On the evening of Thursday, September 26, 1901, James Casey was in the railroad town of Delta, California, endeavoring to catch the 9 o’clock train Thursday evening to Redding, which was already pulling away from the station. Redding was about 25 miles south of Delta and it was the last train of the evening. So focused was Casey on catching the train, he failed to notice 23-year-old Edward Wilson running behind him. Consequently, he was unable to avoid the blow when Wilson raised his pistol and brought it down on Casey’s skull.

Casey was thus incapacitated and Wilson and his two accomplices, Frank Adams and Fred Taylor, continued to beat him up.  Believing they had killed their victim, this criminal trio rifled his pockets, extracting a little money and an uncashed paycheck for $35. They threw Casey’s lifeless body over a precipice, down forty-five feet, and into the Sacramento River.

The next morning, Wilson, Adams, and Taylor traveled to Redding. Wilson entered the bank, impersonating the victim, endorsed the check, and demanded it be cashed. Wilson was chosen likely due to his “sporty appearance” but according to the papers: “He is neither a workingman nor a hobo, but a first class crook.”

Details are sparse on exactly how they were caught.  Casey was reported to have recovered. The Record Searchlight reported that “Sheriff Behrens and his assistants are deserving of especial credit for the manner in which this case was handled from beginning to end. The sheriff is developing a capacity and shrewdness in ferreting out criminals that bids fair to rival the reputation of the famous Sherlock Holmes. His work in this case was certainly well done.”

Wilson, Adams, and Taylor were charged with and confessed to robbery. Initially, Wilson and Adams were charged with forgery as well, but that charge was dropped. Apparently, nobody got charged with attempted murder or the assault on Casey. It seems curious to me that Wilson, Adams, and Taylor were considered equally guilty. After all, Wilson initially attacked Casey; Wilson impersonated Casey at the bank; and Wilson forged Casey’s signature on the $35 check. I suppose all three of them were in on the whole crime, but it seemed like Wilson instigated more than the others.

On Monday, October 1, the men were sentenced to 15 years each by Judge Sweeny. The judge lectured them “touching upon the enormity of their crime, with the statement that murder, were it necessary, would have been resorted to facilitate their fiendish plans.

“In court their faces betrayed little concern about their sentences, but they are said to have dealt out some spoiled language when led back to the jail which seemed to indicate that they had expected shorter terms. Considering the fact that the roughs evidently believed they had murdered the man, the public believes they got what they deserved.”

That evening, they were escorted to San Quentin by Sheriff Behrens, where they would spend the next 9.5 years. If you’re counting, the men committed the initial crime on Casey on a Thursday, cashed his check Friday, were caught over the weekend, and were already started on serving their long sentences on Monday. That’s some swift justice!

And that wasn’t all.

“The sheriff believes that the two white men are ex-convicts. They tally well with descriptions of two criminals who recently escaped from an eastern prison. Sheriff Behrens is investigating and it may be that when they finish the new term at San Quentin they will be taken back to finish an interrupted sentence in another prison.”

Do we have another celebrity doppelgänger? Do you think Fred Taylor looks a lot like Chris Rock?