A TRIO OF KILLERS.
DICK SPRINGFIELD AND JACK McDADE IN GALVESTON JAIL.
They Take Their Confinement Philosophically and Apparently have no Fears for The Future — History of the Crime — The Slayer of Bill Davis.
A reporter for Evening Tribune spent a pleasant half hour this morning inspecting Sheriff Tiernan's well known but not particular popular hotel. Mr. Barney McIlhenny acted as his escort, and strange as it may appear allowed the scribe to depart when he announced that he was tired of jail life. On the second floor, fenced in by steel bars, were found the terrors from Hempstead, Dick Springfield and Jack McDade. They came promptly to the front when Barney announced a visitor, and looked as though jail life sat but lightly upon them. Springfield is man apparently 32 or 33 years of age, medium size, with clear blue eyes and a heavy moustache, while
HIS COMPANION
is not more than, 22, of about the same build, and with the frank, open countenance of a boy. They were brought here about a month ago for safekeeping, being charged with the murder of Steve Alchin, at Hempstead, last spring. This was not Springfield's first killing, he having laid out District Attorney Booth in a saloon at Hempstead, eight years ago. It is also said the he had been mixed up in what was known as the "Fort killing." The particulars of the Alchin killing, as near as Evening Tribune could learn, are about as follows: Last sprint Steven Alchin wrote a communication to the county paper, reflecting on the official acts of Thomas McDade, for a long period sheriff of Waller county. McDade and his friends became greatly incensed. The consequence was Deputy Chambers hunted up Alchin. They met on the public streets. Chambers, acting for McDade, demanded a retraction. Alchin refused. Chambers then drew his gun and an impromptu duel ensued, in which Chambers was instantly killed by a well-directed shot from Alchin, whose coolness
SAVED HIS LIFE
on the occasion. But he was wounded in the thigh. Recently Alchin, who had got well of his wounds, sat on his horse, with his Winchester across his saddle bow, in the streets of Hempstead. Dick Springfield, who had killed Booth, accompanied by Jack McDade, a nephew of Sheriff McDade, came up and shot Alchin. The latter fell from his saddle on the sand of the street, a corpse. Springfield and McDade surrendered to the sheriff, but excitement rose so high, one party of the citizens espousing the cause of the slayers and another the slain, that Governor Ross sent a detachment of rangers to take charge of Springfield and McDade to prevent further bloodshed. They had an examining trial, were refused bail by the justice, by Judge McFarland, and lastly by the court of appeals, to which tribunal the
CASE WAS APPEALED.
To Evening Tribune reporter Springfield said the whole affair was the result of a political squabble. Thomas McDade was serving his seventh term as sheriff of Waller county, and the opposing faction, composed of the Pinckney's and a few other worthless people, were determined that such odium should be cast upon his administration that he could be defeated at the next election. The opposing faction had killed five negroes, three of them in one day. The attention of the two men was called to a communication from Hempstead which lately appeared in a St. Louis paper, stating that their chances of being lynched were good if taken back to Hempstead. They only laughed and said they had no fear of such a catastrophe. The district court would convene the 3d of September, and they anticipated a fair trial. While they were talking a son of
SHERIFF M'DADE
and cousin to Jack, came in, together with a couple of other visitors. The prisoners greeted their visitors cheerfully and the reporter withdrew. It is said that since the war seventy-five men have been killed in the little town of Hempstead and the country immediately tributary to it. This state of affairs as attributed by one party to negro domination, made use of by unscrupulous men to maintain themselves in power, while the opposite party attribute it to the cussedness of disappointed politicians. On the first floor, looking peaked and worn with confinement, was found Warren Edwards, the colored youth who shot Bill Davis to death in a squabble about the latter's wife. He said that Sheriff Tiernan and the jailors treated him very kindly. His case would come up at the November term of court, and as he had no means of employing counsel he thought he would conduct the case himself. He said that he felt justified in doing the shooting, as it was simply a question of killing or being killed.
"A Trio of Killers", Evening Tribune, (Galveston, TX), Monday, August 6, 1888, p. 1, col. 2.
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