox shot Colonel Davenport, but it was an accident. John Long said he
wanted to confess to everything during the trial, but his lawyers wouldn’t let
him because he would incriminate himself.
It didn’t matter.
Three of
Davenport’s killers were hanged on Wednesday, October 29 at Rock Island,
Illinois. They were John Long, Aaron Long, and Granville Young. Before he was hanged, John Long addressed the crowd for
nearly an hour. He said his brother and Young were not responsible for the
crime. The guilty parties were Robert Birch, William Fox, Theodore Brown, and
himself.
The hanging
continued as scheduled. The minister read the 139th Psalm. “The sheriff bound
their arms, put the rope around their necks, drew the caps over their faces,
and led them forward upon the drop. Taking the axe,
he severed the rope at one blow, and down went the drop, letting them fall a
distance of four feet.”
“The middle rope
broke,” reported the Chicago Citizen,
“letting Aaron Long fall, striking his back upon the beam below, and lying
insensible from the strangling caused by the rope before it broke. For a
moment, not a human being moved; all were horrified and seemed riveted to their
places.”
When they took him back upon the gallows, Aaron Long exclaimed: “The Lord have mercy on me. You are hanging an innocent man.” Then he pointed to the dead body of his brother still hanging there.
The reporter said
he would never forget, “the appearance of that man, as he sat upon the bench, a large bloody streak about his
neck, his body trembling all over.” If he hoped for sympathy, he got none. As
soon as the ropes were re-rigged, they hung him dead.
The bodies of the
murderers were promised to several doctors for dissection. Dr. Gregg of Rock
Island received the body of John Long. Aaron Long’s body was given to Dr.
Barrows of Davenport, and Dr. Knox of St. Louis received
the body of Granville Young.
On October 7, Harry and Jack Redden arrived at Rock Island
to await trial for their part in the murder of Colonel Davenport.
In late November,
John Baxter was granted a new hearing by the Supreme Court of Illinois. That
was welcome news, as he was under sentence to be hanged on November 18. Later, he was found innocent of taking part in
the murder of Colonel Davenport. Robert Birch got a continuance until June
1847. On March 22, he escaped from the Knoxville, Illinois jail and was never
recaptured.
When it was all
said and done, the Davenport Gazette
suggested it was time to rethink the death penalty. “We left the ground fully
established in the conviction which we have long been impressed, that capital
punishment is a relic of barbarism, tending to the corruption of the community
wherein practiced, and that [the] sooner it be abolished and imprisonment for
life substituted, the more speedy will murder and crimes of magnitude cease to
be common occurrences.”
Stuff like this is what I always end up chasing—the little lines in old newspapers and magazines, the parts most books skip over.
I pulled a bunch of those stories together into Iowa Crime Time if you want more of it.
And if you just like reading this kind of thing, Buy me a Big Gulp / Support Retro Iowa
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