Murdered Over A Stolen Watch, Williamsport 1884

 

Williamsport, September 21. 
Frank Gordon, who shot and killed George Lewis last night under the shadow of the Court House in Willow street, has passed an uneasy and restless Sunday in his cell.

 Both the men had been fast friends. Both were addicted to gambling and drinking, however, and a dispute which arose between them was the cause of the murder.

 Gordon is a young man, only 28 years of age, and was born in Williamsport. His victim, Lewis, was about 40 years old and a native of Nova Scotia. He had resided here since 1870 and was employed in a lumber mill. Gordon was of dissolute habits and unmarried. 

Shortly before the shooting both men were in a saloon on Court street, opposite the Court House. While there, so it is alleged by Gordon, Lewis grasped his gold watch and, breaking it from the chain, thrust it into his own pocket. He refused to give it up and started out of the saloon, pursued by Gordon. When he reached the street he started to run, and as he turned the corner of the Court House fence and ran up Willow street his pursuer fired after him with a thirty-two caliber pistol. The ball struck him back of the ear, at the base of the brain, and passing through went down his throat. 

Lewis fell forward on his face. He did not move after the shot and died In a few minutes. When the bystanders rushed up they found Gordon standing over the prostrate man flourishing his revolver and saying: ' 'I caught him on the fly, because he stole my watch. In front of the European House he tore the bar from my watch-chain and got my watch out of my pocket. That's what I shot him for." 

Gordon was seized by an officer and led off to jail. The shooting occurred with-it thirty feet of the Sheriff's office, whither the body of the murdered man was carried and an autopsy made by Drs Ed. Lyon, Young and Brennan. 

On searching the body a gold watch with a broken chain was found in his pantaloons pocket, together with his own watch, an open silver one, in his vest pocket. 

Lewis was a married man, with two children, but lived unhappily with his wife on account of his drinking. It is also alleged that he was in the habit of paying attention to a woman with whom Gordon was intimate and that this was the beginning of the trouble. 

The shooting caused a great sensation and at midnight the streets in the vicinity were so blocked up with people that the police had to disperse them. Sheriff Sprague took charge of the pistol, which showed but one barrel discharged, and the effects of the dead man. 

Gordon had $39 on his person and his victim had but forty cents and some other trifling things. Lewis bled very much when he fell and a pool of blood remained on the pavement all day. Thousands of people have visited the spot to-day, attracted by curiosity.

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