July 15, 1909
Dupes Man Out of Wife
and Money
Government
officials have run to ground what appears to be one of the most flagrant cases
of duplicity ever played by a woman upon her husband, and one that for cunning
and daring stands quite alone in its class.
The
principal characters in this drama of life were lodged in the county jail last
night and the authorities are now busy gathering additional evidence by which
it is believed the principals will be convicted without much difficulty.
French E.
Dodge, a middle aged man of the desperado type, is the man in the case, and
Mrs. Orovil Connor, wife of a farmer and rural mail carrier of Shedds Station,
is the woman. They were brought into jail late last night from Gresham after
their arrest there by Deputy Marshal William Griffith, the old government
sleuth. Andy Nichols, special agent engaged as Francis J. Henry’s bodyguard
during the land fraud trials here some time ago, and Constable Henry Gullackson
of the Gresham District. Griffith and Nichols arrested Dodge and Constable
Gullackson, accompanied by Nichols, arrested the woman.
Orovil
Connor, the farmer who has been mulcted out of a sum running close to $1,000
and lost the affections of his wife and two daughters, according to the
statement made to the government officials, it has been ascertained, it a
highly respected resident of his district and has the sympathy of the entire
neighborhood. He admits that but for their friendly advice, he would probably
still be playing the short end of a game in which he had been subjected as an easy
victim from the start.
Land Fraud Dodge
The facts
as laid before the authorities by Farmer Connor are that October 14, last year,
French E. Dodge came to Connor’s farm near Shedd’s Station, and presented
himself as a special agent of the government working on the Oregon land frauds
and that he was also in the government secret service. He told Connor that it
had come to the notice of the government that Mrs. Connor had been located on a
homestead at Ukiah, in eastern Oregon, by a man named Marsen, and who was now
under indictment and under $2,500 bonds, and that Mrs. Connor had perjured
herself by stating when she took up the homestead that she was a widow, and
furthermore had never lived on it.
Dodge said
that his position in the government service made it possible to shield the
woman and save her from going to McNeil’s island providing Connor would pay his
$600 cash to put up for the bonds. He said to further save the family from
disgrace he would arrange to have the government provide her with transportation
to Canada, where it would be impossible to molest her in the future.
Pays Him Money
To save the
family from disgrace as he stated to Special Agent Nichols, Connor mortgaged
his farm for $600 and turned the money over to Dodge. A few days later the
woman left, supposedly for Canada, and all seemed well for the time being. But
soon Dodge appeared again for more money. He said that it was required to carry
on the case and to keep things quiet, and thus, it is alleged, from time to
time, he obtained sums ranging from $7 to $20. Quite recently he sent another
letter demanding $25. This was a little too strong, and Connor, who had began
to grow tired paying what he supposed was hush money to the government, laid
the matter before his friends and neighbors. They advised him to place the case
before the United States district attorney immediately, and so he did.
Finds Mrs. Connor
Deputy
District Attorney Wyatt turned it over to Special Agent Andy Nichols Monday
afternoon at 2 o’clock and by 5 o’clock that evening he had Dodge located near
Gresham. But what proved more astonishing to even the old sleuth, was that he
found Mrs. Connor there also, and her two daughters, Rose, aged 6 years, and
Grace, aged about 16. How they had been smuggled there is yet to be
ascertained., but they were living in the tent with Dodge and the woman.
“It was a quick piece of work,” said Special Agent Nichols, “and the catch was bigger
than I expected, for the fact that Dodge was living with the woman was not
known until the discovery of his whereabouts, Connor supposing all the while
that his wife was in Canada waiting for the land case to be settled. Then it
dawned on me at once that it was a case of the woman’s duplicity and that
effort was being made to work Connor for all he had.
“I found
Dodge and the woman living in a small tent about a quarter of a mile east of
Gresham in a fir grove when I started to locate then yesterday morning. Dodge
had gone to the city for a load of feed for Lew Shattuck’s store and did not
return till 6 o’clock in the evening. We arrested him as he pulled up with the
team and caught him before he had time to offer resistance. He told us later he
would have put up a hard fight had he had a gun and the chance. As it was, he
surrendered willingly, reaching out his hands to be cuffed.”
Connor
accompanied the officers to Gresham to identify the children. The younger one
was brought along to Portland and is now in the his care here, while the older
girl was left at Gresham in care of a good family.
Mrs. Connor
was arrested upon a warrant sworn to before the justice of the peace charging
her with a statutory crime, and she was brought to the county jail at the same
time as Dodge.
Dodge will
have to face a number of charges, any one of which, if proven, will give him a
long term in prison.
July 17, 1909
Bulldog Guards
Gresham Camp
Place Where Dodge and
Paramour Lived Needs no Federal Protection
A faithful
and fearless bulldog is guarding the tent occupied till three days ago by
French E. Dodge and Mrs. John Connors and her two daughters, Grace and Rose,
and the deputy marshal who will be sent out there today to take possession of
it pending the outcome of the trial of Dodge or the woman, will have to be
careful lest he gets the worst of the mixup that might follow when the dog
discovers that he about to be ousted from his position of trust.
Dodge,
after a preliminary investigation yesterday afternoon before United States
Commissioner Marsh, in the office of the United States district attorney, was
bound over to the grand jury under bonds of $2,500 to stand investigation in
the charge of impersonating a government official, and the woman is held in the
county jail to answer to a statutory charge sworn to be her husband. The little
girls have been placed with friends, and the only one remaining at the camp,
about a quarter of a mile east of Gresham, is the bulldog.
Dodge was
arrested the other day by Deputy United States Marshal William Griffith and
Andy Nichols, and Mrs. Connor was arrested by Constable John Gullickson of the
Gresham district, but as there was no charge against the bulldog he was left in
the tent.
“I think it
would be well for the government to appoint a keeper to look after the property
in the tent,” said the deputy marshal, after the conclusion of the examination
yesterday, “or people might help themselves to whatever might be there, As it
is, there is no one to look after it.”
“Excuse
me,” broke in Dodge, who, after all does not appear to be such a dangerous
person, “there is a bulldog out there, and I’m afraid he might not resign his
trust even to a deputy marshal. I would therefore ask whoever goes out there to
beware of the dog. I don’t want anybody to get hurt, and there is no telling
what he might do. And he might be hungry, too, by this time.”
Promise was
given that the dog would be well treated, and the prisoner was returned to the
county jail, while his attorney, Seneca Fouts, started out to hunt bondsmen,
whom it is believed can be secured, it being apparent that Dodge has friends
here.
The hearing
before Commissioner Marsh brought out some statements that indicated that
Farmer Connor of Shedds station, who declares he was mulcted by Dodge to the
tune of several hundred dollars, beside his wife and children, did not always
treat his family as would an ideal husband and father, the oldest girl, Grace,
admitting on cross-examination that she had been driven out in the rain by the
father. The girl wept bitterly when asked to give testimony that reflected upon
the character of either of her parents. She was neatly dressed, as was her
6-year-old sister, who referred to Dodge as “papa.”
Connor told
his story of how Dodge had come to his farm and “worked” him for $600 to shield
his wife from publicity and prosecution on the alleged ground of having
committed perjury in taking up a homestead claim.
That Dodge
and Mrs. Connor had contrived the scheme in the opinion of the officers, but
Dodge says that he will be able to show that he did a kind act in relieving the
woman and her children of a hard life on the farm at Shedds station.
To make
certain that Dodge will not escape punishment another warrant for his arrest
was sworn out yesterday by the justice of the peace at Gresham charging him
with a statutory crime and it was served in him yesterday. The federal case
takes precedence, however, and it is possible that the second will be dropped if
conviction is secured in the first.
September 22, 1909
Linger in Jail
Waiting Trial
Frederick E. Dodge
and Mrs. O.B. Connors
Worked Unsuspecting
Husband
Frederick
(alias Lambert) E. Dodge and Mrs. O.B. Connors are in the county jail, their
fond ambition to locate permanently in Canada with money unwittingly furnished
by Connors, finally frustrated.
"Lovey,
dovey, darling little baby boy of mine,” began some of the letters now
possessed by Postal Inspector Clement, which Mrs. Connors sent to her affinity.
And saying “Sweetest tootsy wootsy,” with things following which the inspector
calls “mush,” Dodge answered. His letters also are on file.
Pseudo
officialism was Dodge’s role; innocent and wearied wifehood that of the woman.
How they thus pulled the wool over an easy going, affectionate husband’s eyes
forms basis for a story which the postal authorities designate as one of the
most unique they have even been called upon to tell.
O.B.
Connors was a rural mail carrier at Corvallis. He considered himself to be a
happy man for he had an apparently loving wife and three fine children, the
eldest, a girl, 14 years old. But he moved to Shed and his wife left him.
Connors was
lonesome, “considerably injured inwardly and the kids needing their mother,” he
puts it. So, presently, when the wife returned, real tears of the crocodile
brand, dimming her eyes, and her voice breaking with the sorrow she felt for
her actions, Connors held the door open and affectionately bade her walk right
in – and get supper.
Then came
Dodge. “I am a postal inspector, a special agent, an officer of the law,” he
stated with emphasis. Then he drew back his coat, witnesses say, and displayed
a large and impressive official star.
“Your
wife,” continued the emphatic inspector, “filed on a timber claim. But she did
wrong, very wrong. The way she did it, she is apt to go to the penitentiary.
Now,” with the sudden confidence and lowering of tone; “I’m your friend. It’ll
take just $600 to square this ting. I’m the one that can do it for you. Here’s
your little girl getting to be a woman – she won’t need to have her life
shadowed by disgrace; here’s your own to be considered,”
Connors
says that he was thoroughly frightened and he got together the $500 especially
as his wife, a pathetic spectator, was even more scared and immediately agreed
with the official that she had done wrong.
Dodge took
away the $600, it is understood, with the promise of $30 a month to untangle
forthcoming snarls of this case.
Again came
Dodge. “Your wife, she will have to get away. I wasn’t so good as I thought I’d
be.”
Mrs. Dodge
with the same strange pathos she had shown before, agreed that she had better
skip. But finally it was decided that she could come to Gresham, 14 miles east
of here, where she would be safe from prosecution.
Here, when
the postal inspector, following clues and led by the suspicious confessions of
the husband, arrived, he found Mrs. Dodge living with the supposed inspector.
Another extract from another letter explaining even this. It says, “I love you,
baby boy, more than my home and children, and will go anywhere with you.”
But what
makes Connors madder than anything else, he says, is that all the time his wife
was in Gresham, Dodge, keeping up the appearance of friendship carried letters
between them.
The hearing
of the couple will be held in United States court.
November 13, 1909
Federal Jury Indicts
Dodge
Accused of Impersonating
Postoffice Inspector in Love Affair
Franklin
Dodge, alias French E. Dodge, was indicted by the federal grand jury this
morning for representing himself as a United States postoffice inspector. The
evidence against Dodge is to the effect that he made love to Cora Connors, wife
of a mail carrier at Shed station, near Corvallis. At the same time he
represented himself as a warm friend of the husband.
While
Connors and his wife were separated, he was apparently the agent that brought
them together again. When it was found that Mrs. Connors had been making some
probably inaccurate filings on public land, he represented that he would be
jailed if Connors did not pay various amounts to impede the execution of the
law. Connors paid these amounts.
When the woman
and Dodge had money enough they started away together, apparently to Canada.
Mrs. Connors representing that she must go or be arrested and imprisoned. Later
Dodge and the woman were found living together near Gresham. The principal
witness before the grand jury was A.J. Nichols, who acted as a special agent in
procuring evidence against the couple.
November 23, 1909
From article: Three
Years for M’Intosh
Mrs. Cora
E. Conner pleaded guilty to a statutory charge yesterday afternoon and was
placed on parole, after being sentenced to two years in the penitentiary. She
was jointly indicted with F.E. Dodge, who is also under indictment in the
federal court in the charge of extorting $500 from Mrs. Conner’s husband by
representing himself as a United States officer. Dodge’s trial on the statutory
charge was set for this morning in the circuit court, but a continuance was
granted by agreement to await the outcome of the prosecution in the United
States court.
Mrs. Conner
had filed on government land and Dodge, claiming to be a government officer,
told her husband she had committed perjury, but he would not have per
prosecuted if paid $500. Finally Dodge took Mrs. Conner away with him and they
were living together at Gresham when arrested.
December 13, 1909
Tried to Get Wife and
Cash
Frank Dodge Stands
Trial in Federal Court on Serious Charges
Charging mayor Orville Connor of Shedd, Or., with using the department of justice of the
United States government as a means of getting revenge and again winning the
love of his wife, Attorney Seneca Fouts today opened the trial of Frank Dodge,
in United States district court, in a sensational manner.
Dodge,
arrested more than five months ago in Gresham, Or., where he and Mrs. Connor
and her two children were living, is on trial for impersonating an officer and
obtaining between $500 and $600 from Connor.
Deputy
United States District Attorney J.D. Wyatt, in making his opening declaration
to the jury, explained the government’s case against the man in detail. He told
of Dodge’s discovery that Mrs. Connor, representing herself as having been
divorced from Connor, had taken up a homestead in Umatilla County in violation
of the land laws. Later, according to the government attorney, Dodge visited Mr.
and Mrs. Connor at Shedd, representing himself to be a special agent of the
United States land office. He told Connor of his wife’s crime and offered, for
the sum of $500, to either take her to Canada, where she could not be
convicted, or to “fix up the matter.”
Connor, according
to the attorney’s statement, mortgaged his home and gave Dodge $500. Dodge,
instead of taking the woman to Canada, took her to Gresham, Or., where they
loved as man and wife. At Gresham, Dodge was arrested by United States Deputy
Marshall Griffith and Special Agent Nichols, who was the first witness today,
on a charge of impersonating an officer. Mrs. Connor was arrested on a charge of
adultery, proffered against her by her husband, from whom she had never been
divorced.
Seneca
Fouts in his opening address said the defense would prove that Dodge and Mrs.
Connor first met in Umatilla county in 1905. She, according to the counsel,
told Dodge she was divorced from Connor and they lived together for more than a
year. Finally, however, she told him the truth and returned to live with her
husband.
Learning
that Mrs. Connor had illegally gotten title to the homestead, Dodge went to
Shedd., Or., and told Connor and his wife that she was liable to prosecution.
Dodge will attempt to show that Connor suggested that he (Dodge) take Mrs.
Connor to Canada.
Deputy
Marshal Nichols, who was the first witness for the government, testified that
Dodge, after being arrested, informed him that for 15 years he had been a
member of the United States secret service.
December 15, 1909
Dodge Sentenced
Tomorrow
Sherman
F.E. Dodge, known as Frank Dodge, who was found guilty yesterday by a jury in
United States District Court, on a charge of impersonating a special agent of
the United States land office, will be sentenced by Federal Judge C.E.
Wolverton tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock. The jury in the Dodge case brought in
a verdict of guilty, after having deliberated only a little more than a half
hour.
December 16, 1909
Sentenced for Taking
Woman
Eighteen
months confinement on McNeil island was the sentence meted out to Sherman F.E.
Dodge, convicted of impersonating a government officer, by Federal Judge C.E.
Wolverton in the United States district court today. Dodge, making a personal
plea, startled the court by asking that he be paroled so that he might earn
money with which to satisfy his creditors. Instead, however, of acceding to his
petition, Judge Wolverton imposed the sentence, at the same time scathingly
arraigning Dodge for committing “not only a criminal but dishonorable and
immoral act.”
December 26, 1909
Criminal Trio Set Out
Today For The Island
Principals in Three
Noteworthy Trials Will Apply Elbow Grease
To Work in McNeill
Island Colony
Convicted
of a variety of crimes, all of then to be marked down as particularly notable
in the history of criminals in Oregon, William H. Craig, Robert J. Blake and
F.E. Dodge will be taken to McNeil Island for imprisonment by deputy United
States marshals today.
Craig,
Blake and Dodge were the three men sentenced to serve terms in the Federal
penitentiary on the island, by Federal Judge C.E. Wolverton during the recently
closed session of the United States district court. Craig, a 19-year-old
Grizzly, Oregon, youth, who was convicted of robbing the mails, must serve, unless
paroled, one year and one day. Blake, postoffice robber, will be compelled to
serve three years, and Dodge, who was found guilty of impersonating an officer,
has 18 months to remain in prison.
Craig,
Dodge and Blake were tried and found guilty within the last two weeks. Each
hearing developed entirely unexpected sensations, particularly those of Craig
and Dodge.
Romance in Trial
Just a
tinge of romance added interest to the trial of young William H. Craig, who was
driver of the Madras-Rainier stage when arrested for robbing the mails. In love
with the daughter of L.H. Hamilton, of Grizzly, Oregon, the youth was driven to
desperation by her indifference to his manifestations of regard.
Failing in
attempts to win the love of the girl, Craig conceived the idea that she would
think more of him if he possessed money. So he decided to steal. On October,
20, 1909, the opportunity presented itself. The boy, as driver of the stage,
was authorized as star mail route carrier and on that date a pouch of mail was
given over to him for delivery. In the pouch were two registered letters, one
containing $115 and addressed to the postmaster at Portland, Oregon, and the
other, containing $1, addressed to the postmaster at Chicago, Ill. When the
pouch reached its destination both letters were missing.
Youth Wastes Money
Immediately
after the robbery, Craig lavished presents, which were returned, upon the girl,
who is the acknowledged beauty of the countryside, and himself appeared in garb which he considered sartorially correct. He spent much money with his cronies,
and seemed possessed of an unusually large supply of cash.
In the
trial it developed that Craig, though forbidden in the Hamilton home, went to
the father of the girl and asked for the hand of the daughter. He was refused,
but before leaving asked if the parent could change a $10 bill for him. Adding
a feature to the trial, the father on the stand identified the paper money,
which was also identified by the postmaster as Madras, Oregon, as one of the
bills stolen.
Craig,
during the weeks he was confined in the Multnomah county jail, and also during
the time he was on trial, retained a stolid composure. But when he was taken to
the office of the United States marshal, after having been sentenced to serve a
year at McNeill island, he broke down and cried.
Bold Robber is Blake
Blake’s
trial was made unusual by the fact that the suit of clothing he wore in court
was identified as that stolen from the railway station at Irving, Oregon. Blake
was accused of having robbed the railway station and postoffice at Jefferson,
Oregon. Both are on the live of the O. R. & N.
At
Jefferson, books of stamps and money orders were stolen, At Irving, the suit of
clothing and a mail pouch were taken. When Blake was arrested, several books of
stamps, resembling those stolen from the Jefferson postoffice, were found on
his person. He endeavored to prove an alibi, testifying that he had purchased
the stamps from a stranger in Seattle, Wash.
Trial of
the case against Frank E. Dodge, who represented himself to be a special agent
for the government and a secret service operative, was sensational. Orville
Connor, mayor of Shedd, Oregon, was the complaining witness against Dodge,
while Mrs. Connor, wife of the mayor, was the principal witness for him.
Met in Pendleton
Dodge and
Mrs. Connor first met several years ago in Pendleton, Oregon. She, according to
the story of the convicted man, told him she was divorced from Connor. With her
were her two children. Dodge took them all in hand, and to furter repeat his
tale, supported and cared for them. Mrs. Connor in the meantime had taken up a
homestead near Pendleton, swearing under oath that she was divorced.
After
living in Pendleton for more than a year, Mrs. Connor suddenly left Dodge and,
with her children, went back to Connor. Dodge, discovering the woman had sworn
falsely in the matter of obtaining the homestead, visited the husband at Shedd,
and told him of her criminal act.
Following
the line of testimony in the case, Dodge told the mayor he was a special agent
for the general land office of the government, and could “fix things up” for
$500. He informed the husband that is he could not arrange things
satisfactorily with the government he would take the woman and her children to
Canada, where she would be out of reach of the federal authorities.
Mayor is Foolish
But,
instead of taking Mrs. Connor to Canada, as he last told the husband he would
do, he took her to Gresham, Oregon, where they lived together as man and wife
for a period of several months. Connor, hearing of how he had bunkoed, secured
a warrant for Dodge’s arrest on a charge of impersonating an officer, and had
the woman jailed in a charge of adultery.
Dodge was
arrested by Deputy United States Marshal “Bill” Griffith and “Andy” Nichols.
Taken into custody, he warned both the officers that he was a secret service
agent, and that his arrest would go hard with them.
When Dodge
was sentenced by Federal Judge C.E. Wolverton he entered the novel plea that he
desired to be paroled so that he might pay off several crying creditors.
