Early Outlaws in Corvallis Oregon

Above: Benton County Courthouse 1855

Nimrod O’Kelly
The first case of homicide in Benton County was the killing of an Irishman in 1852 by Nimrod O'Kelly, who accused the man, Jeremiah Mahoney, of trespassing. O' Kelly claimed he was carrying the gun to scare the crows away from his grain crop. He was tried for his crime and found guilty of murder. He was sentenced to hang but the Governor of the Oregon Territory overturned the conviction and he was set free. It cost the county a great deal of money in guarding and keeping the prisoner after the conviction, so the Legislature in 1853 gave the county $630 to handle the cost.

Phillip George
The first and only execution in Benton County was on June 22, 1860, when convicted murderer Philip George was hanged. George was charged with killing Jon Clark, a partner in a rooming house, on April 14, 1860. George had been drinking heavily when he threatened Clark with a kitchen knife. Clark escaped and returned the next morning, when the two men began arguing again while Clark was weighing hay. George grabbed a piece of wood and clobbered Clark over the head. Still holding the money he had received from selling the hay, Clark stumbled around to the front of the building where the argument started and told several men that George had struck him on the head. As soon he got the words out, Clark collapsed and died. George was taken into custody and a grand jury charged him with the crime. At his trial, he pleaded not guilty but was convicted.

 William Robinson
A few years later, another man who got into a scuffle with a friend and ended up stabbing him did not face the same fate as George. William Grubbs and William Robinson had been on friendly terms but during a simple scuffle while Robinson was whittling a piece of wood, Grubbs was stabbed to death. Robinson was arrested and convicted of manslaughter, receiving only a one-year sentence for the crime.

 Peg-Leg Keady
In the early 1900s, a Corvallis teenager went on a rampage that ended in the shooting death of Corvallis Policeman James Dunn and serious injuries to Benton County Deputy Sheriff David A. Osburn. The suspect, Chester "Peg-Leg" Keady, was gunned down by Benton County Sheriff M.P. Burnett.

 The night of violence began in downtown Corvallis when a gang of teenage boys, led by the 18-year-old Keady, went on a drinking spree. Word got out that the Deputy Sheriff was looking for Keady and Keady became violent. After Osburn heard a shot in the vicinity of Broder's sa1oon, he approached Keady, who was .alone at the time, and ordered him to go home. When Keady refused, Osburn tried to arrest the man. As Osburn approached, Keady warned the Deputy not to come any closer. Osburn did not obey the order and Keady backed off. But by this time, the intoxicated teenager was waving his revolver in all directions.

 Several friends approached Keady in an attempt to get him to put the gun away, but he pointed the gun at them and they quickly backed off. A crowd had gathered to watch the excitement as Osburn, who was then joined by Corvallis Police Officer James Dunn, continued to advance on Keady. The law enforcement officials were within four feet of Keady when, after a warning, Keady opened fire and shot Osburn. While Osburn was moved to a nearby hotel to be treated for his injuries, Keady continued to hold others at bay. In the meantime, Sheriff Burnett was called to the scene. Keady had reloaded his revolver and was aiming at the Sheriff as he approached, saying he would kill him if he attempted to arrest him.

 Sheriff Burnett got close enough to lay his hand on Keady's shoulder, saying, "l want you, Keady." Keady's answer was a shot, aimed at Burnett, that went wide of its mark. Dunn then stepped forward and Keady fired again with the shot hitting Dunn in the stomach. Dunn staggered and dropped to his knees, firing a succession of two or three shots, one of them hitting Keady. Burnett also fired a shot, which is believed to have been the fatal blow to Keady. The teenager was taken to the morgue and Dunn was moved to the hotel for treatment. Of the two wounded men, Dunn's injuries were more serious. Only 52 hours after the shooting, Dunn died from his gunshot wound.

 While Osburn was being treated for his wounds, he told the story, in jerky sentences, of how he was shot. "I could have killed Keady several times, if I had tried. I did not think he would shoot me. I was on the best of terms with him. Several times while I was following him up the street, he told me to stop or he would fire. Each time, I kept on advancing and on every occasion until the last he lowered the pistol and got further away.

 "A moment before he fired, he told me to stop or he would shoot. I thought he would do as he has done before, but he didn't. I was then within five or six feet of him and he was watching for a chance to close in. His shot put me out of business, but I will soon be alright again."

 An article that appeared in the April 27, 1904 edition of The Corvallis Times, broke the news of Dunn's death. "The last shot that Chester Keady fired from his revolver gave a mortal wound to James Dunn. After 52 hours of suffering, the wounded man breathed his last life in his room at the Occidental [Hotel] twenty minutes to five o'clock Tuesday morning...

 "Early Monday night it became known that the patient could not survive the night. Peritonitis appeared, and after that, all hope was abandoned by the physicians. The patient remained perfectly conscious until long after midnight. He was a close observer of the physicians and others about the room. His two brothers, his sister and daughter and two sons were at the bedside...

 "The same cool courage that was with him when he stood by Osburn's side when the latter was shot, and that was present again when he received the fatal bullet that otherwise would have slain Sheriff Burnett, was with him still when the grim reaper called. A more generous-hearted man or a more dauntless friend than James Dunn never dwelt in Benton, for all of which the evidence is and always will be, when and where he died."

 There were several witnesses to the shootings and several different versions of the incident were being discussed around town. According to some, Keady did not spend the evening alone. Burt Turner was with him more than any other person that night. Turner later was taken into custody after the second shooting and held as an accessory to the shooting because many people figured Keady used Turner's gun to shoot the men. Turner had a good view of the chase that began across the street from Allen's Drugstore and headed south to where a crowd had gathered. He also was nearby when Osburn and Dunn followed Keady out of the crowd. The doctor who tended to Keady said he did not think it was Sheriff Burnett's bullet that killed Keady. He felt it was one of the shots fired by Dunn that proved fatal to the teenager.

 The Humphrey Brothers
On June 2, 1911, Eliza A. Griffin was found dead in Benton County and no one could tell if it had been a murder or suicide. About nine months later, the mystery was solved when George Humphrey was arrested in Washington County and confessed to the Griffin murder. Humphrey was returned to Benton County. His brother, Charles T. Humphrey, later confessed to being an accomplice in the Griffin murder. He also stunned law enforcement officials and newspaper reporters with the revelation that George Humphrey had murdered more than once. According to Charles Humphrey, George was responsible for the following:

• The murder of George Selby, killed near Dallas in October, 1910.
• The murder of his father-in-law, William King. killed around 1910.
• The attempted murder of Ole Olson at Yoncalla in July, 1910.
• The disappearance of his neighbor, Newton I. Patterson, from Dallas in the summer of 1903. Charles said his brother killed Patterson. ·
• The murder of George Damrose of Hayhurst Valley around 1910.
• There were several witnesses to the shootings, and several different versions of the incident were being discussed around town.

 Martin B. Reyes
On Monday, Oct. 24, 1955, James R. Applegate, a charter member of the Benton County Sheriff's Posse was fatally shot during the chase of an escaped prisoner. He was struck by three bullets that entered his body -- one on the left side, another through the abdomen and the third in the chest. The 39-year-old man died the next day about 22 hours after being shot. He left a wife and three children.

 The tragedy that cut short the life of Applegate began on Sunday, Oct. 23, 1955, when two men were arrested on charges of car theft. Martin B. Reyes, 23, and Jose Demesa, alias Sonny Shadd, 21, were kept in the jail in Grants Pass on Sunday. On Monday, they were returned to the Lane County jail in Eugene by a Deputy Sheriff. At the Eugene jail, Reyes pulled a gun he had been carrying in his belt and forced the deputy to give up his car keys. The two suspects took off in the Sheriff s Patrol car headed northbound on Oregon 99W to Junction City before turning toward Monroe. About four miles north of Junction City, they pulled over a car driven by E.H. Butterfield, who was headed to Newberg with his wife and their three young daughters.

 Reyes and Demesa forced Butterfield into the patrol car and locked him in. Butterfield managed to kick out a window in the patrol car in an attempt to draw the attention of a State Policeman who passed by. In the meantime, the two suspects returned to the patrol car with Butterfield's wife and the youngsters and they all were locked in the prisoner's cage in the sheriffs car. The two men used the Butterfield's Nash station wagon to escape, heading toward Corvallis.

 Butterfield managed to get out of the patrol car and call the Corvallis police. City Police Officer B.C. Branson stationed himself beside the highway in south Corvallis and soon spotted the station wagon coming into town at about 80 miles an hour. Branson caught up with the men when their car failed to make a turn from Jefferson Street onto First Street and the car went up over the railroad tracks and crashed into a tree. Demesa jumped from one side of the car and Reyes from the other. The police officer pulled his gun and stopped Demesa, who raised his hands and surrendered. Demesa apparently had been shot in the foot by Reyes, when Demesa refused to go with him.

 In the meantime, Reyes took off down the street and was spotted running by Applegate, who was returning home from drills with the Sheriff’s Posse with his 16- year-old daughter, Elaine, and her friend, Dottie Blacker. Applegate flagged down a police officer and told him he had seen Reyes running down the street. The officer got in Applegate' s truck with the girls and they raced to the alley behind Ben's Associated Service Station at Third and Van Buren streets. The officer got out of the truck and went around to the front of the gas station to ask the attendants if they had seen Reyes.

 When the policeman returned to the truck, he found Reyes with a gun pointed at Applegate and the girls. Reyes said he wanted the pickup to make his getaway. Applegate feared that he might kid nap the girls. Reyes threatened to shoot the girls if the officer did not put his hands up. Reyes then went around the back of the truck and met up with Applegate, who got into a scuffle with Reyes. Three shots were fired and the officer ran around the car and was shot at twice by Reyes, who then dropped his .45 Colt automatic and took off running. Applegate died the next day from his serious injuries. No one was sure if Reyes had been hit, but he took off and wasn't found until Oct. 25 after one of the biggest man hunts in Salem involving state, county and city law enforcement officials. Reyes finally was spotted in a restaurant in Monmouth and was taken into custody by Police Chief Edward C. Leum, who later turned him over to the Oregon State Police for questioning and Salem General Hospital for treatment of a minor bullet wound. It is believed Reyes shot himself in the struggle with Applegate. Reyes later was returned to Corvallis where he was charged with first degree murder. He entered a not guilty plea and in December was found guilty by a jury of second degree murder and later sentenced to life imprisonment in the Oregon State Penitentiary.

 Applegate was a prominent man in Benton County. Born in nearby Linn County, he was a farmer and trucker who had been one of the first men to sign up for the Benton County posse.

from  the Oregon State Sheriff’s Association, Salem Oregon