Part 2: The Dynamite Plot and the Dragnet

 The Rich Hill Depot Ambush: The Tragedy of Constable Samuel Queen

Part 2: The Dynamite Plot and the Dragnet

The gun smoke had barely cleared from the shattered windows of the Missouri Pacific passenger car before one of the largest dragnets in the history of Western Missouri was unleashed. A beloved lawman had been mortally wounded on a crowded train platform, and the state of Missouri wanted blood.

Bates County Sheriff George W. Sunderwirth immediately mobilized every available deputy, while the Governor dispatched bloodhounds and state investigators to scour the countryside around Rich Hill. The auto theft syndicate had successfully broken Dale Jones out of his shackles, but by killing Constable Queen, they had turned a local heist ring into public enemy number one.

The outlaws didn't stay hidden for long.

Within days, the relentless pressure of the dragnet began to crack the syndicate's outer edges. Leads poured into the Sheriff's office, placing the gang in Kansas City, where they felt safe hiding in the urban underworld. But Bates County lawmen, working alongside Kansas City detectives, squeezed the syndicate's known safehouses.

Before long, the law caught up with the man who pulled the trigger: John Shead.

Shead, the cold-blooded gunman who had cornered Queen in the train car, was captured in a tense raid in Kansas City. Dragged back to Bates County in heavy irons, Shead was locked away securely inside the stout stone walls of the Butler jail—the very cell that Dale Jones had bragged he would never see.

But the syndicate wasn't finished with Bates County yet.

With Shead behind bars and facing a certain hangman's noose for murder, the remaining members of the auto theft ring grew desperate. They knew Shead held enough secrets to dismantle their entire multi-state operation. They needed him out, or they needed him dead.

In the dead of winter, a terrifying rumor leaked out of the underworld and reached Sheriff Sunderwirth's desk: a plot had been hatched to break John Shead out of the Butler jail using a massive cache of dynamite. The plan was as simple as it was brutal—blast the jail walls to pieces, liberate Shead, and kill any lawman who stood in the way.

The county went on a war footing. Extra guards armed with repeating shotguns were stationed around the perimeter of the jail night and day. The residents of Butler slept with one eye open, half-expecting the night to be ripped apart by an explosion.

Thanks to the iron-clad security and a series of preemptive raids on syndicate safehouses, the daring dynamite plot fizzled out before the fuses could be lit. Denied his rescue, John Shead stood trial in a courtroom packed with angry local citizens. The jury took little time to reach a verdict. Shead was convicted of first-degree murder for the slaying of Constable Queen and sentenced to spend the rest of his natural life behind the gray walls of the Missouri State Penitentiary.

Bates County had secured a piece of justice. The shooter was caged. But the arrogant mastermind behind it all—the man whose taunts started the tragedy—was still running.

While Shead began his life sentence, Dale Jones was fleeing across the American West, leaving a trail of stolen cars, empty bank vaults, and gunsmoke in his wake. He was heading for the sun-drenched coast of California, unaware that the ghost of Samuel Queen was riding right on his heels...

The Rich Hill Depot Ambush: The Tragedy of Constable Samuel Queen

 

The Rich Hill Depot Ambush: The Tragedy of Constable Samuel Queen

Part 1: "You'll Never Get Me to Butler"

In the late autumn of 1913, the quiet roads of Bates County, Missouri, became a pipeline for a modern kind of outlaw. Automobiles were still a luxury, but to a sophisticated ring of thieves operating out of Kansas City, they were a goldmine. The syndicate specialized in grand larceny—stealing high-end motor cars from the city, altering their markings, and trafficking them down through rural border towns like Hume and Rich Hill to be sold off illegally.

But on Sunday, November 23, 1913, Howard Township Constable Samuel L. Queen put a wrench in their gears.

Constable Queen, a respected 40-year-old lawman, along with his deputy, Charles Horton, had successfully tracked down and arrested one of the key operatives of this multi-state auto theft ring: a hardened, dangerous criminal named Dale Jones. Eager to secure the high-value prisoner and get him to the county jail, Queen transported Jones into Rich Hill to await the evening Missouri Pacific train to Butler.

While they waited inside the old Rich Hill jail, an eerie, arrogant confidence settled over the prisoner.

Jones didn't look or act like a man facing a prison sentence. Instead, he looked directly at the lawman and began to taunt him. Over and over, Jones repeated a chilling warning: "You'll never get me to Butler. I'm telling you, you'll never get me to Butler."

Word of the arrest and the prisoner's bold taunts quickly leaked out into the streets. As the afternoon wore on, a heavy sense of dread blanketed the community. The talk of Rich Hill that Sunday wasn't about the upcoming winter or local gossip; it was about the dangerous man sitting in their jail cells. The whole town doubted that the transfer would go smoothly. Whispers passed from neighbor to neighbor, repeating the criminal’s own words: He’ll never make it to Butler.

But Constable Queen had a job to do. As evening fell, he and Deputy Horton marched a shackled Dale Jones out of the jail and down to the bustling Rich Hill railroad depot.

It should have been a routine prisoner transfer. Instead, the town's worst fears were about to come true.

Jones’s syndicate wasn't about to let their man talk to the authorities, and they had used the afternoon to set a deadly trap. In a coordinated ambush, two heavily armed accomplices closed in on the station. One of those men, a cold-blooded gunman named John Shead, quietly slipped unnoticed onto the passenger car, while his partner took up a position outside on the depot platform.

Just as the locomotive hissed steam on the tracks, preparing to pull out of the Rich Hill station, the train car erupted into a warzone.

Without warning, John Shead and his partner opened fire, catching the lawmen in a vicious crossfire inside the crowded train car. Bullets shattered glass and tore through the wooden passenger seats as terrified travelers scrambled for cover. Constable Queen drew his weapon and fought back bravely, but he was caught in the open. John Shead's bullets struck the constable twice—once in the arm, and once heavily in the abdomen.

In the blinding chaos and gunsmoke, Shead and his accomplice managed to overpower the remaining lawmen, break a smirking Dale Jones free from his shackles, and vanish into the dark Rich Hill night.

Constable Queen was rushed back to his home in Hume by Tuesday noon. Though a tough frontier lawman, his abdominal wounds proved too severe. Pneumonia set in, and on Friday, November 28, 1913, Samuel Queen breathed his last, leaving behind his grieving wife, Daisy, and a young daughter, Rita.

Dale Jones had spoken his grim prophecy into existence: he never made it to Butler that night. But the killing of Constable Queen would unleash a relentless, multi-state manhunt that would span from the streets of Kansas City all the way to the coast of California...

Stay tuned for Part 2 and Part 3, where we follow the trail of a dramatic dynamite plot to blow up the Bates County jail, the capture of the shooter John Shead, and the violent "Bonnie and Clyde" style final showdown of Dale Jones on the West Coast.

About the Rich Hill Bandstand from The Bates County republican Dec. 1938

 

This Article is Word for Word from the Bates County Republican Newspaper (Dec 1938)

Bates County Republican  1/7/1938 to 12/26/1941 Reel# 35376

Finished  Band Stand

Barring a few Minor Details the New Band Stand is all  ready for use!

Every small Detail is looked after making this a fine piece of work

Great Job!!

The Great American implement of cleanliness ,the broom was applied to the Bandstand in the Central Park indicating that the stand was finished and ready for use. There are a few details yet to be finished such as putting some metal strips in the corners of the ceiling and putting the top ornament on the roof, But taking it all in all the stand is finished. And a Dandy fine piece of work it is, we calls  it. 

 We have watched  this stand from its start, seen the rock piled up in the park, viewed with interest the Trenches dug for the foundation, appointed ourselves as a committee of one to inspect the layering of the rock and then offered invaluable suggestions as to the best ways to proceed since the very beginning. We have glorified in the large rock supporting the pillars, thought about the great sport we have had in yesteryears skinning the cat over the railing, argued about the finishing the peak of the roof and  then came right out and bluntly advised them as the best way to light the stand. We are happy to say that in all of these socializations on our part Forman J. S. Thompson has been most kind and considerate. He had the happy faculty of making us think that our own suggestions would be followed out to the most minute detail.  And then he went on and did just as he thought best. And so the Bandstand is a great success and we congratulate Mr. Thompson and through him the members of the American Legion and also the city officials. They have had a monument that the town can point to with a great deal of pride now and in the ages yet to come. For It will be there for a long time.

 We have gone into details telling about this Bandstand so many times that a repetition of them would be boresome.  It is all that we could be desired. From the Indirect lights peeping through the brown ceiling with the black trim to the massive stone pillars it is a most completed piece of Park furniture.

 The lighting fixtures are so arranged that in the years to come the folks will be able to get lights on any setup they might have. A loudspeaker could be installed on the stand and immediately the wires would connect it with the current. In front of the stand where the roof does not extend  there is a place where they will have flood lights in case of an amateur show-heaven forbid. When not in use this floodlight trough will be neatly covered with a lid that fits perfectly. And then later a bronze plate will be placed on one of the corner posts telling the coming generations just when the stand was built and who was responsible for its erection. No doubt but what this plate will answer many an argument when folks get to talking about when the work was done.

  A mighty nice piece of work this stand. And we think the town ought to decide to keep it. 

Missouri Gas for Rich Hill

Missouri Gas for Rich Hill

Taken from the Nevada Daily Mail Thursday February the 18th 1909.

 The Nevada Daily Mail Thursday February the 18th 1909.

Missouri Gas for Rich Hill

The citizens of this town held a jubilee in advance today on account of the fact that tonight Missouri natural gas was turned into the city gas mains. For 20 years this city Has paid $1.50 per thousand cubic feet for artificial gas, Which is five times the price they will pay to use the natural article. a franchise was voted a year ago to business men Of this city who Incorporated  the Rich Hill Natural Gas Company with a paid up capital of $12,000. They have grilled in five big wells in the Elgort field five miles west of Town ,laid the pipe line and attached to mains 

Yesterday. 

Rich Hill Mining Review July 1930 Jubilee Celebration

Rich Hill Mining Review July 1930 Jubilee Celebration

 CLEAN UP THE CITY IS URGED

Rich Hill is expected to Entertain Thousands of Visitors to the Jubilee Celebration Next Week.

The city wishes to make a request of everybody in Rich Hill to clean up their premises and mow the grass and weeds both on their properties and the street in front. It is asked that this be done at once. The city is devoting every energy to getting the streets cleaned up and the paved street dressed up and ask the people to help get things in shape. The oil and gravel will be here Wednesday to finish the centers and shoulders of the paved streets. 

All businessmen are asked to put their trash into wire holders to burn in the backyards instead of loose as many do. A look at the paper on the streets will show the necessity of this. Looking it over for addresses one often finds paper in the gutter in front of the store that had been put out of the back door at the very place found. These Merchants would not think of throwing it into the street but in an hour it is often there. 

One of the weakest things about the appearance of Rich Hill is that the store windows are not lighted at night. If the merchants would light their windows from now until after the HomeComing most of them would find that it pays so well that they would continue the practice. The few who do find that it pays.

Sections of Park avenue will be closed for a few hours at a time this week while the centers and the shoulders are being finished, and during this time people will be asked to park on other streets and around the park. The officers say that the only trouble they are having with people parking at the curb is people who live right here in town, and in some cases they try to get hard boiled about it. It may be possible that trying to relieve congestion is wrong, but the officers feel that the home people should help them.

"Rich Hill Mo". spoon bowl.

 This e-mail was sent to Mayor Rich on 

Date: Thu, Feb 10, 2022 at 11:26 PM

My name is Dan Pierson and I am a metal detector hobbyist.  I'm in Denver Colorado and I live just behind the site of the Loretto Heights College that was opened as a Catholic boarding school for young girls in 1891.  Sadly, over the years the school grounds have changed hands several times and the area is slated for redevelopment into residential units.  The group of hobbyists I belong to made a deal with the developers that allowed us to detect on their grounds so long as we donated any historical artifacts to them for a display in the future.  The attached newsletter from my city councilman has an article on the last page that details some of our activities before the pandemic hit. 

 

What does this all have to do with you?  One of the items we found was this spoon bowl.  After some hours of cleaning we were finally able to decipher the engraving on it and it says "Rich Hill Mo".  I thought you might be interested in seeing it and perhaps could shed some light on its history.  Perhaps when spoons like this were produced?  Do you know any families that might have sent a daughter out west between 1890 and the 1920's.  Based on the age of other objects found near the spoon we don't think it was later than 1930.

 

Thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing from you,

 

Dan Pierson

 

Grand Six Round Glove Contest {Bill Printed in 1887 Rich Hill Review}

 Grand Six-Round Glove Contest