Marshal Francis M. Thornton

Francis M. Thornton

Marshal Thornton succumbed to a gunshot wound sustained one week earlier as he and the deputy marshal questioned five suspicious men in the town's train station.

The suspects began to walk away when the two men approached them. When Marshal Thornton called out to them, one of the men suddenly turned and opened fire, striking Marshal Thornton in the abdomen and the deputy marshal in the foot.

Three of the five suspects were apprehended immediately but escaped from the Wood County Jail while awaiting trial. Two were recaptured quickly, convicted of complicity in murder, and given a year each. One died in prison. The suspect who fired the fatal shot wasn't apprehended until 1915, when he turned himself in. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to an indeterminate term in prison.