Posted on 02/23/2009 12:52:29 PM PST by nickcarraway
Ninety-nine years ago this August, a prosperous blacksmith and wheelwright named Alonzo Withers left his home in San Jose for the mountainous country beyond Mount Hamilton carrying a revolver and $215 in gold coins — nearly $5,000 in today's money.
The 48-year-old Withers, a strikingly handsome man, wanted to resolve a grazing dispute with a rural partner over a herd of cows and goats he was raising in the remote Blackbird Valley, 24 miles east of Mount Hamilton.
The trip was his last. The coroner returned with Withers' body a few days later. The blacksmith had been killed in a remote cabin by a rifle shot that pierced his left eye and ripped through his brain. The money was gone.
Those facts stitch the essentials of an enduring mystery in San Jose's crime history, a wild story that includes planted evidence, a jailhouse snitch and finally, the acquittal of the young man charged with the killing.
It is a story beyond the reach of memory. Yet I have the feeling that somewhere in Santa Clara Valley, the truth of the Withers slaying has been handed down. It's past time for the real story to emerge.
The son of a pioneer who came to the valley in a wagon train, Oscar "Alonzo" Withers owned 40 acres near today's intersection of Highway 85 and Almaden Expressway. He was popular and well-known in the valley.
The news of his death broke on Aug. 8, 1910, when Santa Clara County coroner Bernard Kell got a telephone call from the Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton.
In what later struck investigators as odd, Withers' partner — an irascible, 70-year-old rancher named Martin Fenton — had left a message with Lick officials saying only that Withers had been found dead in a cabin owned by the Cooney
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
The 48-year-old Withers, a strikingly handsome man, wanted to resolve a grazing dispute with a rural partner over a herd of cows and goats he was raising in the remote Blackbird Valley, 24 miles east of Mount Hamilton.
From the description, Withers sounds like "a winner of life's lottery." Well, right up to that last bit, anyway.
Everybody that was around at that time are dead. Can only speculate what might have occurred. The adage “dead men tell no tales” applies here.
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Thanks nickcarraway.Ninety-nine years ago this August, a prosperous blacksmith and wheelwright named Alonzo Withers left his home in San Jose for the mountainous country beyond Mount Hamilton carrying a revolver and $215 in gold coins -- nearly $5,000 in today's money... The trip was his last. The coroner returned with Withers' body a few days later.Obviously, the coroner did it. Perfect alibi, too. |
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Colonel Mustard, in the Library, with a Knife.
Fascinatin’! Thanks...
I figure that Colonel Mustard was French.
Wow! Interesting. But if it was just a simple robbery, why was the grandson told to back off ‘if he knew what was good for him.’?
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