Old Crimes

Lawrence County, Ohio is in the tri-state area of Kentucky and West Virginia and is separated by the Ohio and Guyandotte Rivers respectively. Many times, crimes were committed in Ohio and the offender would escape into one of these states or continue westward. With more frontiers opening up in the West, several Lawrence countians were found in Missouri, Kansas, the Indian Territory, and California committing crimes or running from a criminal past. Old Crimes and Desperados book one started with early 1800's - 1881. More stories were found from those years and have been added to book two as "addendums" to those years. We could not include everything we found about a few of the characters; some committed so many crimes that their story could make several books. The Hatfield and McCoy family feud, for instance, has been turned into a movie and several books; but, did you know the McCoy's also had criminal activities in Lawrence County? The Dr. Gates trial that started in book one and his absconding from his bondsmen continues in book two and we learned how he changed his name and finally what happened to him. We also discovered the parents of a famous 19th century child actress, later known by her stage name "Julia Marlowe," resided in Ironton for a while and her parents were involved in saloon fights and other activities. The Ashland, Kentucky triple murder of 1882 in which Irontonians were called to testify, was compared to the mob hanging that had occurred when Dr. Beggs was murdered, and one of his assailants hung by a mob. Perhaps one of the stories we weren't expecting was of a young man whose family was from Lawrence County and had settled in Missouri. He allegedly was one of Billy the Kid's gang and had killed over seven men during his lifetime.