Patterson Cemetery District, Stanislaus County, CA 

Obituaries for 1930

Submitted by Gale Stroud and Burta Herger 26 Aug 2007

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Burton Jack 300502 p2
Killer Is Captured; re: Jack Burton; Recognized as he asked for a handout at the Ralph Crow ranch last night, Wiley, or
Dodge, the triple Crows Landing slayer, was traced and arrested while walking along the railroad track near Crows
Landing about midnight last night. The "jungle" just this side of the Crows landing bridge was the scene of a triple
tragedy Monday morning which has not yet been entirely solved, though principals, at first utterly unproven have been
fairly well identified. The four men participating in the affair were all "river cats." men  who camped here and there
along the river, working seldom, and subsisting as best they could.  As worked out by investigators the story seems to
start with a big drunk Sunday, in the course of which a fight took place, in which three of the men "ganged" the fourth
and beat him terribly. Monday morning the victim, smarting from his injuries, took bloody revenge.  Armed with a rifle
or perhaps two of them, he crept up on the trio asleep and killed all three. Two appeared to have been shot dead without
stirring; the third, in a separate shack, may have made a fight, it is not certain. The murderer's intention was to accept the
consequence of his act.  He went to the nearest ranch, that of Tony Nunes near the west approach to the bridge, and told
the amazed ranchman to send for the sheriff, that he had killed three men.  Nunes had no phone, and it took some time to
get a message in. Then it appears that there was some confusion about the location, and before the officers finally arrived
the slayer changed his mind and left, stepping out of sight in the underbrush along the river. The slayer left a note signed
C. Dodge, which after much tracing of clews is found to be the alias used by a man named Wiley, son of Jess Wiley of
Fresno, who had been on the road since his escape from a Visalia jail two years ago, and is reported to have killed a
Negro in Merced county since then.  One of the victims is Deloice C. Fultz, wayward son of a prominent Stockton family.
Another was known as Jack Murphy. but his name is said to be Jacques Fournier. The third victim is believed to be Jack
Barton or Burton, but this identification is less positive.