John Aiken -' Milam Outlaw spent 24 years on the lam' by Jeanne Williams, Temple Daily Telegram

Man on the Run

Milam outlaw spent 24 years on the lam after shooting death of railroad passenger

by Jeanne Williams

Temple Daily Telegram - November 8, 2010

GAUSE — “John Aiken, an escaped Texas convict, sends word from the mountains near Hot

Springs, Ark., that he will die with his boots on.”

Convicted of murder in Milam County, Aiken ingeniously conveyed this bold missive via a

Galveston Daily News on July 10, 1904. Curiously, three years later, John King Aiken —

a fugitive from justice for 24 years — was back in the state prison at Huntsville.

Aiken, for reasons not stated, left his home in Hot Springs, Ark., “a few days ago and

voluntarily surrendered to the Texas authorities,” the Fort Worth Star Telegram

reported June 12, 1907.

Texas Gov. Thomas Mitchell Campbell, credited with significant prison reform

legislation that ended the contract lease system and implemented more humane treatment

of prisoners, immediately pardoned Aiken for the offense of second degree murder upon

his surrender to Texas authorities.

John King Aiken’s brush with the law began at 3 a.m. May 7, 1874, at the International

and Great Northern Railroad depot in Gause as a westbound train was departing the

station for Rockdale. The Gause depot was bustling with activity from a huge, well-

attended party going on next door.

Aiken, age 20, and his brothers were in Gause for the event, as were a large group of

Rockdale residents.

Aiken was accused of firing a reckless shot from the depot platform through the window

of the rear car that struck J.B. Scobee, a train passenger from St. Louis, in the neck.

Scobee was transported to Rockdale, and treated by Dr. A.C. Walker, but died of the

wound days later.

For a time, the case was unsolved, prompting Texas Gov. Richard Coke to issue a

proclamation May 28, 1874, offering a $250 reward for the arrest and delivery “inside

the jail door” of said murderer or murderers to the Milam County sheriff, then W.E.

Mitchusson. The reward would be paid after the conviction.

Once Aiken was identified by eyewitnesses as the shooter, new Texas Gov. Oran Milo

Roberts issued four hand-written “wanted posters” in 880 and 1881 offering $300

rewards for the arrest and delivery of Aiken to the Milam County sheriff, then Wyatt

Lipscomb, for Aiken’s capture with reference to the governor of Arkansas. Court

documents reveal Aiken was arrested in the corn crib of a farm in Arkansas by a Milam

County deputy sheriff identified only as “Lewis.”

On the Jan. 3, 1876, a Milam County grand jury indicted Aiken for second degree murder.

During his trial in May 1881, several eyewitnesses to the shooting testified that Aiken

was among a crowd of people boarding the train for Rockdale.

Dock Hurt testified he and his brother Jake Hurt of Rockdale were in Gause attending

the ball and went to the depot to catch the Rockdale train. He saw the Aiken brothers

on the platform. While there, he saw the defendant break a car window with his pistol.

Hurt told his brother “this is no place for us” and turned to leave. Just as he turned

a pistol fired from where John Aiken was standing, according to court records.

Other witnesses also identified John Aiken as the shooter, but the defense elicited

from witnesses that John Aiken, his brother and many others were drinking a great deal

that night and a great many shots were fired in town, but no more than one from the

depot.

State’s witness Thomas Oswalt testified that at 10 a.m. May 7, 1874, at the Aiken farm

near Fraimville, John Aiken said, “I have played hell. I shot into the train at Gause

last night.” In the evening, Aiken again admitted, “I have heard that a man was shot

when I fired into the train last night.”

Defense witnesses provided testimony that Aiken was asleep on a bench in the ball room,

drunken and asleep, when the train arrived at the depot, while it remained there and

when it left.

Ultimately, Aiken was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to 15 years in

prison. Aiken appealed, challenging a wrongful conviction, the truthfulness of state’s

witnesses, hearsay testimony admitted by the court, and the defendant’s claim to have

confessed to protect his brother Ed Aiken, who he thought would be accused.

Further, another brother, Enos Aiken, testified that during the party, he had been

asked to get John and Ed away from the event because of a conflict with William Ditto

that almost erupted into a shootout. A few days after the shooting, John and Ed Aiken

were questioned and discharged.

The appeal was denied and Aiken’s conviction was affirmed, but on May 21, 1883, Aiken

escaped from the state penitentiary, the Galveston Daily News reported. Aiken and two

other inmates from McLennan and Lampasas counties escaped from a convict train near

Lampasas. The story described Aiken as 5 feet 10 inches tall, with dark hair and blue

eyes.

The newspaper reported that convicts on Train No. 2 near the quarry four miles from

Lampasas were “making their morning ablutions” in squads, when one squad made a break

for the windows by forcing iron bars out of the wooden frame and escaping.

Aiken eluded the law most of his adult life, but as a fugitive from justice he lived as

a free man, marrying Margaret Cummins on Oct. 12, 1884, in Valley Mills, and rearing

four children in Garland County, Ark. When his youngest son was 6 years old, Aiken came

back to Texas and gave himself up to law officers.

Once a free man again, Aiken returned to his home in Garland County, where he died Feb.

18, 1924, at age 70.

jwilliams@tdtnews.com

All articles from the Temple Daily Telegram are published with the permission of the
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Jeanne Williams and the Temple Daily Telegram

A wanted poster issued May 28, 1874 by Gov. O. M. Roberts for an unindentified murderer in
Milam County.

Photo by Shirley Williams
Temple Daily Telegram

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