Ranch Hand Is Taken After Physician Is Shot Down and Two Other Men Wounded

(The Galveston Daily News, April 24, 1924, front page)

Special to The News.

     Brownfield, Tex., April 23.� After standing off a posse for twelve hours of more than 300 ranchman, sheriff's deputies and citizens who used shotguns, rifles, revolvers and a machine gun in an effort to dislodge the fugitive, Will Ward, ranch hand, alleged slayer of Dr. S. H. Windham, who was shot to death in his car near his ranch ten miles south of here Monday night, was driven from his barricade behind the hog pens and dipping vat on the Windham ranch and surrendered to the authorities late this afternoon.

     Two other ranchers are victims of the affray, one being shot down near the barn on the Windham ranch shortly after daylight this morning, the other being wounded during the fight this morning when repeated attacks were made upon the barricade where Ward had concealed himself.

     The ranchers, named Moore and Montgomery, are in a Lubbock hospital and are reported in a serious condition. Ward, who is in custody of officers here, has made no statement. There have been no threats of violence, but the prisoner is being closely guarded by officers of Lubbock, Lynn, Terry and Gaines counties.

     Dr. Windham was killed and the two ranch hands were wounded with a small caliber rifle. The authorities are endeavoring to trace Ward's movements prior to the Windham killing and to establish that Ward purchased a 22-caliber rifle in Brownfield last Saturday.

Kills Physician.
     Citizens of three counties were aroused over the slaying of Dr. Wlndham Monday evening. The ranch owner left Tahoka for his ranch in Terry County late that afternoon. Later in the evening Mrs. Bert King, wife of the foreman of the Windham ranch, became alarmed when she saw a man approach her house with a rifle. She telephoned a neighbor, Jack Bryant, three miles west, to come to the ranch. She then saw the lights of an approaching car, which she believed to be that of Dr. Windham. The neighbor arrived and they waited for sometime to see what would happen. The car had stopped a short distance from the ranch house, and when they reached it they found the lights burning and the engine running.

     Dr. Windham's body was found about 13 feet from the car. The body was still warm. There were five bullet holes, one on the neck, one in the body and three in the head. The authorities were notified and an immediate search for Dr. Windham's slayer was instituted. The authorities state they found tracks and imprints indicating that a person with a wooden leg had been on the scene. These imprints were traced to a point half a mile from the road, where marks showed someone had lain down on the grass, and then back to the road, close to where Dr. Windham's body was found. There the trail was lost.

Ranch Hand Is Shot.
     The sheriff's forces were aided by citizens of the four counties and the search for the rancher's slayer was prosecuted without success yesterday. The next appearance of the unknown assailant was early this morning, when Moore, a ranch hand on the Windham place, went to the barn to feed stock. He was shot down as he came out from the barn. The shots, it is said, came from the hog pens, not far from the barn.

     It was decided that the assailant of the ranch hand had taken refuge behind the hog pens and dipping vats, and it was upon this point that the besiegers centered their attack, keeping up a fire from rifles, revolvers and a machine gun during the course of the morning. Early in the forenoon there was a reply from the fugitive, several shots being fired from behind the barricade. One of them struck Montgomery, a ranch hand, severely wounding him. No attempt was made to rush the barricade, and it was not until late this afternoon that Ward, with his hands raised above his head, stepped from behind the barricade and walked toward a party of the besiegers.

     His surrender came at the hour that Dr. Windham, alleged to be his first victim, was being burled in the Tahoka Cemetery.