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Notorious bandit John Austin Hooper escaped from county jail 100 years ago Comment By Chris Bristol Grants Pass Daily Courier MailTribune.com By Chris Bristol Grants Pass Daily Courier Posted Aug. 31, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Chris Bristol Grants Pass Daily Courier Posted Aug. 31, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Days before he took his criminal career to new heights, John Austin Hooper gave an interview from his jail cell in Grants Pass claiming he was being railroaded. It was 100 years ago this month, and the 33-year-old parolee from California was being linked to a number of robberies in the region, including the holdup of the Southern Pacific depot in Grants Pass and a particularly ruthless bank robbery in Rogue River in which a cashier was temporarily blinded with ammonia. "I am the fall guy," Hooper told the Courier, "and it is immaterial whether I am convicted of these crimes of which I am innocent. ... It is jail for me the rest of the time, anyway." That's because Hooper was looking at hard time in California for violating parole. He knew it. Everyone knew it. Newspapers openly speculated that fear of a possible life sentence in Folsom would drive him to make a deal with authorities in Oregon. It drove him, all right — to escape. On the morning of Aug. 15, 1915, Hooper broke out from the Josephine County Jail, teaming up with a cellmate to overpower Sheriff Will C. Smith and giving the hapless lawman a taste of his own medicine before heading for the hills, literally. The breakout made headlines everywhere, and it kept making headlines as sightings of the man dubbed "the gentleman outlaw" popped up now and then. He managed to stay on the lam for nearly a year, at one point even sweet-talking his way out of custody in Wisconsin by somehow tricking a former governor into vouching for him. Finally he was arrested for good in Joplin, Mo., where he killed a police officer he claimed he mistook for a tramp trying to rob him. Actually, it wasn't for good. Just months into a 10-year sentence in the Missouri State penitentiary for manslaughter, he escaped again. Then, in June 1917, roughly two years after the saga of John Austin Hooper all began, he made headlines one last time. "Notorious Convict, Well Known Locally, Is Killed By An Officer In Mississippi" the Courier noted dryly in a front page headline. Or as the headline in the Medford Mail Tribune put it: "Bandit Hooper Reported Killed Once Again" "One of the most daring jail-breaks" Hooper's stretched-out 15 minutes of infamy began July 20, 1915, when he was captured in The Dalles. Authorities at the time were linking Hooper to numerous robberies in the area. In addition to the Grants Pass and Rogue River holdups, Hooper was alleged to have robbed a stage in Yellowstone, tried to hold up a train in Sedro-Woolley, Wash., and relieved the owner of a hardware store in Hornbrook, Calif., of $600 in gold nuggets and dust. He also was being linked to several robberies of inter-urban street cars that were part of a commuter line running between Oregon City and Portland, although the editor of the Oregon City newspaper had some doubts. "Here was this desperado pinched and in custody — this man whom the 'dicks' had said was worse than Jesse James — this man who had stolen millions, more or less. And nobody wanted him. NOBODY! Not a single special agent, when it came down to cases, thought he could tie enough evidence on to Hooper to convict him." This apparently wasn't entirely true, however. Rather than return him directly to Folsom, where he had served 10 years of a 1904 life sentence for participating in the robbery of a saloon in which a bartender was fatally shot, the decision was made to put Hooper on a train and send him to Grants Pass for the robbery of the train depot and the bank robbery in Rogue River. In short order Hooper was cooling his heels in the Josephine County lockup, located at the time in what amounted to little more than a shack behind the county courthouse on Sixth Street. While awaiting action by a grand jury, Hooper took pains to assert his innocence, giving the aforementioned interview to the Courier, known then as the Rogue River Courier. The writer was complimentary. "Hooper has the appearance of a student, and his look is direct and bold. He is well-groomed and carries with him a great deal of baggage, such as a well-to-do young man-about-town might claim. He is talkative, and while often falling into the vernacular of the rough element, appears to be well educated." As for the evidence against him — something rarely described in reports at the time — the Courier had this to say: "He says there can be no significance in the fact that the automatic pistols found in his effects when arrested are said to look like those used by the robber who held up the local depot. 'Men are not going to look into little details such as that when they are being stuck-up,' said Hooper." That was July 25. Three weeks later, he struck. As reported Aug. 16, 1915, in the Courier: "John Austin Hooper, the notorious bandit who has been held in the county jail for the past three weeks, yesterday morning made one of the most daring jail-breaks to be encountered outside of fiction and is at present a free man. "When last seen Sunday morning Hooper was leisurely making his way into the mountain district north of town, having left the road and taken to the timber." According to the paper, Hooper had teamed up with a cellmate to hit Sheriff Smith, who had his hands full while trying to deliver breakfast. As instructed by Hooper, the cellmate — "an Italian" named Joe Colinge — wrapped up Smith around his legs while Hooper put the sheriff in a headlock and quickly disarmed him and took his keys. He forced Smith into a cell, locking him in and directing Colinge to keep an eye on the lawman while he went over to the courthouse to telephone for an automobile. Smith immediately started hollering, however, leading the two cellmates to flee. Colinge panicked and started running south on Sixth toward the river. He was quickly recaptured. Hooper, meanwhile, calmly headed the opposite way and soon commandeered a horse-drawn buggy. Hooper, the newspaper reported, smiled and made eye contact with passersby during the ride. The driver, one Sam Ellis, was very compliant. "To the public, there was a wave of the hand on one side and a pleasant remark on the other, but Sam Ellis knew that very close to him there was a big .45 Colt all ready to kick, and to kick hard." After exiting the buggy on North 10th Street, then as now the edge of town, Hooper laid low for most of the day, only to reappear hours later to commandeer an automobile. This time the victim was an R.E. Kroh, who had two passengers. Nobody put up a fight as Hooper forced Mr. Kroh to drive him five miles east to the town of Rogue River, which at the time was still known alternatively as Woodville. Per the paper: "As the party passed the jail in Woodville, Hooper said, 'Please don't stop there. I've had all I want of jails for a little while. But there's the bank over there. That's the bank I robbed. That is, it is the bank they say I robbed.' "Then Hooper entertained his joy-riding guests with an account of his unjust accusations and the story of his hounded career. 'They say I sank the Lusitania,' he added. 'But I have a fairly good alibi for that. I was in jail.' " "Smooth One Is J. Austin Hooper" The escape made headlines everywhere, including San Francisco and Portland, where both The Morning Oregonian and The Oregon Daily Journal picked up stories of the breakout and speculation about Hooper's whereabouts. In Grants Pass there was considerable thought that Hooper would stay in the area. Authorities said he had been living in the area for months, staying at a cabin at the head of Greens Creek, where he posed as a prospector and geologist by the name of Roy Curtis. In fact, Hooper probably used the cabin as a springboard for his escapades, authorities figured. The Courier, meanwhile, gushed about the breakout. "The getaway is entirely in keeping with the sensational nature of the robberies which Hooper is alleged to have committed, and his entire conduct, so far as known, points to the fact that John Austin Hooper is an intelligent and even brilliant man, who would have made his mark in any profession. "He has played his cards skillfully and at present seems to hold the winning hand." Hooper's string of luck continued for the better part of a year, peaking in October after he was picked up in Milwaukee, Wis. "Smooth One Is J. Austin Hooper," was the Courier headline on Oct. 31. According to both the Courier and other newspaper accounts, while authorities were struggling to pin down Hooper's identity, Hooper managed to somehow trick a former governor of Wisconsin into vouching for him as the son of a local attorney. Only after Hooper was gone did authorities realize they'd had him in their clutches. The governor's role in Hooper's release, the newspaper said, caused a scandal in Milwaukee between the police department and the district attorney's office. What they may not have known at the time was that the silver-tongued Hooper had grown up in Wisconsin. Hooper's luck ran out, however, on June 3, 1916, when he shot a police officer in Joplin, Mo. What he was doing in Joplin was never answered, but news accounts indicate his brother, Roy, lived barely 100 miles away in Tulsa. Newspapers in the Midwest picked up stories about the shooting and the eventual discovery that the suspect, one Wilbur Mason, was none other than John Austin Hooper, "King of Oregon Robbers." His luck may have mostly run out, but Hooper still had some of the old magic. First he persuaded a jury that he shot the policeman, a Joplin PD reserve officer named Louis S. Wells, only after mistaking Wells for a tramp who was about to rob him. Having eluded the hangman's noose, Hooper was only a few months into a 10-year sentence for the slaying of Wells when in November 1916 he pulled off his last great caper: escaping from the Missouri State Penitentiary. On the night of Nov. 23, Hooper and a fellow inmate used their positions as electricians in the power plant of the prison to switch off the lights. In the confusion, they scaled a wall and were gone. A free man once again, Hooper stayed out of trouble — or out of headlines, at least — for seven more months. Just short of two years after he first began making headlines, Hooper's life of crime came to an end in June 1917 when wire services reported he was shot to death by sheriff's deputies in Greenville, Miss. Officers got a trace on him through a telegram sent to his brother Roy in Tulsa. He was floating down the Mississippi in a houseboat, armed with three rifles and a revolver, and was shot after he resisted arrest. Not much else was said about it. Eulogized the United Press: "J. Austin Hooper was one of the most picturesque bandits who ever roamed the United States. ... A splendid penman and a man of striking personal appearance, Hooper's affability won him friends everywhere and he played on this friendship to effect the remarkable jail breaks he so frequently accomplished." He died, the UP reported, "just as he always declared he would — 'with his boots on.' " By Chris Bristol Grants Pass Daily Courier MailTribune.com By Chris Bristol Grants Pass Daily Courier Posted Aug. 31, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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