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Escape, attack charged!
By – GARTH SANDERS- WEAVERVILLE, Ca. –April 1, 1973:
Escape and assault charges were filed in Weaverville Justice Court Monday against two Trinity County Jail inmates accused of breaking out of, the Jail and wounding a California Highway Patrol Officer minutes later in a shootout. The shootout also left both of the jail inmates wounded. The wounded, CHP officer is Larry Williams, 39, of Weaverville, married and the father of three children. District Attorney Bill Neill filed the criminal complaint against John Randall Jefferson, 26, of Chula Vista and Paul Charles DeWitt,19, of Riverside. Both men are charged with:
-Escape from the Trinity County Sheriff's Office by means
of force.
-Assault upon night jailer Leroy Eisele by means of force
likely to cause great bodily harm.
-Assault with a deadly weapon upon Officer Williams.
Officer Williams is still in "guarded" condition at Mercy Hospital in Redding after surgery early Monday to remove a .38 pistol bullet from his neck. The-Record-Searchlight has learned that the bullet that struck the officer was from a special, low-powered "short" cartridge having only enough velocity to go through Williams' upper lip, and teeth, graze his tongue and lodge in his neck near an artery. Still listed in "guarded" condition at Mercy Hospital is Jefferson who was shot through the abdomen in the 8 p.m.Sunday gun battle on Trinity Lakes Boulevard, three blocks north of Weaverville’s Main Street. Jefferson had been serving a 90-day jail sentence for possession of a sawed-off shotgun when he allegedly fled the jail at about 7:45 p.m. Sunday. DeWitt had been in jail only two days, awaiting court action on a charge of burglary. Deputies said. He was accused of burglarizing a house trailer near Wildwood. DiWitt was reportedly struck in the leg by the same bullet that had, gone through Jefferson's abdomen. Tight secrecy has been clamped on the case by both Sheriff Tom Kelly and District Attorney Bill Neill, who say they don't want to make statements that might be considered prejudicial by a trial Judge later on. But the Record-Searchlight learned Tuesday that the official version of the jailbreak runs like this: Inmates called for hair clippers so they could give each other haircuts Sunday evening. Jailer Eisele, delivering the clippers to the cell, was overpowered by the inmates. The fleeing inmates allegedly either took Eisele's pistol or a pistol from a storage area of the jail. Eisele got to the radio at 7:45 p.m. and called CHP cars in the area and telephoned Sheriff Kelly and Undersheriff Ted Laag. CHP Officer Williams encountered. DeWitt and Jefferson at 8 p.m. and the gun battle ensued. Jailer Eisele was on duty in the jail Monday, but he was still shaken by his tussle with the jail inmates. He, could speak only in a whisper and officers said this was caused by his neck being squeezed in a headlock applied by one of the inmates. Two other jail inmates in the same cell refused to leave with Jefferson and DiWitt, Sheriff Kelly said.
The following words are Papa-Ken's memories....
I recall Larry explaining how this fiasco came
about. He stated that he had left his
home on top of a hill on the outskirts of Weaverville. The Sheriff had called him in total
confusion explaining what had happened.
What he failed to tell Larry, was the fact the two inmates had stolen
his pistol. Larry, said it was a full
moon night and while he headed towards town, he spied two individuals in an
open field. He stopped his cruiser,
commanded them to halt, and then approach slowly.
He had his car door between him and the two suspects. He said when they got fairly close, the one
in front, raised his hand with a pistol and fired so fast he barely had time to
respond. He did get off one round
before falling to the ground. He said,
he must have passed out while trying to call for help on his microphone. He found out later that so much blood came
out of his mouth into the microphone that his cry for help wasn’t
received. His brother in-law spotted
him lying beside his cruiser while he was on his way home and he in turn got
medical assistance for Larry. He also
discovered that his one shot got both suspects.
As a result of this shootout, Larry was eventually found
to be totally disabled according to the CHP requirements and was given a
disability retirement. After a couple
of years of rehabilitation, he took some of his settlement and purchased a
lumber truck and became an independent trucker.
The following letter was written by me to my niece and nephew in response to a newspaper article she sent to me with my brother Neal. My nephew, Kenneth Kinder (little Ken) was a prison guard for many years in various prison settings throughout the state of California. His wife Karen (Peachy) is also in law enforcement, at this time with the CHP. The reason for her sending this old article was due to a request by my brother Neals asking for her to research the papers tombs so I might have a copy for my files.
Hello
Peachy:
This is
uncle Ken. Neal and Dolly just left an hour ago. Were over for
dinner and a visit, had a great time. They gave me the article you sent
them about the shootout involving Larry Williams. It really brings back
some memories.
Larry
was a friend that I met while driving truck for Ostrem lumber company up by
North San Juan. His father was the millwright for Del Shiffners sawmill
and Larry worked at the mill. I was hauling lumber out of this mill and
Larry wanted me to teach him how to drive truck. I was in fact in the
process of doing just that when Del found out about this arrangement. He
told me to stop right away because if Larry did something to damage one of his
trucks, he would have to fire him and chance losing a darn good millwright
(Namely Larry's dad).
Larry agreed that the wise move was to stop the lessons,
so his second choice was to become a highway patrolman. This he did
shortly after Janey and I got married. While going through the CHP
academy, which at the time was located on Meadow View Rd, not far from our
home, he would come over on Wednesday night for dinner and a visit as this was
the only weeknight the Cadets had free. On weekends he would on occasion,
have his wife Beverly come down from Nevada City and spend the time at our
house where they had overnight visits.
He went on
after graduation to pull duty in southern Cal. in the L.A. area. During the time he was located in the
Norwalk area, I would, at times while in southern Ca. with a load of lumber for
next day delivery spend the night with Larry and his family. He was working the swing shift, so I got to
share part of his shift in the cruiser with him. He was always so straight arrow, that I figured he would give me
or any member of his family a citation if we had broken the law in his
view. I ask him one time if, in fact he
would write us a ticket. His answer, do
you think I am some heartless unfeeling robot?
Heck no, I couldn’t give you a ticket.
Maybe a good butt chewing that would have had you begging for a
ticket.
He spent a
couple of years in Norwalk before transferring to Fresno for a while.
While he was in Fresno, Janey, the Boys and I would go down to visit on some
weekends. The CHP had an obligation during the summer months to patrol
Bass Lake
an area northeast of Fresno . The patrol had a cabin at this
lake that was to be used by the officers and their families while they were on
duty there. It was like a paid vacation for all the officers and their
families for two weeks each year. Anyhow, Larry invited our family down for an
extended weekend while he was on duty, and introduced us to wine coolers (Ripple or Thunderbird and 7up) that
were the rage in the sixties. He went on to have his second son that he
named after two of his buddies (Kenneth Kinder and Jack Scott) the boy was
named Kenneth Scott Williams.
After the Fresno tour, he applied for the
Colfax to Donner summit area and stayed there until the Weaverville placement
opened. The reason he wanted this location was twofold. One, he
supposed it would be a safe assignment, and two his father had transferred to
the sawmill in Weaverville as the millwright. His sister Sydney and her
family also lived close-by. Between Larry, his parents, and his
sisters family they went together and purchased a houseboat that they kept onClaire Engle Lake.
Not
long before he was shot, we went up there and spent a long weekend with them at
their home and on the houseboat with all our kids. Larry’s older son
Greg was working on George McGoverns 1972 campaign bid at the time so I
think this must have been not long before the shooting.
The last
time I saw Larry was I believe in the presence of little Ken. Ken, this
was while you were helping us build our cabin in Grass Valley. Remember
when we were raising the 4+10 roof beams, and a man came up to visit. He
was talking to Janey across the road where we had our trailer parked.
When he came over to visit with me, I kidded him about helping us raise the
beams. I found out later that he had just had open-heart surgery and even
though he looked healthy, he was very weak. I said that was the last time
I saw him but I do remember him inviting us up to his house for dinner, a two
story Victorian in Grass Valley. I am not sure if you went along or just
us but for some reason he moved up to Redding or Anderson, bought a truck and
started hauling lumber. I am not sure why he never followed up on our
friendship but Jack Scott the other friend related the trucking part of his
life to me. I might have said something or done something that disturbed
him. I wish I knew, although I guess I never will..........
Love you
guy's Uncle Ken
