Tragic Deaths of William Dale and Harry Howes, April 20th and 21st, 1910

by W.A.Hodgins

from The Equity of April 21, 1938

This issue of THE EQUITY is the anniversary of the saddest fatality which ever occurred in our locality, when on the night of April 20th and the very early morning of the 21st, the lives of two promising and very popular young men were suddenly ended. Twenty-eight years have passed since that fatal night, and to many of us these sad memories are fresh and green.

Mike Murphy and his wife Annie squatted in the east end of Shawville early in the 1900s, perhaps in 1902 or 1903. As his name indicated, he was evidently of Irish descent, but he had a big strain of Gipsy or Romany blood in his veins, and his wife likewise He was a horse trader and a man of all work, and if he had a specialty it was skinning dead horses. In one sense he was an unwanted citizen, a very peculiar man. Yet we must narrate that he strictly attended to his own affairs and many of us found him an excellent and reliable worker.

In all justice he should have been let alone and (not) interfered with, but boys will be boys and young men likewise, and it became a common place to make sport of Mike and Annie.

There were some small stones on the road near where Mike lived, and a good thrower could hurl a stone as far as the house, and this would irritate the fiery-tempered little man, and in anger he often threatened vengeance on his tormenters.

The night of April 20th was a lovely mild moon-

...

the village quite a number were thrown and Mike came out quickly with his gun.

Of course the young fellows ran, and Mike after them. They turned in at Barney Armstong's old unused house, thinking Mike would not leave the road, but he followed, chasing them around the house. Turning suddenly, he met the two foremost and emptied his old gun, loaded with slugs, into them. These two were William Dale and Harry Howes. The two only lived a short time. Mike was seized by the others and held by them till a warrant was issued for his arrest.

On the morning of the 21st, an inquest was held and the jury returned a verdict of murder and Mike was lodged in the Bryson jail. At the first sitting of the Court, he was tried on a charge of murder, but the jury disagreed and Mike was held for a second trial and the next spring a new jury returned a Not Guilty verdict, "Justifiable Homocide".

Our feelings were very strong as the two poor victims were exceedingly well liked and were really fine young men, sons of our best people, and most of us considered this a miscarriage of justice. As time passes, however, we became mellowed and broader, and we can now see that the bating and abusive fun of the young men would mnake anyone mad and vindictive, and it was certainly a dangerous thing to taunt the warm ROmany blood too far, and the jury at Bryson took this view.

After his acquittal, Mike and his wife were again arrested and tried for perjury, and Mike was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison.