John Walter Klump was my mom's grandfather.
Much of the document is of the biblical so-and-so begat so-and-so variety. Perhaps someday I will be interested in the who's who of the entire Klump clan; but that day is not today.
Nevertheless, there is one aspect of the document that I found extremely interesting - the death of Uncle Roy Wiley (Klump). Roy was my grandfather's brother and died in 1912. He went by the name of Wiley as did some of the other uncles - it seems that my great grandfather changed his name from Klump to Wiley sometime around 1862 (perhaps when he joined the Union Army as an underage private).
So without further ado - the untimely demise of Uncle Roy...
The following story is from the Arizona Range News, June 28, 1912.
Roy Wiley was shot and killed at Willcox Wednesday about one o'clock p.m. by Mort Bennett, who has been running a lunch counter in the Midway Saloon and also at odd times tending bar in the same place.
It seems that Wiley and Bennett had been in the habit to teasing and joking each other considerably when they met. On the particular day, Wiley had just returned from dinner, had gone to the post office and was coming down the steet past this particular saloon when Bennett emerged from the place and bleated like a sheep. Wiley stopped and catching Bennett, twisted his ear and then carried him outside of the saloon and placed him in a chair. Bennett ran back into the saloon and Wiley followed. Bennett went behind the bar and told Wiley not to follow. Wiley apparently expected no harm and did not heed the warning. Bennett picked-up a 45 and shot Wiley the bullet striking him in the breast and ranging upward and coming out in the back. Wiley staggered to the door and fell upon the sidewalk, where he immediately expired.
Judge Page came on the scene shortly after and ordered Bennett arrested. A Coroner's Jury was impaneled and after hearing the evidence found that Wiley met his death from a bullet wound from a gun held in the hands of Bennett and recommended that Bennett be held for murder. Shortly after 3 p.m. Sheriff Harry Wheeler arrived from Tombstone and took Bennett in his car and landed him in jail at the county seat.
Wiley was a quiet, sober, and industrious fellow. He had worked a great deal at the Mascot mine, and owned a ranch about 6 miles east of town, where he was interested in cattle with his mother, Mrs. Mitchell, and his brothers. He has also a sister living in the same neighborhood. The funeral was held at Dos Cabezas Thursday and was largely attended.
Mr. Bennett was subsequently found guilty of murder and sentenced to seventeen years in prison at Yuma. He appealed. Excerpts from the appeal from Arizona Reports, Vol. 15 states:
It appears from the evidence that about six weeks previous to the time of the homicide the deceased had killed a dog belonging to the appellant, which occurrence had occasioned a feeling of hostility on the part of the appellant toward Mr. Wiley, the deceased. This feeling of hostility was expressed by appellant on several occasions to different persons. These persons testified that appellant, upon being informed that Wiley had killed his dog, asserted to one that "he would get even with the ____ that killed the dog." And to another that "he would fix the man that killed her."
Another witness testified that shortly after the shooting appellant characterized the deceased by a vile epithet, and stated that the deceased came in the saloon, and caught appellant, and carried him to the door, and threw him out, and started to catch his gun and told him to stop. The evidence does not disclose that Wiley was armed in any way, and, while he was lying in front of the saloon dying, the appellant was observed leaning with his elbows on the bar of the saloon looking out at Wiley.
In the case before the court the killing was proved beyond a doubt to have been done by the appellant with a deadly weapon. It appears also that, while deceased was peacably conversing with a friend on the sidewalk, the appellant provoked or invited the altercation and struggle occurring between himself and the deceased by his insulting conduct. Superadded is the evidence of hostile feelings and threats on the part of the appellant toward the deceased; and an expression of enmity just after the shooting. Then the testimony photographs appellant calmly folding his arms across the bar of the saloon, and as the stricken man staggered from the room with blood streaming down his bosom, watching unmoved his victim till he fell mortally wounded upon the sidewalk. Even with weak eyes one could discern the properties of malice here.
Mr. Bennett's appeal was denied. Governor Hunt pardoned Mr. Bennett after two years of incarceration.
So there you have it. The story of Uncle Roy.
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