Alexander - Wm. E cap. by Chas Davis - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

This afternoon, deputy sheriff Charles E. Davis returned from Topeka, Kansas, where he succeeded in putting behind the bars a dangerous criminal, and also succeeded in capturing a large money reward offered by the Governor of Kansas. The man he ran down was Wm E. Alexander and had been hunted all over several states by the Kansas authorities since last August.

Wm Alexander is a son of George Alexander, late of Boston Store, this county, and now of Kansas. Wm Alexander, it will be remembered, served a term in the penitentiary for stealing a horse and buggy during the fair here. He was reported during this time to have confessed the killing of a man at the Black Hills and of placing his body on the track where it was mutilated by the cars. If there was anything in this confession, it was never followed up and after serving his term for grand larceny, he went to his family in Shawnee County, Kansas. Last August he again made himself liable to the law by a most heinous crime. He and his brothers, Wallace and Otis, committed a dastardly outrage upon a 12 year old girl. Wallace received a term of 2 ½ years in the penitentiary and Otis being a mere boy escaped with a year in the reformatory. William was arrested at this home by three officers, and asked permission to step into the next room to bid his wife good-bye and get his coat. The request granted, he slipped through a side door and escaped. He fled through Kansas under the alias of Earnest Gray. In Missouri as he journeyed eastward he was Charles Lily and in Indiana and Illinois, his name was Wm Edwards. He was in this county some months ago, but his visit was a fleeting one, and Mr. Davis, who had traced him since he struck Missouri, on his way eastward, fails to apprehend him so wary was he.  After his fly visit here he started West again over much the same route he had come, his aliases being as before. So great was his precaution and shrewdness that the trail he left was always several weeks before it could be gained and it was less than a fortnight ago that Charley Davis finally located him in Mound City, Kansas, in the county adjoining that in which his crime had been committed. He was engaged in hauling wood for a widow and was using the name of Earnest Gray. The big job which Mr. Davis had undertaken in tracing his man was finally finished and several days since he left for bleeding Kansas. He had no difficulty in finding his bird and securing the proper papers in company with an officer arrested Alexander last Thursday. When arrested Alexander looked at Davis keenly and said: “So you are the man that has been shadowing me all over the country, are you? Give me your hand. I’m glad I’m caught as I’m sick of roaming everywhere without home or friends. I knew you would get me sometime.”

Alexander was at once taken to Topeka and placed in jail yesterday to await his trial. Too much credit cannot be given to Mr. Davis for following u a trail that the Kansas officer despaired of. The work was chiefly done by mail, and the capture of the man is the neatest compliment that can be paid to Mr. Davis’s skill, even neater than the $300 money reward he brought home in his pocket.