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Arrest of three murderers by Quincy police
Brutal Crime Committed in Minnesota Last July
On the 8th of July last a horrible murder was perpetrated near Lake City, Wabashaw county, Minn., a farmer named
Haverish – a Swede – being killed by four men, and robbed of a considerable sum of money. The details of the tragedy
are unknown here, but it is stated that the killing was a most brutal affair, perpetrated by men in the employ
of Haverish at the time. A large reward was offered for the capture of the murderers, who had escaped, and the
sheriff of the county and the police of Lake City set out in search of them. In their efforts to overhaul them
they traced them from town to town down the river, Officer H. M. Banks and a companion arriving here last week
on the mission, where they lost all track of the fugitives and finally started back up the river. While in the
city, however, they conferred with Chief of Police McGraw, and he undertook to assist the officers. The day after
the Minnesota police left Quincy, Capt. McGraw got information of the whereabouts of one of the parties wanted,
and had him arrested on a flatboat which is icebound in the bay. Detectives Sliney and Ryan kept hard at work,
and besides the ___; man – who it seems was born and raised in this county – arrested here another one, named Mel
Haines, he being detected by means of a tintype in the hands of the officers. They also traced a third member of
the gang, and the worst one the, lot, Hosey Devoll, to Louisiana, Mo., where it was learned they had another flatboat
on the Illinois side of the river. Detectives Sliney and Ryan were last night sent down there by Capt. McGraw,
who gave them a close description of Devoll, and directed them that they would find him on a boat where there was
a large black dog. At noon to-day a dispatch from Louisiana to the chief of police announced the arrest of the
fellow, and he will arrive here this evening in custody. This made the third one of the quartet captured. The fourth,
named Bob Morgan, has been at work on the government river improvement at Hannibal, but has skipped and will probably
not be overhauled. The name of the first man is suppressed, for prudential reasons.
The arrest of these men reflects the highest credit upon Capt. McGraw and Detective Sliney and Ryan. They have
evinced a knowledge of the ways of criminals and their probable movements without which it would have been impossible
to bring them to justice. The four men have been operating as river pirates for a long time. In the summer they
go up the river, following the harvest, and return in the fall on a flatboat, stopping at different cities to rob
and steal. In June last they reached Lake City, Minn., hired out as harvest hands to Mr. Haverish, and on the night
of the 8th of July murdered him in cold blood and robbed his house. Officers from Minnesota are expected in the
city by Monday to take the trio to Lake City for trial, a dispatch from George L. Matohan, district attorney of
Wabashaw county, announcing that steps will be immediately taken for that purpose
[The Quincy Daily Whig, Saturday, December 18, 1880]
Transcribed by Debbie Gibson
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