John Lafayette Vaughan and Belle Starr

When I first got into genealogy in middle school, the first materials I was given were about my mother's family, the Vaughans. My great aunt Dale had materials she'd gotten from her cousin Colleen, her aunt Lou, and other relatives, and she brought copies for me to a family reunion at Robber's Cave State Park near Wilburton, Oklahoma. I still have all the original copies of those papers she gave me because they started my life-long obsession with genealogy on a great footing.

One of the items she gave me was an undated photocopy of a newspaper article about my great great grandfather John Lafayette Vaughan. It was called "Death of Belle Starr" recalled. A writer for the McAlester News-Capital named Baird Martin would comb through the paper's archives every so often looking for interesting articles to reprint. One of the articles Martin found was an interview given by Vaughan to a reported named Charles H. Cowles.

Martin pulled only a handful of quotes and gave a summary of the interview, but I always wanted to find the full, original interview. I eventually found out the reprinted article was from about 1968, but he never gave the date of the original article's publication, only stating that it was published some 35 years prior to his re-hashing of the article. McAlester's newspaper was never digitized for general public consumption, so I never had a way of finding the article short of requesting all the microfilm for roughly 1932-1934 and combing it day by day.

Recently I learned that the McAlester newspapers, including the News-Capital, had in fact been digitized, but most were only available on-site at the McAlester Library. You had to be logged into their Wi-Fi to access these archives. Fortunately, one of the librarians, Christopher Elliott, was kind enough to dig around enough in the papers from the early 1930s until he found what I needed.

The article was better than I could have ever dreamed it would be. The only negative was that the writer stopped his interview halfway through and said it was "to be continued" in a later edition...but he never continued it. His next article referenced a couple more stories from Vaughan, but did not pick up where the first interview left off with Vaughan discussing Judge Parker and the trial for Belle Starr's killer. Mr. Elliott could not find that second half of the interview, and when I finally connected to the McAlester Wi-Fi myself to search day-by-day in June of 1933 for it, I also could not find it.

I even had the inkling to contact descendants of Mr. Cowles to see if by chance his notes had survived in any capacity. I found that he died in prison in Detroit in 1941, but I don't know why he was sent to prison. Besides the McAlester News-Capital, he had worked for the Detroit Free Press before coming to Oklahoma and working for various newspapers. By 1940, he is enumerated in the Census for that year in prison; I am certain it is the same person because he gives his 1935 residence as "McAlister, OK". Genealogy websites indicate he did have 4 children, but I have not yet reached a descendant to find out if notes that might contain the second half of his interview with John Lafayette Vaughan might be around. It's a ridiculously long shot, but I want to leave no stone unturned.

But given the unlikelihood that the second half will be found, I am forced to be happy with the parts I do have. And believe me, I am thrilled about finally having his full interview after around 20 years of wishing for it. It gives explicit details about his connections to Belle Starr, her husband Sam, her daughter Pearl, her father-in-law Tom, and others and confirms a lot of the family legends about his connection to the Starr family. For a full biography of his very interesting life with over a dozen pictures of him, please see my recently updated blog post here: http://thesaltofamerica.blogspot.com/2012/08/john-lafayette-vaughan-belle-starr.html

Without further ado, here is my transcription of Vaughan's interviews. You'll note that the original article does not actually include his name as the source of the information, but a correction was published the next day proving he was indeed the interview's orator. I have made a handful of corrections/amendments for spelling and clarity which are indicated by brackets.

John Lafayette Vaughan as a young man in his late teens or early 20s, around the age he would have been during the events his discusses in this interview. 

McAlester News-Capital – 4 Jun 1933 – Page 8

County Pioneer Tells Interesting Story of Contacts with Territorial Days’ Outlaws

[Author not stated; should be Charles H. Cowles]

The worst desperado, the greatest man-killer that ever roamed the wilds of Oklahoma, was a giant, seven feet three inches in height, weighing 270 pounds and wearing No. 16 shoes. He could not buy shoes in the stores—had to have them made to order. This blood-thirsty fiend was Tom Starr. He never stole a horse or robbed a bank or [train]. He was a gambler and a very successful one. His home was the [Briartown] settlement where the town of Porum now stands.

“I lived on the place of Martin Crowder, an aged Indian, 40 miles northwest of McAlester on the Canadian river five miles from Tom Starr’s home, and this aged man became very friendly with me and told me what Tom Starr had imparted to him.

Tom Starr. Courtesy of The James Scrolls blog. 

Old Tom told him he had never killed many Choctaws, only 50, but he had killed an enormous number of Creeks, Seminoles, and other wild tribesmen. He said he never kept count of the number but that he had of the Choctaws.

I think Tom must have been born in the early ‘40’s [Note: Actually born about 1813] as he had a house full of grown boys when I first saw him.

He told my old friend, Martin Crowder, that he had been able to avoid suspicion through his ability to walk fast. He said he would go out early at night and kill someone that he did not like. Authorities would search the country for 40 miles around but by morning he was 75 or 80 miles away. He was half white and half Cherokee. I don’t know what white race he sprang from but I would venture to say he was Irish because of his great endurance. He could walk faster than a horse and was long-winded.

Tom Starr had quite a lot of land, and fine land, too. His son, Sam Starr, was the husband of the famous bandit queen, Belle Starr. His other sons were Frost, Tom, Tuxie, and Charley. Tom Stair, when I knew him, said he had never known but one honest white man. He said that man would gather corn and put it in three piles in the field and then call him and say, take your pile. He declared that was an honest man.

One time, Tom was in the heavy bottoms, playing cards, when his horse snorted. He told the 10 or 15 men with whom he was playing that the enemy was getting close and he was getting out. They made fun of him and he said: ‘All right, boys, I am going, and you can stay if you want to.’ He straddled his horse and let the steed choose the direction to go. He hadn’t gone 200 yards before officers, who were advancing, opened fire and they killed every last man except Tom Starr, who escaped.

Tom and another man became hungry one day and went to a house and asked for something to eat. Refused, Tom told his partner to watch the woman, who was alone with a baby, while he went to the kitchen. When he returned, he killed his partner, the woman, and the baby and left all the bodies on the porch. He told Martin Crowder he didn’t know what the people would think when they came home and found them all dead on the porch.

The name of Tom’s wife was Lucy. One time he was coming home and he crossed the farm of Bill Gibbens who was at work. He said: ‘Bill, I am going to see Lucy and the children and don’t you tell I am here or I will kill you, as sure as you are a white man.’ ‘I would not tell on you for anything, Uncle Tom,’ was the reply. But Tom did not tryst him. He slipped around between [Bill] and his house and waited. Not long afterward, he heard Bill coming on a little gray pony, tippity tip, tippity tap, and he stepped out, saying: ‘You know what I told you.’ Bill declared he was not going to tell, saying he had broken a singletree and was going for repairs. ‘You know what I told you,’ said Tom, and he made him get off the pony. He shot him and rolled his body off a bluff. Then he shot the pony and rolled it off the bluff, too.

For some time, Tom Starr was on the warpath, the objects of his hatred being the Cherokees. At the start, he would take a few men with him. He took a notion to kill the chief of the Cherokees. The chief was afraid of him and he took a guard of 50 men whenever he went to court. Tom Starr took his brother, Jim Starr, and a little fullblood, whose name I have forgotten, and slipped up on the court house. The little fullblood went to the door and the other two went around to a window and shot and killed the chief. The guards rushed out and began firing on the two brothers. There was a patch of two or three acres between the court house and the brush where they had hid their horses. They walked backwards, fighting all the time, towards the brush. Tom had a big shotgun and he had put a handful of blue whistlers in each barrel. One shot killed six guards. The guards poured the lead around them so that Jim Starr proposed they run and then declared he was going to run by himself. Tom told him he was saving a shot for him if he did run. They fought all the way and got to their horses and fled to safety.

The Cherokees waylaid Tom later on and fired into him, killing his horse. The animal fell on his leg, spraining Tom’s ankle. He managed to get from under. He could no run, so he crawled. Picking up a stone that weighed two or three pounds, he hurled it into the bushes with terrific power. The Indians thought it was Tom running, and went in that direction while Tom crawled farther away. Then he threw another rock or two to carry them on in another direction while he made his escape. The Indians offered to make a treaty with him but he would not quit, saying he would not trust them, but he said he would observe a treaty if it was signed by authorities of the United States government. The treaty was made and he settled down and lived peaceably.

One time after all this happened, I remember Jeff Serrett, an Indian officer in federal uniform, went to arrest Tom Starr. He told him it would be an impossibility to effect an arrest, saying he never had been arrested, and he never would be. He finally told him he would ride with him to the place where he was wanted but he would never consider himself under arrest.

When Uncle Tom was about to die, his boys gathered around his bed and he covered his face with his hands and said he did not want his boys to see him die; that he did not want them to think that a man as brave as he was had to die. I am satisfied that he was the greatest man killer Oklahoma ever had.

Belle Starr. Courtesy of Wikipedia. 

Belle Starr was born at Carthage, Mo., the daughter of a man named Shirley, a hotel man. She started out on her bandit career because federal army officers killed her twin brother, Ed Shirley. I always thought she named her son, Ed, in honor of her twin brother. She married a man named Reed, not Jim Reed, who is often referred to as her husband. Her husband was killed in Texas. Belle lay out in the woods with the body all night, and afterwards drifted to the Starr settlement and to the home of Tom Starr. After she and Sam Starr were married, they removed across the South Canadian river to Younger Bend. The only children Belle ever had were Ed Reed and Pearl Reed. At her death she did not look to be over 35. She was older than she looked. I lived there on the Crowder place and I heard the shot that killed Sam Starr. I was within a mile of the spot where he met death.

Frank West, who killed him, was a Cherokee officer. The Wests and the Starrs did not get along well together. The Wests were officers. They had a dance at Aunt Lucy Sterrett’s house, on Macharr creek, a mile west of Whitefield. [Note: John’s younger brother Stephen, who died in 1885, is buried at Whitefield.] West was living in the Briar settlement. Frank fixed up to go to the dance and his wife, a fine-looking, bright, yellow-haired Cherokee woman, said: ‘Don’t go, Frank. You know there is liable to be some shooting.’ Frank replied: ‘You don’t need to worry about me. I can shoot as fast as any man.’ He went on to the dance. There was a big fire out in the yard. Frank was standing near the fire and Sam Starr walked up, saying, ‘Frank, what did you shoot my horse for?’ At the same instant, he cut West’s [jugular] vein with a bullet. Before a person could blink an eye, West shot Sam Starr in the breast with a .45. As Frank West was falling, he saw Daniel Fulsom, a 14-year old Indian boy, running and, mistaking him for Sam Starr, put a bullet through his head. The bullet penetrated his jaw, coming out on the left cheek. Dan had been my playmate at times and I went to see him. He suffered terribly but he recovered and for four years was the best sheriff Haskell County ever had.

Sam Starr on left, John Lafayette Vaughan on right. Courtesy of Jerry White.

Frank West and Sam Starr were carried into the house and laid down together. There was a little jackleg doctor there; I forget his name. Frank West said to the doctor: ‘I am killed and Sam Starr done it.’ The doctor replied: ‘Well, Frank, you killed Sam.’ ‘How do you know?’ Frank asked. ‘He is dying now,’ said the doctor. ‘Oh, that’s all right then,’ said Frank, and he died peacefully.

Belle Starr, after this, fell in with another long-haired Cherokee Indian whose real name was Bill July but he called himself John Starr. I lived close by where they were living. Belle was a fine looking woman. There were no charges against her in the courts at that time. I went to her place lots of times and carried her and her daughter, Pearl, to dance. I carried Pearl to a good many. At one time, Belle made a contract with a man on my side of the river to come over there and clear some land and live on her place. They had some differences. Belle had such a bad name and Young Bend was a place to be shunned, so hardly anyone dared go in there. They asked for someone to go in and see her and try to effect a compromise. They wanted me to go and I said I would not care to go in by myself in a case like that but if Lige Fain would go with me, I would undertake it. Fain and I went and fixed u the trouble without any difficulty. Belle invited us to come back and go with her New Year’s night to Briartown and take in the Cherokee dance. That suited me all right, I did not want any trouble but was out just for fun. My partner, Fain, had a wife and could not go. I ran my saddle across the river in a skiff and walked about two miles up to Belle’s. Pearl and I caught a couple of horses and put them in a corral. When we went to get them, it was pretty dark—only starlight, and the horses were shy. John Starr (Bill July) roped five head and never missed a throw. Although it was night, he never failed to catch each one by the left front foot. Some roping, I say. Five of us—Lula Cobb, John Starr, Belle Starr, Charles Acton, and I—went to the dance. Pearl did not go.

Pearl Starr. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

When we were riding seven miles through the mountains, Belle said to me, knowing I was young and unsophisticated: ‘No man ever rides this trail but once.’ I think she just wanted to scare me. I replied, ‘Well, this trail doesn’t look very bad to me.’ It was fashionable then for everybody to wear a gun that wanted to. There was no law against it. A gun was nice and handy. There was lots of game. I liked to carry one. Belle said: ‘Let’s slip up on the porch, knock the door open and all go in at one time.’ We did. They looked pretty wild and shy when they saw who was in the party. I took the girl I had carried there and John Starr took Belle out on the floor and want to dancing. Later, when Belle was dancing with Ike Reynolds, a brown curly-headed fellow with a six-shooter, my partner and I walked out and the floor was full. Belle said to me: ‘Fate, you take this fellow’s place.’ My name is Lafayette and she called me Fate. I was afraid that would stir up trouble. I did not approve of it but they gave back and gave us the floor. The man that Belle pushed back, however, sat in the corner and kept growling, saying something about it might be all right one time, etc. I was told he had killed seven men. Belle dashed up to him and gave him a round of good cussing and said she did not mean to take his place—that he could dance with us. I looked for a shooting every minute but I had some with her and I had to stand hitched. John Starr presented himself with a fun mighty quick and it sure looked dangerous.

Belle Starr. Courtesy of Biography.com.

Someone stole give red double blankets, that cost $5 apiece, from our saddles. Charles Acton started a search and found them 200 yards from the house in a crack in the fence, brought them back and put them under our saddles. When we started home the second time, they were gone again and we had to ride without them. John Starr took a six-shooter and went in the house and told them he knew who stole the blankets and cussed around. They said if they ever did catch one of us to ourselves they’d sure wait on us. Belle told me like this: ‘I have quit all my meanness and I don’t intend to do any more dirt if I am left alone, but the old lion is still there, asleep.’ Things went on very peacefully, until Edgar Watson came into the picture. He was an out-law and his wife told the wife of Jack Roe, who lived two miles from Belle’s house, that he had killed seven men with the gun he had then. She said he would go and plot and leave the team in the field and kill someone he was mad at and return to his plowing, with never a suspicion.

Some horses were stolen somewhere by Edgar Watson, John Starr and Belle’s son, Edgar Reed. Officers crowded them and [John] Starr held them back with a large rifle while Edgar Watson and Ed Reed pushed the horses on. They got separated and Ed Reed wrote a letter to Watson. Jack Roe got the letter and Watson, being on his place, he carried it to the house and put it in a crack on the porch. Belle Starr came along, recognized the handwriting as that of her son and took the letter to the fire and opened it with a pencil, read it and sealed it and put it back. She said she did not want her boy stealing horses and that she was going to prosecute Watson for getting her boy into it. Jack Roe told Edgar Watson what Belle said and he exclaimed with an oath: ‘I’ll kill her!’

The afternoon she was killed, February 3, 1890, the folks where I lived heard the shot. I was in Brooken, eight miles away. She was killed about 2 o’clock. When I reached home, I heard about it, grabbed a bit to eat and got to the scene just after the crowd there had lifted her body into a wagon. It was getting dark. Pearl, her daughter, and Mr. and Mrs. Newt Pearson, neighbors, had stayed with the body all afternoon. They were just ready to drive away when I arrived. I saw her body washed and laid out. She had fallen into a mudhole when she was shot. She had as beautiful a smile as I ever saw her wear when she was alive. She looked natural as life. I was staying with Turner G. England at the time and he and Jack Roe followed the tracks from where she was killed to the fence, as I did afterward.

Belle sitting side-saddle on her horse. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Belle’s horse was hitched to Roe’s fence a short time before the murder and Roe’s folks saw Edgar Watson ride up close enough to see the horse and recognize it. Then he wheeled about and went back toward his farm. Everyone in that country heard the report of the fun. They said it was the most alarming gun ever heard in that bottom. He had a double-barreled muzzle loading shotgun. The road there comes up through the timber from the bottom. There was brush along the fence for quite a ways and there was an open place in the rail fence. Where the brush stopped there was a small walnut tree on the inside of the fence. That is where Watson hid. He let her pass him and then fired on her. I could see the place where she was shot as the horse stove his feet into the ground there. Three buckshot ranged from her shoulder to her heart. She stuck to the horse about 30 or 40 feet. Then there were the tracks. I could see where he had jumped the fence. She rode sideways all the time. I never saw her without a nice dress. She fell on her right shoulder and arm. There were the tracks where he ran up and shot her in the side of the face with a load of fine shot. She was not dead then, for she had raised her hand to protect her face. He shot the ring from her left ear and we never could find it.

We sat up with the body that night. In the morning, when it was good and light, I looked over the ground. There was shotgun paper all over the tracks of the horse where they stove in.

Bill July, Belle’s husband, was in Fort Smith that night and we sent to Eufaula and telegraphed. The Fort Smith elevator people said he left Fort Smith at daybreak, crossing Poteau river on a little brown horse, and had a quart of whiskey, headed for Younger Bend and swearing vengeance. I was there at his place and at 2 o’clock he rode up on a lope. He had covered the distance, at least 78 miles, between dawn and 2 p.m., and the horse didn’t weigh over 850 pounds. This was a wonderful horse. It belonged to Morris Craft and he got it from Mark [Kuykendall].

Judge Isaac Parker. Courtesy of https://sites.rootsweb.com/~oktttp/IT/history/parker/index.html

Belle’s mother came from Texas. She was a fine, intelligent appearing woman. Another man and I dug the grave, three feet, and then others came and helped finish it. She was buried in a nice wooden coffin and a walnut box to set it in. The lumber was taken from the house in which I lived. Edgar Watson had the nerve to attend the funeral and help throw dirt on the coffin. He went in the house and came out with a coat and I thought he had an ashen color to his face. I saw the arrest of Edgar Watson after the funeral. I thought they were going to shoot him. Judge Parker asked T. G. England why he didn’t track Edgar Watson to his house and his reply was a question: ‘If you tracked a lion to his den, would you go in on him?’ His opinion was that Watson was a dangerous man and he did not care to risk his life.

Cole Younger. Courtesy of True West Magazine.

Judge Parker telegraphed Cole Younger, who was serving time in the Minnesota penitentiary, and he declared she wasn’t his wife and that he had never been married. He said he might have seen Belle Starr but had no recollection of it. He was sure that he would have known of it if she had married his brother, Bruce Younger.”

(To Be Continued)

McAlester News-Capital – 5 Jun 1933 – Page 6

Name Omitted By Error

The pioneer, who was quoted in the News-Capital Sunday in regard to Tom Starr, the giant outlaw of half a century ago, and his daughter-in-law, the famous bandit queen, Belle Starr, is J. L. Vaughan of Ulan, who has lived in these parts 52 years. His name was inadvertently omitted.

John Lafayette Vaughan in his middle age.

John Lafayette Vaughan in the late 30s or early 40s. 

McAlester News-Capital – 15 Jun 1933 – Page 6

Today and Yesterday

By C. H. C. [Charles H. Cowles]

“Here you are, now make the best of it.” This is the way J. L. Vaughan of Ulan says he was turned loose in Indian Territory in 1881 at the age of 15. “I could be a good boy. I could steal. I could kill. I had no school; no education. Instead of trying to study mathematics and penmanship, I studied horsemanship and gunmanship. But I always managed to keep the good will of the good people. I was born in National park in the Ozark Mountains July 19, 1866. My father was a soldier four years in the Union army and my uncle, Capt. [Napier], also. After the Civil War, my uncle was killed from the brush by a mob while he was sheriff. My father was dead. I was brought here by my widowed mother and older brothers. I rode horseback quite a bit and I practiced shooting and got to be pretty good at it. I have killed many a deer, turkey, and squirrel with a six-shooter.

-----*-----

One time, when I was riding around in this thinly settled country, I came onto a dead Indian on the edge of a prairie. My horse was afraid and I was proud that I had a steed that could make fast time in going away from there. When I hit the Big San Bois bottoms at the north end of Cougar Mountain, near where Blaine is now, I heard the most terrible moaning and groaning any man ever listened to. It came from under some heavy underbrush and some large trees. That made me saddle a little faster. After I crossed the creek, I ran onto about 10 armed me, huddled together in the road. I did not know if they were going to do to me what they had done to the others or not. But I gamed up and rode right up to them and spoke as I passed. Some of them just grunted as I went by. A day or so later I heard they had killed a lot of horse thieves in there that day. I was told they killed 10 about two miles from Hoyt.

-----*-----

The Indians didn’t think they could have a good ball game without killing someone. I didn’t go to these games on that account. Just previous to one game, Sheriff Lucas had given his deputy a bat in the head during some trouble. It was a day or two before the game. He was still sore. He walked up to the sheriff and severed his jugular vein with a piece of hot lead. Sheriff Lucas leaped on his horse and the deputy jumped on his to follow the sheriff. But a half Choctaw and half negro shot the deputy off his horse with a Winchester. The half-breed jumped on a horse to leave when the son of the deputy, Nicholas Willards, picked up a gun and shot him down.

-----*-----

Near where Stigler now stands, there was a nine mile stretch in the ‘80’s on which a man named Sweden lived in the only house. Sweden claimed to be a deputy United States marshal. A man by the name of Willard married his niece and they were living here with Sweden and his wife. One day Willard and Sweden’s niece got into a quarrel. Mrs. Sweden went to the field saying she would send her husband, Louis, to settle the trouble. Willard procured Sweden’s rifle. Sweden was a powerful man and Willard knew he would be nothing in his hands. Sweden rushed into the yard. Willard stepped to the door and shot him through, just below the arms. I saw his body. Willard started to the friend where John Sweden, a son, was working, and gave him a chase. He shot at him but the young man got away. Then Willard hunted the woman. She knew what would happen and ran. He fired on her, shooting her through the back, the bullet coming out at the left breast. I saw the bodies of these people.

-----*-----

Jim Reed. Courtesy of Wikipedia. 

I remember well the outlaw, Jim Reed. He was not Belle Starr’s husband although many say he was. They just get confused. He was a fine marksman. He could hit a man’s hand with a six-shooter at 100 yards. He was always keeping a lookout for U. S. Marshal [Bass] Reeves. One day Jim Reed came to the Canadian Rive at Whitefield with a man named Spooney. He told Spooney he would not go to the store as there might be some laws there. Spooney heard a shot and looked back and saw Reed throw up his hands. Then he heard another shotgun crack and Reed crumpled to the ground. I saw him after he was killed. It was supposed Sam Starr shot him with a shotgun. At one time, [Bass] Reeves killed a cook and Judge Parker let him go on account of his great usefulness as a marshal. Reeves promised the judge he would go anywhere he wanted papers served. A story is told about Reeves and a posse being after a terrible man who was roaming among the Indians. These marshals gathered up posses and arrested bad characters and hauled them to Fort Smith. In this instance, [Bass] Reeves sneaked around after this awful bad fellow, suspecting he was asleep. And he was. He handcuffed him without firing a gun.

-----*-----

Bass Reeves. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

A couple Seminole Indians took [Bass] Reeves as a prisoner. They did not relieve him of his guns. They started to take him to a heavy bottom trail. [Bass] thought, ‘Now is the time.’ There was a big Indian ahead and a small one behind. [Bass] thought that was the last chance. He whipped out his six-shooter and shot the Indian behind and, in a split second, threw it on the Indian ahead and he went down. On one occasion, [Bass] Reeves, Tine Hughes, and Charles Barnhill and others, all United States officers, went out for a very bad Creek Indian. He killed everyone who attempted to arrest him. They established a camp close to his place. [Bass] told them he was going to [indecipherable] man and they all told him he would be shot. He unbuckled his six-shooter and laid it down and they were all saying: ‘Yes, we know what you’ll get.’ [Bass] went to the Indian’s house and called him out and looked into a double-barreled shotgun. ‘You would not shoot a man without arms, said [Bass], in his nicest way. ‘I am not after you. I want you to help me. I am after a man on your place.’ [Bass] kept getting closer despite warnings to keep back. All the time looking through his writs, he kept edging up. ‘Don’t come any closer’ was a warning which the Indian kept repeating. But [Bass] got up close just the same and he made a leap under the fun and caught the Indian. They scuffled for some time and [Bass] said afterward that he began to think he would be out-muscled and outwinded, but he finally overpowered him and handcuffed him and led him to his astonished officer.”

-----*-----

Mrs. [Vaughan] says she was happier in those old days than she is now. Although most everyone carried guns, they would hang them up like they do their hats nowadays. She is afraid of the automobiles today and says there is more drunkenness than there was then. She cannot forget the kindly spirit with which neighbors treated each other in the old days. They would pitch in and help those who suffered from storm or sickness and she spoke of what they called “log rollings” when the women would prepare a meal for the workers.

-----*-----

John and Florence Vaughan in the 1930s. 

Cowles’s interviews with the Vaughans end here. He does make an additional note on Jim Reed, stating that “he was not killed in Texas, as has been stated, but was drowned in the Poteau river at Page’s ferry, six miles east of Spiro in 1883, according to Dr. G. L. Hartshorne.

According to modern sources online, Reed was supposedly killed in Texas by a member of his own gang, but in 1874. John would have only been 8 years old and living in Arkansas in 1874. So either John was telling a tall tale or confusing individuals. Since Belle and Sam Starr apparently never legally married, it is plausible but unlikely that if Reed was killed a few years later than believed (but still earlier than Hartshorne’s report stating 1883), John could have been around for some of these events.

It’s more likely that John was stretching the truth or perhaps confusing Reed with another of Belle Starr’s lovers before she paired with Sam Starr; that list is said to include Cole Younger, who steadfastly denied this claim.

I really wish the second half of John's interview about Belle Starr, Judge Parker, and Edgar Watson had been published, but for whatever reason it never was. Still, having this biographical information on John in his own words is nothing short of incredible. I also think is insight into some of these events should be helpful to historians of early Oklahoma and its outlaws, especially Belle Starr. 

Hillary Clements, My Cousin Whose Murder Almost Reignited the Chicago Gang Wars

Nothing against my family--obviously, since I have dedicated my whole blog and most of my spare time to researching and recordings its history--but our people, by and large, are not the most exciting bunch. Mostly quiet farmers who did not make a lot of waves or play roles in historical events (unless you count the hundreds of uncles and cousins of mine that served in the American Civil War, and to an extent I do) with occasional exceptions.

But after a phone call with a cousin a few months ago, a cousin with an exciting backstory was brought to my attention. It was the kind of story that sounded like something from a movie to a weird, Oklahoma-born guy born to a quiet, unassuming family: our cousin was a gangster in Chicago, and was murdered in the gang wars there in the 1920s. Not only was it unusual for my family to have ties to Chicago (I have an uncle who moved there late in life with his son but other than that, historically my family has had little to do with that region of the country) but even more unusual for us to have ties to organized crime, murder, and, well, excitement in general.

It sounded like the kind of story that was exaggerated or blown out of proportion. I got what information my cousin knew and thought I'd look into verifying it when I got some time. Luckily, when I finally did, I found that she did NOT exaggerate in any way. If anything, she downplayed the event compared to what I ended up finding. So now I'm going to share my findings for anyone interested in the story I found to be incredibly fascinating. Maybe other families are used to this sort of excitement in their histories--but mine certainly is not, so when I find something like this I feel like I need to share it to say "Look, sometimes my family does something really cool!" (Again, no offense to my ancestors.)

My 4th great grandparents are George Clements and Ann Hamilton; they died in the 1870s in Washington County, Kentucky, an area where they spent their whole lives. I descend from their son Dr. William Hamilton Clements (check out the biography I wrote for him on his Find A Grave memorial here: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/169752069/william-hamilton-clements), but this cousin is on the branch of his brother Leonard Franklin "Frank" Clements. William and Frank were apparently close siblings as they moved together from their home in Washington County to Ralls County, Missouri in the 1850s. William eventually returned to Kentucky several years before Frank, but the two families were likely quite close with one another.

Leonard Franklin Clements and his third wife, Nancy Hill

Frank's oldest son was born in Ralls County, Missouri in 1856, and his name was George Hilary Clements. He returned to Washington County with his parents and continued living with them into the 1880s. At some point before 1891, he made his way to Chicago, where he married his first wife, Katie McGuire. Four years later he remarried to Julia Kehoe, and together they had five known children. Their two eldest sons were John Leonard and George Hilary Jr.

Leonard Franklin Clements, his wife Nancy, and all but one of his children, with a grandson directly behind him.

The children of Leonard Franklin Clements

The sons of Leonard Franklin Clements

George Sr. was a livestock broker, so not a terribly exciting career, but it appears he took care of his family as well he could. They were a staunchly Catholic family, but one way or another, growing up in Chicago led his son into gang life. In 1920, George Jr., who went by his middle name Hilary (sometimes spelled Hillary or a number of deviations) was listed as a printer, and John, who went by his middle name Leonard, was married by this time and following in his father's footsteps as a livestock broker.

We have no information on how they got mixed into this lifestyle. One possibly interesting clue is the presence of a boarder named John Anderson in the family's 1920 household. His profession is listed as a mail order bookkeeper, which seems innocuous enough. We don't know who he is, but it is interesting that in the 1930 Census, a man of the same name, age, and birthplace is listed as an inmate in Sing Sing State Prison in New York. We have no way of knowing if it is the same man, and if it is, why he was imprisoned, but it seems like a noteworthy footnote. Perhaps Anderson was an associate of the two brothers if they were all mixed into gang life by this time.

George Sr. died in 1921. This would mean these brothers and their other siblings would likely need to support their mother. Perhaps work as a printer was not lucrative enough for Hilary, because by the mid-1920s he ended up in the Ralph Sheldon gang in the middle of prohibition-era Chicago.

I am not a historian on the Chicago Beer Wars, so for further background on these events, I would point you to these articles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_National_Crime_Syndicate and https://www.thedailybeast.com/fighting-al-capones-beer-wars. From the above Wikipedia article:

"In Chicago the gang war between the Italian, South Side Gang of Johnny Torrio and Al Capone and the Irish, North Side Gang of Dean O'Banion and George "Bugs" Moran had become legendary by the mid-1920s. These two powerful gangs fought for control of the criminal rackets and Prohibition era operations in Chicago and its surrounding areas, in what the media called "The Beer Wars". These two dominant gangs influenced other, smaller criminal groups in the Chicago underworld who lined up behind one of the two gangs in the war. The two gangs and their allies had been taking shots at each other since 1920, but the war officially started with the November 10, 1924 assassination of Irish, Northside boss Dean O'Banion in his Northside flower shop. The war brought added law enforcement and media attention, but public outrage came to a head when Italian, Southside boss Alphonse "Al Scarface" Capone finally wiped out part of the North Side Gang with the St. Valentine's Day Massacre on February 14, 1929."

Johnny Torio, courtesy of Wikipedia. 

Hilary's allegiance to the Sheldon gang fell under the umbrella of the South Side Italian gangs run by Johnny Torrio and Al Capone. The biggest rival of the Sheldon gang was the Saltis-McErlane gang. This is interesting since later, Leonard claims that Hilary was a close friend of Frank McErlane.

In 2009, Allan May of Crime Magazine wrote an extensive piece on the Beer War and the involvement of parties closely associated with my cousin Hilary; it is so well-written, I would rather share the most relevant portions of his exciting story rather than trying to summarize and risk leaving out important details and not doing it justice. From http://www.crimemagazine.com/frank-mcerlane-and-chicago-beer-wars:

The O'Donnells' first forays were into the speakeasies controlled by Saltis-McErlane and those of the Ralph Sheldon gang, whose territories abutted each other. Although the members of these neighboring gangs despised each other, they were soon united in a common cause to repel the efforts of the South Side O'Donnell brothers.

On Sept. 7, 1923, the Beer War began. Early that evening Steven, Tommy, and Walter O'Donnell, along with gang toughs George Bucher, George Meeghan, and Jerry O'Connor, invaded the saloon of Jacob Geis, a Saltis-McErlane customer. A few days before, Geis had refused to purchase beer from an O'Donnell representative. On this rainy Friday night, the O'Donnell hoods returned to the saloon. In front of six customers, they argued with Geis about purchasing his beer from them. Geis would not give in. Finally, gang members pulled him over the bar by his head and beat him unmercifully with a blackjack, or revolvers, depending on the story. Whatever they beat Geis with they fractured his skull, injuring him to the extent that when he arrived at German Deaconess Hospital, doctors were quite sure he would die. The tough saloonkeeper pulled through. Also beaten and hospitalized that night was bartender Nicholas Gorysko, who attempted to come to Geis' aid during the attack.

...

Spike and his brothers backed down, for the moment, and the Beer War of 1923 came to a close. Hostilities between the allied Saltis-McErlane / Ralph Sheldon gang and the South Side O'Donnells, would lay dormant for a year. This didn't mean that the vicious McErlane went into hibernation. With things quiet on the South Side of Chicago, McErlane was next heard from in Los Angeles on Nov. 28, where he was involved in a "hi-jacking" foray. In addition, he was held there for a time for his involvement in a shooting and an assault.

...

By the spring of 1925, Spike O'Donnell had added re-enforcements to his gang and was ready for another round of mayhem. There would now be a three-way battle going on as the fragile peace that existed between Saltis – McErlane and the Sheldon gang suddenly went sour and turned into open warfare. Most of the hostilities were carried out by the Saltis – McErlane forces against members of the Sheldon gang. In the summer of 1925, the Saltis-McErlane forces first murdered George "Big Bates" Karl and then William Dickman. In September, an attempt was made to eliminate Spike O'Donnell. Eight days later, on Oct. 4, the Ragen Colts Club House – Sheldon's headquarters – was shot up and one "hanger-on" was killed. This was followed nine days later by the murder of Sheldon associate Ed Lattyak. In each of these incidents McErlane was a prime suspect.

...

The year 1926 got off to a slow start. The first South Side beer war shooting didn't occur until Feb. 10 when Sheldon associates "Mitters" Foley and William Wilson were wounded.

The next incident was a double murder that took place on April 15. John Tuccello, a 36-year old father of three, and Frank DeLaurentis, a cousin of "Diamond Joe" Esposito, were alleged to be ex-employees of the decimated Genna brother's gang and had recently hooked up with Ralph Sheldon. Apparently the two attempted to supply beer to saloons in the Saltis – McErlane territory and paid the price. On the Saturday night they were killed, they delivered a barrel of beer to a saloon on Fifty-first Street. There they were followed through the back door by four men who ordered them out at gunpoint.

The two were then taken to a secluded location where they were beaten and shot execution style before being loaded into the backseat of a car. The killers threw a blanket over their bodies, drew the window curtains, and drove the car to West Sixty-fifth Street and Rockwell. There they left the automobile parked outside the home of Ralph Sheldon as a warning to stay out of the Saltis – McErlane territory.

Six days after the discovery of the two bodies, a Chicago police squad led by Captain Stege raided a saloon on West Fiftieth Street. There they arrested McErlane, Saltis and, among others, Walter Stevens, "the dean of all Chicago's gunmen," according to the newspapers. The men were arraigned on federal Prohibition violations because Stege knew there wasn't enough evidence to connect them to the two murders. After McErlane's friends produced his $5,000 bail, Stege had a surprise for him. He served McErlane with a fugitive warrant for the murder of the Crown Point lawyer. McErlane was thrown back into the lockup to await extradition proceedings to remove him to Indiana, where John O'Reilly sat in Michigan City Prison ready to testify against him.

This effectively removed McErlane for the remainder of the South Side beer war. In July 1926, "Mitters" Foley of the Sheldon gang made two attempts to kill McErlane's brother Vincent. In one attack another Saltis gang member, Frank Conlon, was killed. Sheldon knew Saltis would strike back and he warned him to leave "Mitters" alone. Two days later, on Aug. 6, Saltis, Frank "Lefty Koncil, John "Dingbat" O'Berta, and Earl Herbert, killed "Mitters" Foley in an attack. Police captured and jailed the four killers within days; a trial date was scheduled for October.

Saltis, who had a working relationship with Capone, was secretly dealing with North Side gang leader Earl "Hymie" Weiss. Capone uncovered this new relationship as early as Sept. 15, 1926 when Vincent McErlane was arrested in connection with a train robbery with North Sider Peter Gusenberg, a future victim of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

When the October trial of Saltis and Koncil got underway, Weiss, who had recently turned down a peace overture from Capone, sat in attendance. On Oct. 11, the 12th juror was selected and the trial was set to begin the following day. Weiss was returning to his headquarters when he was gunned down in spectacular fashion in front of the Holy Name Cathedral on North State Street. There had been rumors that Weiss was trying to fix the jury for $100,000. When police searched his body they found a listing of all the potential jurors in his pocket.

Weiss's death put Saltis in a precarious position, as he knew that Capone had discovered his treachery. He moved quickly to safeguard himself. It was through this effort that the Hotel Sherman meeting was arranged on Oct. 20. Here key gang leaders, or their representatives, met to hear a peace plan to stop the senseless slaughter that was going on throughout Cook County. Saltis and McErlane, who were still in jail, were represented by Maxie Eisen, a respected labor racketeer.

Ironically, Saltis, the man who sought the peace that the Hotel Sherman Treaty provided, was the first to break it. On Dec. 30, 1926 Saltis gunmen killed Hilary Clements, a member of Ralph Sheldon's gang. Sheldon took the matter to Capone for arbitration. The decision was made that two members of the Saltis gang were to be sacrificed to teach Saltis a lesson. On March 11, 1927, Frank "Lefty" Koncil, who along with Saltis had been found not guilty in the "Mitters" Foley murder the previous November, and Charles "Big Hayes" Hubacek were murdered.

McErlane was acquitted on Nov. 3, 1927 of the murder of Thaddeus Fancher. The key witness against him, Frank Cochran, had been murdered with an axe and the state's case fell apart."

John "Mitters" Foley. Courtesy of Pinterest.

And here is where our family's part of the story picks up. By the end of 1926, the two warring factions were in the midst of an uneasy truce from the violence that had plagued Chicago for so many years. Just before Christmas 1926, it was reported in the Chicago Tribune that Hilary had gone missing, and Leonard was afraid his brother had become another casualty of another onslaught despite that supposed peace between the gangs.

Chicago Tribune
20 Dec 1926, Page 3

BROTHER FEARS ALLY OF SHELDON HAS BEEN SLAIN

Hillary Clement [sic], known as "Heddy," erstwhile beer runner, companion of the late Mitters Foley and more recently an ally of Ralph Sheldon, has vanished. His brother John L. Clement [sic], said to an official of the Union Stock yards, last night told Lieut. Thomas Mangan at the detective burea he believed Hillary has been murdered. He said Hillary had been missing since last Wednesday when he left the headquarters of the Ragen colts in a taxicab.

"I reported Hillary missing to the police last Wednesday," Clement [sic] said. "So far I have heard nothing. I had recently succeeded in getting him to quit his evil companionship and got him a job at the stockyards."

Three days later, the family appears certain that the worst had befallen Hilary and began requesting the return of his remains from whomever might have them or know their whereabouts. There were fears that if Hilary was indeed murdered, and if he was murdered by a rival gang member, that it could reignite the violence between the two factions. As result, the plight of the Clements family began to make national news, with reports about Hilary's death and the family's subsequent request for his body being picked up by out-of-state newspapers.

Chicago Tribune
23 Dec 1926, Page 3

BEGS GANG TO BE FAIR AND GIVE UP BROTHER'S BODY

"You've Had Revenge," Plea of Broker.

An appeal to the sportsmanship of beer runners and gangsters was made last night by John L. Clements, live stock broker, who begged that the body of his brother, Hilary Clements, who he believes was "taken for a ride" on Dec. 16 by gangster rivals, be returned to his family by Christmas.

Hilary Clements, 28 years old, 8339 Thorp street, former partner of the late "Mitters" Foley, was last seen when he entered a taxicab last Thursday night following a party at South Halsted and West 51st streets.

Gave Up Beer Running.

According to the live stock broker, his brother gave up his outlawry following the murder of Foley last summer, and joined him in his live stock business. Fear had followed him, he said, and the missing man made it a habit to telephone his wife at regular intervals when he was away from home. He telephoned her last Thursday night just before he left the party, saying he would be home in a few minutes.

A week's search failed to disclose a trace of Clements. Last night John Clements appeared at the detective bureau and asked that his plea be broadcast to all gangsters in the city.

Makes Appeal for Mother.

"We are sure my brother is killed," he declared, "So the bootleggers have had their revenge. Now all we want is to know where we can find Hilary's body. My mother is worrying herself to death over the suspense, as is Hilary's wife, Margaret. Last week I met Joe Saltis on the south side and asked him for the body of my brother, but he snarled he had not killed him and if he had would never give up the body. If there are any sports among the gang that took my brother for a ride, let them please get word to us somehow."

Their request was not honored by Christmas like they wished, but a few days later, Hilary's remains were discovered. Again, reports of this discovery made national news both near and far from Chicago as people believed that plague of violence between rival gangs would be reignited by confirmation of Clements' murder.

Belvidere Daily Republican (Belvidere, Illinois)
30 Dec 1926, Page 9

Chicago, Dec. 31 - That the much-touted truce between rival Chicago gangsters was at an end appeared certain today with the finding of the body of Hillary Clements, aid of Ralph Shelton and the late John Foley, whose beer running activities are said to have stirred the wrath of the powerful Saltis-McErlane gang.

Saltis was recently tried and acquitted of the murder of John Foley. Clements, whose body was found by two little boys under a deserted cottage on the outskirts of town, was the first known victim of gang warfare since the machine-gun assassination of Hymie Weiss. Following Weiss' death, a truce was said to have been signed by rival leaders.

Saltis was being sought today by police. Although no direct evidence connects him with the crime, it was said, he was a known enemy of Clements, and police want to check on his movements since his release following his trial for the Foley murder.

Meanwhile authorities prepared to combat a renewal of the bloody regime that cost the lives of so many feudists prior to the signing of the alleged truce. They fear reprisals from the Clements-Foley faction.

Star-Gazette (Elmira, New York)
31 Dec 1926, Page 1

Renewal of Chicago Gang War Expected to Follow Murder

Chicago, Dec. 31 - AP - Belief that gangland's truce has come to an end was expressed today by police after the finding of the body of Hillary Clements, former beer runner, two weeks after members of his family had pleaded for gangsters to deliver up his body by Christmas time.

Frozen and with three bullets in the skull of the body was discovered by two boys seeking adventure in an abandoned house on the southside bringing true the premonition of John Clements that his brother had been murdered.

"This killing means reprisals," John Stege, Captain of Detectives, declared. "We're in for another era of wholesale killings."

John Clements had broadcast through the police this appeal to gangsters--"you've had your revenge--now tell us where the body is."

But the appeal went unanswered.

Doctors said Clements had been dead two weeks, just as his brother had said when, on behalf of an aged mother and a young bride on the verge of collapse, he asked that the body be delivered up for decent burial. His last appeal was on Christmas Eve and promised that any information would be held in strict confidence.

John told police that 26-year old Hillary had recently quit the illicit liquor traffic after long association with John Foley and that he feared the death that came to Foley, supposedly from rival gangster guns, several months ago. His brother, Clements said, also was a close friend of Frank McErlane, reputed gang chieftain awaiting trial in Indiana for murder.

Beyond the knowledge that Clements was last seen alive when he started for [home] in a taxicab Dec. 16 and the marks on the body found last night, detectives had little information on the slaying.

Frank McErlane, Courtesy of Organized Crime Encyclopedia [http://organizedcrimeencyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Frank_McErlane]

Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, Nebraska)
31 Dec 1926, Page 2

FIND BODY OF CLEMENTS [Sic]

Brother of Alleged Beer Runner Had Appealed to Gangsters to Give up Body

Chicago, Dec. 31 - (AP) - Further flareups of Chicago's gang warfare were anticipated here today following the finding of the body of Hillary Clements, alleged beer runner, here last night. Clements, a leading member of the gang faction, was found murdered under an untenanted cottage on the outskirts of Chicago. He has been dead about ten days police said. 

Clements was known as aide of "Mitters" Foley, who was murdered last summer. "Diamond Joe" Saltis, alleged rival of Foley, who was tried and acquitted on the change of having killed Foley, was being sought today for questioning in the Clements killing.

John Clements, brother of the murdered man, had visited police a week ago, saying he knew his brother had been murdered, and made an appeal for the slayers to "give up the body, so we can give it a decent burial", adding "You've had your revenge."

Chicago Tribune
31 Dec 1926, Page 1

Find Clements Murdered as Brother Said

BULLETIN.

Englewood police this morning sent out a message to all station to arrest Hughie McGovern, alias "Stubby", a south side beer runner, said to have been the last man seen with Hillary Clements before he was slain.

Premonition of John L. Clements that has brother, Hillary, who disappeared on Dec. 16, had been murdered came true last night with the finding of Hillary's body under a tumble down and deserted frame cottage at 336 West 60th Street.

Young Clements, former beer runner, had been beaten and shot thrice through the head. the body showed it had been dragged for a considerable distance by the feet. He had been dead at least ten days, for the body was frozen. 

Two boys at play around the abandoned old dwelling found the body in the shallow hole into which it had been tumbled face down. They quickly reported to the police, and an hour later, after the body had been moved to an undertaking establishment, John Clements, live stock broker of 7001 South Sangamon street, had identified it as that of his missing brother.

Vain Appeal to Gangsters.

Thus Hillary Clements, 28 years old, was found just as John Clements several times told the police he would be found--slain. So sure was the elder Clements of it that on Dec. 23 he went to the detective bureau and told how he had issued an appeal to the gangsters to return Hillary's body before Christmas so that the family might give him a decent burial and relieve their mother, Julia, of the strain of not knowing what had happened to her son.

"You've had your revenge, now tell us where the body is," was the substance of John Clements' plea. In it he told how their mother was worrying herself "to death with suspense," and how Hillary's young wife, Margaret, was ill too.

Friend of Mitters Foley.

John Clements, in his appeals to the police, told of his brother's history. He said Hillary formerly had been a close friend of Mitters Foley. Foley, a member of the Ralph Sheldon gang, was murdered last summer--a murder for which Joe Saltis, one of the heads of the Saltis-Frank McErlane combination, was tried. John Clements said that after the killing of Foley, Hillary had bee known as the best friend of Frank McErlane.

Quit Gangsters, Vanished.

After the murder of Foley, John Clements said, he had been able to win Hillary away from his old pursuits and his bad companions. He got him a good job at the stockyards, and it was there he was employed on the night he disappeared.

That night--Dec. 16--the elder Clements told police, Hillary had been to a party at Fifty-first and Halsted streets. John had been there, too. Hillary had got into a cab at the corner and told his brother he was going home to 8339 South Throop street. The cab, however, John learned later, had started north--and that was the last time any friend had seen Hillary alive.

"After we had got him away from the gangsters," John Clements said, "He always was afraid something would happen to him. His wife felt it also. He made a practice of calling her up at regular intervals when he was away from home."

"That night when he didn't come home, he had telephoned her and told her he would be there soon."

It has been the theory of John Clements all along that his brother was a victim of the old feud between the Ralph Sheldon outfit and the Saltis-McErlane combination.

How Police View Case.

The theory of the detectives was that Clements probably was taken for a ride because of his old time close affiliation with Mitters Foley, whom Joe Saltis was supposed to have shot, but of whose murder Saltis was acquitted.

Foley was credited with having shot and killed John Conlon, chauffeur for Frank McErlane, a minor figure in the Saltis-McErlane outfit. Conlon was shot by two men as he sat in a saloon at 6154 South Ashland avenue with Vincent McErlane, Frank's brother. Hillary Clements was suspected of sharing in the killing with Foley.

Hilary Clements. Chicago Tribune, 31 Dec 1926, Page 26.

House where Hilary's body was found. Chicago Tribune, 31 Dec 1926, Page 26.

Newspapers around the country continued to follow the case closely as police pursued suspects Joe Saltis and Hugh McGovern. All the while, tensions remained high that a retaliatory attack could occur and lead to more open warfare between the rival gangs, though some tried to quell those fears by reminding the public that the gangs would make more money if they left each other. Perhaps because Clements was no longer an active gang member his side did not feel it worthwhile to retaliate. Perhaps they also suspected that Hilary had been involved in the killing of John Conlon and/or Hymie Weiss (a witness came forward to identify him as one of Weiss's killers, though police doubted her), and felt that by letting Conlon's associates avenge that killing the sides would be even. It's hard to speculate exactly what their motivations were, but that didn't stop newspapers from pursuing these subjects as best they could.

Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio)
1 Jan 1927, Page 13

CHICAGO GANGS EXPECT QUIET TIME THIS YEAR

Police, However, Show Signs of Getting Upon Their Trail.

By Owen L. Scott

CHICAGO, Jan. 1--"Why keep on killing one another when there is more than enough business to go around without fighting over it?"

That bit of argument advanced by a prominent local beer baron at a meeting of gang chieftains just before the November elections seems to have borne fruit. Except for one or two minor killings such as that of Hillary Clements, murders among the principal bootleg outfits have been forgotten with no present indication that they will bob up again soon.

So that after losing nearly 150 men in past battles and through carefully planned murders, the gangs enter the new year hopeful of a quiet time.

The Morning News (Wilmington, Delaware)
1 Jan 1927, Page 2

SLAYER IDENTIFIED HIMSELF ON SLAB

Chicago Police Learn Who Was One of Machine Gunners Near Church

Victim of Renewed Bootlegging War Lately Renounced 'Beer Racket'

Chicago, Dec. 31-(AP) - One of the two machine-gunners who killed Hymie Weiss, gangster chieftain, last October 10, from a nest in a rooming house window beside the Holy Name Cathedral on North State street, was identified today as he lay dead in the county morgue, himself a victim of renewed bootleg warfare.

Mrs. Virginia Romain, [employee] of the rooming house from whose window came the raking fire which killed Weiss and wounded three companions, including Attorney W. W. O'Brian, identified the body of Hillary Clements, found last night with three bullet wounds in the head, as that of one of two men who occupied the room the day of the shooting.

Clements had lately renounced the "beer racket" and had gone to work in the stock yards. Discovery of his body followed his disappearance and a search of more than a week by his brother.

Not until this identification had police the slightest [clue] to the identity of the men who ended Weiss' reign as chief of a dominant bootleg gang. Lately they had abandoned their investigation when members of the liquor vending factions met and arranged a truce soon after Weiss' death. Until Clements' slaying there had been no gangster slaying for more than three months. 

Police said Clements, before he turned from the beer business, had been a close friend of "Mitters" Foley, for whose slaying "Pollack Joe" Saltis and "Lefty" Koncil were tried and acquitted.

Hymie Weiss, Courtesy of Wikipedia

Chicago Tribune
1 Jan 1927, Page 5

Brother Fails to Blame Gangs for Clements Killing

Something happened yesterday to cause John L. Clements to change his opinion that Joe Saltis or members of the Saltis-McErlane gang killed his brother, Hilary Clements, whose body was found Tuesday night.

It might have been just a hunt that he had better keep his opinion to himself, police said, or it might have been the identification of a woman who involved Hilary Clements in the murder of Hymie Weiss last fall. In either event, John Clements, as a witness at the inquest yesterday, said he knew of no enemies his brother had and he said he knew of no reason why his brother might have been killed.

Before Hilary Clements' body was found under a building at 336 West 60th street, John Clements had informed the detective bureau he believed his brother had been killed by the Saltis gang. 

Before the inquest, however, Mrs. M. Romain, 740 North State street, was brought to Kenny Brothers undertaking rooms, 5438 South Halsted street, and was shown the body of Clements.

"That's one of the men who rented a room from me," she said to Chief of Detectives William Schoemaker and Deputy Chief John Stege later.

The men to whom she rented the room were the ones who used it as an ambush. From the window of that room a machine gun poured bullets down into Hymie Weiss and Patrick Murray, who were killed, and into Attorney W. W. O'Brien, who was wounded.

O'Brien was engaged at the time in the defense of Joe Saltis, who was acquitted of the murder of Mitters Foley, a partner of Hillary Clements. Weiss was presumed to have been aiding O'Brien because he had in his possession a list of the jurors call in the Saltis trial and a list of the witnesses against Saltis.

"If Mrs. Romaine is correct in her identification, Weiss partly is avenged," Deputy Stege said. "But I believe she is mistaken. We never suspected Clements. He wasn't a killer."

Chief Schoemaker said he, too, believed Mrs. Romain was mistaken. He took the precaution, however, of sending other witnesses to view the body.

Capt. Michael Lee and Sergt. Richard Piper said they were seeking Hugh McGovern as a suspect in the Clements murder. They said McGovern, like Saltis, was defended by Attorney O'Brien on a murder charge and was acquitted. McGovern, they said, is a killer and he was known to have been with Clements on Dec. 16, the last night he was seen alive.

Hugh McGovern. Chicago Tribune, 1 Jan 1927, Page 26

Chicago Tribune
1 Jan 1927, Page 17

CLEMENTS--Hilary G. Clements, beloved husband of Margaret, nee Duffy, son of Julia, nee Kehoe, and late George Clements, brother of Leonard, Mrs. Eleanor Fenton, and Benedict, at 8339 Throop St. For information call Yards 0662.

In the days that followed, a few more interesting articles discussing Hilary were published. One reported that Joe Saltis, apparently wishing to further distance himself from the Clements murder and Chicago's gang violence in general, reportedly planned to leave Chicago for good days after the discovery of Hilary's body. There was also an interview with Hilary's wife, and even after Hugh McGovern was apprehended, police stated they had no evidence for the identity of Hilary's killer.

The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia)
2 Jan 1927, Page 6

Joe Saltis, Courtesy of Getty Images.

GANGSTER FREED, TO QUIT CHICAGO

Chicago, January 1.-(AP)-Big Joe Saltis has made his resolution for the New Year, and announced his intention of leaving Chicago, and the liquor gang warfare in which his name has long been prominent.

Recently tried for murder and acquitted, questioned by the police in connection with one after another gangster death, Saltis told reporters who located him that he had retired from the traffic and arranged his departure.

"I've been out of the racket for a year," he said. "I made enough money to get out, and I'm going to move to Wisconsin in the spring."

Saltis denied any knowledge of the slaying of Hilary Clements, young associate of "Mitters" Foley, rival clique leader, whose murder was charged to Saltis until his recent acquittal. Big Joe's name had been mentioned in connection with the death of Clements, whose body was found Thursday, two weeks after he disappeared.

The theory that Clements was one of the two machine gunners who laid in wait and killed Hymie Weiss and one of his henchmen in front of the Holy Name cathedral a short time ago was scouted by Saltis. Clements' body was identified yesterday by a woman as that of one of two men who rented a room for their machine gun nest.

Police held that Clements' death heralded the breaking of a reputed gang peace and an outbreak of warfare but Al Capone, Cicero gang chief, said he did not regard the killing as a signal for renewal of hostilities.

Al Capone, Courtesy of Wikipedia. 

Suburbanite Economist (Chicago, Illinois)
4 Jan 1927, Page 1

CLEMENTS NO BEER-RUNNER WIFE CLAIMS

Widow Says Foley's Friend Was Slain by Bandits; But Police Seek McGovern

"No, he had no connection with beer-runners or gangsters; he wasn't afraid; I'm sure he was the victim of a robbery."

Thus calmly, without a year, Mrs. Margaret Clements, 8339 Thorp st., reiterated her faith in her husband of two and one-half years, George Hilary Clements, 28 years old, whose body was found Friday afternoon in the basement of a deserted house at 336 W. 60th st. It was apparent that he had been shot to death several days before and the body had been hidden.

Since his disappearance on the morning of December 16, Clements' family and friends have waited anxiously, hoping for any word of his whereabouts. And police carried on a ceaseless search until the frozen body of the murdered man was found by two small boys playing about the old house.

While they will not, or can not, make a definite statement about the slain man's connection with the gangster difficulties in Southtown, police are hunting for Hugh "Stubby" McGovern, who is said to have been the last person who was seen with Clements on the morning of December 16, when he is believed to have been shot.

Calls Wife, Hires Cab

Early on that morning Clements and McGovern are supposed to have spent one-half hour in Nugent's restaurant, 5300 Union ave., according to police. When they left there at about 2:30 o'clock, they spoke of "going to the club," meaning, police say, the Ragen Colt's clubhouse, 5142 Halsted st.

After McGovern fell asleep there, Clements, so police were told, left the club and took a taxicab at 51st pl. and Halsted st. He was not seen alive again.

Mrs. Clements said that her husband call her about 3 o'clock on the morning of December 16 and said that he would be home in one-half hour. When he did not come the next day, she thought he had been called out of town suddenly on business, she said. But later, when the family became worried, police were notified.

Boys Discover Body

Henry Nicol, 5920 Princeton ave., 11 years old, and William Hoff, 333 W. 59th st., 12 years old, were playing about the old frame house at 336 W. 60th st. It had been condemned several years ago and continued to be unoccupied. In the rear, an opening about two feet square, had been left in the foundation to allow air to circulate through the shallow basement.

The boys found the body of a man, later identified as Clements, frozen, lying in the basement. The man had been shot through the head, evidently shortly after his disappearance. Burrs matter in his clothing and streaks of dirt indicated that the body had been dragged to the hiding-place from the scene of the murder. He was hatless and coatless.

Since Clements had been an associate of John "Mitters" Foley, murdered last summer by rival gangsters, and was last seen in the company of "Stubby" McGovern, police began working at once on the theory that this latest murder was closely interlocked with the beer war rivalries.

Blame Bandits, Not Beer

But his wife and his brother, John Clements, 7001 Sangamon st., are convinced that such was not the case.

"He had more than $100, a watch, and a diamond ring with him when he disappeared, and they cannot be found now. It looks very much like a robbery," Mrs. Clements declared.

"He was a friend of Foley's when he was connected with the Ice Cream Drivers' union. I don't know just what the connection was, but they were only friends. My husband never was mixed up with beer trouble."

"He had no enemies that I know of. He was a large man, and quick. I never knew him to be afraid of anyone. He often called me up, especially just before coming home, but not because he was afraid."

"From the time he disappeared I felt that he was dead," she continued, still in a quiet voice, but with tears in her eyes. "It's just been a hard year. My mother died just nine months ago, and now it's my husband gone."

Had Work at Stockyards

John Clements said that his brother had been working with him at the stockyards for several months. According to police, he denied that he believed gangsters had murdered his brother.

Sergeant Thomas Piped and Sergeant Joseph Feery of the Englewood police station are investigation the local angles of the murder, under the direction of Capt. Michael Lee. The inquest, held Friday afternoon, was continued until 2 o'clock on the afternoon of January 21 at the Englewood police station.

Peace has been reigning in Chicago's Beerdrom during the past few months since the declaration of peace was agreed to by leaders in gangland late in the fall. With the murder of Hymie Weiss in the fall, the beer running business lost one of its wealthiest promoters. With the calling of a truce by the warring elements, Al Brown of Cicero, the other man of mans in the business, stepped into the place of authority. Today he is the kingpin, the supreme arbiter of gangsters, great and small. 

Chicago Tribune
5 Jan 1927, Page 15

Hugh M'Govern Arrested as Clements Murder Suspect

Hugh McGovern of 835 West 53d street was arrested yesterday in connection with the killing of Hilary Clements, whose bullet riddled body was found last Friday. McGovern is a member of the Ragen Colts, and is said to be a lieutenant of Ralph Sheldon, long a rival of the Saltis-McErlane beer gang.

McGovern admitted that he was with Clements on the night the latter's relatives last saw him, but denied he had anything to do with the killing.

Suburbanite Economist (Chicago, Illinois)
7 Jan 1927, Page 1

NO CLUE FOUND IN SLAYING OF VICTIM OF GANG

Police Seek Slayer of Man Found in Empty House Here

Rumors of gangland vengeance, of beer runner activities and of other underworld activities have all been run down by police of the Engelwood station in the murder of Hillary Clements, whose body was found in a vacant house here last week, but in spite of investigations the slaying remains a mystery and the identity of the killer is still unknown.

It was on Friday afternoon of last week when some small boys playing about a vacant house at 326 W. 60th st. looked through a small opening in the basement and saw the body of a man lying there. The boys ran home and told their parents of their discovery, and the police were notified. The body was removed to an undertaker's, where it was identified by John L. Clements, 7001 Sangamon st., as that of his brother, Hillary, who disappeared on the night of December 16.

The younger Clements was last seen on the night of December 16, when, with his brother, he attended a party at 51st and Halsted sts. Hillary left the party in a taxicab, telling his brother that he was going home to 839 S. Throop st. Police have discovered that instead of going home Clements drove north, but his movements from that time until his dead body was found in the deserted house remains a mystery.

This was the last significant mention of Hilary's murder in the papers. It appears the trail went cold, and if anyone was ever convicted of his killing, I found no indication of it. Some brief references to Hilary's murder were made in future books on the Chicago Gang Wars and its chief players, but no breakthroughs in the case were identified. It appears he became only one of hundreds of footnotes in the lists of victims of the senseless violence that plagued Chicago in the 1920s.