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Show NOTORIOUS WESTERN DESPERADO HANDED 1 Slayer of Sheriff j Expresses Regrets On Salem Scaffold S'ALEM, Ore Nov. ." Kmmott Bancroft, alias Neil Hart , was hanged bere today for the murder of sheriff Til Taylor during a jail break at Pendleton, Ore.. July 25 Bancroft's execution waa the first in Oregon since capital puiiishnpjnt was restored by popular' vote last May. "T regrci what 1 have ilone," were Bancroft's last wonls. "I feel thai Ji'l is on my side and I am nut afraid to go when He calls' mc." 1 STOR1 unit Pendleton became. In spirit at least, j a town of the old west again When Neil Hart, who was hanged here to-, day, killed Sheriff Til Taylor, Pendleton Pendle-ton roundup chief, Sunday afternoon, July 16, ami. with flvs companions, brok from the Umatilla county Jail1 and fled to the timbered hills inn cants rifles add revolvers and, Pendleton business men, professional i men and cattle raisers, many of whom ohoe rode the range, took to their horses and automobiles and set out in j pursuit of the escaped men. Within 1 a v.eek the prisonors v. cm rounded up and buck in jail and Halt had con-1 con-1 ,1 to the murder. Gu Wyr'.ck. who was with Taylor st the tlmi of the murder, told the de tails of the t-hootlnjf. Tin- men, he eald. in breaking Jail, first overpowered overpow-ered Jake Martin, the jailor. Ta;,lor, nterlng his office as Martin vu:i attacked, at-tacked, saw the men ' etug and grappled grap-pled with Jim OwcnS, Hart's pui. while W; rick knocked down Jack Rathtf, another prisoner who had entered 'he sh riff's offii looking lor gun-'. Hart followed" Tvifth'.'- into the room and. picking up a revolver which Taylor hud dropped, fired two shots over .wen's shoulder. The first went wild but on the Second Taylor dropped. Ib. dlcd S few hours later. PPIsox I Kn (. .t x -Seizing a suppl) of ammunition and guns, the prisoners fled from the Jail sad climbed aboard a passing train. Wyriek and deputy sheriffs gave the alarm and. hi a short time, officers and citizens were on their ttay, on horseba'-k, by train and In automobiles, automo-biles, searching of the men. Posses came from other parts of Oregon and from Washington and Idaho towns, for Sheriff Taylor was known throughout through-out the northwest and numbered his friends by the hundreds. All week long the chas- kept up. Plnall) bj the following Saturday the men were all captured. Albln Llnd-gren, Llnd-gren, (he flr;,t man arrested, v. ii found near Cayuae, not far from Pendleton It was later established that Llndgren had no part n the shooting. Hart und Owens were run to earth und found in a sheep camp in the hl"ti mountains of TnlOn county near wie head of the Umatilla river. They were exhausted and were taken without a fight. Rathis was found on a road near the Umatilla river. und Ixiuis Anderson ami Kb hard Patterson, who also escaped, were captured by two sheep herders four milcS from Ka-niela. Ka-niela. near Pendleton. I M.K ol LI MIX!.. There was talk of a lunching w hen I be men were taken back to Pendleton Pendle-ton and. on the first night the men were in the jail, a crow.! gathered and ropes were seen h, (he glare of the automobile headlights. w. it. ("Jinks ' Taylor, brother of hc -b ad sheriff who succeeded to his office, told the crowd thut Til would not have favored mob Violence. With shouts of "Guess you're right. Jinks." I he crowd broke up. Hart pleaded guilty to minder In (he first decree September 10 and won sentenced to hung November 6. Four other prisoners, directly Involved in the jailoreak. were tried and com. ii ted of murder in (he Orel degree. Jim Owens, whose true name waa given as Kivie Kerby, and Jack Rathie, whome name was John Leffebean, were sentenced to hang December 3 Louis Anderson and Kit-hard Patterson, Patter-son, who wey tried under the namei of irvin Lcroy Stoop and Floyd L. Henderson, respectively, were sentenced sent-enced to life imprisonment, stoop is 18 years und Henderson 81, Steps were taken soon after the murder mur-der to erect In ihs yard r the r. ndle-ton ndle-ton Jail a monument to the dead sheriff, sher-iff, it was planned that the monument monu-ment would be a bronze statm- of Taylor, Tay-lor, as thousands knee him. sitting astride his boras at.u wearing bis leather "chaps"' sombrero and flowing flow-ing scarf. Taylor resembled the type of western west-ern sheriff often f..und in story books ,and on the picture screen. As president presi-dent of the Roundup association, he led the annual round up parade. For eighteen years Taylor was sheriff sher-iff here. During that time he und his deputies made 2165 arrests and never shot a man. - oo |