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Show FEAliFl'L MUKDEII PAHTIt TEARS OF THE MVIiDEl! OV JOHN l!Li:.VK AND JAMES DOW) AT HACKBERRY AKI.ONA. Mohave County lliner. One of the most revolting murders in the annals of the criminal history of Arizona was brought to light Sunday afternoon af-ternoon last by finding of the blood-bespattered and mangled remains of John Bleak and James Dowd in the big wash, at Hackberry, within a few hundred yards of the railroad depot. The finder of the grewsome objects gave the alarm and t'le whole town hurried to the scene. The sight was an awful one. The remains re-mains of Dowd lay in the wash with the head almost severed from the body. He had apparently been struck in the head with a rock which broke the bones of the nose and crushed in the forehead and while he lay on the ground was beaten into insensibility with large rocks. The cruel murderer then drew his chin up and cut his throat clean into the neck bone. Many other wounds were found on the body. After his throat had been cut and all the blood had run from the body, it was pulled into the wash and there apparently robbed. Bleak's body lay about twenty feet away and showed signs of a mighty struggle for life, the ground being all tramped up for a space of twenty feet square. Bleak's body was horribly mutilated. He had been stabbed stab-bed in the shoulder and twice in the back of the head, The knife passed through his hat and into the head piercing pierc-ing the skull through which wounds the brains oozed out. The murderers then attempted to cut his throat, but made a bungling job of it. His face was slashed in three places and his throat cut in four or five places. The jugular vein was severed and the blood flowed over his beard. He had evidently been rolled over in the sand, as clotted blood and sand covered his face. His hands were cut as if in an effort to guard himself from the knife of his assail en t. Several blood stained rocks were found in a bush nearby and within a hundred feet of the bodies the murderers had burned up a blood stained coat or a portion of one, A small piece of a Spanish newspaper was found in the ashes of the fire. An inquest was held Monday and Tuesday but nothing definite could be learned regarding re-garding the perpetrators of the cowardly murder. From all that could be learned the deduction is made that Dowd and Bleak, who had been drinking, had fallen in with two Mexicans and having a bottle of whiskey drank the contents while going toward the bridge camp and that Bleak went back to town to get another bottle; While he was gone the Mexicans fell upon Dowd and murdered him. When Bleak returned and saw what had been done to Dowd he started to run when he was followed and stabbed in the shoulder and then in the head. In stabbing him in the head the hard bones turned the point of the knife. Bleak when stabbed fell to the ground, but still struggled for life. The knife having been bent could not be made to do as good a job as that done on Dowd, as the cuts all show jagged. The two men were buried in Hackberry. Sheriff Hubbs and Deputy Lovin arrested two men named Jose Martinez and Friso Costello and charged them with the crime. From Costillo wras taken an ugly looking pocket knife of the dirk pattern. A half inch of the. point was bent over and on it was a spot of blood, . It also showed evidence of having recently been scoured. The point was bent but a short time as the inside showed no evidence of the blade having been opened only a few times. Had it beeo opened oftener a groove would have been cut in the lining lin-ing of the handle. On preliminary examination ex-amination the men called in many Mexicans Mexi-cans to prove that they were in Thur-ber's Thur-ber's camp, about nine miles east of Kingman Thursday night to a late hour, but their alibi is controverted by the time book and lime keeper at the camp and by many witnesses at Hackberry, Hack-berry, The examination is in progress before Judge Baker today and the chances are the two men will be held for the murder. At the examination the knife taken from Cost i Ho wan fitted into the cut in Bleak's hat and it fitted the hole exactly. The oMicors are still working on a clue that may forge the chain of cireum.-tamial evidence .-til tighter. John Bleak loaves a wi'e and eight children in St. Georee. Utah. He been teaming and mining in this county over ten years. James Dowd is a miner and is well known on the eoa-t. No letters or anything that would I'ivo ;!: aihhvss ,,f frieivis or relative- ronM he found. |