FRED WELCOME, A FUGITIVE CRIMINAL FROM UTAH, APPEARS IN CHEYENNE--HE
IS WANTED FOR THE MURDER OF J. F. TURNER, NEAR PARK CITY--THE VICTIM
LURED FROM HOME THAT HE MAY BE KILLED FOR REVENGE--THE BODY HAULED IN
A WAGON AND HIDDEN AWAY IN ECHO CANON, WHERE IT IS ACCIDENTALLY
DISCOVERED--PURSUIT OF THE CRIMINALS BY TURNER'S FATHER.
Mr. T. Jeff Carr, for a long time city marshal of Cheyenne, and for many
years past a resident of that city, has long been one of the most vigilant
as well as one of the most successful members of the Rocky Mountain
Detective Association, ever working in perfect harmony with Gen. Cook.
On the 24th of July, 1881, Mr. Carr made an arrest in Cheyenne which
resulted in the development of the facts in an unprovoked and heartless
murder, which had previously occurred in Utah. The man arrested was one
Fred Welcome, a young man, but, notwithstanding his age, thoroughly
hardened in crime. He had come to Cheyenne about the 15th or 16th of July
of the year above mentioned, and had been residing in that city, leading a
pretty gay life, for a week, when Mr. Carr received a telegram describing
the man and offering a large reward for his capture on the charge of
murdering J. F. Turner, near Park City, Utah, early in the same month. On
a train which came in from the west on the day of the arrest was J. W.
Turner, father of the dead man and sheriff of Utah county, Utah, and
William Allison, sheriff of Summit county, Utah, who were tracking the
murderer, and from them and others afterwards the details of the crime
were learned.
It appears that the elder Turner, who resided with his family at Provo,
Utah, had been sheriff of his county for some time past, and that his son
had frequently been associated with him in bringing the guilty to justice,
and among others who had been brought to punishment through his
instrumentality was this Fred Welcome, a young fellow who lived about town
and who was never known for any good that he had done to any one. On the
contrary, he was considered as a loafer and beat, and was frequently
arrested for crimes of greater or less magnitude, and being arrested, was
placed in jail. He seems to have held young Turner to blame especially for
one term of his imprisonment, believing that Turner, who was cognizant of
his crime, had informed upon him. He laid this up as a grudge against the
young man, and threatened vengeance upon him for the act, saying to one of
his fellow prisoners while incarcerated in the jail: "By G--d, I'll kill
him if it is ten years from now! I'll follow him to his grave."
But nothing was thought of this threat and others like it at the time they
were made. They were considered as merely the vaporings of an idle mind.
However, they were brought to mind soon afterwards in connection with the
horrible suspicion that young Turner had been murdered after leaving home
in company with Welcome, who had been released from jail.
As soon as he was out of prison, Welcome set himself to work to prevail
upon the son of his jailer to go with him to the mining districts near
Park City, saying that he had a claim there which was rich, and agreeing
to give half of it to Turner on condition that the latter would go along
and take two teams and wagons. The proposition was at first declined, but
afterwards, upon the urgent and repeated solicitation of Welcome and the
constant reiteration of his assertion as to the value of the mine, Turner
consented to go, and all being in readiness they started out about the
middle of June. Turner had two good wagons and two pairs of animals quite
tempting to the eye of the lover of horseflesh. The wagons were also well
laden with food for both man and beast, there being about a thousand
pounds of barley in one of the wagons.
The teamsters camped near Park City for several days, but do not appear to
have begun work immediately, and while there were joined by another party,
a man named Emerson, who seems to have been a pal and an accomplice of
Welcome's. Together the three lived for a while, sleeping in a tent and
making frequent excursions to the city together. Whether there were any
quarrels among them does not appear, except upon the testimony of Welcome
himself, who says there was a quarrel on the night of the murder, but his
story is probably not good testimony in the connection.
[Illustration: Murder of J. F. Turner by Welcome and Emerson, in Utah.]
The murder occurred on the evening of the 3d of July, 1880, but was not
suspected for some days afterwards, as no one paid close attention to the
movements of the teamsters or to their coming or going. There had been no
witnesses to the crime to tell the story, and the murderers were allowed
to move on unmolested and unsuspected. The first suspicion of the crime
was formed by the family of young Turner, who, not hearing from the son
for several days, began to fear that some evil had befallen him.
Being then told for the first time of the threats which Welcome had made
that he would kill the young man, they became exceedingly anxious for
tidings from the son, and began to set inquiries on foot. They heard
nothing until one day a telegram came to them from Green River, Wyo., some
twelve days after the murder, from a friend, informing them that a team
which had once belonged to the Turners had been sold at that place. "My
boy has been killed!" exclaimed Mr. Turner with sudden conviction, and the
young man's mother fell down in a swoon upon receiving what she too
considered positive evidence that her boy had been slain by a murderer.
A day or two afterwards the news of the finding of the body of young
Turner was taken to the already heart-broken parents. A mountain man named
Leonard Phillips, living in Echo cañon, a stupendous and lonely gorge in
the Sawatch range of mountains, familiar to all travelers over the Union
Pacific railroad, had gone out one day to look up the outcropping of a
quartz vein of whose existence he knew, and noticing a peculiar odor,
determined to investigate the cause of it. The stench was so strong that
he did not have to look a great while until he came upon a pile of stones
thrown in between large rocks.
Looking down upon this mass of rock, Mr. Phillips beheld the limb of a
human being protruding from the mass--quite a different outcropping from
that which he had gone out to seek. He was naturally horrified at the
discovery which he made, but after taking time to collect his thoughts,
determined to investigate further. He soon succeeded in bringing the body
to daylight, and was astonished at finding that, although there had been
considerable decay, he was able to recognize the remains as those of J. F.
Turner, whom he had known.
The fact of the ghastly find being made known to Mr. Turner, senior, he
ordered the body sent to Provo, and there gave it a decent burial.
The sad rites being performed over the boy's grave, Mr. Turner determined
to hunt the murderer down. "I will follow him to the end of the earth but
what I will find him," he said. "The slayer of my boy shall not live a
free man while I have life and means." He accordingly prevailed upon his
brother sheriff, Mr. Allison, to go along with him, and together they
started in search of the murderer. There was no doubt in the mind of
either that Welcome was the man wanted, but it was not known until
afterwards that Emerson had had any connection with the case. Gradually
they became possessed of the facts, which they found sufficiently horrible
to shock any one not related to the murdered man, to say nothing of the
sensation which must have been produced upon the father.