The DeAutremont Brothers Page 5
Up until this time the twins had kept to themselves for the fear if they became friendly with anyone, they might let their guard down. This all changed when Ray was introduced to Sprouse. Ray had told Thaller he wanted to try his hand at growing a few rows of corn. Thaller in turn asked Sprouse to provide Ray with some corn seed. Sprouse was happy to oblige and after meeting Ray he invited him to his house for supper. Ray accepted the invitation not knowing his life was about to change forever. Bill, his wife and their 10 children lived on a farm in Sulphur Springs. It was there that Ray met the love of his life. Bill"s oldest daughter, Hazel was just 16 and Ray immediately fell for the young girl with the shiny black hair worn in ringlets around her face. They did not have a chance to say more than a quick hello that first night but it was enough to leave Ray quite smitten. Ray kept returning to the farm and it wasn"t long before he and Hazel were going for long walks on the farm, usually with several of Hazel"s siblings trailing behind.
One day in August 1925 one of Hazel"s younger sisters asked Ray why he hadn"t married Hazel. Ray quickly stated he would like to marry Hazel and Hazel replied that she would like to marry Ray. Possibly by this time Ray had become so comfortable in his new life that he didn"t fully appreciate what taking a wife would mean to someone running from the law. Ray went to Hazel"s father and asked for her hand in marriage. Not having a clue to the ramifications of this, he readily agreed. When Hazel"s mother told Ray he would need to produce a birth certificate in order to be married in Ohio, his heart sank. She then mentioned they could get married just across the river in Kentucky where identification would not be necessary. It was decided that Ray and Hazel would travel to Kentucky to be wed. Less than 48 hours later the young couple exchanged vows not knowing that the “for worse” would come all too quickly. Ray expected Roy to be upset about the marriage but he was happy for Ray and also thought it might help throw off the detectives. However, Roy did question how the twins could just pack up and leave town when things got hot. Ray assured him they were safe in Ohio and would not be found out. As fall turned to winter that year, Ray was unable to find work, He and Hazel moved to Portsmouth, Ohio. Ray found work in Portsmouth at a sheet metal factory. About that time Roy left for West Virginia to work in the coal mines.
It didn"t take long for Ray to become disenchanted with the back -breaking work at the mill and he quit after just five months. By this time Hazel was pregnant with their first child and wanted to be near her family so the newlyweds packed up and moved to Pine Grove, Ohio. Ray was rightfully concerned about adding a child to their uncertain future but nevertheless a baby was on the way. Years later he said, “I realized there was an opportunity to do for my child what my father had failed to do for his family. I could provide Hazel and the baby with a stable home life. With any luck he wouldn"t have to live the life I had.”
In the spring of 1926 shortly before the baby was born, Ray saw an updated wanted poster that gave him great cause for concern. The poster had additional personal information about the DeAutremonts. He decided not to uproot his wife but he did change jobs. He began working as a farm hand at various farms close to home.
About the same time Roy moved back from West Virginia and began working as a farm hand. He lived with Ray and Hazel and helped out with the rent. On June 15, 1926 Hazel gave birth to a son that Ray named Jackie Hugh Goodwin. The young family fell into a seemingly normal routine with Ray going off to work in the fields and 17-year-old Hazel staying home with the baby. Roy was still living with them and working at local farms. For the first time in a long while, the brothers even made friends in the community.
The fall of 1926 found the twins both working at the Hanging Rock Coal and Iron Company in nearby Hanging Rock, Ohio. Their job was to tear down a furnace stack. When that job ended in October, Roy returned to the coal mines in McKeevey, West Virginia. He returned to Ohio to spend Christmas 1926 with Ray, Hazel and the baby.
In March 1927 when headlines around the world screamed of Hugh"s arrest, Ray was busily packing up his wife and baby and moving to Steubenville, Ohio where he found work at the Wheeling Steel Company.He knew nothing about Hugh"s capture and just continued to go about his life. He wrote to Roy and told him that the wages were very good at the Wheeling Steel Company. Roy wasted no time in returning to Ohio to secure a job there.
Possibly after all this time, the twins simply felt that they had outrun the law and were oblivious to the manhunt. By this time they had become accustomed to seeing their faces on wanted posters everywhere they looked but when Roy happened to glance at a poster in April 1927, his heart sank, the poster only had two pictures on it. He didn"t take the time to read it but obviously something had happened to Hugh. He raced home to tell Ray who took the news a bit calmer than Roy. In a brief conversation away from Hazel, the boys decided they had no option but to flee the country. Ray"s duties as a husband and father prevented him from leaving that night as he would have done in his bachelor days. The twins decided to stay together until they could save $700. They frantically began saving every dime they could. What they didn"t know was their time was running out. A co-worker of theirs at Hanging Rock Coal and Iron Company, Albert Collingsworth, returned to the post office to study a wanted poster he had noticed on a previous occasion. The pictures on the wanted poster had been bothering him as he felt there was something familiar about the pictures. Albert"s eyesight was failing him yet he managed to do what no other person had done in over 3½ years. He recognized that the men he knew as the Goodwins were in fact the long sought DeAutremont brothers. Collingsworth was so confident in his findings that he immediately went to the local police who in turn contacted the U.S. Bureau of Investigation (known today as the Federal Bureau of Investigation.) Federal Agent Edward Pomeroy was assigned to the case. He made a trip to Steubenville to get a good look at the twins. Confident that they were indeed the DeAutremonts, Pomeroy made arrangements to capture both of the brothers in what was probably the biggest case of his career.
June 8, 1927 began like any other for the twins but ended just like the nightmares that had plagued them for more than three years. Roy was at work at the Wheeling Steel Company when he was asked to report to the personnel office. As he walked in to the office he came face-to-face with men who had spent their careers dreaming of slapping a pair of handcuffs on one of the most sought after criminals in the world. With guns drawn, there could be no mistaking the seriousness of the situation. Federal Agent Pomeroy asked the young man seated in front of him if he was Roy DeAutremont. Roy adamantly insisted that he was Clarence Goodwin. He managed to keep this up for two hours before he broke down and admitted he was Roy DeAutremont. He signed and simply said, “Well, it looks like some of you guys are in for a reward.” He quickly stated that he hadn"t killed anyone and that he had run because he feared no one would listen to him. With that, it was time to round up Ray. Ray was in the comfort of his home enjoying time with Hazel and Jackie Hugh oblivious to the fact that he was in the final moments of life as a free man. He had fallen asleep in the bedroom when there was a knock at the door. Hazel opened the door to find a man nicely dressed in a suit and tie. He asked if she was Mrs. Elmer Goodwin to which she eagerly replied in the affirmative. The stranger informed Hazel there had been an accident and Clarence had been injured. He quickly reassured her that Clarence was fine with just cuts and bruises but was in the hospital. He offered to give Ray a ride to the hospital. Ray woke from a deep slumber to hear the frightful news that Roy had been hospitalized. Ray quickly kissed Hazel goodbye and left with the nice stranger to go check on his brother. As Ray started to get into the waiting car, his worst nightmare came to life as he saw a car filled with men in uniforms with their guns drawn. Barely able to breathe, Ray realized that it was finally over. He had run far, he had run long, but now it was all over. Life as a free man became a distant memory as the car sped towards the county jail.
Once at the jail, Ray tried to deny his true identity but when faced with the facts, it seemed fruitl
ess. Finally he uttered the words that every police officer in the nation had dreamed of hearing, “I"m Ray DeAutremont.”
After a fitful night in jail the twins were brought before Deputy U.S. Commissioner C.J. Barrow the next morning. When asked if they were Roy and Ray DeAutremont, they admitted they were. When asked if they wanted to fight extradition to Oregon, they shook their heads and quietly said no.
Many of the townsfolk in Steubenville had shown up for court that morning just to catch a glimpse of the infamous DeAutremont brothers. Also in court that morning was Hazel still numb from the shock. She approached her husband as he was being led back to jail. He offered no explanation and simply said, “Goodbye Hazel.” The young girl just stood there in shock with tears streaming down her face. She whispered goodbye but it was all too much for her especially since she was pregnant with their second child.
Nothing could have prepared her for the shock that the man she worshipped, the father of her baby, was accused of being a cold blooded murderer and the subject of a worldwide manhunt. This was the man who rushed home from work to play with Jackie Hugh. The man who helped out around the house, took her on long walks, read the newspaper to her illiterate father and never tired of playing with her younger siblings. How could they be one in the same?
Newspaper headlines around the world screamed that the DeAutremont brothers had been captured thus ending a worldwide manhunt. Back in Jacksonville, Sheriff Jennings handed the newspaper to Hugh. He read the article without saying a word and then simply put the newspaper down.
The U.S. Postal authorities were overjoyed. By the time the handcuffs were slapped on the twins they had spent more than a half million dollars in what had become a worldwide search. One can only wonder how much it would have cost if they hadn"t known who they were searching for. In all more than 2,583,000 wanted posters had been printed at a cost of approximately $9,911.06. The search for the boys had spanned the globe and postal agents had traveled to every corner of the world.
Paul had doubts the two men captured in Ohio were his sons. He had been down this road so often before that when asked by the media about the story out of Ohio he simply said, “Let them produce them. The twins have been caught a hundred times in a hundred different places. If they got them, let them bring them here. I don"t want to say anymore about it.”
The boy"s mother was very optimistic and said, “I"m not worried about their capture. If we can clear Hughie, we can clear them and I"m satisfied we can do it. So why should I worry?I"m surprised that I"ve worried so little.”
The one who was worrying, was young Hazel who went to the jail to visit the man she had married but who was now a complete stranger to her. Ray, choked with emotion, urged his bride to forget all about him and return to her family. Ray told her to have an attorney draw up a power of attorney and he would sign the document so she could get on with her life. Hazel asked Ray if it was true that he had murdered four men in Oregon. Ray readily replied that he was innocent but told her no one would believe him. When it was time for Hazel to leave, they kissed briefly through the bars and Jackie Hugh began to cry. Ray tried to comfort the child but the thick steel bars were in the way. Hazel was sobbing and shaking to the point that the jailer had to lead her away. Ray would later say, “My soul had sunk to zero. I would have shot myself that night and no one could have talked me out of it.”
Local newspaper reporters clamored for a chance to interview the infamous DeAutremont twins. The Associated Press arrived and unable to hold back the crowd of reporters, it was decided they would be allowed to write down questions and the boys could chose to answer them or not. Most of the questions Ray chose to answer centered around his new family. He wrote that his wife was the finest little girl you ever met. A few days later a small group of reporters were allowed to interview the twins. When asked if they were worried about their trial, Roy stated, “We want to get back to Oregon quick as possible and get it over with. We"re innocent!”
The Steubenville Sheriff Deputies had to control the crowds outside the jail on a daily basis as people flocked there to catch a glimpse of the outlaws. They were more than happy to turn the twins over to Sheriff Jennings and his son, Chief Deputy Sheriff Louis Jennings on June 15, 1927. With the boys securely manacled and ready for their five-day train ride back to Oregon, the Jennings left the Steubenville jail with their prisoners. They had to fight their way through a crowd estimated to be in the thousands on their way to the train depot. The streets were overflowing with people who wanted to make their own history by being able to say they actually saw the notorious DeAutremont brothers. The twins dressed in suits and wearing hats, played to their audience just as Hugh had done months prior. The appeared relaxed and without a worry in the world. Deep inside though they must have feared returning to the place they had left almost four years ago to face a jury that could pronounce a sentence of death by hanging. The crowd at the depot called out greetings and well wishes. When someone shouted, “Have a nice trip” Roy, enjoying the spotlight, shouted back, “We wouldn"t miss it for anything. Oregon"s beautiful this time of year.”
Once on the train, they were met by two agents from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigators, two postal inspectors and two detectives from Ohio. The boys were not allowed to talk to anyone other than law enforcement for the duration of the trip. The train pulled out of the Steubenville Depot leaving behind the twin"s dreams of leading an all American life and Hazel"s shattered dreams of raising her children with their father.
The rest of the cou ntry was celebrating Charles Lindbergh"s incredible flight across the Atlantic. He had managed to fly non-stop from New York to Paris in a mere 33½ hours. At a time when Americans were becoming fascinated by aviation, the twins were once again on a train. This mode of transportation had brought them nothing but grief. From Ray"s early days riding the rails where he met up with the Wobblies, to the twin"s days of hopping a freight train to the coast in the hopes of breaking into the crime “business,” and finally to the tragedy that occurred on October 11, 1923. Thoughts of their past must have gone through their minds as the train took them through the Midwest on their way to the Pacific Northwest where they faced being hanged for the murder of four men. The boys passed the time by reading and talking with those in charge of returning them to Oregon. Other passengers on the train tried to catch a glimpse inside the small Pullman suite to spy on the boys. As the train made its way towards Oregon, crowds of curiosity seekers gathered at every stop to catch a glimpse of the infamous twins. Once in Oregon the railroad officials made the decision to stop at a small depot in Mentaville instead of at the Portland Union Station fearing that they simply could not handle the crowds expected in Portland. However, it didn"t take long for the reporters to figure out what had happened and they soon descended on the depot in Mentaville. The reporters shouted out questions, one of which was if they had had enough to eat. Roy,enjoying the limelight said, “Hell, if I had known the government would feed us like this I would have given myself up long ago and no poor sap would have copped the $10,000 for squealing on us. You know Ray and I were wondering on our way out here whether or not we could have shared the reward for us if we had given ourselves up. Guess it"s too late now. But I read somewhere that the government spent more than half-a-million dollars to nail us. They should have offered us a quarter-of-a-million to give up and we could have saved everyone a bundle of money.” When asked about the “Siskiyou Job” it was Ray who stated, “You know we can"t say anything about that. We know Hugh is going to be found innocent and we"re pretty sure we can prove ourselves guiltless too, but we better wait and talk to our attorneys first. Sorry but we can"t say anymore.” Someone asked Ray how Hazel and the baby were. Ray said, “Well, you know I"m worried about both of them. She"s only 17.” One reporter asked if what he"d read in a newspaper was true– were they planning to escape to Mexico? Ray quickly stated, “No, they got it all wrong. We had just about decided to come back here, give ourselves up, and help Hughie out.” O
ne reporter asked a passenger on the train what it had been like to travel on the same train as the DeAutremonts. The passenger, W.P. Strandborg,of Portland General Electric said, “I tell you, if I could have charged spectators 50¢ apiece each time they took my seat, I could have made enough money to pay for my ticket and got myself a Pullman. Every time I got up to go to the lavatory or dinner, 10 people tried to take my place. They wanted to get a look at those guys over there. I"ll bet the guards had to come out 10 times a day and clear the corridor.” When Sheriff Jennings was asked about the trip he replied, “The boys never gave us any trouble. Absolutely none. Course we had some heated discussions about various topics, but it was all in good fun. They never tried anything, but then, we didn"t give them any chance either.”
Finally it was time for justice to be served. Chapter VIII On May 2, 1927 Hugh"s trial got underway as he faced death by hanging. Large crowds of people fought their way into the Jacksonville Courthouse to jockey for one of the few seats available to the public. People lined the walls of the courthouse, they stood on the interior stairwell and they even sat on windowsills just so they could be a part of this historic event. The prosecuting team consisted of U.S. District Attorney George Neuner, Special Prosecutor George Roberts and District attorney Newton Chaney. Those defending Hugh were John Collier of Portland, and Fred C. Smith of Eugene. Gus Newbury of Medford and David B. Evans of Eugene were working behind the scenes on Hugh"s case. The presiding judge was Honorable C.M. Thomas. As preparations were made for the trial, there were concerns on the part of the prosecutors that it might be difficult to convict Hugh based on circumstantial evidence. When Hugh"s trial began, the twins had not yet been captured so Hugh"s attorneys hoped to convince the jury there was no way that Hugh was responsible for this crime.