History of Fresno County, Vol. 2 - Paul E. Vandor

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career as a market game hunter making him familiar with every nook and cranny. Loveall was traced to a ranch fifteen miles from the oil town seething with excitement over the kidnaping. Here it was learned that he was willing and even anxious to surrender provided he was given guarantee of protection against the wrath of an outraged community. The hills and the country were searched for two days for the brigand and then came word that he was in concealment under the house of a cousin at the pumping station at Camp No. 2. There the fellow was found asleep and readily made a prisoner. Miss Domengine had a sight acquaintance with her captors, said she was not ill-treated during her captivity and truth to tell did not take her kidnaping seriously. Loveall was a married man. The evidence in the case was complete, even without the confessions of the accomplices. It was a sensational episode at a period when the Coalinga field was overrun by a floating and irresponsible population attracted by the activities of the field. It contributed largely to the criminal annals of the county with corresponding expense in the administration of the department of justice.

       Joseph Vernet Murder

      The disappearance on or about July 15, 1908, not confirmed and made public until the last day of the month of Joseph Vernet, aged sixty-eight, and the search without result then for three days for the remains was regarded as another Wooton case by the authorities and the foothill dwellers between Letcher and Sentinel in the country where the eccentric old mountaineer had made his home for years. For nearly one week before August 1 one Charles H. Loper had been detained in the county jail pending a rigid investigation and search for the body of the old miner for the recovery of which a reward of $100 was offered. Loper had shared the old man's cabin, was the last man in his company before his sudden dropping out of existence, and later announced that he had authority to settle up the old man's affairs. The finding of the body revealed the commission of one of the most fiendish, calculating and deliberate crimes ever committed in the county with avarice as the motive. Every step of the crime bore the evidence of cold, calculating premeditation in the details. On the last day that it was recalled that Vernet was seen alive, he had called at the Sentinel post-office and engaged in a casual conversation with Henry Rae, deputy sheriff. He also posted two letters. The conversation was about nothing in particular. This was the very significance of it for it was rightly concluded that if the old man, who had lived in that neighborhood for thirty years, had contemplated departure on a long journey with possible non return, as Loper eave out, he would have made mention of this important decision. Rae was the last man known to have seen Vernet alive.

      The evening after, Loper called at an adjoining ranch. He mentioned that he would not stay longer at the Vernet cabin because Vernet had left and he would not abide there alone. Loper made himself a guest for the night at the ranch and slept there. At breakfast he repeated the remark concerning Vernet's departure and that day left for Fresno by stage and five days later on the 22nd returned wearing new apparel and outfit, had money and presented a general air of prosperity. Meanwhile Vernet's absence had aroused the suspicions of Rae. On return from Fresno, Loper had informed him that Vernet had turned over to him all property and in corroboration produced a copy of a Fresno newspaper, then returned to the visited ranch and after a few hours proceeded to the Vernet place. The produced paper contained the following notice:

       NOTICE

       Any one owing me money will pay same to Charles H. Loper. Any debts of mine will be paid by him until further notice.

       JOSEPH VERNET, P. O. Address, Sentinel. Cal.

      Satisfied that all was not well, Rae sent notification on the 25th to the sheriff and a systematic inquiry was instituted. In the thirty years that Vernet had lived in the hills, he had never left home even for a few days without asking a neighbor to look after his pet cats, his only companions. When Vernet disappeared, there were five cats at the cabin and when they were later found they were almost starved. Upon his return from Fresno, Loper circulated the information that he had been to the county seat to look after Vernet's affairs, that the latter had gone to Oregon and he (Loper) proposed to sell oil all property on hand. He had sold for $300 a span of horses, wagon and harness. He had also offered at ridiculously low figure 125 cords of wood that the old man had cut. He had also collected some small bills but as Vernet always paid cash there were few debts to be paid. Loper remained at the Vernet place until the 28th, when he started on a second visit to Fresno. Although he had money and it had been his practice to go by stage, this time he walked to Fresno thirty-one miles and there engaged a room at the Ogle House. Loper was taken into custody, the investigation as to his connection with the disappearance of Vernet having already been instituted without his knowledge. He was questioned and in the hearing of a stenographer told a long story that Vernet was in Oregon somewhere; they were to meet at Portland in two or three weeks; he had caused the notice to be published on the authority of Vernet but no power of attorney was given. He claimed to have sold only the team and wagon receiving a note for $300 due in nine months: Vernet had talked of closing out his business for two months or more; he left on the night of the 15th, walking to Fresno as he was wont to do nine out of ten times and his reason for leaving his old home was that he was disgusted with the people up there; there was nothing to hold him, he wanted to get out of the country and to go away to find a new home at the age of sixty-six. There was much more told but it was all a tissue of lies. Loper made no remonstrance against being detained, except to remark that he thought this thing would get him into trouble, referring to the insertion and publication of the newspaper notice. Every circumstance mentioned by Loper was in direct conflict with Vernet's known habits and practices. An examination of the cabin did not lend color to the departure theory. Vernet had left everything intact; his best clothes were there, money in drafts: he had disappeared as he was dressed when he last talked with Rae. There was found a pair of Loper's trousers stained with what appeared to be blood. But as in the case of Wooton there was as yet no evidence of foul play. The body of Vernet must be found. This must be the first established link in the chain of evidence to base a charge of the murder of the old miner and stockman. Loper was a man about thirty-five years of age and had lived with Vernet for several months. He had been reared in the country, had good family connections but was regarded as a roaming, idle character and possessed of not the best of reputations. He was a dreamer and irresponsible ne'er-do-well, worked at odd things and the wonder was how he made a living. It may be charitable to believe that he labored at times under fits of mental aberration. It is not to say that he was insane, though at the trial there was testimony to show that there is a taint of insanity in the family. If insane, the devilish details of the crime and the consummate preparations for it would dispose of the theory of mental irresponsibility. The investigation that progressed daily resulted in discoveries to give the lie to the many false statements that the prisoner made under interrogation. The chance discovery of the brutally butchered body of Vernet crowded into a narrow hole established the fact of the murder. Seven times had the party of searchers passed and repassed the spot where chance finally led to the clearing of the mystery through the humble instrumentality of a mountain squirrel whose disturbance of the ground in its tunneling operations in a tree shaded nook attracted attention. The remains were exhumed. The legs had been chopped from the trunk. The remains were wrapped in burlap sacks bound with wire from bales of hay and conveyed for more than a mile from the cabin home, of the murdered man. Word was conveyed to Loper of the finding of the body and he sent for the sheriff and submitted a long and full confession, accentuated all the hideous details, declaring that he had shot Vernet through the neck killing him instantly, that he cut up the remains to make their removal easy, conveyed them to the burial place in wheel barrow and told of many more of the details of concealing the body in the cabin, bringing it out for the mutilation, describing the knife and hatchet with which the operation was performed, the wrapping of the body and the removal at dusk, and the cleaning of the cabin and the instruments after the bloody business. The manifest purpose of the prisoner was to give the impression that the killing was in a fit of insanity. The mute evidences found about the cabin were corroborative of the confessed details. The six-day trial of Loper in February, 1909, resulted in a verdict of guilty on the evening of the 8th of the month with death as the penalty. The late J. S. Jones was the foreman of the trial jury and the verdict was unanimous on the first ballot of the jury. The sentence of death was pronounced April 12. Upon first arraignment Loper

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